How To Save on Electric Bills

[V]

That's punishing, Susan. Hard to imagine anyone choosing electric hot water heating, here. It's nearly always the more expensive option, even if it's working properly.

It's often a lot of little things that add up to big consumption, like loosing cool air to the outside. The windows where I live seal well, but I've had to seal around the two outside doors. Dressing lightly, and setting the a/c no cooler than necessary- just enough to "cool", not "chill" the space- can both help. Somewhere around 27-28 degrees usually does it.

If you have an a/c with a timer, you could experiment with having it shut itself off after you've been asleep a few hours, while leaving a fan on. We always use fans in conjunction with a/c, to improve the comfort level without having to cool the room to the same degree that would be necessary without them. (Fans use lots less electricity than air conditioners.)

Air conditioners are pretty expensive, and the bigger they are the more they cost, so many landlords err on the small size when they buy them. The problem is that a unit that is too small for the job will run all the time, causing it to use more electricity, in the end, than a bigger unit would have used. If your a/c cycles on and off about every three minutes, once the room temperature has stabilized, and doesn't take more than 5 minutes to cool the space initially, it's probably about right.

(Just some of my thoughts on the subject. Others will have found other ways to get the economy they're looking for.)

Like you, I had electric heat and cooling in the states. It was a number of years ago, but we averaged $100/month, annualized (we kept the house at 80 degrees winter, 78 summer). Here, if I annualized my expense for heating and cooling, it would be around $30/month. (The fact that we got away from central heat and cooling systems is what has made the difference, here.)

[Windknot]

I am assuming that all of you know to buy 220 instead of 110 from CFE. And you should do this when you sign up for your service. As has already been mentioned, it can be a pain to switch over later.

Second thing is that if I were renting, I would insist on having the electricity in my name. This obviously means that you have to go out and sign up with CFE. If the landlord refused, I would not rent from that person. Reason is not only for possible theft, but it appears that the number of A/C units you have, can affect your class. I have 6 mini splits in my house and of course I do not use them all at once. But a lady friend actually signed me up for my account with CFE (my Spanish was pretty bad in those days), and she told them I had 3 A/C's. She also signed me up to buy 220.

I have a gas water heater, which is set only to "warm." Also have a gas dryer. To go along with that, if you own your own place, consider the cost of installing a gas line where your refrigerator and/or chest freezer goes. Then consider the propane versions of these units. Yes they cost more (about $2000 US) than electric for an 18 ft fridge, but think of how fast you'll recoup that money if your electric bill is $150 lower each month. BTW, I understand that these propane units are extremely efficient, using a flame about the size of a pilot light. This I have to see for myself, but at any rate, propane is a lot cheaper than electricity.

Finally...and I know this can be difficult in Cancun...but consider your location and what if any sea breeze you might get during the day. My house sits on a hill and so has an unobstructed breeze form the ocean, and I can sit outside in the shade all afternoon and be very comfortable with my margarita(s).

Oh....my house is 350 meters and my average winter bill (2 months) is 260 pesos, and 400 or less in the Summer.....and my IVA is 16%...not 11%

[SamCancun]

Just had my bill through and it's a 2700 pesos!! All we run is my computer which is on 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, a fan, one air con in the room that is on from about 5pm -8am (if we are at home) and two tvs, plus the lights and the fridge and the microwave very rarely. It says the cost of production is 4728 pesos!!! Now doesn't the government help stop soon? If i get a bill saying i owe 5000 pesos on electric for 2 months i'm probably going to have a heart attack, that would be about 125 GBP a month, I paid 50 a month in England and I thought that was scandalous! Can't do anythign about it either as the meter was played with before and the landlord got caught and got a big fine so he doesn't want to do that again, just our luck that happens when WE move in!

[Steve]

Originally Posted by SamCancun

Just had my bill through and it's a 2700 pesos!! All we run is my computer which is on 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, a fan, one air con in the room that is on from about 5pm -8am (if we are at home) and two tvs, plus the lights and the fridge and the microwave very rarely.

That's cheap!
I'd say our usage is fairly similar to yours and we only have the one TV that isnt on that much. Our last bill was over 10,000 pesos and although we have had new mini splits put in looking at the daily consumption and working it out pro rata it isnt looking like it will be that much cheaper next time - I'm guessing about 7,500 pesos.

