cool, clean, sun dried cotton
We have been back and forth on this question, we are wobbling towards having a couple AC splits installed. Do we need them to be comfortable? No. To sleep? No. Both of us sleep well without it and might not use it at night even if we had it. My idea of heaven is a warm night, fresh white cotton sheets smelling of the sun and a lazy overhead fan. No need for blankets or hot water bottles, no cold feet, no hovering in a tiny ball for an hour until you are warm enough to sleep.
So, why are we even thinking about it? Well, the backup hard drive died the other day. No power is getting to it from the plug and my first guess is corrosion caused by humidity. We have a guest coming to stay on Sunday and I’m kind of embarrassed to put someone from NOB in a bedroom without AC. I don’t know if they will be uncomfortable or not. I don’t know how it feels to someone who lives from one controlled environment to the next. I don’t want him to be miserable but I’m not miserable so…?
We are considering putting one split in the guest bedroom and one in the office. We can run the office one on dehumidify and see if that helps the electronics. Having the option for guests makes me feel better and if it ever got so hot we were uncomfortable we could always go sleep there – assuming we had no guests.
What are the down sides? Well, my personal feeling is that being in AC makes you feel hotter when you are out of it. It starts to restrict where you go and what you do and how you feel. It gives me a sore throat to sleep in it and I’m back to blankets and comforters. I don’t want to live locked inside like much of the US, I didn’t have to live that way in California and I’m sure not going to do it down in the tropics. I want to enjoy my city, my terrace, my garden and not feel like I’m walking into a wall of heat and humidity to do it.
Electricity! That’s a problem for us, we are still trying to figure out why we have these huge electric bills. I admit, we’re sporadic at trying to figure it out, usually every 2 months after we get a bill. I have said in the past that I wouldn’t get AC until I worked out the electric because usually they want to blame a high bill on the AC and not having one keeps the discussion real. Apparently it is a well known fact that all gringos lie about how often they use their AC.
I’m reading the meter every day now and may get a handle at least on why the bill is so high if not a solution. Frankly, I doubt the addition of AC would change it much. I’m starting to point the finger at the large pump at the bottom of our well that supplies our pond, pool and irrigation. When we have used that pump, the readings go up a lot. It still could be something else in addition but I will have to recognize that the way I let the hose run and the time it is on are probably a big part of the bill.
I’m not a good little green person. I hate being in a house where the only lights on are in the room you are in. Hate it! I want my house lit, maybe not all the lights but at least some so that I can see throughout and I feel that I’m in an occupied house not hiding in a corner of light. So, when it gets dark I go around and turn on lights, in the garden, the pond, the terrace, the hall, the living room, the office and usually at least one upstairs. I’m not going to change so I’m looking at changing some of the fixtures to use different bulbs and less watts. I also don’t run to the pump room to turn off the pump when I’m moving the hose, I let it run. Bad bad bad, meh! I don’t take navy showers either. If I have to, I’ll pay for my excesses but I will also look for some ways to reduce the bill. Life is a compromise right?
Solar and/or Mitsubishi is TV plugging their “new” device to heat or cool. Supposed to be low consumer of watts.
I have heard about those and that they are the real deal, they work well and use a lot less electricity. Of course, they also cost much more. They have them at Liverpool and I may go out there and price one.
I don’t like the dark either, and one of the things that I would change in our house is to have more light fixtures. Your rooms are huge so you need more light to keep from feeling like you are in a cave. Those elegant little sconces don’t give off the same amount of light as the big ugly florescents do. However,I have seen houses with the big tubes hidden behind molding etc. There has to be a middle ground between utility and aesthetics.
I bet that the culprit is the pumps, unless some neighbor is borrowing your luz.
About the a/c if you don’t use it, then you shouldn’t feel bad about not having it for guests. If you used it and then didn’t provide it, then that would be bad. My feeling is that if it’s that necessary for them, they probably wouldn’t want to stay at my house anyway, since they would want an entirely climate controlled environment. Hmmm, maybe that is why you have more guests than I do? Besides you have the pool to cool off in, that makes a tremendous difference in being able to tolerate the heat.
The dehumidifier sounds like a good idea though. We’ve just accepted the fact that stuff corrodes here.
regards,
Theresa
Jonna, My opinion is…forget the AC. From Theresa’s description above and from what I know about the main floor design…you have lots of light, windows, doors, open areas….using AC in a room with a lot of light is going to suck up more juice because of the heat coming in the windows. If the room is comfortable for you, and you like it the way it is, then I think your guests will be ok. Add another fan or two. The cost of LUZ this summer is outrageous!!!!(I just got zapped for THE MOST EXPENSIVE TWO MONTHS EVER and I only have one little room with a small AC.We too have a pool filter, but we got whacked.)
