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elcomputo

Nov 16, 2003, 4:25 PM

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Electric Costs

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Judging from a couple of posts to the "Can I live in Mexico on $1,000 a month" string, there seems to be something strange about the pricing of electricity in this country.

Rolly states that electric rates a pretty uniform around the country. I have no reason to doubt him. Yet, it seems different people are paying wildly different sums for apparently similar usage rates.

I had mentioned the scam that a friend had fallen victim to -- having a neighbor illegally draw off electricity through the friend's meter.

Has anyone had similar experiences along this line? But there must be other reasons for differences in payments? What could they be?

Jean

Nov 16, 2003, 6:30 PM

Post #2 of 11 (417 views)

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Re: [elcomputo] Electric Costs

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In Reply To

I had mentioned the scam that a friend had fallen victim to -- having a neighbor illegally draw off electricity through the friend's meter. Twice I had the same thing happen to me. My first electric bill in Mexico for one month was $245 US.

Has anyone had similar experiences along this line? But there must be other reasons for differences in payments? What could they be? Old refrigerators, computers, TV's and air conditioning are the main culprits. My last electric bill in Mexico was $1400 pesos for two months.

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jennifer rose

Nov 16, 2003, 9:18 PM

Post #3 of 11 (401 views)

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Re: [elcomputo] Electric Costs

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To better understand how electricity is priced, please refer to CFE's website at http://www.cfe.gob.mx/www2/home.asp.

In a nutshell, the more electricity a customer uses, the higher the rate will be. This is the reverse of the U.S., where higher levels of use bring down the per/kilowatt charge.

My bill runs about $2300 bimensuales, regardless of how hard I try to keep the lights shut off. And we use neither A/C nor electric heaters, running the ceiling fan only on special occasions. It's still less than what power would've cost up in the States.

johanson

Nov 16, 2003, 10:09 PM

Post #4 of 11 (395 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] Electric Costs

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You guys are lucky. As Jennifer said the more you use, the more they charge. Unlike some of my frugal neighbors who are charged a much lower rate, I pay 1.8 pesos to 2.3 pesos per kilowatt hour with IVA, dependent upon how much I use. Typically my bill runs 4000 pesos every two months. In my home state of WA where it rains all of the time and we have very cheap hydro-electric power, my bill would be less than a third the amount paid down here for the same amount of power.

I understand that in many other parts of the US that the rates charged are closer to that charged in Mexico.

My tariff rate is "DAC"

Jerry@Ajijic

Nov 17, 2003, 5:57 AM

Post #5 of 11 (373 views)

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Re: [johanson] Electric Costs

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Our bill here in Ajijic runs about 1,500 pesos every 2 months. That is with a radio or tv on all of the time plus 2 computers, etc. It may sound like a high bill but we are from Florida and our bill there was from 400.00 to 450.00 USD PER MONTH .

Guapo Gabacho

Nov 17, 2003, 6:27 AM

Post #6 of 11 (370 views)

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Re: [Jerry@Ajijic] Electric Costs

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Electricity here in Pensacola, Florida is considered quit low cost at 7 cents US per kWh. In my fish-camp house in Alabama I pay 9 cents.

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Marlene

Nov 17, 2003, 8:24 AM

Post #7 of 11 (352 views)

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Re: [Jerry@Ajijic] Electric Costs

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Here in Mazatlan our electricity bill for October was $340.00 pesos with a govt rebate of $104.00. Add in the taxes and we pay $286.00. Even though October was still very hot here, that is down about $60.00 pesos from September which was really hot. All in all we are really pleased with the cost of electricity, considering we must use a/c and fans in at least one room most of the day and all of the nights during the summer/fall season. Our bills seem consistantly lower over last year and the year before, and the only difference we can think of is the fact that we replaced all of our light bulbs with energy savers earlier this year. I wasn't aware it could make such a difference, but it really seems to in our case.

bournemouth

Nov 17, 2003, 9:35 AM

Post #8 of 11 (338 views)

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Re: [Mazatleca] Electric Costs

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Re: the lower energy lightbulbs. In the Guaymas area CFE is offering to replace lightbulbs with the lower energy use ones. Has anyone, anywhere, taken advantage of that offer? It would be nice to hear from people who may have done so.

jennifer rose

Nov 17, 2003, 10:35 AM

Post #9 of 11 (320 views)

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Re: [bournemouth] Electric Costs

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CFE sells the energy-efficient light bulbs. I've found them less costly at Costco than at CFE, but they're still more expensive than conventional light bulbs. For certain uses -- as in an enclosed sphere -- I'm not sure about their use. I have started using them in some areas of the house where the blatant ugliness of the energy-efficient bulbs doesn't matter, but I still can't resist the urge to fill the bodega with bargain conventional bulbs I keep picking up.

D.G.

Nov 17, 2003, 12:54 PM

Post #10 of 11 (304 views)

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Re: [elcomputo] Electric Costs

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Since the topic has turned to light bulbs, let me add some "light" on the subject. All light output is measured as "lumens" ,while power consumption is measured in "watts". Energy efficient lighting for residences is typically using a self-ballasted fluorescent. The lumens that these sources give are quite a bit more for every watt consumed versus a conventional incandescent bulb--or in other words, they are more efficient giving more light, at a lower cost per lumen.

Also figuring into this discussion is the matter of how long the light source lasts. If you look at the expected life of an incandescent you will often find them hovering around a thousand hours or less. Those fluorescents generally last about 10 times as long. Thus, you will buy 10 incandescents just to equal the purchase of one fluorescent, plus you will have higher operating costs over the useful life of the bulb. And you will also have to keep up with constantly renewing the lamps, so the required maintenance is higher with the incandescents.

Using finite natural resources to generate electricity is also a cost that many don't think about. With a standard bulb, one is consuming natural resources at a faster rate. That's one of the reasons that electric companies have had incentive programs to induce people to switch. It may not seem like much, but if lots of people switched to the energy efficient lighting, you would not need to increase the number of power plants to accommodate higher wattage lighting, plus you would decrease air borne pollution levels, and extend the natural resource base further into the future.

The other costs such as the manufacturing costs for producing 10 of something versus one; shipping ten versus one; storing ten versus one, and disposal ramifications of ten versus one all suggest there are additional "costs" implied in the decision making process.

I see the matter as one of both economy as well as a concern for the use of natural resources. If one really cared, it would be very hard to recommend buying standard light bulbs.

elcomputo

Nov 17, 2003, 1:33 PM

Post #11 of 11 (287 views)

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Re: [D.G.] Electric Costs

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The last couple of times I have been in Texas, the discount stores that usually have "99 cents" somewhere in their name were offering the energy-saving bulbs for... what else? 99 cents. Pretty cheap for a bulb that lasts a long time.