[T.J.]

$10,000 is nuts. Something seems terribly wrong. Is it remotely possible that someone is tapping into your feeds, after the meter?

If that is normal you should really consider at least one extra meter to get your bills down in the Tarifa 1C category. I have a normal sized 2 BR, 1 Bath apt and I could leave on everything, including 3 a/c's, 24x7 and I think my bill would still be less than that.

Maybe turn off and unplug everything one day when all the neighbors are home and see if your meter comes to a dead stop. If there are common meter bases for your neighborhood in a single location, it is easier for someone to glom onto the electric of another.

A couple of years ago I saw a home in Florida with NO METER and they had heavy duty truck jumper cables above and below the meter base, feeding a small home. They were out and out stealing from the electric company. I owned a vacant lot next door and saw this go on until my lot was sold months later.

[V]

Unfortunately, many of the people with electric bills they don't like will just have to live with them because getting those bills down involves attention to boring little details and doing things people don't really like to do. In this respect, it's a bit like trying to lose weight. which we all know is both simple, and hard to do.

Take the bill Sam talked about, for example. The difference between his bill, and my relatively modest bill, is just about 200 KWH/month greater consumption.

Keeping the sun out of your house by drawing the curtains, turning off lights when you leave the room, turning off TVs when no one is watching them, making sure the kids aren't running in and out of the house all the time or spending time peering into the refrigerator for something to eat; or, that anyone is leaving the doors open to rooms you're trying not to cool are what it's all about, and that ain't fun. (And, I could add, sealing up any obvious leaks of air to the outdoors: before I sealed it, my backdoor leaked enough cool air to make my balcony one of the cooler spots in the place!)

People who've written about these subjects have amused us with stories of leaving the a/c on all day so their pets would be comfortable, or leaving doors ajar so their pets could come in and out of air conditioned rooms, etc. The list goes on, but it all amounts to a little extra electricity used here and there, and a much larger bill owing to the subsidies being cut off at anything above 450 KWH consumption a month*. You get whacked, for the excess.
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*Summer only, Benito Juarez Municipality: the level of subsidies is less, in winter

[Life_N_Cancun]

Originally Posted by Steve

That's cheap!
I'd say our usage is fairly similar to yours and we only have the one TV that isnt on that much. Our last bill was over 10,000 pesos and although we have had new mini splits put in looking at the daily consumption and working it out pro rata it isnt looking like it will be that much cheaper next time - I'm guessing about 7,500 pesos.

Unless you're using the AC more now.. something still isn't right... the minisplits only used at night should be many, many, many times more efficient than your old system.. so if you haven't been using them more than before then you need to check around for "leaks" of power... IMHO

[ToriB]

LOL V... I know ppl here like that to when it comes to pets. I figure eventhough Dezzie has all that fur, if I am gonna suffer and survive, he will and is surviving just the same.

[V]

You would think so, wouldn't you, Tori.
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For anyone who begins to take the issue of reducing their consumption of electricity seriously, the most useful thing to do is to use the electric meter to monitor consumption. Seeing exactly how much electricity you use from day to day will let you immediately see the impact of any changes you make in your pattern of consumption.

For example, if you should decide to try allowing your air conditioned rooms to be just a little less cool than you would normally keep them- compensating for that by dressing more lightly indoors, using fans to move the cool air around, and sleeping with minimal or no bedclothes- you may find you don't have to have the temperature as low as you would otherwise. Doing that for one 24 hour period, checking the meter at the beginning and end of the test period, would give you an indication of just how much difference that might make.

Just as a car uses more fuel when you start driving at higher speeds, air conditioners use significantly more electricity when set to deliver really low temperatures: recently, I asked one man what he set his a/c at when he went to bed. He laughed and said, "19 degrees"! We sometimes set ours as low as 25 degrees at night, but usually 26 is sufficiently cool (observing the practices I mentioned earlier), and at 25 we often start to feel cold at some point during the night. Odds are, the man who said he likes a very cold bedroom also likes to sleep under a lot of covers, and is willing to pay for the privilege!

[Gringation]

V - We just got a minisplit in our bedroom a few days ago. I agree! Anything under 25 is TOO COLD for me!! But then again my Mexican husband hates having a sheet on top of him, and over the years I've gotten used to just 1 sheet and occasionally a thin blanket.

