Electricity Costs

Idyllwild

Well Known Member
I’m negotiating with solar companies for a house I am building. I have a lot of experience with solar in the US. We anticipate using a fair amount of electricity with spa heater and A/C. I’m having trouble finding the current rates for tiered electric costs in Rocky Point. There is an older thread with rates from 2016. Probably has changed. Does anyone have current info?
 

Terry C

Well Known Member
You really need to watch the demand, they have stages on usage. You get in the top one and it's very expensive in the summer
 

wendell

Active Member
You have probably have already planned for this, but bidirectional meters can cut your costs significantly
 

mexicoruss

Lovin it in RP!
Our electric bills have historically been less expensive in the summer versus the winter because of the subsidy CFE offers, I have seen discounts of 60% during the summer months on my in town house which has a total of 5 tons of mini split air conditioning
 

Landshark

Well Known Member
Our electric bills have historically been less expensive in the summer versus the winter because of the subsidy CFE offers, I have seen discounts of 60% during the summer months on my in town house which has a total of 5 tons of mini split air conditioning
That said, is the expense of a large solar system (10-12 KW) $25K plus??worth it? Especially if you use propane for as much as possible, such as furnaces, water heaters, range and grill, gas log fireplaces, etc. Add the expense of maintaining the system in the harsh hot humid and salty environment of RP. Then if you find out you hate the heat and humidity of the summer and relocate to the mountains during those months. Makes me wonder.
 

Roberto

Well Known Member
I have been a proponent of alternative energy for most of my life. Besides the cost, solar generation of electricity in a home seems to result in a general attitude of "hey why conserve, I've got free solar". This not true of course where the remoteness of a home requires solar cause there is no back up. Without a complete and aggressive conservation and maintenance effort, (Which gets tiring after a while especially with the aging of they system and the owner!) there prolly will be no solar benefit. Replacement of the battery pack required can come at a bad time. Maybe the selling of electricity back even without batteries is a good solution. Don't know about that but if everyone was doing it the power companies could not survive without charging a lot to accept the power you generate. There are many billions of dollars invested in generating facilities and just think of the value of all the wire required.
 

mexicoruss

Lovin it in RP!
I just don't think you would ever recoup 25k in a 10 year period which I would think is the life cycle of the panels and set up. To install Solar for back up or to run small day to day chores, I get it. For whole house electric in a place that has a grid....I don't think it will pencil out.
 

brokenwave

Well Known Member
$20-30k for Solar, the pay back is terrible for most and there's a big possibility the $$ panels will walk away when were gone.
We have a place in Cholla.

We've spent an average of $80-100 per year for electricity over the past 5 years (using propane for cooking and water heaters).
We have 2 A/C units, (1-two ton and 1-one ton mini-split A/C).
We spend 50 days per year there, which will jump to 100-125 days per year starting later this year.

I would imagine my electrical costs will rise to $300 per year, since most times we will be there will be Oct-June .
 

Kea

Well Known Member
You can start with a small solar panel system and spend much less than $20K. You don’t have to generate more than you use. You can add more later if your use increases, electric rates increase and/or solar prices come down.
 

Wood Spinner

Well Known Member
$300.00 per year Wow that is cheap. Thinking of a summer electric for a med sizer home in Casa Grande running $500.00 per month. In Show Low
in the mountains, We run about $80.00 per month and only run a 2 ton AC in the daytime. And we have natural gas for cooking and water heating.
















4300.00 per year
 

brokenwave

Well Known Member
Bill,
The key to my $300 per year cost estimate is the amount of days we will spend there. Currently around 50-60 days per year.
I figure we will add another 50-80 days per year with only a few in June-Sept.

In the May 19 bill we were there 24 days from late Mar-May our bill was 154 Peso's or $8.10 we used 193KW.
In the July 19 bill we were there only 11 days from late May- July or bill was 160 pesos or $8.43 we used 228KW.

They read the meters during the 19th-25th of the month.

In Mexico if you don't use a lot of electricity it's pretty cheap, us a lot and it gets expensive fast.

We keep the mini-split in our bedroom at 76 degrees at night and main house one at 76-77 during the day when it's needed.
 
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