Your guests will have to be outside and get used to the heat anyhow, as they tour the Yucatán. Remember it has been hotter in parts of the US lately than here. Your house is a showcase home and I don’t think you should go punching more holes and throwing more money in every month for a convenience YOU don’t really want.
For the computer equipment, in Hawaii techs told us to leave it on, for one thing, in sleep mode or whatever, because the heat of the machine helps keep it dry. Besides that, I always leave a fan blowing on my computer. I am sure AC w/dehumidifying would help…but then to use your computer you have to be locked in a closed up room.
Skip the whole overwhelming mess and just concentrate on a nice floral arrangement or something for your guests. Some tropical flowers and fruits. And a little spray bottle…shoot, fill it with EVIAN….they can spray themselves cool.
I agree with Theresa and Lin, that your house should be comfortable to you and just tell your guests ahead of time. With a pool to cool off in and showers they should be fine. I sleep much better with a tower fan blowing across me than just an overhead, so buying a couple so your guests can suit themselves might be an idea.
I’d skip the office a/c idea, too. Closed doors are a pain, one of the animals is always going to get locked in and then there goes the finish on your doors as they scratch to get out.
We sleep in a/c at night, we set it on 27c (81f) and dehumidify and we are very comfortable. But I hate having our bedroom door closed, every bathroom trip is a shock into the hot and I have to get up often to investigate little sounds that I can’t really hear because the door is shut.
We have a governmental subsidy here for electricity in the summer that makes it tempting to use it more, but for us sleeping is all we do.
Well of course I AM A GREEN PERSON so you will get a different opinion here – counting kilowatts is a good idea for a start – as you are doing. Then talk to CFE and find out where the punishment cutoff is. Around here it is 250 kw a month (500 KW per 2-month billing cycle) (very little actually considering the average American uses over 900 kw per month. Here they move you into a 25 cents U.S. per kilowatt penalty charge for ALL kw’s once you have demonstrated that you are a POWER USER.
It takes an entire year to get back in their good graces (off the penalty roll). This is extremely harsh – but the way of Mexico. I have tried to reason with them for a friend that cannot afford 25 cent kilowatts – to no avail ;-(
Consider compact florescent bulbs (the color corrected ones NOT the typical stark white Mexican version). Forget the A/C and get a dehumidifier for your computer room.
IMHO
We have a higher kWh allowance here in the Yucatan and even lowered rates in the summer. However, I’m off any kind of subsidy now. You know on your bill where it says your electric cost this much to produce and then what you are charged is less? I’m beyond that, it doesn’t even appear on my bill. What it costs is probably less than I pay. As I recall we can use around 1700 kWh every 2 months and still get some kind of discount. My bill this last time was for 1832 kWh, 600 less kWh than the same billing period last year – so I’m doing better.
My meter reading shows us using around 30 kWh every day, now whether the meter is right or not I don’t know. There are no diablitos on our line though, if we cut the breaker inside the house the wheel stops turning.
I’m getting the WTH feeling now, who cares what I use since nothing seems to make it better I might as well stop trying. Childish yes, I’ll keep trying but it does seem pointless.
I too vote “no” on AC. Lin’s ideas regarding using sleep/hibernation mode and directing small fans on the computers also sounds good (of course, more KWH….) I think the main concern should be whether you want the closed environment required for AC, which you clearly don’t.
re, the dead backup drive – I assume you don’t use it much, so maybe using it more often would preclude corrosion? Is it worth taking it apart to see if your hypothesis is correct?
Another thought – do you use energy-saving bulbs (those coiled things) in your lights? They do sell many varieties here, including those with warm light (virtually undistinguishable from incandescent bulbs), and if you use a lot of lights, they could save quite a bit in KWH.
For comparison, our KWH usage runs about 4-6 a day, pretty much year round. We usually have 1-4 fans running, plus a couple of computers, but only run the water pump infrequently, since the windmill does most of the pumping. No pump for the pond, nor the pool, though I run the pump for the vacuum it every couple of weeks. I don’t run around turning off lights, but probably have 4-8 burning at one time, in the evenings.
Given what your usage is now, I would bet that it wouldn’t be too hard to get down below the subsidized cut off in Merida (your’re rate 1C, I think), at least for summer. The KWH cut off is lower in the winter, but fewer fans (offset by more lights).
