The cost of electricity in Playa del Carmen and throughout Mexico is suprising to many. It’s not cheap and for some of us, something to consider when renting or buying a place to live here. Of course your bill will vary with your usage. I’ll share what we have experienced and you can make a judgement on your own usage.
We live in a condominium apartment with a small galley style kitchen, a combined dining and living area, two bedrooms, and two baths. I estimate that it is no larger than 900 square feet, perhaps a little less. We also have a 5 x12 balcony, obviously with no effect on our electric bill. We have central air conditioning, which is somewhat unusual. Split units or window units are more common. Our apartment is total electric meaning that we have an electric hot water heater and electric stove. Many apartments have a propane gas stove and hot water heater. We have modern aluminum framed thermal windows that close and seal well. The windows also seem to be lightly tinted. The balconies and orientation of the windows largely protects them from direct sunlight. We used foam sealing tape to improve the seal on the wooden front door, but it still needs to have a door sweep added to the bottom. (On my honey-do list.) There are three in our family, which has some effect on our bill as our son runs his ceiling fan and floor fan constantly. We try to conserve air conditioning by using our two ceiling fans and a floor fan in our living area when it is occupied. Occasionally, we will open the windows on cooler nights. We haven’t had many of those since we arrived on June 1st, 2007.
Our electric bill from July 10, 2007 to September 10, 2007 was $6,614 MN or about $660.00 USD. These were most likely the hottest months of the year, so we are anticipating that this will be our highest bill. However, we still expect the average to run between $250 and $300 over the course of the year.
The electric bill from June 1, 2007 to July 09, 2007 was $3,857 MN or about $385.00 USD. During the eary days of June, there were a few days when we were able to sleep with our windows open. The humidity is a big factor and the air conditioning keeps the humidity down even when set at a higher temperature at night. We opted to buy a floor fan and turn up the AC a bit at night but keep the humidity down. My theory is that the AC will run more during the day when the windows are open at night because of the increased humidity in the house. Maybe true, maybe not, but I like the justification to run the AC at night when it’s warm out. 
A note on the bill below. The graph compares 2006 to 2007 from the previous five billing periods and one future billing period. The wide range in electricity cost reflects not only seasonal variations in consumption, but also occupancy of the apartment.
The CFE website can be found at www.cfe.gob.mx/en/