Electric Bill unexpectedly high

[Silvie]

Sometimes they charge a random fee they calculate if they are unable to check the building meters in person because the encargado is not around or whatever the reason. Eventually when they can check the meter personally, they will make the necessary adjustments to your bills. You can even take a photo of your meter and make a claim to the company showing the photo if you think they are wrong; I believe this can be done online with the company.

 

[Johngwyn]

Mine was $20,000 pesos, less than 20 USD.... I live in a studio.
Don't know how you can hits $400 USD
When I was in Tucson, own a house, and had the AC 24/7 while outside was hitting 117/118,
that specific month was $380, my highest record in my life so far, haha

 

[Bajo_cero2]

I live in an 180 Mts/2 house and I pay 9000 pesos.

 

[RichardAlem]

No. It's not creating heat, it's mechanically sucking existing heat out of the surroundings and the process is completely within physical laws.

Now I understand the process. Pretty clever.

 

[SlowWalker]

The bill for my house is also just 20,000 pesos. I do have gas for cooking, water and heat and that is about 50-65,000 pesos in winter and down to 8-12,000 in summer.

At 130 pesos/kWh every 100,000 pesos is equivalent to 769 kWh.
Assuming 720 hours in a month (30 day month), that is ~1.1 kWh average.
At 600,000, it's 6.6 kW. That is a pretty large average draw.

I would suggest getting a plug in meter to monitor draws of individual equipment and a wrap around to go around your feed line to check overall consumption and see if you're really consuming that much electricity or maybe there is an issue with the meter.

If you have a pool, check if there is a heater for it. Maybe it's on in winter?

 

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

The bill for my house is also just 20,000 pesos. I do have gas for cooking, water and heat and that is about 50-65,000 pesos in winter and down to 8-12,000 in summer.

At 130 pesos/kWh every 100,000 pesos is equivalent to 769 kWh.
Assuming 720 hours in a month (30 day month), that is ~1.1 kWh average.
At 600,000, it's 6.6 kW. That is a pretty large average draw.

I would suggest getting a plug in meter to monitor draws of individual equipment and a wrap around to go around your feed line to check overall consumption and see if you're really consuming that much electricity or maybe there is an issue with the meter.

If you have a pool, check if there is a heater for it. Maybe it's on in winter?

Yes have thought about that, it does go down to about 100k in the summer, but I know electric "termotanques" are highly cost inefficient ways to heat water, as is electric underfloor heating a highly cost innefficient way to heat the house but sometimes the split AC/s don't heat the house enough so what to do.

Family of 4 here so appliances, electric oven and hob gets used a lot, washing machine in near constant use, dishwasher etc etc.

Thankfully don't have a tumble drier otherwise I would be pushing un palo

 

[elhombresinnombre]

(snip)

My understanding is the heat pump technology can also be used with a radiant heating system. buried in the ground piping plus a heat pump and heat exchanger warms the water for the radiant flooring.

Yes, that's right. In fact it's more efficient that way because the ground at so-many metres deep is surprisingly warm and the temperature down there doesn't vary much. But just like all petrol-engine automobiles work the same way yet they all have their own sweet spots for most efficient running, so it is with heat pump engineering. Ground source heat pumps tend to work best and find their own sweet spots when they are raising the water temperature to about 30deg C (rather than the 50-60deg C of a gas boiler but still way higher than is comfortable for living) and pumping it through larger diameter pipes into radiators with larger surface areas. Word to the wise: if your "experienced" Ground Source Heat Pump engineer doesn't know that, they are not an experienced GSHP engineer.

 

[SlowWalker]

Yes have thought about that, it does go down to about 100k in the summer, but I know electric "termotanques" are highly cost inefficient ways to heat water, as is electric underfloor heating a highly cost innefficient way to heat the house but sometimes the split AC/s don't heat the house enough so what to do.

Family of 4 here so appliances, electric oven and hob gets used a lot, washing machine in near constant use, dishwasher etc etc.

Thankfully don't have a tumble drier otherwise I would be pushing un palo

I'm not sure that termotanques are that inefficient. It's probably just a resistance coil with all energy going to heat. So it's likely very efficient.

If your tank is located outside than you might be spending energy to warm it up that the wind and environment then takes out of it. I would see about an enclosure or moving it inside if you have space. Otherwise, I would still recommend doing an audit of electrical consumption. In other countries I've heard of similar issues and it ended up getting resolved by the electric company changing the meter.

 

[FrankPintor]

I'm not sure that termotanques are that inefficient. It's probably just a resistance coil with all energy going to heat. So it's likely very efficient.

If your tank is located outside than you might be spending energy to warm it up that the wind and environment then takes out of it. I would see about an enclosure or moving it inside if you have space. Otherwise, I would still recommend doing an audit of electrical consumption. In other countries I've heard of similar issues and it ended up getting resolved by the electric company changing the meter.

I think you’re right, our tank is indoors and really I can’t feel any increase over ambient temperature putting my hand against the tank. I’d say it’s very well insulated. I put a timer on it anyway, to limit the hours when it heats.

 

[SlowWalker]

I think you’re right, our tank is indoors and really I can’t feel any increase over ambient temperature putting my hand against the tank. I’d say it’s very well insulated. I put a timer on it anyway, to limit the hours when it heats.

I don't think that is going to save much. It just means the water will cool down further in off hours and then they it back up during on hours, instead of just maintaining it in the thermostats temperature range. If the tank isn't noticeably warm to touch then it's pretty well insulated, so you're not really losing energy.

By doing the audit you'll find if you have some faulty equipment, or by chance there will be a huge shortfall and you might identify either 1) you are splitting a neighbor with electricity, or 2) faulty meter.

In terms of power meters, there are some that you plug into the outlet, then plug your device into it and it will monitor and display consumption. There are others that are like a clamp that go around the cord/line and can measure the consumption that way. If you measure your feed and it matches the meter then it's likely not the meter but rather actual consumption and then you can check which devices or absence of identifying devices, it would identify a branch feeding a neighbor/building/etc. I have heard stories about this also.