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2 important questions for 2 new neighbors


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Hi all,

 

Would love your help. My wife and I are building a house in RIberas del Pilar. We will be moving at the end of July. I have been living in Mexico for 7 years and I met my wife when I lived in Mexico City. We have been living in Bucerias for the last 4 years. We have two questions. When it comes to internet. I have seen some good information about the internet providers in the lake area. We have used Telmex in both Mexico City and here in Bucerias. The service and reliability has been less than spectacular. We have always had the basic cable package with 10MBs (is that the right way to write it? See I am such a technology wiz!) My wife must have her telenovelas and every basic package has that. I would like to add ESPN 3 as I want to be able to watch more college football games whenever it is safe for those kids to play. We also use the internet phone quite a bit. I would like to get a higher speed package if possible. So my question is two fold, overall what experiences have you had with the reliability of the different providers i.e. instillation and customer service, outages and who has good reliable service that the speed advertises comes close to the speed delivered.

Second question is for those of you who have solar panels. My home is about 180 square meters (2,000 square feet more or less) It is one floor. Can anyone recommend a good company that installs solar panels and given the size of my home how many panels are needed and can you ballpark cost? 

I would really appreciate any and all help. Thanks to all and stay safe and hope to meet some of you soon.

 

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As to solar panels, there are a number of good companies.  A member here, Go Solar, has a company we used and have been very satisfied.  The number of panels you will want depends on what load you will have and how much of that you will want to cover with solar.  Having things like a pool or air conditioning really affect the number of panels you would need.

Couple things to take into account in your installation.  First, be sure you have good access for periodic cleaning as the dust really builds up fast during the dry season.  We installed a hose bib from our treated (filtered, softened) water supply next to each set of panels.

Second, remember to size for cloudy weather.  I added 20 percent to the basic sizing to cover this.

 

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The number of panels you will want depends on BOTH ' what load you will have and how much of that you will want to cover with solar' but it mostly depends of the kw of EACH panel. You will need a lot more 180 w panels than you will 300 w panels irrespective of ' what load you will have and how much of that you will want to cover with solar.'

A common error when answering 'How many panels will I need?'

The correct question is 'How much kw will I need for the 'load I will have and how much of that I will want to cover with solar?'

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26 minutes ago, Mainecoons said:

300 watt is pretty much standard now, isn't it?  I think mine are 250's.

 

300 325 330 350 375 are available. Price is not much different.

If you are using a string inverter higher the watts fewer panels & lower cost for mounts. If you are using micro inverters 330 would probably be about the max needed.

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Good to know.  Are there size differences?

I have micro inverters.  There is an advantage to these where some of your panels might be shaded in the morning or later afternoon.  they came with an excellent web site that enables me to check the system by each pair of panels and track overall production.

Nice toy for an engineer.  :D  

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1 hour ago, Mainecoons said:

Good to know.  Are there size differences?

I have micro inverters.  There is an advantage to these where some of your panels might be shaded in the morning or later afternoon.  they came with an excellent web site that enables me to check the system by each pair of panels and track overall production.

Nice toy for an engineer.  :D  

The panels 300 watts or more are 72 cells  those under 300 watt 60 cells.  a 72 cell is about 1 meter wide and 2 meters tall       a 60 cell is about 1 meter wide and about 1.65 tall (measurements vary slightly by brand)

330 watt name brand panels should cost under $4,000 each.  (older systems here are typically 220-270 watt panels) 

Micro inverters cost a little more initially. The advantages are: if one panel is in the shade all the other panels still produce, easy to expand the system, wires leading to the breaker box lower amperage, no big box installed next to the breaker box. 

Disadvantages: higher initial cost, at this time maximum output per panel 300  watt.  

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As far as internet...I am lucky to be in an area covered by ILox...pay $595 for the highest speed and get a constant 90 - 100 download. Do not include the phone option however (Many negative reports here including mine)...get the Telmex basic phone for a little under $200 per month. ILox also has a Mexican TV package but do not know anything about that.