[V]

Yep, Gringation, 25 degrees can feel mighty cool when your body slows down during the night. When that happens, though, I have the advantage that my wife wants to snuggle!
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I agree with you, Life, that checking to be sure no one is stealing from you is worth the trouble. A simple way to do it is to take a meter reading when you're going to be gone, overnight or longer, before you leave and immediately when you get back. If all you left on is a refrigerator that was untouched while you were gone, with its doors closed, and seals intact, very little electricity would have been used. (Gotta make sure, though, that that frig is not set at a super cool temp, or is old and worn out, in which case it may still use a lot).

[V]

...we have had new mini splits put in...

How did that finally work out, Steve? Did it turn out to be any cheaper, so far, compared to previous years' bills?

We've now moved to a condo which came with central air: one unit is 36,000 BTU, the other 24,000. I'm a little nervous about what to expect during the summer months....

Still, it should not be as bad as those who live in Playa del Carmen have it. One couple we know there says their smallest electric bill, running a home office with several computers going, and using mainly ceiling fans, was 4,000 pesos! I know we won't hit that, in any case, with the much larger subsidies we have, here, in Cancun.

Viva Cancun!
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[Steve]

Worked out much cheaper, we've been using the air con much more liberally and our bills have reduced significantly. Our most recent bill was $3,800 and we've been running the air con almost all night every night in two bedrooms since about early Feb. We still dont use it in the day time though.

Last year we wouldnt dare put our old central air con on until about May and then when we did, as you'll recall, we got bills of $10,000 plus

[V]

I've got no real way to prove it, but my "logic" tells me minisplits have several, practical advantages which could make them, in actual use, cheaper to operate than central systems.

We'll give our central system one season to prove itself, after which we'll consider the economics of going to minisplits.

Aside from air conditioning, our electrical consumption is practically nothing, amounting to something under 5 KWH/day, and producing a bill of about $10 USD/month, after subsidies!

[Cancun Fun]

I still cant figure out how people get by using so little electricity! We dont use our mini-splits yet but we use an average of 14 KWH/day. Do you guys just sit around in the dark and read by candlelight?

[Susan in Cancun]

I'm with Trina on this one. In this apartment, I only have to pay the bill for my air conditioner (220v) and, in the Summer, the bill is easily $2,000 pesos or more. Imagine if I had my fans, fridge, TV, and computer on the same meter?!

[violet0905]

I started unplugging appliances when i leave the house or sleep...and the amounts dropped considerably ,from 280 /300 to 89 ,so now i do unplug them it does make a big difference!!I should have listened before,i would have saved a ton of money!

[V]

I still cant figure out how people get by using so little electricity!

I've not tried Violet's experiment, but I'd say it's the combination of a lot of little things, such as turning off ceiling fans when no one is in the room, turning off TVs when no one is watching them, turning off coffee makers as soon as the brewing cycle is over, etc.

Motors- including swimming pool pumps- and appliances that heat (electric hot water heaters), or cool (including refrigerators and freezers) are the big consumers of electricity, not lights.

[violet0905]

Originally Posted by V

I've not tried Violet's experiment, but I'd say it's the combination of a lot of little things, such as turning off ceiling fans when no one is in the room, turning off TVs when no one is watching them, turning off coffee makers as soon as the brewing cycle is over, etc.

Motors- including swimming pool pumps- and appliances that heat (electric hot water heaters), or cool (including refrigerators and freezers) are the big consumers of electricity, not lights.

Oh yeah when I had to use electricity for everything my bills were humongous...water heater and electric stove...omg and now i sleep with the tv on everyday ..i have ac and the bill came tiny,dunno what did it but im happy about the ridiculous amount i paid last time :P

[Accutemp]

Just for a heads up guys ...... Being a a/c contractor (own my own company) something you guys might want to consider when replacing mini split systems ...... Check out the Dakin mini splits they have 1 condenser unit that will run up to 4 indoor heads and it's inverted so pretty much you feed it with 220v and the built in transformer drops the voltage to 48v also the compressor is internally valved so that if only 2 heads are calling for cooling it will significantly drop the amperage load of the compressor and not to mention its a 21 seer system..... Just a thought

[V]

...when I had to use electricity for everything my bills were humongous...water heater and electric stove...omg

The condo we live in uses a common boiler to heat hot water and because of the cost the administrator wants to have everybody install their own water heaters. He wants to insist that they all be electric, but we know it would run our electric bill up quite a lot: using gas for cooking and water heating in the past our gas bill was well below 100 pesos per month.