On the other hand, the $$ difference is probably equivalent to one or two very fine upscale dinners out a month, so…..
wow mcm, 4 to 6 kwh a day! Incredible.
I guess we are one of those gringo couples that have more toys than they should and according to some don’t live in the ‘real’ Mexico. Except, I know many more Mexicans out in the north with much larger houses and way more toys. Their electric bill is probably higher too.
I’ve decided to screw it and get a couple of AC units installed. It helped the decision that it was hot as hades today with about 100% humidity and we were out driving around mid afternoon. We went into Liverpool to look at the new type of AC that supposedly uses from 30% to 50% less electricity due to some change in the way it pumps. They are nice, I hear they do work, they also cost more than twice what a normal split does. A 24btu LG with filtration is $25,244 pesos after a 15% discount! cough! The Panasonic without filtration is $17,126 pesos. A ‘normal’ LG 24btu is $9000 pesos. I’m going with the ‘normal’ LG, it’s a good brand. If I start to hole up in the office in the AC, I’ll rethink this but I don’t think that will happen.
Also, I talked to Henry about the electric bill and when Enrique comes to install the AC he will check everything again. Frankly, Henry thinks it is a normal bill for the size of our house and the number of lights, pumps and appliances we have. He gave me some figures from other places and yea, maybe we really are using all that juice. I’m still looking for lamps that can use the spiral, warm florescent bulbs instead of the 50w can lights we have. I’m just kind of beat down by all this and I feel a little guilty if I’m honest for being such a consumer.
you may want to try pulling the plug on your electricity. Doing this, you will find out if someone else is tapping into your electric. As you know, we use air conditioning 4 hours a day, pool filter, water pump for the well, watering the grass, and we still stay under or right at 400 kwhs per month.
I refuse to spend another summer here in Monterrey. There are other great places in Mexico to spend the summer where you have to cover up with a blanket at night. My kinda weather.
I rarely shut my computer off. It uses minimal energy. Hard drives don’t generally continue to spin even though they remain powered. They rest. So leaving them powered up is ok. But bad drives are sometimes a result of bearing failure. Many computers fail because bearings in fans fail, or the fans get clogged with dust, and stop cooling. Anything that spins will eventually stop spinning when the bearings go. It may have nothing to do with humidity or corrosion. I do all my backup automatically on a Mac Time Machine. I’ve been really please with the device.
We have disconnected the power from the inside breaker and the meter stops dead, we don’t have any diablitos hooked to us.
Eric, I too use Time Machine and a Time Capsule but I had it backing up to an external disk. That is of course the one that failed. Have you read about all the Time Capsules that are dying at just about 18 months? That’s why I was using an external, of course that’s the one that failed. There is no power on light on the disk but there is one on the brick going to it, I am hoping that I have a power supply problem that can be fixed enough for me to get my data off. We’ll see.
Jonna, we’ve bought a cottage on the lake (Erie), it’s our 1st summer and we’re trying out a summer without ac to see if it can be done. As you’re from Mich, you’ll know the oppressive humidity up here… but we figure: we’re on the lake, more breezes, great big windows that seem to be set up to funnel air and we’ve installed 2 mini ceiling fans in the living room. Then I’ve bought 1 Sunbeam window fan for each bedroom, bath & the kitchen. They look like the old fashioned kind, but also very modern: 2 fans, multiple settings, they blow in & suck out, can’t think of another way of putting it
So far/so good. Yesterday was an absolute bitch of humidity hell, but the fans make it bearable, plus, while the windows are open, supply white noise to muffle any traffic (not that we get that much here), while sleeping. We renovating to create a bed and breakfast and think that with the fans, quiet location & lake breezes, we can do without ac. With only 3 to 4 months of available outdoor living up here, I want all windows open as much as possible. Your post is exactly what we’re debating right now, although you decision to ac your house is logical because of your yearly climate. BTW, great posts…. details, mini-rants, classic stuff.
Hey Jonna — I hope you didn’t think my 4-6 kwh/day usage was meant to be smug…just to indicate that, aside from not running any pumps (pool, water, pond), and having energy-saver lightbulbs, our lifestyle is really not very conservative (in the sense of energy conscious).
I absolutely hate the “live like a Mexican” stereotype — what folks really mean, is live like a low (or no) income person, which is a lifestyle that certainly transcends national boundaries.
Anyway, you can easily justify your daily life carbon footprint (cough cough) based on how much energy you’ve saved by not making multiple trips up to the US in the last few years! That will buy you an AC, for sure.