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We highly recommend Opiere Solar. 766 6148

Nyah Walters solar advisor 331 400 2646

www.opiere.com

cleardot.gif
 

 

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I"VE GOT MORE PANELS THAN YOU. So there. Actually that doesn't mean much, because I got mine back in 2007 or 8 and in those days each of my panels was rated at 160 watts  Now when I checked with Mr. Google he told me that today often the panels used are more than twice as powerful as mine.

I originally was trying to keep out of DAC (CFE's most expensive rate for heavyweight residential users). Today because I have changed my habits, I am often averaging only - 4 to + 2 KWH per day and am often only billed $46 pesos every 2 months.

One of the biggest things I did to save electricity was to stop using those 100 watt old fashioned light bulbs. Now I am using LED bulbs that are rated at 60 watts but only use 9.5 watts for the same amount of light according to the box holding these bulbs. And if your swimming pool pump fails, check out those pumps that use less electricity.

When it comes to cooling, I find that my evaporative cooler that I have installed on my flat roof does a great job during those months when it is not only hot but the humidity is very low. It uses a small portion of the electricity that my mini-split AC uses on those days when it is both very hot and humid and my swamp (evaporative) cooler becomes ineffective.

Right now it is 83 F out and the humidity is only 29%. Time to turn on my swamp cooler.

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4 hours ago, LT56NY said:

Can anyone recommend a good company that installs solar panels and given the size of my home how many panels are needed and can you ballpark cost? 

Feel free to email or PM, many happy new and long term clients in Riberas, and all across lakeside.   

Thanks MC for the shout-out.

Panels are currently 385 watts which works beautifully with the top quality micro-inverters from APS and per panel monitoring system.

Without a pool, 4 work very nicely for many in the area.    With a pool and some AC use, 6 to 10 may be a better #.

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Internet:   in Riberas there are 4 choices depending on street. Telmex, IZZY(cable), iLOX(fiber) and Telcel(cellphone).  

iLOX fiber is new in town and most people have good reports EXCEPT the wifi on their modem is terrible... but that can be over come in a couple of ways. Phone service is also suspect. Packages with more speed that you will probably need at reasonable prices.

Telmex is the predominate carrier w/DSL. I don't believe they have any fiber service in Riberas (yet?). Their service, both physical and service, is luke warm to bad and lately has been out for hours/days. Are they really upgrading infrastructure or is it just more ineptitude? Several packages for speed probably similar to Bucerias. 

IZZY took over from TeleCable who always had reliability problems. Some places now better but I have no info about Riberas. 

Telcel has a 'In Mi Casa' service that basically puts a box/modem in your house and uses that for service to in-home Internet. Just be sure to check the TelCel signal INSIDE your casa first to see how strong the cell signal is. If available, I've heard some good reports about this service. Probably similar costs to TelMex. 

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22 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

Good to know.  Are there size differences?

I have micro inverters.  There is an advantage to these where some of your panels might be shaded in the morning or later afternoon.  they came with an excellent web site that enables me to check the system by each pair of panels and track overall production.

Nice toy for an engineer.  :D  

I think I need to find an engineer. My wife's daughter is at Techno Monterrey in Guadalajara studying engineering but she has just started ugggg!

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19 hours ago, Go Solar said:

Feel free to email or PM, many happy new and long term clients in Riberas, and all across lakeside.   

Thanks MC for the shout-out.

Panels are currently 385 watts which works beautifully with the top quality micro-inverters from APS and per panel monitoring system.

Without a pool, 4 work very nicely for many in the area.    With a pool and some AC use, 6 to 10 may be a better #.

I will send you a message thanks and describe my needs.

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16 hours ago, RickS said:

Internet:   in Riberas there are 4 choices depending on street. Telmex, IZZY(cable), iLOX(fiber) and Telcel(cellphone).  

iLOX fiber is new in town and most people have good reports EXCEPT the wifi on their modem is terrible... but that can be over come in a couple of ways. Phone service is also suspect. Packages with more speed that you will probably need at reasonable prices.

