Sunday, May 10, 2009

Electric

When I first came to Mexico I thought the way they did the electric billing was "unfair." Yes, that is the whole hearted American in me. Funny how I look back now and I have lost so much of that and although I thought I wasn't spoiled I now know I was. Anyway that's another blog. This one is about how they bill for electric, and is obviously targeted to my none Mexican living readers because they already know about it.
When I lived in the states I thought the whole unplug everything was a load of baloney, even when I did experiment with it a few times I never noticed a difference in my bill. Same thing with the light bulbs and such. So when I came here and my hubby kept getting on to me for leaving things plugged in I would get so frustrated about it. Then he showed me one of the bills and how they work. The company have set limits for minimum usage, normal usage, and excessive usage. I love that they call it an equivalent to excessive. Anyway when you are in the wattage of minimum you pay less than if you use the wattage of normal and obviously more for excessive.
Thanks to our smaller apartment and my acceptance that unplugging things can knock us down a notch or to our bill was only 114p. Yahooooooooo!!!!
The lesson learned here is if you live like a Mexican and not an American you really can survive on pesos. lol
I wanted to put the actual amounts and the breakdown on this blog but I cant seem to find it on my bill now. I know Iv seen it a few times and I thought it was on all the bills. If any of you Mexican living readers have it could you post it on a comment or if I find it I will put it on here as a comment.
Im convinced that instead of jacking the prices up all the time Ameren should get a system like this. It would basically force people to use less electricity and actually it is more fair now that I think about it. Because if you use excessively you pay excessively and same for using less. Yes even after 10mo of being here Im thinking about if things are fair or not. lol

8 comments:

  1. Amanda,
    For every "ying" there is a "yang". As a nurse you know that there are people who use a C-pap or Bi-pap machine at night to help them avoid sleep apnea and there are others who need an oxygen generator when they sleep because their blood oxygen level is too low when they are lying down. A lot of these folks are elderly and living on low fixed incomes. These people and others who need electricity to survive are put into a higher usage bracket and have to pay more. I would rather see them reduce the CFE bureaucracy and waste to lower the rates for everyone. Many children do not have adequate light to read and study by because in their homes the light bulbs are too small to give sufficient light. Some homes are so hot at night that people don't sleep well and are afraid to use a fan for fear of raising their electric bill. Conservation is a good thing but but too much of a good thing can be harmful.

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  2. Congratulations on a fabulous bill. I have not been able to have an electric bill less than $3900 pesos in the 4.5 years I have lived here. We don't even have an air conditioner or dishwasher!

    In the US our bill is comparable to this one but we do have a dishwasher, air conditioner and pool filter in the US! For us, electricity is outrageous here in Mexico!

    Christine

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  3. We got slammed with our first elecric bill here. We have managed to get it way down by not using air conditioning since last November.

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  4. Bob, you bring up a good point, and as usually a healthy medium would be the best. I do agree that those with health issues should get some type of an allowance. But I still feel that a similar system would help people in the states understand their usage. And for some it would lower their bills. I must say though that I let myself be a little uncomfortable to the point of trying not to turn on fans and such, and we added blankets instead of using the space heater as much this winter. Again a happy medium would be best if any one gov could figure that out we would all be happy. ;)
    Christine, Thats and insane amount, Yikes we could never afford that. But we use almost no electric during the day. I run my washer once a day and unplug it as soon as its done. I unplug the microwave after each use and we turn off our computer every night. The only thing that stays plugged in is the fridge. The only light that gets turned on is the bathroom when were in there because there is no window, until at least 7pm. We have managed to get into the lowest marine and that's why its lower now.

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  5. Our bills run $400 pesos every two months (I assume you are on the same 2 month cycle) when my son was here it was around $600. Most of the ex-pats that I know pay a lot more. Once you are in the excessive usage range they charge you that rate for quite awhile.
    AMM if you are in a condo, you might be getting a % of the building's bill, that was happening to a friend of mine, who paid to have her own meter installed and her bill went down.
    regards,
    Theresa

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  6. Theresa, yes we are on the two month cycle. We know this is deff our bill because when we first moved in here it was at 200p and now we have lowered with a lot of effort. If you can be in the lower merit rankings on the bills its supper cheep, but as soon as you tap over one of them its crazy how fast you bill changes. I know what you mean about the splitting of the bill, we were stuck in the bad end of that in our last apartment. After the electric in the apt below us was shut off and new tenets moved they had an "electrician" not the electric co hook up their electric. Our next bill shot up to like 1,100p from about 400p. And their bill was miraculously less than 50p. When the land lord was no help to remedy the situation we moved out.
    600p isnt to bad you must be in the middle bracket somwhere, I know we were when we were paying 4-500p. We just found we couldnt afford that and had to find ways to cut back even more. The smaller apartment helped as did the other things I mentioned in my last comment.

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  7. We've only received three bills in our time here, and the first two were under 200p but the third was almost 500p. Though I don't recall using any more than the usual, there seemed to be a jump in our consumption and a BIG jump in our bill. I guess we must have tipped over to the next tier--is there a way to know from the bill what is considered, low, normal, or excessive usage?

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  8. Alice, when we were in the excessive range in our old apartment it was written in that little box where they write the thankyou for paying your bill and other notices. (do you know what I mean its about in the middle left side of the bill). Now that we are not in the higher range I suppose they don't think we need to know, its not there anymore. But you can always go to your local electric company and ask for the break down. We had to get it once that way to.

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