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Hi CFE bills


Mitch

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1 hour ago, Stephen White said:

Mine just jumped to over $3000 for the past two months.  The neighbors bill was just around a thousand.  Happily, we are renters so we can have our management company look into it.  Something very fishy is going on......

Things to check:

How much did your KW consumption increase from the last bill?  What was your KW consumption for the same months last year? Look at the bill for the consumption bar chart to see past averages. Does the bill read the same as the meter?  You can check daily use on your meter. 

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1 minute ago, Mostlylost said:

Things to check:

How much did your KW consumption increase from the last bill?  What was your KW consumption for the same months last year? Look at the bill for the consumption bar chart to see past averages. Does the bill read the same as the meter?  You can check daily use on your meter. 

We have only been in this house for six month and are located on a small private street.  I suspect that either the water pump is malfunctioning or our line has been tapped into.  The bill has been steadily increasing even though we have not changed our usage.  If anything we have been more cautious since the last billing period.

 

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After receiving a  $9400 bill this month which is ten times higher than normal, I made a report with CFE and all they did was come the house while I was not there to check the meter. They say its working fine, pay the bill. 

I do remember replacing a pump which was running continuously a while back, but I think for no more than a day

The penalty for  one time high consumption is just crazy, but they have all the power and no mercy. My  consumption per the meter was 4x times higher than normal but the bill was 10x higher

Now I check the meter every week.

 

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1 hour ago, Stephen White said:

We have only been in this house for six month and are located on a small private street.  I suspect that either the water pump is malfunctioning or our line has been tapped into.  The bill has been steadily increasing even though we have not changed our usage.  If anything we have been more cautious since the last billing period.

 

Tapping the street would have no affect on your meter. The meter measures what flows through it. Check your meter for 3 days at the same time each day and see how many KWH you average per day. Check what the consumption per day shows on you last bill. 

On your bill there is  "CONSUMO HISTORICO" which will show you the amount of the bills and KWH used for the last 10 billing periods which is 20 months usage. 

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It doesn't have to be tapped at the meter. It can be tapped through the wall after the meter. Mine was tapped at the back of my house in my bedroom to their bodega. I had their line cut and a protective box put around the outlet inside the wall so it was unlikely to happen again. They were also using my water and I had that line cut as well. 

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3 hours ago, ea93105 said:

The penalty for  one time high consumption is just crazy, but they have all the power and no mercy. My  consumption per the meter was 4x times higher than normal but the bill was 10x higher

Do you understand that the lower tiers of consumption are only cheap because they are govt. subsidized? 

While your bill may indeed be in error for some reason, the practice of charging big consumers of utilities a higher rate is something I agree with. It's the only way to discourage people from wantonly wasting resources.

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On 4/15/2021 at 10:06 AM, Natasha said:

I've known MANY who have fallen prey to this and have personally seen brazen examples. It's apparently been a common practice for generations. Often used by contractors building or renovating, among many other reasons.  And sadly it's a lot easier than one might think. 

I knew the practice existed but I had no idea it was this common. Can anyone recommend an electrician (or other person) who has traced down this sort of thing and resolved it? We've reported a similar issue to CFE (still waiting on that new meter ... sigh) and had one electrician look at it ("have you tried new light bulbs?" ... sigh) as cursively as possible.

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Lower rates are government subsidized    What a laugh..  Subsidized exactly how?  I doubt anyone at CFE has any idea of the real cost to generate power in Mexico. So they say it costs x but we are giving it to you for less to help you.... hahaha

CFE is owned by the government. It is rife with corruption mismanagement along with terrible service.  They set the rates, don't allow competition, while telling the poor "we are helping you" And under the current admin it is getting worse as they cancel contracts from lower cost producers. 

Kinda like the store that sells everything 50% off, but has higher prices than the honest store that has no discount. 

 

 

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Well of course we all know that CFE and its high muckedy mucks are totally corrupt. I have no idea how they figure those subsidies out. I was just referring to the amount it shows on the bill that says is subsidized. But I'm not going to be complaining about the 107 peso bill I just got for 2 months usage. Name another place in the world where I would pay that little for electricity.

