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oxxo
Super Nomad
Posts: 2137
Registered: 5-17-2006
Location: Wherever I am, I'm there
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Mood: If I was feeling any better, I'd be twins!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by OsoI was informed that installing the reflective film on thermopane windows would heat the space between the panes to
the point that it could blow the seals. (I've not heard of installing the film on the outside of the window). Of course if it's an older house with
single pane windows, the film sounds like a good idea. | Quote: |
Do NOT install reflective film anywhere on low-E thermopane windows either inside or outside. Single pane windws is okay but still not as efficient
as using thermopane windows. |
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Roberto
Banned
Posts: 2162
Registered: 9-5-2003
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Hmmmm. I have had reflective film on my double-paned windows for close to ten years.
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Oso
Ultra Nomad
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Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
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Mood: wait and see
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Roberto
Hmmmm. I have had reflective film on my double-paned windows for close to ten years. |
In that intolerably oppressive San Diego heat? It's a wonder the glass hasn't melted!
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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Oso
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2637
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: on da border
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Mood: wait and see
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JZ
Are you in the US or MX. |
If that was for me, I'm in the U.S. (barely), due South of Mexico and California.
All my childhood I wanted to be older. Now I\'m older and this chitn sucks.
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jimgrms
Senior Nomad
Posts: 664
Registered: 9-30-2005
Location: oceanside ca
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Mood: its always good
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if ou have a attic put in exaust fans the vane type that need no power cools your attic and helps some with house
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oxxo
Super Nomad
Posts: 2137
Registered: 5-17-2006
Location: Wherever I am, I'm there
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Mood: If I was feeling any better, I'd be twins!
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| Quote: | Originally posted by JZ
One more thing I forgot to add. The ceilings in the bedrooms are 11 foot and 16' in the main part of the house. Yes, another mistake!
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Tall ceilings should not be that much of a factor when cooling a house. They are are factor when trying to heat a house during the winter months.
You know warm air rises, cool air falls.
If you install ceiling fans in a tall ceiling then you need to add extentions to get them down to the right height. There is a formula that you can
use available on a ceiling fan website.
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jerry
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Registered: 10-10-2003
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right cold falls. heat rises .so in a room with tall celings a celin fan is just going to mix the air unless your beds on the celing its counter
productive leave you bed on the floor and vent the top slightly knock a hole in the wall stick a small ac in the hole and injoy your sleep tomorrows
another day and you will think clearer havin a good night sleep besides when im sleeping i dont think of how big my house is and anyone who
complanes well chip in for the ac??
jerry and judi
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Wally
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Posts: 182
Registered: 3-15-2006
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An electric bill that big is certainly an eye opener. I offer up a recent experience that we had for consideration. Like you, we got hit with a big
bill, $900 for 2 months. Based on the size of our house, 2,000 sq ft, and the fact that we hardly ever run AC (and only in 1 bedroom for sleeping),
this didn?t make sense. Rather than looking at the actual charge, I focused on the usage which was 2,800 kWh for the period. Way too high even if we
ran everything we had all of the time. After unplugging or shutting off everything we own I checked the meter?still spinning at a pretty good clip.
Checked and re-checked that everything was off. No good, something was still drawing electricity. I then went through the process of shutting off
one circuit breaker at a time on the main box and checking the meter each time. Finally, the last breaker (isn?t that always the case) stopped the
meter from showing a draw. After spending 3 hours of tracing every possible problem, I discovered that during the installation of a ceiling fan, a
hot lead was inadvertently connected directly to ground. The switch box had an extra hot lead (blue) that changed color (to green) before it made the
ceiling box. The installer (me) figured that the green wire was ground. This only mattered though when that particular switch was on. When we
bought the house we couldn?t figure out what the switch was for because when you flipped it on and off nothing happened. At some point we or a
guest staying in that room flipped it on. With the switch on, electricity was just being pumped directly to ground. Dumb? Yes. We did talk to an
electrician and he was convinced that it was a feed line that had become un-shielded and that he was going to have to dig up the line for inspection.
According to him, he sees this all the time. Thankfully it didn?t come to that. Our housekeeper had her 2 cents to add, in that, CFE is corrupt and
that they randomly ?fix? the meters to show higher than actual usage. Don?t know about that as she?s a little paranoid to begin with.
I guess my suggestion is that you may want to check to make sure you don?t have a problem, and that the size of your bill is a result of actual
consumption, before spending money on new appliances or some other solution. You can get a pretty good idea what your usage should by using any one
of a number of kWh calculators on the web.
One last point. We have 2 electric meters on our property in San Jose, 1 for the house and the other for the casita. Going with the housekeeper?s
conspiracy theory, we had CFE send someone out to verify the meters were measuring correctly. We understood that there is a sliding rate scale used
by the CFE (the more you use the higher per unit rate you pay). His suggestion was to balance out the usage between the 2 meters. Duh, why didn?t I
think of that?
We didn?t, and still don?t, know at what point the usage kicks you to the higher rates, but an analysis of both August bills provides some color. The
usage on the casita was a total of 368 kWh, of which 300 kWh was billed at .527 per unit and 68 kWh was billed at .628 per unit. The house usage was
2,480 kWh, which was all billed at 2.605 per unit with a flat charge of 113.72 pesos tacked on.
I?m going to give it a month to get a better read on what our actual usage is (sans electrocuting the grass) and will then see what can be done to
lower the per unit rates, i.e. wiring the house AC unit and water heater to the casita thus getting a better balance of usage between the 2 meters.
Anyway, good luck.
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JZ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9311
Registered: 10-3-2003
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Thanks for taking the time for the detailed write up Wally. After getting some large bills at the end of last summer I was convinced that we had a
wiring problem like the one you suggested. I had it checked several times for some erroreous draw. After that bill summer was over, and my next bill
was very reasonable.
So, I had some blinds installed and started running the AC less at the begging of this summer. I was very surprised to say the least with the bill.
Now I am monitoring power usage constantly.
Here is the tiered rate plan in Sonora:
Basico 0-150kw .603
Intermdio 151-400kw .995
Excedente 401kw - ? 2.101
[Edited on 8-15-2006 by JZ]
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