# To Move or Not to Move



## parker1ray (Nov 24, 2020)

This question is not about moving. It is about moving goods. I plan on leaving most of my possessions behind when I move to Mazatlán in two years. I am an avid designer and 3d printer, and RC enthusiast. I have literally over 50 RC vehicles of all types and do not want to get rid of them. The wife has many pretties as she calls them. The question is could we pull a trailer down when we move full of our personal possessions? We will leave all furniture behind other than a few small family airlooms. One other question for anyone who wants to answer! I currently reside in south Florida and have spent many years in south Texas above Mexico. I love the people and can not wait to get out of this horrible place. I have heard that if you use AC, you will have to take out a bank loan to pay the bill! I currently pay 200 per month in south Florida for Electricity. Would that be enough in Mexico. We do not run the AC below 78 in summer!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Electricity rates are progressive. You pay around 0.83 pesos/Kw-hour for the first few kWh. As your consumption goes up, the cost per kWh also goes up, first to about 1 peso/kWh, then 3/kWh. If you go over a limit you get put in what are called DAC rates where it costs $5 pesos/kWh. The limits vary by location and time of year and are somewhat considerate of the need for AC. There is a web site that lists all of the rates and breakpoints. https://app.cfe.mx/Aplicaciones/CCFE/Tarifas/TarifasCRECasa/Casa.aspx
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to use the page but all the information is there.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Regarding moving possessions. After I had lived here for a few years I made a trip back to the US to retrieve some stuff I had stored there. It all fit in a 12 passenger van with the seats removed. When I crossed the border (at around midnight in El Paso-Ciudad Juarez) they looked in a couple of boxes at the top and let me go through with no duty fees. If it looks like you have a lot of new stuff or lots of the same item where it looks like you might resell some of it, they will probably give you more grief.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

Everyone I know who has AC has put in solar power. Otherwise it's quite expensive. I've never had AC- I didn't move to Mexico to be cold. Good fans work fine for me and I live in the PV area, which everyone considers to be super hot in the summer.


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## parker1ray (Nov 24, 2020)

TundraGreen said:


> Electricity rates are progressive. You pay around 0.83 pesos/Kw-hour for the first few kWh. As your consumption goes up, the cost per kWh also goes up, first to about 1 peso/kWh, then 3/kWh. If you go over a limit you get put in what are called DAC rates where it costs $5 pesos/kWh. The limits vary by location and time of year and are somewhat considerate of the need for AC. There is a web site that lists all of the rates and breakpoints. https://app.cfe.mx/Aplicaciones/CCFE/Tarifas/TarifasCRECasa/Casa.aspx
> It took me a few minutes to figure out how to use the page but all the information is there.


Thanks for the info! That is still not bad for electricity if you can keep it to the less than 3 pesos/kwh. It is close to that in south Florida. I guess the bigger question is how much do people use AC there? I wrote something on another post, about living in hot humid areas and a person responded with It is absolutely miserable there for most of the year. They claimed that every year was like being on Survivor with the heat and flooding! Their exact phrase was "surviving in Mazatlán. I would like to get peoples honest assessment of just how good or bad dealing with the weather is in this area! I do know that it is subjective, but find that people will usually have a good understanding after being there for a while!


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

Livable temperatures are very subjective. No one can tell you objectively whether you would feel the the need for AC or not. There are many gringos who are really wimpy about hot, humid weather and will tell you that "You can't survive in the summer without AC" in coastal areas. If that were the case, that you can't survive, all the Mexicans, and I and the other foreigners I know who don't have AC would be dead, right?

Thin people can usually handle the heat better than heavier folks who have that fat layer.

Also the wimpy foreigners who escape in late April or May when the weather starts to get quite hot and humid and don't return until late Oct/Nov don't realize that once the rainy season kicks in, the almost nightly rains cool things down. Some mornings in Aug. or Sept. can actually be a bit chilly if it's rained all night. I find the month or two before the rains kick in are the most uncomfortable.

Coming from Florida and Texas, you are probably more acclimatized to hot weather than a lot of northerners who are used to places where the weather is more temperate.

You'll just have to judge for yourself when you settle here. You might find you are fine with good fans. I have ceiling fans in the living room and kitchen, but I prefer a stand-up fan in my bedroom, a simple, quiet one, not the ones that blow like a hurricane- I like to set it so it's stationary, as the oscillating breeze annoys me, and I like it to blow sort of past my chest, not in my face. It also keeps the mosquitoes away. Also, only buy the totally plastic stand fans- anything metal rusts quite quickly on the coast.

There's also tricks with using curtains and opening and closing windows and doors., You don't want the sun beating in all day, and you want to open windows that will create a cross-breeze.

You could also just have AC in one room, so you have a place to cool down if you find it oppressively hot. Or I have a couple of friends who have AC in their bedroom only and just turn it on a couple hours before they go to bed to cool the bedroom down, then turn it off when they actually go to sleep.


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