- Thread starter Dolores
- Start date
Why the blackouts; power service improves over the weekend
However, not everyone lives like that. You get what you pay for. Isn't that obvious and logical? Was the "fighting for the basic necessities" because you didn't want to pay for it... it is available you know.
his time will come, perhaps even this summer. massive brown outs expected in many states.
The problems in my home country are in large part from the green power people. They created a non-viable alternative and it is coming home to roost.
It doesn't happen everywhere. Certainly not in the DR. While there is talk of wind and solar, they are not close to a complete solution. Even in a very sunny and often windy country.
The DR realized it needs more power plants and fossil fuel ones are the only option for 24/7 power here. Or should I say 23/6 since this is the DR?. Getting those coal and gas power plants built and actually working reliably here seems to be a major obstacle.
Unless EDE is manipulating the contador, that simply is not possible. I would take time to manually measure the electricity going through etc. The cables coming out of our contador burned and we replaced them and the breaker attached AND the person who did this measured the exaxt amount of amps leaving the contador to our house to verify that the meter works correctly. To do this, I turned on every device in the house...
I can honestly say that we've lived close to 5 years in the same house now and never once I have I seen anything unexpeted in the electricity bill. Summer months = A/C = higher consumption. December/January = coldest months = water heather on daily = a bit higher incvoice
I've only been outside the country a total of 5 months during the last ten and a half years so my tolerance is probably a little higher than most but it really is starting to get old. My electricity is out right now here in Santiago. It's like living in an oven somedays. Thank god for ice cold glasses of chinola y local bancas with back up power and A/C.
Good.
Hopefully they learn from their bad decisions and make the necessary corrections going forward.
I'll tell you what, I've got every single teleconsumo report sent to me for the last 4 years I've lived in San Cristobal so you can take your pick which one you'd like to see and I can show it to you. (I've actually got everyone sent to me ever since they started sending them.
813 to be exact-since feb 2016)
I haven't added anything new since I moved here.
My consumption until the last six months has always been very low, and when it started to rise, I started eliminating consumption to slow it down.
At this point, virtually all I use in my home is my PC and A/C, and TV for a couple of hours a day, and my reefer. Add the washing machine doing a load every two weeks. (It used to be two loads every week)
I'm at a loss for an answer.
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You most likely won't find it.
We had Edenorte out several times with OUR electrician watching them inspect the new smart meter. The 3rd time, as our bill kept climbing, they found eater in the meter and replaced it with another smart meter. NO DIFFERENCE and our bills kept rising.
We looked at and tested everthing and never found a reason for our climbing bills.
Not exactly sure what folks here are measuring and or checking.To verify if the smart meters are registering as they should you'll need equipment that will measure Kilo watt hours.There is some decent equipment on the consumer side that will do just that and quite affordable.
Relying on you provider to troubleshoot billing equipment is like depending on the fox to secure your henhouse.If those meters have a glitch in their firmware would you honestly believe that they are willingly going to admit fault.I'm quite sure the techs that are installing and or replacing these meters aren't privy to any info on the programming side.
Self monitoring is really the way to go here.The major sticking point in your search should be a device which has "memory" readings,Meaning when the power goes out ( as we all know it will ) your readings won't be erased.
Relying on you provider to troubleshoot billing equipment is like depending on the fox to secure your henhouse.If those meters have a glitch in their firmware would you honestly believe that they are willingly going to admit fault.I'm quite sure the techs that are installing and or replacing these meters aren't privy to any info on the programming side.
Self monitoring is really the way to go here.The major sticking point in your search should be a device which has "memory" readings,Meaning when the power goes out ( as we all know it will ) your readings won't be erased.
It's not like I'm worried about a $33 dollar electric bill, dude. I post this stuff for everyone's entertainment more than anything else.
Many of you are complaining about rising consumption and increased bills. I have found that many DR properties are supplied through underground cables after the meter. These often have joints in them and during rainy times the joints leaked to ground and produce high kWhrs .
You might want to check that! your consumption will vary with the rainfall and stay high until the ground dries out. Not easy to spot.
Olly
You might want to check that! your consumption will vary with the rainfall and stay high until the ground dries out. Not easy to spot.
Olly
Well "dude" my reply is for anyone who happens to be concerned about their utility bill as to whether or not it's on the up and up.You mentioned you were at a los for an answer and you have copies of your bills.So if indeed that is a pastime for you ( I prefer crosswords myself ) then by all means ...salud. have at it.But for anyone, who like myself is hawkish about whether or not we're penny wise or dollar foolish ,then maybe my post can be of some help.
I may have found a partial explanation.
My A/C has always been set at 78 degrees. I never see it because I have the display turned off. (Every little bit helps)!
I just noticed this morning that it is set at 76 now. I asked my maid about it and she told me she adjusted it down a little because it didn't seem too cool in the house. She was surprised I asked because she did it two months ago. Coincidence?
So, it's back to 78. It doesn't sound like much, but a two degree jump in temperature can be the difference between a compressor cycling on and off, and one that is on almost constantly.
I'm anxious to see my next power bill. I bet it will drop.
My A/C has always been set at 78 degrees. I never see it because I have the display turned off. (Every little bit helps)!
I just noticed this morning that it is set at 76 now. I asked my maid about it and she told me she adjusted it down a little because it didn't seem too cool in the house. She was surprised I asked because she did it two months ago. Coincidence?
So, it's back to 78. It doesn't sound like much, but a two degree jump in temperature can be the difference between a compressor cycling on and off, and one that is on almost constantly.
I'm anxious to see my next power bill. I bet it will drop.
This may well be it. Our bedroom A/C is really old (I keep it very clean) and we put it to 26 degrees celcius and the fan on the lowest setting for each night. Until this heat begun, it spend most of the night off, now it spends most of the night on... Our bill has increased exactly accordingly... Unfortunately
That's what they say about heating as well, just 1-2 degree difference will play a big role in your invoice.... In Europe, where Celcius is used, the recommended room temperature is 22 degrees (as opposed to 24 which feels slightly more comfortable) for the same reason... The energy consumption even with those two degress makes a really big $$$ difference (or €€€)...
We may have a winner!
Not at our house but...When we have traveled and in a hotel, we always have to up the temp to 78f or we freeze. Leave for day and return to find it at 68f from housekeeping.
We actually have a meter as well and our usage is about 1/3 of what we are being billed for each month. I get a daily report now from the electric company and they have my usage higher on days that I am not home or days with outages than on days where I never left the house nor had an outage. For example, on Friday I was at home all day and my usage was 27 yet on Saturday when we were out from 8 am until 11:45 that evening (and there was an outage-according to my neighbor for about 3 hours), my usage was 38. On another day we were without power for about 7 hours and my usage was still high (about 35). This happens often so it is impossible. My neighbors all have been complaining about this as well and it has only gotten worse since Covid. I went down to EdeSur yesterday to pick up my letter (telling me they checked my claim and everything is fine) and filed another claim for this month which is 3,000 more than last month and as I am explaining everything to the guy as I have mentioned above and in this chat, he began laughing and the woman next to him chuckled as well. They know exactly what is being done. They inflate the usage for everyone in many areas to compensate for unpaid bills, and for the public area of lighting to cover their expenses. There is no actual billing going on. The guys are always in my small neighborhood here doing something and my neighbor swears he saw them playing with the meters. It would not surprise me if they manually adjust the meters. What it boils down to is that I have had the same appliances and usage for the past 7 years. My bill was no more than 4, 500 pesos monthly when running the a/c for years and now I am almost at 15,000. It is impossible, I went to PERDOM yesterday so we shall see what they do.