Power outage - 10am to 3pm

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Just a quickie,

2 of our 3 apartments booked with Airbnb guests. Power company informed us that they were changing out the sub station near our property and the power would be off between 10am and 3 pm. We immediately let the guests know fearing calls for compensation and poor reviews.....

Anyway 2 five star reviews later it turns out there are great guests out there still. Mind you one family did leave with cuttings from half the plants in the garden but that's another story.

[Sarah977]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Due to the location of my house and poor local infrastructure, there have been times when I have not gotten water for up to 3 weeks. As my system of tanks and cistern only hold 3000 litres, things have gotten really dicey sometimes.

I've never actually run out of water when I've had guests, but once I was down to enough for maybe half a day more, if the guest and I were super consevative, with no assurance of the city sending water my way anytime soon.

My neighbor, whose water comes from an endless well, has let me hook up hoses to their outside faucet to fill my system. It's quite the operation, involving 3 heavy hoses, and hours to fill.  

My guest offered to help, and I was so grateful. She and I moved the hoses together and it took half the time it would have taken by myself. 

Many guests are really adaptable, understanding and helpful.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

That must be a battle of wits, no water supply for up to 3 weeks!!

Essential services we sort of take for granted, but it can create chaos when we don't have them.

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  It's been a huge hassle since I bought this property in 2006. There was a total crook who ran the water system here for 18 years. He pocketed the money people paid for water and didn't put it into upgrading and maintaining the system. That was fine when this was a tiny fishing village that only a few foreign surfers had discovered. It's not fine now with the place full of tourists, hotels, and vacation rentals.

He finally got booted out a year and a half ago and an established water company took over. That changed everything- I suddenly got water, every day, for hours, with strong pressure. In April this year, the problems started again. They have idiots managing the valves, who can't seem to understand how to set up a reliable schedule so everyone gets water on some regular basis. This week I got water with great pressure 4 mornings in a row after calling them every other day for a week. Now we haven't had a drop in 3 days.

I don't need them to send me water every day. I need my 3000 liter system to refill at least once a week and need to know when I can do a load of laundry and drench my garden without sacrificing having a shower and flushing the toilet 🙂

People either live where they never have to worry about having water (like when I lived in Canada), and take it for granted, or they live where it's a constant concern. 

My neighbor took his clothes to the laundry two days ago (he has no washing machine) and just got them back today. The laundry had no water either.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

WOW, I guess every area has it's issues.....ours is electricity.

Murphys law says if there is going to be a power outage it will be when there is no solar production happening.

To complicate matters still further because this state is moving to a green/renewable based power supply, at times of heavy demand we have to put up with 'load sharing' where the authorities control supply to areas on a rotation basis to keep usage within the available supply. 

And lastly on days of catastrophic bushfire danger with high winds and hot temperatures the power will be shut off from wooded areas where there is a danger of arking across the supply cables.

Although I sold our motorhome some years ago I kept the 2.5 kva Honda petrol gen plant which I keep in good condition on standby.  It has the capacity to run the airconditiong, fridge, TV and lighting in the cottage and a few essential bit of equipment in the house. 

I simply flick the mains supply switch off and plug the generator into a supply outlet on the distribution board and leave the generator to handle a couple of important circuits until mains supply is restored.

Although we can produce a substantial amount of solar power here, the mains supply is wired through a smart meter so that in times of power interruption the solar supply is also isolated. This is done to make sure technicians working on the problem don't get zapped by solar being fed back into the grid!

We all have our cross to bare Sarah!

Cheers........Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  We also lose the electric here fairly often in the rainy season. The attitude in Mexico is generally that you don't do regular maintenance, you wait till there's a problem and then fix it 🙂 So they don't regularly cut branches and palms that are hanging over, or touching the lines. Then as soon as the wind and rain start, some branch falls on a line and shorts it out.

I can live with no electric easier than no water. But I don't have a generator, so if we lose the electric on hot, humid summer nights, it's hard to sleep with no fans.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

I'm a farmers boy I can live without these things Sarah, but by God guests can't. You can bet if there is something that doesn't work or is not accurate to description, they will ferret it out and let you know.

But it is nice to have a back-up for everything, I have a gas hot water heater if the power goes out, I have plenty of battery lighting, I have a spare fridge, kettle and toaster. I haven't been caught out yet.

Cheers........Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  You definitely have it together. The time of year when we tend to have electric outage is the time of year I don't get guests, so that's lucky. And my cooking stove and water heater both run on propane. I have a small bbq size propane tank for back up should I run out before the delivery man can get here.