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Those figures for Costa Rica appear to be incorrect. From that same thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3xhedt/99_of_costa_ricas_electricity_ca

by phaemon 11y ago

Those figures for Costa Rica appear to be incorrect. From that same thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3xhedt/99_of_costa_ricas_electricity_came_from_renewable/cy542z2 https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3xhedt/99_of_cos... Multiplying by 5 because incomes are 20% of US wages, doesn't make any sense to me. Do you think electricity costs should be linked to income, or something (I suppose it could work as a kind of taxation...)?

Turing_Machine 11y ago
Your link gives a number of 33 cents per kWH for consumption above 501 kWH/month. I was comparing the U.S. with Costa Rica. The average U.S. home uses 901 kWH/month, which would put you in the 33 cents per kWH bracket (the source I found earlier said 30, which is pretty close). The "peak" and "off-peak" pricing doesn't really enter into it, since most of the things you'd want to use a lot of electricity for (e.g., air conditioning) are time-dependent, and can't easily be shifted to "off-peak" times. So, no, the numbers I was using aren't incorrect. "Multiplying by 5 because incomes are 20% of US wages, doesn't make any sense to me." I'm not sure why this doesn't make any sense. You spend x% of your income for electricity. Costa Ricans have to spend 5x% of their income to get the same amount of electricity. It seems perfectly straightforward to me. In actuality, it's even worse than that, since someone in Costa Rica is going to have far less discretionary income to cover things like outrageous power bills.
- phaemon 11y ago
  Your numbers are only close to correct if the person is using the same amount of electricity as a person in the USA (which no-one does) and they used all that power during peak hours (which no-one does). Were that the case, then it's 29 cents per kWH on average using those figures. I will freely admit that poor people in Costa Rica have less discretionary income than rich people in the USA.

by phaemon 11y ago

Turing_Machine 11y ago

Your link gives a number of 33 cents per kWH for consumption above 501 kWH/month. I was comparing the U.S. with Costa Rica. The average U.S. home uses 901 kWH/month, which would put you in the 33 cents per kWH bracket (the source I found earlier said 30, which is pretty close). The "peak" and "off-peak" pricing doesn't really enter into it, since most of the things you'd want to use a lot of electricity for (e.g., air conditioning) are time-dependent, and can't easily be shifted to "off-peak" times. So, no, the numbers I was using aren't incorrect. "Multiplying by 5 because incomes are 20% of US wages, doesn't make any sense to me." I'm not sure why this doesn't make any sense. You spend x% of your income for electricity. Costa Ricans have to spend 5x% of their income to get the same amount of electricity. It seems perfectly straightforward to me. In actuality, it's even worse than that, since someone in Costa Rica is going to have far less discretionary income to cover things like outrageous power bills.

phaemon 11y ago
Your numbers are only close to correct if the person is using the same amount of electricity as a person in the USA (which no-one does) and they used all that power during peak hours (which no-one does). Were that the case, then it's 29 cents per kWH on average using those figures. I will freely admit that poor people in Costa Rica have less discretionary income than rich people in the USA.