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DAC electricity structure


Sandrita

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If the average number of kWh used over the last 6 bills exceeds 500kWh then you end up in DAC. Any one of those bills could show usage over 500 but it's the average of the last 6 that matters. When you receive a new bill, the oldest one drops off and you get a new average.

It took a couple of billing periods to drop out of DAC after installing solar. Throw in a few zeroes and the average drops pretty rapidly.

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i thought i was ONE big bill that put you in dac range, & that system lasts 6 months no matter how little you use during the 6 months. that was my experience. my bills all summer were like 1300-1020 pesos for every 2 months. (no washer dryer, no airconditioner, no fans, no lights left on all night, no garbage disposal). an electrican come over (looked over my yrs history), & said it would last for 6 months. he was right: come winter i used an electric heater several hours per day. bill was 270. pesos for the 2 months. go figure that one.

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i thought i was ONE big bill that put you in dac range, & that system lasts 6 months no matter how little you use during the 6 months. that was my experience. my bills all summer were like 1300-1020 pesos for every 2 months. (no washer dryer, no airconditioner, no fans, no lights left on all night, no garbage disposal). an electrican come over (looked over my yrs history), & said it would last for 6 months. he was right: come winter i used an electric heater several hours per day. bill was 270. pesos for the 2 months. go figure that one.

Not true. John Shrall has it right.

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John is right. my last bill was $190 pesos. Why so low? Because the government paid for part of my bill, to motivate me to use less electricity. Had I been billed at the DAC rate for the same amount of electricity, I would have paid $1,070 pesos.

Very simply if my consumption over the previous 12 month period (6 two month billing periods) is more than 3000 KWH, I'm charged at the DAC rate. How do I keep under the DAC rate or an average of less than 500 KWH per two months. Well the first thing I would never do would be to use electricity for heat, be it to heat water, dry clothes or heat my home. Another thing I do is generate some electricity with photo-voltaic panels.

DAC is explained in detail at the CFE web site

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One update here as of this past year - there is no longer a need to average out of DAC after installing a solar electric system.

The CFE solar grid-tie agreement (we provide it, you sign it, & we submit it to CFE on your behalf) provides a "reset" to your CFE account right away.

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If you can afford to go solar that is the way to go, but if you can't afford it at the moment then you need to do something to get out of the DAC rate as soon as possible. DAC stands for 'De Alto Consumo' or high consumption and you will continue to get very high electrical bills till you get out of DAC.

The simplest and quickest way I have found to get out of this rate is to change the name on the electric bill. If someone is renting your house then you can put the electric bill in his name, or perhaps to a relative or a good friend. You have to go down to CFE but it is not hard to do this and you will start over at the lower rate. And then you can start cutting down on your electrical costs or making plans to go solar. And down the road you can always change it back to your name.

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peter, my bill was 75% LESS during the 2 months i used the electric heater. btw, the gov always paid a portion of the bill, the very high & the low ones. i also use an toaster oven, which i heard eats up electric. but still 270. for the months of mid oct to mid dec is really good, since the heater was on alot the second half of the billing period. (& toaster oven always @ least 20 mins a day)

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Bennie. The government only subsidizes those residential accounts that are not billed at Servicio doméstico de alto consumo (DAC). If they were still subsidizing you, you were not on DAC It's all explained on the webpage I referenced above.

Oh, and according to Mr Google, an average toaster oven draws about 1200 watts And 1.2KW for 20 minutes per day is 0.4 KHW per day and 30 times per month equates to about 12 KWH per month.

Your electric heater could use any number of watts. But let's just say that it uses 1,000 watts per hour. Each hour per month equates to 1 KWH Therefore 3 hours per day per month would equate to about 90 KWH per 30 day month

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Hey, Go Solar, always good to see you posting here. Back in 2007-8 not knowing how many panels I would need for the new house, I got a very large inverter but only ten 175 watt panels. I also had to buy a new digital meter, which was nice, because like you said, I went off DAC. Then once I could determine how many more panels I needed I added to the system.

Today, my two inverters 3.5 and 1.5KWH would be maxed out under ideal conditions. Yes, I have too many panels.But I always find ways to use enough electricity to reach 200 to 250 KWH per billing period.

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peter, dont understand a word you wrote. too much information. an american professional electrician was here beginning of last summer as i said. i was in the DAC range as i had gotton one big over 4000 peso bill during the winter. breaking it down it came to less than 500 pesos for each 60 day period. (that bill compensated them for one & a half years i was only paying 46 pesos per month! they took that long replace the meter). after the big bill, the electrician said it put me into DAC. whether they keep you there for 6 months or not is still a mystery, i found him as difficult to understand as you. mr. shrall is most likely correct. (the bills were high for almost a year, then mysteriously went to 270. heater & all). he also said toaster ovens use alot of electric AND regular bulbs for light. still 1200 pesos for that does seem excessive. anything is possible, they could have continued the govt discount. the electrian lived in mex a long time. i proberly got 50% of his info correct. all i know is that the last bill of 270 was the only low bill i had im years. hard to believe that some lights & toaster ovens (in summer) can be that much $$. prior to changing my old meter to the new one, the bills were more than 1200 per 60 days, more like 2000 pesos. the new meter was an improvement, but i think they run a scam.

