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CFE Billing - again


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I posted a few months ago about a hinky CFE bill that I received. I have continued to be billed - even though I have 16 solar panels and use very little power.  It appears that what happened is that they simply have stopped giving me credit for the 400 KwH energy that I produce each month, then charge me for the 125 KwH that I use.  Hum...  

A visit to their office got me nowhere so I am now talking to my attorney about this, who says I am not the only one who has had this issue and she has another attorney friend who is helping someone else try to straighten this out with CFE - to no avail as of yet.  

Is anyone else having this problem?  If so maybe a group of us should combine efforts to push back against CFE

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Newf, is your billing actually showing that your generating roughly 400KwH energy or just your solar panel? I can't explain on the board why I'm asking, but if it isn't showing, I'll PM you and tell you of our experience and what it took to fix it. No, nothing illegal, but CFE was NOT helpful. Shocking, I know.

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I got some of my photo voltaic solar panels in about 2008. And didn't have enough to get out of DAC. I bought more panels later, in perhaps 2011. I ended up with maybe 1 and 1/2 panels too many. So I almost always produce slightly more KW than I use. I am therefore simply charged for 30 KWH per month whether I use them or not, which means my bi-monthly bills are always around $46 pesos.

I guess I am lucky, because I have never had a problem.  And during the occasional cloudy period when I use more KWH than I generate, my credits are always brought forward and I am still charged the minimum amount. The trouble is the bills don't seem to show the accumulated credit that I have built up which according to rumor is reset to 0 KWH saved at some anniversary date each year.

I guess I am just lucky, but no problem here ever. I wish you luck working your problems out with CFE.

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41 minutes ago, Newfhugger said:

with 16 panels and very little use of electricity...

Are you sure you're using very little electricity? Habits and usage change over time especially with the knowledge you have solar. 

As an experiment, every morning take a reading from the inverter of the total electricity produced. On the second and subsequent days you'll know how much solar you produced by subtracting yesterday's total from today's. Some you used and the excess went back to CFE.

Now go to the meter and record the 2 numbers, first the amount consumed from CFE and the amount sent back to CFE. Again subtract yesterday's readings from today's. Now you know how much you took from and gave back to CFE in a 24 hour period. Your total consumption is the amount you consumed from CFE and the difference between the total kWh produced by your system less the amount you sent back to CFE. Anything you didn't send back to CFE you used somewhere in the house during daylight hours.

To get the best info you need to repeat this process for a month or more as the sunshine hours are a lot less this time of year than let's say February to April when the cloud cover is minimal. If you find you are consuming more than you think then find a Kill-a-Watt device and start measuring usage of electronics, especially refrigerators.

Once you take the time to gather this information you'll be in a better position to find the answer.

One other thing. Without including the wattage per panel the number of panels is somewhat useless. In Ajijic I have 24 panels, each producing 128 watts for a total size of 3.072 kWh. At my house in Guayabitos I have 20 panels but each produce 280 watts so daily capacity is 5.6kwh so I can potentially produce 80% more power there than here with 4 less panels.

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Small update / clarification from John's info:   (re:  kW vs kWh and daily production)

The Ajijic 3 kW (not kWh) system size would typically produce 14 to 15 kWh per day, on a year round average basis.

The Guayabitos 5.6 kW system size, in the 25 to 28 kWh range per day.

A ballpark / rule of thumb for our area of central MX is:  system size in kW, times 4.5 to 5, gives the approx. expected daily average kWh of solar production, for a system that is properly installed, correctly oriented, and functioning correctly.

 

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To add to Go Solar's post, my 8 year average in Ajijic has my system producing a bit over 17kWh per day. My panels in Ajijic are thin film versus monocrystalline which is an entirely different subject. Over time they have not degraded much at all.

The Guayabitos house has whatever eSun was selling a couple of years ago and is producing in the range Go Solar writes. There the orientation is not as good as Ajijic and the elevation is only about 10 degrees as opposed to 20 in Ajijic. My stats there aren't as good over there as I maxed the panels one year after the original install due to air conditioning and pool heater consumption. It gets really hot in the summer months so with all the installed solar we can crank up the A/C when needed and not worry about huge bills. The pool water is also cold during the winter so an electric heat pump warms it up nicely as it sucks in electricity from my credit balance.

 

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Thanks for the great tip, Go Solar. I know how many panels I have and have added up the total KW they are rated at.. But I had no idea what the average output would be at this latitude and weather status to understand the average output.

Again thanks.

 

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