WOW! That 2100 kWh would equate to $315 at our $.15 rate in this neck of the woods.
If one changes USD at a bank, the bank gives you approximately 120 Cuban Pesos per $1 USD. But because the banks don't sell hard currency (they just buy it), one can sell the same $1 USD in the informal market for 325 Cuban Pesos. Soooo... easy choice.
But even at the official exchange rate, that same bill would have only cost me $55 USD.
But that $20 USD bill is less than what I charge for one night in the smallest room in the Airbnb. So I don't even feel it. I don't like consuming so much but that's the business. We have 15' ceilings and the studio bedroom measure 12'x21'. It also get a TON of sun so it needs a 3 ton split AC unit.
So you can see what I'm not rushing to go to full solar. I mean 10kW of panels would cost me at least $2,500 before having them shipped to the island. That $2,500 is over 10 years of that particular electrical bill which was July. Other months are half of that, so $10. So I'm really looking at a 20 or 25 year payback on solar panels.
And 25kWh of batteries with a 15kW inverter would cost me about $8k to $10k by the time I got it installed. It's a senseless investment if it weren't a business. Generators are cheaper but the hassle of buying fuel, etc plus the fact that fuel is sometimes in short supply makes that a non-starter for me.
Oh, and those 25kWh of batteries would be for everything EXCEPT the AC units. AC units are about 2/3 of the bill mentioned above. I could still buy a generator with ATS for the AC units for outages that are longer than 4 hours. Because trying to sleep in July heat without AC is unbearable for most. Not to mention without a fan.
But where else do I get electricity from? It's the ageing, failing grid or solar. Fortunately, in Havana we have enough hours of electricity that charging the batteries when the power is on is feasible. May need to upgrade the cable and breaker from the meter to ensure faster charging but it's doable.
Thank god booze is cheap here.
