Last updated October, 2023

I frequently find myself living in Mexico during its hottest months. Those months aren’t without their charm. Oceanfront housing costs less, the buses and restuarants aren’t jammed with snowbirds and things are generally more peaceful. People generally hole up, making it’s a good time to get a special project done as opposed to high season’s stuffed calender.

Mexico’s tropical areas re-define the concept of heat and humidity in the summer. I have lived in humid areas in the US; Houston, New Orleans, Richmond, Virginia, Washington, DC, and even a short stint in coastal Florida. In none of those cities have I torn open a damp box of pasta to find the fettuccine noodles melted together inside.

The Tale of Two Electric Electric Bills

For a year, I rented a condo in a large resort in in Mazatlán’s Golden Zone. I loved the subterfuge of its crumbling exterior that masked the true nature of the privately owned two bedroom units had been beautifully renovated. It’s the first resort I’ve ever lived in that looked like a hotel but the units were two floor condos. The elevators were numbered 2,4,6 and so on. The views were breathtaking. The rent was $1,100 a month.

The following year, I rented, for the same price, a different condo in the same building on a lower floor. It offered an equally spectacular view, but a closer perspective of the Pacific waves, and palm tree leaves that practically brushed the tall windows (Hang with me here.)

When the correct day arrived, I strolled over to business office to pay the electric bill. The accountant gave me the monthly factura. My jaw dropped - it read 5,400 pesos, about $350 dollars!  

An electric bill like that can largely undo the money you might be saving by renting in the summer. Before I had the chance to scream, the clerk grabbed the bill back and apologized. She forgot that I had moved to a different unit the second year and had given me the bill belonging to the person who had taken the unit where I formerly lived.

After a bit of shuffling (and recovery on my part), she found my bill, a bill for 699 pesos ($40 dollars). Having lived in both of them, I knew the two units were identical in size, floor plan and air conditioning units.

Fortunately, one of my first lessons about living Mexico, drilled into me by my housemate, The Intrepid Elise, was about electricity conservation in Mexico.

Being wise in American ways, she followed me around for my first five months in Mexicio reminding me to turn off air conditioners and shut off unoccupied rooms, and not leave a refrigerator door open more than a few seconds when unpacking groceries. We hung our laundry on a line. We took showers after cooking, rather than trying to cool the big kitchen. That way of life grew to be second nature, the sweat fest even granting me a kind of perverse pleasure. 

Why “extreme” measures of electricity conservation are needed

Electricity is expensive by Mexican standards. The country takes a reasonable approach to guarding resources while still providing a level of comfort when the temperature soars. In the summer months, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad subsidizes consumers for their usage. By being conservative and aware, you can keep the cost reasonable, as I do.

If you cool a home the way you do in the U.S., as illustrated by the $350 electric bill mentioned above, it can still be very expensive. In the above scenario, the owner of the apartment that had the very high electric bill could be classified by the Mexican electric company as a DAC, a domestica de alto consumo, as a high use consumer. The electric company charges higher rates to people with this classification.

Those rates don’t automatically go away when you lower your consumption. You will have to prove sustained lower usage for perhaps a year before your rate is lowered again. This agency of the Mexican government sets rates and subsidies based on the climate of the area you live in. In this case, not only did the renter not pay the electric bill as agreed, the landlord will have to live with the penalty for year.

New expats get spanked regularly due to our habit of leaving air conditioning on throughout the house and our penchant for features like swimming pools, fountains, dish washing machines and clothes dryers, all big electricity users. Unless you have a pool and other high usage appliances, you should easily be able to stay within the confines of the lower billing rates.

By taking care to turn off the air conditioning when not at home, shutting off unoccupied rooms and noticing when the breeze coming off the ocean is enough to keep cool, you can keep the bill way down. I followed these rules and there still remained enough wiggle room to cool all the rooms when guests come to visit me.

Once November rolls around, that government subsidy goes away. To give you an idea of how much the subsidy saves you, I only turned the air conditioner on three days in November. That month’s bill was slightly higher than August’s bill when I had used the air conditioning most days and a majority of the day but had the subsidy.

You can live in luxury in Mexico, not exactly the same style of luxury. There’s no bigger example of that than trying to stay warm or cool in Mexico.

The 10-degree rule

In Mexico you should expect to dress for 10 degrees hotter than you expect the temperature to be in the summer, and 10 degrees cooler than you expect it to feel in the winter. Even in coastal areas, the humidity at night in the winter months can call for sweaters and light jackets. Windows are often not as sealed. Rooms are not as climate-controlled. Mexican homes do not have central heat and air.

Keep the Ten Degree Rule in mind as you pack clothes in order to be comfortable in Mexico no matter when you choose to go. 

Related:

Heat Stroke in Mexico? How to hydrate like a native - Ventanas Mexico

It’s not the heat - it’s knowing what to do with it. - Ventanas Mexico

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About the author:

Kerry Baker is the author of three books. If Only I Had a Place is your guide to renting long-term in Mexico - with the information realtors will not tell you. The Mexico Solution - Saving Your Money, Sanity, and Quality of Life Through Part-Time Life in Mexico, gives you a step-by-step guide to making the transition, along with a bit of wry humor and a few of her more enlightening personal experiences.

Most recently she released “The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico”, a cookbook for expats, travelers and snowbirds seeking to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico.