Electric rates

[sandymae]

After paying frighteningly high bills, 50,000 – 77,000 colones each month, I decided to do my research. First of all how were all of my friends paying less than 10,000 colones a month. What was the difference? A home built to “American standards.” So if I want to live with recessed lighting, a dishwasher, all electric appliances and hot water, I better be ready to pay. Or make some changes.

The first thing I did was learn to read my digital meter. A quick look on the Internet helped me understand that the little flashing dots indicated a rotation similar to the conventional meter. Ohhh…they were flashing like mad. The next think I did was turn off the breaker to my hot water heater. Other than 20 minutes or so to heat water for a shower it is off all day. (You can buy a timer for 34,000 colones at the hardware store if you like.)

I now cook most times on the gas burners that we bought for power outages and avoid using the high wattage lighting. My other big change is not falling asleep with the lights and TV on. A big energy waster!

A friend also kindly checked all my electrical connections to make sure there were no faulty connections.

I set a goal of staying in the first usage level of 199kwh.
The new rates are:
up to 200 – 65 colones/kwh
201-300 – 119 colones/kwh
over 301 – 164 colones/kwh

Now for exercise I walk out to the road to check my meter each morning and evening. I’m averaging 6kwh a day with no painful lifestyle changes or expenditures. Victory! My next bill….for the first time in 4 years will be under 15,000 colones. A lowered bill, the dog gets her walk and I’m actually losing weight. A great deal all around.

[sandymae]

[quote=”costaricafinca”][i]Someone recently posted[/i] a link to access a site showing the cost of electricity per klw. but I can’t find it, now that I want to look at it.
Does anyone know ‘where this is’?[/quote]

Here are the new residential rates.

http://www.grupoice.com/esp/ele/docum/serv_dist_10b.html#tre

The GrupoIce website is very helpful. There’s a chart showing how much energy your appliances use on the average and tips for saving and my favorite a place to view your upcoming bill. No need to log on to anything. Just put in your NISE number in Consulte su factura pendiente and the amount pops up. I just checked mine and with only less than 2 weeks of implementing my new energy monitoring strategy I cut my bill by 50%. My next full month bill should reflect an 85% saving over two months ago!

[maravilla]

i get power from ICE and my bill averages about $44 – $48 a month, for just around 300 kw hours. my big extravagance is running the dehumidifier for 2 – 4 hours a night. i have the lowest bill in the hood, but i have a gas stove, no TV, and not a lot of electrical appliances that are constantly plugged in, so no vampire wattage. congrats on the changes you made.

[Andrew]

Just as a matter of interest, how much did you guys normally spend per month on electricity in the US?

I never spend more than $100 per month and don’t consider that high at all…

[DavidCMurray]

In 2005 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we paid $125 per month on an “equalized year ’round” plan. We had an all-electric house with a very high efficiency heat pump and solar hot water heating, used mostly fluorescent lights, kept the temperature down in winter and up in summer, etc.

[maravilla]

my current bills in colorado run about $60 – 70 a month, a little higher in the winter, with january-february being in the $130 range.

[costaricabill]

we had a totally airconditioned 3500sf house on the water in Tampa FL. Lots of heat, humidity and bugs – not unlike Playa Samara where we now live. Tampa Electric offers “average billing” that they calculate and adjust annually based on the prior year’s actual use applied to current rate/kwh. Our monthly bill was about $180/month the last year we were there.

[gzeniou]

We get paid about an average of $30 a month from a grant from NC Green and from our electric company after our total usage. We have a solar house and produce our own electricity and hot water. It’s nice not to have an electric bill and also get money back. However, in our part of NC you pay about 12 cents a KW. There is only a small increase in price (less then a cent for more usage) Of course you have to pay $15 month just to be hooked up to it.

We have our own well, thus have no water, trash or any other utility bills.

Go Solar!

[sandymae]

For me it hasn’t so much been in comparison to what I paid in the US, which was lower even with air conditioning, its the fact that all my local friends paid less even with large families. I just had to figure out what I was doing so differently, even factoring in the various electric appliances that I have that they don’t. I frankly couldn’t take the fact that they had bills of c10,000 with five people and we had bills of c75,000 with two people.

Once ICE reviewed my meter and said it was working fine and an electrician reviewed the connections then I knew the rest was within my control. I love the fact that I finally understand how to read the meter and how to control my energy spending. The energy bill was always a surprise before. Now I can estimate it to within a few hundred colones.

[dehaaij]

Here’s a spreadsheet that shows all of the rates for every company throughout the country.

http://www.aresep.go.cr/docs/LISTA%20DE%20PRECIOS.xls

It’s published on the ARESEP website,

http://www.aresep.go.cr/cgi-bin/index.fwx?area=09&cmd=servicios&id=9598&sub=1523

[GreciaBound]

Also notice that the public service charge has now increased fourteen percent from 3.0 colones to 3.42 colones for each KWH used.

This public service charge (for road lighting, intersections, public areas, and night security lighting) now costs you 3.42 colones for each KWH used in that monthly period.

This makes it easier for me to consider solar hot water heating and also photovoltaic panels for critical needs.

[Author]

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