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28 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

Well of course we all know that CFE and its high muckedy mucks are totally corrupt. I have no idea how they figure those subsidies out. I was just referring to the amount it shows on the bill that says is subsidized. But I'm not going to be complaining about the 107 peso bill I just got for 2 months usage. Name another place in the world where I would pay that little for electricity.

Well mine was over $3000 and has risen over $1000 a month over the past three billings.  I don’t have money to throw away, so, yes, it’s a concern.

 

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17 minutes ago, Stephen White said:

Well mine was over $3000 and has risen over $1000 a month over the past three billings.  I don’t have money to throw away, so, yes, it’s a concern.

 

And if you aren't using any more electricity than you did 6 months ago, then something is obviously wrong. And the way it works with CFE is that if you pay a bill that you think is incorrect, there isn't any recourse. You have to dispute it and find out why your bill is so high before they lock you into the DAC rate. 

I have had incorrect bills before. Once got a bill that was over 2000 pesos, when I'd never had one over 200 pesos before. Turned out the lazy meter readers who hate to get out of their cars if it's hot out or raining had "estimated", except an estimate is supposed to be based upon past usage. The bill was adjusted to 190 pesos, which jived with the actual meter reading I noted down and brought in.

But it's also a matter of lifestyle choice. If someone wants AC, a pool, a pressure pump, a dishwasher, a dryer, and uses a bunch of appliances that consume electricity, they can't feel hard done by that their bills are more than someone's who uses none of those things.

I'm not speaking specifically of you, I have no idea what your lifestyle is, but just in general terms.

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9 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

And if you aren't using any more electricity than you did 6 months ago, then something is obviously wrong. And the way it works with CFE is that if you pay a bill that you think is incorrect, there isn't any recourse. You have to dispute it and find out why your bill is so high before they lock you into the DAC rate. 

I have had incorrect bills before. Once got a bill that was over 2000 pesos, when I'd never had one over 200 pesos before. Turned out the lazy meter readers who hate to get out of their cars if it's hot out or raining had "estimated", except an estimate is supposed to be based upon past usage. The bill was adjusted to 190 pesos, which jived with the actual meter reading I noted down and brought in.

But it's also a matter of lifestyle choice. If someone wants AC, a pool, a pressure pump, a dishwasher, a dryer, and uses a bunch of appliances that consume electricity, they can't feel hard done by that their bills are more than someone's who uses none of those things.

I'm not speaking specifically of you, I have no idea what your lifestyle is, but just in general terms.

Yea, no ac or heat on this end.  Just a ceiling fan only while hubby is watching TV in the evening and fans at night while sleeping.  Spend all day, everyday outside.  No justification for theses crazy bills from C F E.

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26 minutes ago, Stephen White said:

Yea, no ac or heat on this end.  Just a ceiling fan only while hubby is watching TV in the evening and fans at night while sleeping.  Spend all day, everyday outside.  No justification for theses crazy bills from C F E.

For sure then there is something wrong with the meter, the wiring in your house, or someone is tapped into your electric.

Turn off everything electric in your house, including unplugging the fridge. Then go look at the meter. If it's moving, someone is stealing your electric. If it isn't, start plugging things back in, one by one, while one of you stands at the meter to see if it starts spinning fast (with an analog meter) or moving up quickly with a smart meter, for each thing you turn on again. 

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8 hours ago, mudgirl said:

Do you understand that the lower tiers of consumption are only cheap because they are govt. subsidized? 

While your bill may indeed be in error for some reason, the practice of charging big consumers of utilities a higher rate is something I agree with. It's the only way to discourage people from wantonly wasting resources.

And what higher rate is "OK" with you ? How about 1000X higher ? 

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20 minutes ago, ea93105 said:

And what higher rate is "OK" with you ? How about 1000X higher ? 