Keep cool!
rummy, I’m from Calif not Mich but I have been up there in the summer and know well how hot and humid it gets. I think you have the right idea for a lake house, water always cools the breeze and it makes sense to be as outdoors as possible for such a short time.
mcm, I know you weren’t being smug that would not be you. I’m pretty sure the pumps push our usage up a lot. It’s my hobby and I get a lot of enjoyment from my ponds so I will just get used to the bill. I’m thinking of slowly replacing the 50w can light bulbs with LEDs. Henry says they have warm ones now and if I can find them with the right plug for our cans I could replace a few a month and make a difference. You’re right, think of all the money and carbons I’ve saved by not flying or driving north for 3 years!!
hi jonna, we use LEDs in our spots on the porch as well as table lamps in the house. you cant beat them at 1 watt, you get used to the light and it becomes second nature. a bit of a layout up front but well worth it. check at home depot, that’s where we got ours. we also have some specialty lighting stores if you are interested in anything special. i can send them to you. we used them in our rv too. hi mimi!
Hey Jonna,
This is a really great post. As you may know we have just purchased a home in Merida and will be looking to renovate in the upcoming year or so. This is really good information for us when it comes to the actual design of the lighting. I would like to see how we could design some creative lighting fixtures using the tubes, concealed, effectively.
I just looked at our Colorado electric bill to see our usage for last month. It ws indeed very close to the 900 KWH. And we are at our minimal usage time of year.
I very much enjoy your blog.
Patti, you are not limited to tubes. There are standard bulb sizes in florescent now and there are the warm (calida) ones as well. Getting the warm bulbs gets rid of that blue glow we associate with florescent lighting. I’ve replaced all the standard bulbs in the house with the warm florescent. It’s the small 2 prong halogen bulbs that I would like to replace with LED warm.
It would make a LOT of sense to design your house for low electric use where you can. There will be pumps but try and size them close to what you need so they aren’t too large or too small. Making sure your fixtures can take the new florescent bulbs makes a lot of sense.
There are drawbacks. We have 2 large chandeliers and they do make nice looking,chandelier type bulbs in warm florescent. The problem is the dimmers do not work on florescent bulbs so I’ve only replaced the bulbs in the kitchen chandelier where I would not often want to use the dimmer. In the entry chandelier, I left the old style bulbs and I just don’t turn it on unless we have guests because I always want to dim it so it isn’t so bright.
Your decision to buy and provide AC is one that your friends will likely appreciate. However, as others suggested, perhaps fans would have been sufficient, depending upon windows, natural ventilation, if any, and house heat retention.
The following events as guests of a gracious family in Merida may be of interest to some readers. It was was my experience while living without AC while studying there, one typically hot June/July.
I lived with my friends/host family in their “block” home w/o AC. There were ceiling fans in each of the three bedrooms.
The couple and their two young sons occupied the two corner bedrooms, which each had windows on two outside walls, that permitted good cross ventilation. They all slept comfortably in hammocks, that unlike beds, allowed air to circulate around their entire bodies. The parents had a nice bed in their room, but elected to sleep in hammocks.
My room had a bed, a ceiling fan, and a single window, but no hammock. A nearby tall block wall prevented any breezes from entering my room, so it was always very hot, even at night. After two sleepless nights, they loaned me a hammock to try out. I slept comfortably in it. So, I bought a very good one that they recommended and hung it on the hooks already present in my bedroom. After that, I slept comfortably on most nights, under the ceiling fan. However, there were a few nights that were “sleep preventing hot,” so I saturated my gown with water before settling into the hammock below the whirring ceiling fan. This had no ill effects on me.
Before my husband came to join me for a short visit there, I told them that we’d likely get a room at the GRAN (in el centro)during his stay as I didn’t think that he would cope well with the heat situation. They knew my husband well and really wanted him to stay at the house.
The wife seemed sad, and quickly said, “But we want you to stay here. We can take your mattress and the linens to the private rear patio, and you can sleep there where there’s good ventilation.” Unwilling to hurt her feelings, I said, “That sounds OK with me, but since he is much less tolerant of the heat than I, he will have to make the decision.” She understood.
After arriving, he kindly agreed to her suggestion, but feared a sleepless night. It turned out that the “mattress outside” thing worked out well. We even had to cover up a bit. And we had no problems with mosquitoes or other pesky bugs, either. We slept outside a couple of nights before heading, as previously planned, to the cooler environs of San Cristobal de las Casas.
When I last visited our friends in Merida, they’d moved into a different house and had both AC and fans, and also higher electric bills.
This thread is chock-a-block full of some good suggestions. Enjoy your guests, and good luck with your electric bills and with your guests.