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Kudos to Solar Technology


diandbeau

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Last year I had Ron Magen of Solar Technology install solar panels on my home.  His associates are true professionals in every way!  Due to CFE not reading the meters on my street for six months, my bill soared to an unbelievable amount.  Talking with them about there being a mistake did no good.  After that, every bill was enormous!  Now I pay next to nothing.  Ron is a truly sincere person whose follow-up is a genuine help in understanding how solar power works.  Just want to thank him and his company!!!  ron@solartechnology.com.mx 

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The previous owner of our home paid approximately the same as you... We installed solar and cut it down to an annual monthly usage of 500 pesos... We have a pool, freezer, etc so our usage is more than the average...

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Thanks to the OP and others for the kind words!     

For Oregon, the DAC level being at 500 kWh per 2 months, with a cost of over 5 pesos per kWh now, means that most bills over 2500 pesos are in the DAC rate; your consumption is likely in the 600 to 700 kWh range given those billings.

You can cut that cost by 90% and have a payback in the 3.5 to 4 year range, for a typical residential install in the area.

STI looks forward to seeing everyone at the Chili Cookoff, 15th to 17th Feb, and the Northern Lights Music Festival / Festival de Febrero again has a 25,000 peso STI gift certificate they will auction to help the musicians make it another great event.

 

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In a former life I used to do large ‘technical projects’. I would have salivated for a 3.5 to 4-year ROI payback period AND with little or no O&M costs for the life of the ‘project’.  If one sees ANY possibility of their living Lakeside for that long it is a no-brainer. Even if one has to leave, think of the selling point to a prospective buyer of having little or no electrical bill and no DAC to worry about ever. 

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I have, by choice, two too many photo-voltaic solar panels and almost always have paid  CFE $23 pesos per month or now that they are again billing us every other month, $46 pesos. Same goes for my hot water system. a hot water solar panel which I have had since 2008. And I have never used gas to heat my water, now I admit, there were a couple of days earlier when the water was a little cooler than I liked it when showering, but out of principle I have never turned on the instant on gas fired hot water heater.

GO SOLAR :)

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I am renting, so solar is not an option for me. But I sure would if I owned the house.

My neighbors all pay $200 - $400 pesos per CFE bill. I pay $3200 - $3800 pesos per bill.

For my work (world-wide, based out of Hong Kong) I need two desktop computers running 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

Normally, this would not cost as much as it does,  but when they built this house, they used extremely small gauge wires.

This causes the wires to heat up building up resistance and requiring a stronger draw of current than a properly wired house.

The entire house from the meter to the breaker box and throughout the entire house is wired with 20 gauge wire, and should be wired with at least 14 gauge wire, and preferably 10 gauge wire. There is thicker wire in the cord of my night stand reading lamp than running in my house!

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The people who built the house only received a one-time lump savings of about $25 USD by going with the lowest gauge electric wire they could. But, costs me over $100 USD per month.

My electrician said because of the size of my bill, CFE would be required to put in a 2nd meter for just the computers, even without changing the gauge of my wires if I demanded it... and that would save a ton of money. (I laughed, because CFE does not respond to demands.) I would have to separate the lines from the existing line and have them ready to be plugged into a new circuit breaker (which costs a ton of money) have lines running from there to the new meter and of course, pay CFE for he new meter (a lot of money).

Paying to fixing up somebody else's house is not on my list of things to do. I will be moving soon. Two of the houses I have considered are solar and not only have $99 peso CFE bills (with pool pumps and Jacuzzi) they are also properly wired to accommodate people who use more than just an incandescent bulb hanging from a couple of wires dangling from the ceiling in the bedroom from 20 gauge wires. Viva Mexico!

 

 

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Renters are putting in systems quite often these days; their arrangements with the landlords vary from the homeowner paying the full shot to have it as a great rental feature and long term upgrade to the value of the home, to the renters owning the system (fairly easy to take if / when they leave, and re-install in the next location, especially with the micro-inverter technology) and some creative "hybrid" deals where each pay part.      

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22 hours ago, oregontochapala said:

May I ask, what qualifies as unbelievable? I'm not being snarky, I just wonder if our bills of $2,800-$3,400 make considering solar worthwhile.