The warmer weather is now starting to push our ac use, and electric consumption up: it's hit 12 KWH/day, at this point, with ac on all night, and for five or so hours during the day. This would still produce a very modest electric bill, here.

[NicHamburg]

I also had the problem of high electric bills. (Well not in Cancun, but this "problem" is not location based)

What helped me a lot is buying 3 electric usage monitors.
You simply plug them between your wall plug and the device you want to monitor. Then you can record and monitor the electric usage of that device.

Home energy monitor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It helped a lot, since i found out that my fridge and my dishwasher were eating way to much power. Buying new ones, was of course an investment, but it will pay off with the new lower power consumption.

It also gave me a sense how much each device consumes. (Even in Standby).

Running your Computer 24/7 is also a big factor. I did this also till i measured the consumption with the electric usage monitor.
My computer (nothing fancy) used around 220 Wats of power average. Thats around 5kwh a day. meaning 150kwh each months....

I also wonder how far "Green Energy" is spread through Mexico. Here in Germany we have a lot of homes with Solar Panels on their roof. This should work much better in Mexico, because you have way more hours of sun than we got here.
(Would be only interesting if you own a place). There are a lot of aplliances that can run from solar power, as pool heaters/pumps even to the whole electric installation like ACs / fridges / lights etc

[T.J.]

The CFE bills came to my bldg last week.

Bottom Floor $ 39
Middle Floor $ 501
Top Floor $1,985

Is something wrong with this picture?

I am the "man in the middle" as MJ sang, and I was out of town for a week and left my a/c on, set at 21C, by stupidity.

[V]

What happened to those people above you, T.J.? They must have left their ac on all month!

Well, we're now beginning to see the difference that having central air can make, in the negative way.

With the higher humidity days we've been having, we're running the central air even more hours than we were just recently, and are now running a higher daily average consumption than we ever have in Cancun- where we've always had minisplits, until now- with 23 KWH/day consumption, and it's not even the depths of summer, yet.

When we moved in, we thought of making some modifications to the cooling system here, installing one or more minisplits to create some options about how to cool the place: we decided not to, and see what the experience was with the central system....

Not so good, so far....

[SCMcons]

V, A few options could be to have the current central AC checked for efficiency. Air filters,drainage plugs,coolant levels,thermostat-shut off and turn on. Another option would be to replace the central unit with a newer more efficent unit. We have some older units that are probably in the SEER level of 8 versus newer units that can be at level 13 or above.I am thinking of adding a few mini-splts and replacing the central unit which we have had fully maintained.

Just some thoughts.

[V]

We have some older units that are probably in the SEER level of 8 versus newer units that can be at level 13 or above.

We've had the units serviced, recently, but they were installed ten years ago: who knows what generation of a/c they represent....

Thanks for introducing the "SEER" information: that's something I'll have to look up, as I haven't heard the term before!

[matkirk]

I was wondering if anyone had done anything with solar panels down here?

I was just have a browse online and there are systems in the States that are tied to the grid and any power you don't use gets fed back in - you get rebates etc. Does CFE have any program like this?

Seems like they are not very efficient (solar panels I mean not CFE but you might run a pump of some sorts or something?

Any other ideas of things to do at home to not rely on utility companies? A homemade 20 meg braodband for 100 pesos a month perhaps?

[Cancun Fun]

Matkirk,

CFE does the same thing.

[V]

I, too, believe CFE has a program to give your credit for electricity you may produce which gets fed back into their grid: there may even be info on this on their website. When I´ve heard about it, it´s been in the context of wind energy generation, but I doubt that would be treated differently.

[matkirk]

Just got the bill - 476 pesos - not to bad.

Am I right in thinking that if the usage stays under 850kw a month we remain on the same tariff "1C 2 Hilos"?

Do you reckon changing a wall unit A/C to a minisplit is worth it considering we are only using about 600 k/w a month running the AC all night, does it make that much difference?