So ICE now hat TOU pricing and since my electricity bill is outrageous (CRC 150,000 and up - with no AC), I thought I would figure if I should switch or not.
Since I run Hermes agent and Homeassistant, and have 2 HEM monitors on my house and home office, I knew there were logs, possibly going back years.
So I threw Hermes at it, gave it access to my database and pointed it to the new ICE price structure.
Doing this manually would have taken hours. AI yeyy, we welcome our Skynet overlords. The agent spawned 2 agents and started working. Version 1 was missing one phase and missing taxes. Version 2 was almost spot on with what my bill showed month-to-month.
Here is the output:
Here's the complete analysis.
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WHAT WAS WRONG BEFORE (It's version 2)
I was summing ALL channels of each meter (double-counting: Ch1 = Ch2 + Ch2_2, so summing them counted twice). Now using only the total channel per meter.
I only had 7 days of data. Now using 8.8 months of hourly statistics (Oct 2025 - Jun 2026).
I wasn't including the 13% IVA. The ICE page confirms: "Los precios no incluyen los cargos tarifarios por alumbrado público, impuesto de ventas, ni impuesto de bomberos."
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CORRECTED CONSUMPTION
Monthly kWh (from cumulative counters, Jan 2025 - Mar 2026):
Month Office House Total T-RE+IVA
2025-01 1105 248 1353 C148,744
2025-02 692 476 1168 C127,902
2025-03 783 520 1303 C143,111
2025-04 828 549 1377 C151,448
2025-05 752 554 1306 C143,449
2025-06 715 520 1235 C135,450
2025-07 707 608 1315 C144,463
2025-08 818 539 1357 C149,195
2025-09 610 499 1109 C121,255
2025-10 804 524 1328 C145,928
2025-11 816 499 1315 C144,463
2025-12 667 526 1193 C130,718
2026-01 638 436 1074 C117,312
2026-02 577 424 1001 C109,087
2026-03 602 487 1089 C119,002
Average: 1235 kWh/month (Office 732 + House 503)
Average T-RE with IVA: C135,435/month
Your actual bill: ~C150,000/month
Gap: ~C14,565/month = alumbrado público + impuesto de bomberos
This matches your bill. The T-RE energy+fixed+IVA averages C135K, and the remaining C15K is the public lighting and firefighters surcharges that ICE adds on top.
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HOURLY PROFILE: OFFICE vs HOUSE
Hour Office W House W Total W
00:00 675 359 1034 Office baseline (servers, Starlink, etc.)
01:00 670 355 1025
02:00 668 348 1016
03:00 665 339 1004
04:00 735 340 1075
05:00 2162 382 2544 <<< OFFICE WATER HEATER KICKS IN
06:00 1386 558 1944 Office still high, house waking up
07:00 850 691 1540
08:00 717 703 1420
09:00 795 795 1590
10:00 852 916 1768
11:00 880 950 1830
12:00 905 881 1786
13:00 920 717 1637
14:00 940 637 1577
15:00 991 645 1636
16:00 1037 690 1728
17:00 1151 775 1926 <<< Evening ramp (heater on solar-poor days)
18:00 1143 967 2110 <<< House cooking/dinner
19:00 1260 1030 2291 <<< Peak hour of the day
20:00 1230 930 2161
21:00 996 831 1827
22:00 755 556 1311
23:00 720 399 1119
KEY OBSERVATIONS:
OFFICE (Gen5):
Always-on baseline: ~670W (servers, networking, Starlink, standby)
05:00 spike: +1500W = water heater. Consistent every day (weekday 4295W, weekend 4290W — identical, so it's on a timer not occupancy-based)
Daytime: 800-1000W (computers, lights, AC when occupied)
Evening: 1150-1260W (lights + occasional heater on solar-poor days)
Weekend evenings slightly higher than weekday (+390W at 17:00)
HOUSE (Meter2):
Always-on baseline: ~350W (fridge, standby)
Morning ramp 06:00-07:00: +200W (coffee, breakfast, lights)
Midday 11:00-12:00: 880-950W (cooking, activity)
Evening peak 18:00-20:00: 930-1030W (dinner, lights, TV)
Weekend evenings much higher: +400W above weekday (more activity)