Telmex is the predominate carrier w/DSL. I don't believe they have any fiber service in Riberas (yet?). Their service, both physical and service, is luke warm to bad and lately has been out for hours/days. Are they really upgrading infrastructure or is it just more ineptitude? Several packages for speed probably similar to Bucerias. 

IZZY took over from TeleCable who always had reliability problems. Some places now better but I have no info about Riberas. 

Telcel has a 'In Mi Casa' service that basically puts a box/modem in your house and uses that for service to in-home Internet. Just be sure to check the TelCel signal INSIDE your casa first to see how strong the cell signal is. If available, I've heard some good reports about this service. Probably similar costs to TelMex. 

Living in Mexico City and now in Bucerias we have used Telmex for years. I would assume Telmex (infinitum)  and Telcel are the same as they are controlled  by our benevolent friend Carlos Slim. In Mexico City and PV you go to a Telmex office for internet/telephone/tv and Telcel for your cell phone. I switched a few years ago from Telcel to AT%T and as time goes by I like AT&T service better than Telcel. When I go back to visit family in the States it is definitely better. We have always found the internet service spotty and often slow in both Mexico City and in Bucerias and have had very long wait times for service. That is a big reason we would like to switch. We are using Sky for basic TV cable now. I believe that we have this box in our home as well. I assume we do because when we have issues it seems that any new networks that are established and new passwords are done by the customer service rep on the telephone. One thing we have noticed is that when a new network is set up it seems to fix the problem really well for a few days and then not so much after that. When I look at available networks now I see we have had 5 different ones since we have moved in 4 years ago. Guess I am going to have to find out who is best for Riberas. Thanks for your help.

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1 hour ago, LT56NY said:

I think I need to find an engineer.

We'll make a n/c, no obligation review visit to check the roof condition and orientation, the wiring, the main panel and the CFE meter.    

Provide 3D plan views.

And explain it so even an engineer can understand it.😉     

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One thing I did was replace the fairly old roofing on my garage where 2/3rds of the panels are mounted.  It was still OK but with the normal lifetime of the new roof I won't have to worry about later maintenance.  I should be long gone before that is needed.

 

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15 hours ago, MtnMama said:

Just a thought - AT&T doesn't work in many parts of Riberas and other areas around Lakeside. Might not be your best choice here.

Thanks for the tip. If I have to I will switch. When it comes to cell phone companies I have about as much loyalty to them as they have to me. So that is none.

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On 5/24/2020 at 11:06 AM, Go Solar said:

We'll make a n/c, no obligation review visit to check the roof condition and orientation, the wiring, the main panel and the CFE meter.    

Provide 3D plan views.

And explain it so even an engineer can understand it.😉     

Just sent you an private message. Hope to hear from you soon.

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We live in Riberas also.  In fact my wife also comes from Mexico City.  Several months ago we went to the Telmex office and were told we could get an accelerated 20 MB package so we ordered it.  A woman working in the office told us she lived in Riberas and only got a max of 10MB.  Our installer told us we would only get 10MB from the system..  He said when they tried to accelerate it they had outages all the time.  I hear iLOX is good but we had a long wait period.  

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18 hours ago, rafterbr said:

We live in Riberas also.  In fact my wife also comes from Mexico City.  Several months ago we went to the Telmex office and were told we could get an accelerated 20 MB package so we ordered it.  A woman working in the office told us she lived in Riberas and only got a max of 10MB.  Our installer told us we would only get 10MB from the system..  He said when they tried to accelerate it they had outages all the time.  I hear iLOX is good but we had a long wait period.  

Hi and thanks for that information. When we lived in DF we went to 10MB with Telmex and even after our nephew (who is a computer whiz and heads a department at a corporation for cyber security) worked on it he said the best we could expect was about 6 or 7. Granted this was 5 years ago. It doesn't look like it has improved that much. We will be moving at the end of July with a September 1 move in date so we will immediately go to the offices of Telmex and iLox and see where we stand with things. Hope one day we can meet. I am sure my wife would love to meet a fellow Chilanga!

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