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Hey bennie: the important thing is that you keep your bill low, however you do it. Upon occasion, because of an error made by the meter reader, my bill will be $1000s of pesos too high or the minimum amount about $38 to $42 for using no electricity when in actuality the real amount would have been very different. That is why I check my meter reading close to the time the meter is to be read and am able to show a show a photo to CFE when an error has been made. And after showing the error, I pay the correct amount

In fact several years ago, when I still wrote "TechTalk" for the Guadalajara Reporter, the CFE used to use my articles to explain to the angry Gringo why their rates changed so much (Went from Tariff 1 to DAC)

I live on 3/4 of an acre, etc, etc and use one heck of a lot of electricity for everything but am able to keep my bill very low because I have the correct # of photo-voltaic panels to pay for most of my overuse, therefore keeping my bill usually below $200 pesos or so per billing period.

I've never found CFE to run a scam. Rate changes are usually created by either meter readers reading errors or the client not understanding that he is using too much electricity and that he is no longer receiving a government subsidy for low usage.

Take a little time to understand your electric meter and what 100 watts etc are. Soon you will understand and soon your electric bill will be much less. It is really so simple for someone who understands the basics about electricity (9th grade general science, really)

Take the time to learn the basics. It could mean a much lower bill. Always choose the most economical energy source for Mexico, It's often very different than what you would have chosen in the US or CA

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peter, the electric WAS doing misreads and OVER charging me. the last reading was done by a lloyds employee, he took a photo & want to electric to dissconnect my service, pay the bill, as i had moved out. it was actually the last day or two of my cycle, by chance. this bill was 270 for 60 days, rather than the 1200-1020 range (even in summer). for years i have been charged like 300% more than i should pay. the heater for some reason wasnt taking up that much electric, & i have no other appliances, except the toaster oven. (which was on 30 mintes like 5 days a week, & 10 the other 2 days). they do rip you off. i had seen an employee for electric take the photo for the cycle prior, aug-oct, & that was 1020).

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Bennie: Just check the meter yourself. It's so easy to do. I check my meter every day as I leave for breakfast. Sure that is too often. But I enjoy doing it. You say that for years you have been charged like 300% more than you should pay by CFE. That is amazing. Especially when it is so easy to read your meter. Gosh, what does it take, 1 minute the first time and and after you learn how to read your meter, 15 to 20 seconds per day or week at most each time you check?.

I have found the folks at CFE to be very honest. Sure maybe 1 time in 20 to 40 they make an error. But when they do, I take a picture and present the correct data to the folks at the CFE office in Chapala and once they have checked the accuracy of my photo they always correct my bill, just like they did for you the one time someone took a photo for you. For your information, sometimes they have under-read my meter, other times they have over-read. But over the years they have been pretty darn accurate.

I have talked the folks at Actinver (they are no longer called Lloyd's) and yes they and I occassionally find errors. And just like me they sometimes find errors where one is charged too much, and sometimes where one is charged too little. It's the way it works all over the word, really :)

Sure, electricity is expensive in some parts of the world. But just because your bill is greater than you might pay up north, does not make take the utility charging more dishonest.

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the mexican who was living in that house (as a child, & now is in the USA) said: "they rip you off"!! "they are corrupt & i would never live in xxxxx mexico"!!! peter, i didnt have a cell phone, or what ever you use to take a photo, no one to teach me meter reading. if i could have saved several thousand usd (over the years) that would have been an incentive. checking everyday is obsession, thats a relationship i dont want to have. but what ever works for you. too late now.

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It is really easy to read a CFE meter, Bennie. Either you have a digital meter that shows numbers the way we learned in school to read numbers or you have an older meter which has wheels one which turns one way, and the next in reverse, etc. Just ask Mr.Google to show you how to read it. It's really quite simple; then when you get a bill that isn't correct, either immediately take a picture using a camera or your cell phone and take a copy of said picture to the CFE office

.In my case I have never seen cases of being over charged by thousands of dollars as you reported above. The last error I found, would have cost me maybe $8 dollars,. How? By charging me too little one billing period and too much the next. I was an honest error, that anyone could have made; two numbers were reversed. the meter said 7480 was written 7840 which would have made the reading one billing period too high and the next too low. Oh, and don't check your meter each day, rather why not check it each 60 or so days after the date written on the previous bill.

Oh and during the many years I wrote "TechTalk" for the Guadalajara Reporter, I never saw any evidence of your angry quote above.

Sure I find electricity expensive lakeside in comparison to rainy Seattle where I am right now; but that's because up here we use free rain water to run our generators, while down there, with all of the great weather one must usually use not free rain water but fuel to run the generators, which costs a great deal more, making electricity more expensive in Mexico.

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