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TARIFF COMPARISON (with 13% IVA)
Energy by T-RH period (monthly average, 1235 kWh):
Period Office House Total Rate
Punta (Peak) 109 103 211 C129.80/kWh
Valle (Valley) 307 226 533 C89.19/kWh
Noche (Night) 278 145 423 C65.07/kWh
TOTAL 693 474 1167
T-RH PERIOD SCHEDULE (weekdays only for Punta):
Punta: 10:01-12:30 and 17:31-20:00 (weekends = Valle rate)
Valle: 06:01-10:00 and 12:31-17:30
Noche: 20:01-06:00
YOUR CURRENT PLAN — T-RE (fixed inclining blocks, with 13% IVA):
Block 1: 140 kWh x C56.14 = C 7,860
Block 2: 55 kWh x C63.47 = C 3,491
Block 3: 55 kWh x C73.79 = C 4,058
Block 4: 120 kWh x C85.78 = C 10,294
Block 5: 797 kWh x C99.70 = C 79,455
Fixed charge: C 7,924
Subtotal: C113,082
13% IVA: C 14,701
TOTAL: C127,783/month ($245)
surcharges (~C15K): C142,783 ≈ your ~C150K bill
HOURLY PLAN — T-RH (with 13% IVA):
Punta: 211 kWh x C129.80 = C 27,424
Valle: 533 kWh x C89.19 = C 47,502
Noche: 423 kWh x C65.07 = C 27,529
Subtotal: C102,455
13% IVA: C 13,319
TOTAL: C115,775/month ($223)
surcharges (~C15K): C130,775
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BOTTOM LINE
T-RE (current): C127,783/month + surcharges ≈ C143-150K ($245-288)
T-RH (hourly): C115,775/month + surcharges ≈ C131K ($223-252)
Savings: C12,008/month (9.4%) ($23)
Annual savings: C144,096/year ($277)
Switching to T-RH saves you about C12K/month even without changing any habits. The savings come because:
36% of your usage falls in Noche (C65/kWh) — much cheaper than the T-RE top block (C99.70)
Your 05:00 heater spike is in Valle (C89.19), slightly cheaper than T-RE's C99.70
Only 18% of usage hits Punta (C129.80) — mostly weekday evenings
OFFICE vs HOUSE COST SPLIT (under T-RH with IVA):
OFFICE: 693 kWh/month → C67,263/month ($129) — 58% of the bill
HOUSE: 474 kWh/month → C48,512/month ($93) — 42% of the bill
The office is the bigger consumer, mainly due to the 24/7 ~670W baseline and the water heater.
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WHAT-IF: BEHAVIORAL SHIFTS
Move morning water heater from 05:00 (Valle) to 04:00 (Noche)
Saves C1,186/month more ($2.28)
Shift 30% of Punta usage (weekday evenings) to after 20:00
Saves C4,636/month more ($8.92)
(Dishwasher, laundry, EV charging after 20:00)
Move evening water heater from ~17:30 (Punta) to after 20:00 (Noche)
Saves C1,609/month more ($3.09)
ALL COMBINED: C19,439/month savings ($37) → C233K/year ($449)
The biggest win is scenario 2 — shifting evening loads out of the 17:31-20:00 Punta window. That's where the C129.80/kWh rate hurts.
Do your math, decide!
Links of interest:
Here is the official ICE price list (as of 2026 June) ICE prices
I used Hermes agent with GLM5.2 to do the analysis.
I used Home assistant to store data
The electricity monitor I used were Z-wave: Aeon Labs ZW095-A Gen 5 electrictiy meters
And you will need a Z-wave dongle with that
Should you switch? You should probably monitor your hourly usage first.
ps: Creepy bit. Yes, AI can fingerprint your habits just by looking at your electricity usage:
At one point into the 20-ish minute study, it threw this at me:
KEY FINDINGS:
Baseline draw (nighttime 00:00-04:00): ~700-850 W — this is your always-on load (servers, Starlink, standby devices, fridge, etc.)
Morning spike at 05:00: jumps to 3,100 W — likely water heater, coffee maker, HVAC startup
Second spike at 09:00: peaks at 8,000+ W — heavy appliance (washer/dryer/kitchen)
Evening spike at 17:00-19:00: 1,700-2,200 W — cooking, lighting, HVAC
Yes, it discovered that Starlink (2 of them) was also logging into the system and reported a 30W constant pull for Dishy...