Oregontochapala - I had to pay CFE $16K00 pesos for their error in not reading the meter.  Before this incident my bill was around $500 pesos.  After,  it went to $3500 p/per bill.  To me that's a big leap.  And it stayed that way for years until I had solar installed.    

Aquaponicsman thank you for your explanation!

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Aguaponicsman, I totally believe you when say 20 gauge. It's just that I can not imagine where the person was coming from who installed such an electrical system using 20 gauge. What did he use for lights? Candles? That sounds more like the size of wires I might use for an economical sound system, you know, the wire size between the amp and small speakers

I followed your advice. The very smallest gauge I used was 14, but more often 12 gauge and larger where needed larger. 

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  • 2 years later...
On 2/7/2019 at 5:14 AM, Aquaponicsman said:

" I need two desktop computers running 24 hours a day, 7 days per week."

 

I run a network of two or three maxed out laptops driving 55 inch HDTVs 24/7, pulling in at least two HD streams and several live financial accounts.  After building my own PCs going back to x286, several years ago it became obvious that laptops had evolved their integration and features to the point where, apart from maybe gaming and 'crypto' mining, they provided a superbly energy efficient and convenient platform, other than running hot if one neglects to refresh their thermal paste every few years. My energy bill is very modest here in the redwoods of northern California, where metal corrosion is a recurrent problem that laptops seem to avoid. Just my take. 

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I am NoB now, too. Interesting you found a post from 2019. I was a pioneer in crypto mining and evolved into data-farms. I shut down my crypto mining because of my work with AI, now, oddly also associated with crypto, but not by initial design. Watch for my work at every Walmart in conjunction with IBM.

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I have my water from air technology, zero-point energy, crypto-currency, aquaponics with all the energy, food and vegetables I need.

The only thing left that I need is a bigger, more powerful airboat! <g>

(Just kidding folks.) Although I do have these really cool "new fuel" jet pack I want to go off the cliffs with the para gliders filming.

They are a bit noisy, too. But if they explode, you won't hear them again. (Just like you F*ckers sank my boat and almost killed me a mile out.)

 

 

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I used to fill the gas tank (120 liters) every couple of months at about 800 pesos a fill. A few years back I bought a solar water heater with more capacity then we usually need (but just to be sure). That and the other plumbing parts cost about 10k pesos total. A friend of mine and I did the installation and since then, I fill the gas tank maybe once a year, if that.

The solar heater has been the best thing that we've done to the house. I love it.

 

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13 minutes ago, Tingting said:

We have the solar electric and get to use all of our toys (computers, tvs, etc) without worry and only pay the minimum charge of $50 pesos. It most definitely pays for itself. Solar water heater is next since gas is getting ridiculously high. 

You know how hard the water is where you live. I would suggest that the setup have the softened water running through it. Or you can try an on-demand flow through heater which only turns on with piezo ignition (two D batteries) when hot water is called for. I use about 100 litres of gas a year for water heating, cooking and clothes dryer and spend 300 pesos a year on electricity (the minimum 50 pesos six times a year). Love that Mexican sunshine... but there are times in a year when there's lots of clouds so you'll need a back up water heater anyway.

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You're right about the water here in CH. We have a water softener, so 2 down 1 to go! Sadly, we seem to use a LOT of gas (absolutely clueless as to why) so a solar water heater and electric stoves are next. Right now, we make more electricity than we use (and we're not careful at all), so that gives us the extra for when we have things switched over to electric. I tried to do that with the dryer, but that was a major balls-up (lesson learned). Anyhoo....yeah, we thought about the solar water heater w/the gas still in place as a backup for the very reason you mentioned.   

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Solar is getting cheap and 6 580w panels can run most homes and you have a break even point after 3-5 years for most people and also the benefit of no brown outs and being able to generously use the heat and A/C those very cold and hot days

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Solar panels are getting less expensive BUT they are also changing in design and adaptability.   I put in panels in 2014.   One blew in Jan 2022.   Impossible to replace with same model and solar installer says new panels not interchangeable. So, when crunching numbers, it might be worthwhile to consider replacement cost with a 5 year life expectancy.

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My panels have a twenty-five year guarantee and each one has a microinvertor (also guaranteed). I do think that such a set up would allow a different panel with its own microinvertor to be installed in the line up. I'm equally sure that Go Solar will correct my assumption if incorrect.

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