The DAC rate isn't anywhere near 1000x higher than the base rate. That's ludicrous. That would mean you are being charged 1000 pesos per KWH.

You said in your previous post that your bill was 10 times higher than normal. Now it's suddenly 1000 times?

Like Stephen, obviously there is something wrong with your bill, your house wiring, your meter or a neighbor tapped in.

Is CFE in your area just throwing numbers at the wall to see if they'll stick? Possibly. But more likely the possibilities I mentioned above. 

 

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Rather than checking your usage by turning off or unplugging things to check for theft, turn off all of your breakers.  There should be absolutely nothing moving on your meter.  If you just turn off everything or unplug things and you still show usage at the meter you could have a short or ground fault in the wiring which is buried in your walls.  It could also be somebody is tapping your power but that is very hard to do without being detected.  Tapping into an outlet on your side of the wall means going through two layers of brick, block, and concrete without you noticing.  Few homes have exposed overhead wires running anyplace except from the pole to the meter but I suppose it could happen.  Should be very easy to spot any visible tap on your wires.  It might just be some problem with CFE that they don't know how to fix. Either in reading, billing, or wiring.  We all know CFE stands for Can't Fix Electricity.  Find a guy in a truck and pay him cash to look at your problem with an eye on correcting it while he's there.  

Alan

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11 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

The DAC rate is 4 times higher than the base rate, as far as I'm aware, not 1000.

It may be four times now but they can change it anytime they want with no limits, so at what multiple does it become "unreasonable" ? Getting a $9400 bill is no fun especially when it's completely out of the normal range I've been paying for three years. I didn't intentionally waste resources, I had an accidental spike for some reason and CFE is cashing in big time. 

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1 hour ago, barrbower said:

Rather than checking your usage by turning off or unplugging things to check for theft, turn off all of your breakers.  

Turning off the breakers is the easiest way to see if the problem is in your house or if someone is stealing your power, for sure. But because there are usually many outlets and appliances on one breaker, if there was an issue with any of those, you wouldn't be able to isolate it.

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1 hour ago, Whipstock said:

It may not be someone tapped into your power, but stray voltage. Power could be getting dumped into the ground (That you pay for). Worth having an electrician check for it.

CFE may even do it??? But good luck with that. 

 

https://www.thisoldhouse.com/electrical/21019373/dealing-with-leaking-stray-voltage

Now that triggered a VERY unpleasant memory. We rented a house in Riviera Alta when we moved back from the coast. We got an e-mail from the landlord about a huge spike in electricity use when we had done nothing extraordinary. I'm sure they thought we had a grow op going. Got an electrician in to check everything. Turned out it was a voltage regulator that had tripped but not shut off and it was shunting electricity straight to ground... continuously. The top of the voltage regulator was red hot. Replaced the voltage regulator (on a TV that we weren't using) and everything went back to normal. I still drop my hand on the voltage regulators that I have to check their temperature every now and again. A learning experience that really hurt my wallet.

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1 hour ago, ea93105 said:

It may be four times now but they can change it anytime they want with no limits, so at what multiple does it become "unreasonable" ? Getting a $9400 bill is no fun especially when it's completely out of the normal range I've been paying for three years. I didn't intentionally waste resources, I had an accidental spike for some reason and CFE is cashing in big time. 

Yes, they could change it anytime they want with no limits, but they don't. There are set rates and set kwh tier limits and they are charged according to the meter reading. 

I'm sorry you are getting outrageously huge bills, but it's because of some as yet unidentified electrical problem at your place, not because CFE is just gouging you.

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On 4/14/2021 at 12:21 PM, Go Solar said:

Following up to this thread and to share where the credits shown up on the back of the CFE solar bills, for those who have them accumulated:

 

CFE credits AKA bolsa de energia.png

I looked at our latest bill in this block and the text starts with the sentence beginning with "Su...."  There is no "Usted cuenta con..." line at all.  Since our consumption is about 70 percent of our production I would expect to see something about accumulated credits.  Do we have a problem with CFE I'm hot aware of?

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