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Go Solar

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Posts posted by Go Solar

  1. 2 hours ago, daisy2013 said:

    Who ever installs solar panels  usually gets you a solar meter 

    For clarity,  for residential customers, CFE supplies and changes the meter from "regular" to the solar bidirectional one.     The solar provider creates the CFE solar application for the client to sign and can submit it to CFE.    Following this, the client goes to CFE to sign the solar contracts, and this step drives the CFE account re-registration as solar and the meter change.      CFE does not "charge" for the new meter, apart from a "deposit" they put on the first post-solar billing of about 500 pesos.     (really an admin fee, as it is not refundable like a true deposit would be).     But being a monopoly, they can call it whatever they want.....  😉

  2. 2 hours ago, rvanparys said:

    We are presently living with 5000+ CFE bills for the two month period... We got rid of our second refrigerator that came with the house and our billings dropped 1000 pesos...We are prime candidates for solar HOWEVER, in 6 months we have not been able to get CFE to put the account in our name... First they wanted a copy of our deed, Then our RFC, then the Constantia de Situation Fiscal... We provided all that but since we have two meters, CFE needs to have them combined... This week's to do list... THEN we will apply for a solar system meter which probably will be another fiasco... 

    Having lived here previously, we know that there is not a spanish translation for customer service so we go with the flow...

    This can all be done together as a package,  meter / service combining, name / account change, and solar application process and typically we can get it all done in far less than 2 months, let alone 6, as long as you have valid proof of ownership.      CFE slows down a bit during the holidays and New Year but not by THAT much!    🙂

    • Like 1
  3. 2 hours ago, Stream said:

    Time to buy an inflatable baby swimming pool and have buckets to flush toilets :) Maybe apartments or neighbors can use one pool for their buckets. That's a long time without water pressure.

    Other options:

    1 - be sure the house aljibe (if it has one) is topped up

    2 - put a small tinaco on the roof and tie it into the house piping, a lot of homes do this as a backup to their pressure system "just in case".    Gravity fed water is a lot nicer than moving it by the bucket.    :-)

    • Like 2
  4. @Natasha

    The news about the 2 people who tragically lost their lives hadn't yet been published, or at least was not widely known, when the other info was shared.     The key point from our contacts was that their expectations from a direct hit from a CAT 4 storm were going to be far, far worse than what they were (relatively) relieved to be seeing after the storm had just passed.               

    • Like 2
  5. 2 hours ago, John Shrall said:

    Kind of a win-win but it still hurts paying CFE with excess electricity.

    Agree strongly, and at STI Solar Technology, we encourage our clients not to oversize their systems; we size them to get to the lowest CFE rate step in tarifa 01.

    Bills of about 150 pesos, vs 53 or 54 as the absolute minimum.    And pay $1000 to $2000 US less, upfront, on a typical home installation.    

    Doing this is the most cost effective way to go, otherwise people are spending much more than needed upfront, for little to no benefit.

    We also make sure the system is easily and cost effectively upgradeable, should the need come up down the road.     

    That's a true win-win for the client, save now, and save later.

     

    • Like 4
  6. 6 hours ago, johanson said:

    I think each client has a different 12-month period based upon when he first opened his account

    It is computed as the average of the most recent 6 billing periods (12 months) of kWh consumption, that determines being "DAC'd" or not.     So it could actually change from one bill to the next, back and forth, >>>  though in reality that is not common.       

    • Like 1
  7. Virtually all Tier 1 brand panels have 25 year production / performance warranties to deliver 80 to 85% of the original level of power at the 25 year mark.

    What the OP mentions is a fairly typical grid tied setup; with these, the CFE solar meter is bi-directional and records values for both "use" and "sent".    Both appear on the bills, and the user pays only the "net" difference (or has a 12 month rolling kWh credit, if production is higher than use).

    Maintenance - panel cleaning several times per year in the dry season is recommended,  plus an inexpensive PM check of the system each couple of years, to check and adjust as needed, the support structure, roof connections, panel mounts, wiring harnesses, ties, and connections, and the inverter condition and performance (and inside cleaning, if a central / string inverter).   

    • Like 2
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