CFE - GETTING OUT OF THE DAC

This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now. Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption. What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC? And is it a 12-month period? Thanks!

Minervajt wrote:This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now.  Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption.  What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC?  And is it a 12-month period?  Thanks!

The last I checked it was 8.3 Kwhr/day, based on a 60 day billing period.

<500 KwHrs per 60 day billing period for 12 months

I've been stuck in the DAC. This is in a casa with nine solar panels and two regular residents. As it happens, the "on demand or instant"electric hot water heater in our casita quit working. I've heard these aren't so hot, so to speak, and we decided that our old regular gas hot water heater for the main house was about to expire, so we called the plumber to get us a larger and efficient new one and hook the casita up to it and remove the instant heater.
They came and when they were removing the instant heater, the short in it was shocking. Literally. They said that was likely the cause of our high electricity bills. We shall see, but it's worth checking if you have one.

Yes gringal, an electric hot water heater normally uses a great deal of electricity. I didn't even know that they were available down here. Often the next worst user of electricity is a large and fancy refrigerator, and of course there is that one horsepower electric pump one uses to recirculate the water in in his pool.

I am glad you were able to figure out the culprit. I too have solar panels, and in my case I have one too many panels. So normally my bill is at about 46 pesos every two months. Now if only I had enough extra electricity generated to run my electric heater for more than a few minutes per day. (no I haven't used it yet this year. But if it gets much colder, I will)

Any short in ANY equipment will cause a problem. When we lived in Riviera Alta, there was a short in a voltage regulator that didn't cut out completely. It just kept shunting electricity to the ground. Got a call from the owner to ask what the hell we were doing because the electricity bill spiked so badly. Took a while to figure out the problem so be warned. The giveaway was that the voltage regulator was red hot on the upper surface. I now, regularly, drop my hand on both voltage regulators to test their temperature... they don't last forever.

We were struggling to keep out of the DAC. Everything unplugged so we gave up and got solar panels. Now electric bill is about 80 pesos every 2 months and don't have to struggle anymore or worry about electricity. The panels really work with out sunny days.

Another gremlin was one our submersible that shorted and caused one of our Aljibes to turn into a thermal spa..The meter that serviced that pump used an unbelievable amount of electricity in our unoccupied guest house before we could figure our what was happening..New submersible pump..Geez

Seems we entered the DAC after two billing cycles (out of eight years) went over 500 kwHrs.

David wrote:<500 KwHrs per 60 day billing period for 12 months

or 8.3 Kwhr/day...on average...

Minervajt wrote:This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now.  Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption.  What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC?  And is it a 12-month period?  Thanks!

If you change the name on the account it automatically goes back down. I did that when I was in DAC, (my housemate watered every day using the water from the aljibe). I asked my landlord for the OK and took it from his name into mine. New account, no problem.

Good idea! I'd forgotten about that.

itsme wrote:

Minervajt wrote:This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now.  Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption.  What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC?  And is it a 12-month period?  Thanks!

If you change the name on the account it automatically goes back down. I did that when I was in DAC, (my housemate watered every day using the water from the aljibe). I asked my landlord for the OK and took it from his name into mine. New account, no problem.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Minervajt wrote:This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now.  Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption.  What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC?  And is it a 12-month period?  Thanks!

It's okay to go above 500 kWh in one or more, 2 month, billing cycles and not go into DAC, as long as the total annual rolling average is not above 3,000 kWh.

Example:  This billing period last year I used 590 kWh followed by 545 kWh in the next period.  All the periods prior had been lower than 500 kWh so the rolling annual average was staying below the 3,000 kWh - no DAC.  But, this last last billing period was almost 500 kWh, which, when added to the 2 high periods and 3 lower periods from the Summer, just pushed me over the 3,000 kWh annual rolling average!  GOT ME...!!!

This was the point when I finally researched and understood the Mexican CFE system.  I now track everything in a spreadsheet...

I know this is an older thread but thought I'd add this well written link when searching for the "culprits of high consumption".

https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/2fx1i6/a_clients_energy_bill_tripled_for_two_months_with/

What documents does CFE require to change the name on the account?

Cincy wrote:

Minervajt wrote:This topic has been discussed in the past, but I somehow can't find the info now.  Unfortunately, we've gone into the DAC, and have recently taken measures to reduce our consumption.  What is the consumption level we must stay below for a period of time to get out of the DAC?  And is it a 12-month period?  Thanks!

It's okay to go above 500 kWh in one or more, 2 month, billing cycles and not go into DAC, as long as the total annual rolling average is not above 3,000 kWh.

Example:  This billing period last year I used 590 kWh followed by 545 kWh in the next period.  All the periods prior had been lower than 500 kWh so the rolling annual average was staying below the 3,000 kWh - no DAC.  But, this last last billing period was almost 500 kWh, which, when added to the 2 high periods and 3 lower periods from the Summer, just pushed me over the 3,000 kWh annual rolling average!  GOT ME...!!!

This was the point when I finally researched and understood the Mexican CFE system.  I now track everything in a spreadsheet...

Spot on !

We all can quickly check & track our last 12 months of electricity usage by looking at the back of our CFE bills.

Look at the first 5 bimonthly entries on the back of the bill and add them to the kWh total from our current bill to see just how much we've gone over the 3,000 kWh 12 month limit. To get out of DAC, reduce your next CFE billing cycle's electricity usage to get the next 12 month total to below the 3,000 kWh total allowed threshold.

The trick of changing the name on the CFE account only works for the first 3 or 4 new bills for heavy users, unless we reduce our power usage.

Suggestion:  Have a plumber/electrician check your appliances.  Here's why: I have 9 solar panels on the roof and all the major appliances are gas.  I had one of those electric "on demand" water heaters in the casita because of lack of space for a "regular" gas one. I've been in the DAC rate for ???.  The heater quit working and the plumber/electrician found a serious short in it.  His opinion was that it was the cause of the big bills. I replaced the older main gas water heater with a larger gas unit and ran a line to the casita.  Haven't had a new bill yet.

helohfe wrote:Another gremlin was one our submersible that shorted and caused one of our Aljibes to turn into a thermal spa..The meter that serviced that pump used an unbelievable amount of electricity in our unoccupied guest house before we could figure our what was happening..New submersible pump..Geez

We had exactly the same problem last month -- we have 12 solar panels on the house and are used to paying a minimal 27 peso fee to CFE -- and all of a sudden the bill jumped to 3,880 pesos! Got in an electrician, he charged an exorbitant 12,000 pesos for 3 visits but he correctly diagnosed the problem (others had not), took our aljibe pump to be fixed (that was 1,000 of the 12,000 pesos), and fingers crossed all is well.

Just got the word on the change in our electric usage after fixing the aljibe pump - went from 25.3 kwh/day down to a far more normal 8 kwh/day -- these fgures are the NET after subtracting the value of solar electricity generated by our solar panels.

Congratulations on finding your problem holdrja. Huge difference in usage!

If I have a CFE problem, first I'll try to put the electric in my wife's name. If that doesn't work, I'll think of going to use my generator for most of the day and CFE at night when the generator might bother my neighbors.

I wired my entire house with a special circuit for the 4,500W generator.

Works great.