no power in costambar or a curious case of a dumb gringo

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dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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ok, so about a third of costambar has no power. since yesterday. my neighbours are running generators and coming out to the street to b**ch about the mess. our batteries are still holding but we limited the use to the fridge and laptops plus modem. all the rest of the stuff is unplugged or switched off.

no power since yesterday does not seem all that bad, but this past weekend was not so good with electricity anyways since a transformer blew up and caught fire on saturday. apparently the bomberos have arrived and decided that putting that fire down was up to edenorte so they left :)

but why no power, you ask? well, the rumour has it some dumbass decided to build a nice parking space. over power registry. dug in a bit, accidentally damaged some cables and then covered everything with cement. lovely. you'd thing people would have more brains that that...

so now edenorte is breaking everything and digging up to fix the damage. and the guy is, as i am told, very, very angry...
 
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windeguy

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Jul 10, 2004
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Would the man have any reason to believe he would be digging where power lines are buried?
 
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dv8

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who knows whether he knew? the thing is, he made parking space outside his gate. in costambar everyone has a certain bit of space outside the wall. it kinda belongs to you as you have to maintain it clean but in reality it all belongs to the city: this is where all cables go, water pipes, electricity and telephone poles, transformers and all that jazz.
even a fool would know not to dig there and not to cover it with cement since you'd need it to be accessible at all times to do necessary fixing.
 
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Ringo

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ROFL. Really dv8! Where do you THINK you live? I hate to say it but .... right back to the good old days of power AND water being out for at least 8 hours a day. It does not matter what you have been told or who points the finger at whom? All rumors and NO one will take responsibility cause it's never the fault of anyone. Got that?

Our 24/7 in our Playa Chiquita area has been experiencing more power outages since the first of this year. 8 hours off everyday has become the norm with sometimes a second outage for an hour or two. The VERY FEW times that we go into Sosua, they too are off but I don't know if the same. But for us, we are back to the year 2000 and before with the power situation. So glad for our Solar!

At the same time, our water pressure is ... at 61 I can water the lawns better then Coraplata can. Our pastures are all ready drying up and I'm having to figure out how to keep the grass growing as I'm already supplementing with bought hay in the pastures and that is getting difficult to find.

I stopped calling and asking Edenorte and Coraplata the "what's going on" long ago. (I leave that to Windiguy. lol) Never got/get a real answer or any explanation that that made sense and NEVER the same one twice.

I wish you luck. Buy candles, ice, jib-saw puzzles and deck of cards and get use to it. I don't think it is going to get better.

Anyone else seeing more power outages?
 
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dv8

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i do not know where from. our source in edenorte would say no more. but that buy took down a third of the project. job well done, amirite? i guess i could go around a look for the place but it is so hot i cannot even walk outside the gate...

year, ringo, going solar is a great idea but we are still scrapping to make a living: we'd need a car soon; we'd like to do the patio with maybe a small lap pool; we'd like to redo the bathrooms and maybe add some units in the kitchen; it would be great to plaster and paint outside wall and rise some of it, gosh, so many things. solar is somewhere there too :)

recently los mangos (gold course/spa/gym/bar) has a wind turbine installed. we went to investigate with great interest but i guess wind turbine is good only on larger lots, id does make some noise and requires good support (like cables to hold it in place or digging deep to secure it well).

few days ago edenorte was installing new electricity poles. i went outside with some water for the workers and the supervisor claimed it will take 3 more months to do the entire project and they'd give us 24/7 power. i do not believe that anymore but maybe 20 hours would be nice. right now we have 2 or 3 blackouts a day, with total of 8 to 12 hours off (usually not in one go but sometimes that happens too)...
 
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sylindr

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Nov 29, 2007
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well we had our power turned on late last night... it did NOT involve and underground work!! i think spreading useless rumours does not help..... and i have trouble believing one line under one parking lot can cut the power to all of costambar and then they can restore power to parts WITHOUT digging underground... useless meaningless rumours
 
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Ringo

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sylindr said:
well we had our power turned on late last night... it did NOT involve and underground work!! i think spreading useless rumours does not help..... and i have trouble believing one line under one parking lot can cut the power to all of costambar and then they can restore power to parts WITHOUT digging underground... useless meaningless rumours
Click to expand...

dv8 is frustrated as most would be. I do not wish to make lite of that frustration. It takes a long time to learn to adapt and LIVE with without what you had been use to and then have it gone. Adjust OR find other self reliant solutions. Most adapt with living with very little power or water but that takes changing old lifestyles and changes. As I said, candles, ice, deck of cards and our favorite was big jig-saw puzzles.

We adapted and all was well. As TIME passed, we adapted little by little to become more self reliant. We could not do it all at once but years of ... a little invested one year and more the next approach.

Good luck. Who else has noticed power/water problems?
 
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dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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oh, and i did not mentioned water... edenorte busted a water pipe putting up those damn poles (pun intended) so we have a nice steady stream right outside. not sure whether it affected our pipes, the cistern is full and i really do not know when does coraaplata deliver water to check...

sylindr, was that you messing up with our power?
 
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Ringo

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dv8 said:
oh, and i did not mentioned water... edenorte busted a water pipe putting up those damn poles (pun intended) so we have a nice steady stream right outside. not sure whether it affected our pipes, the cistern is full and i really do not know when does coraaplata deliver water to check...

sylindr, was that you messing up with our power?
Click to expand...

Of COURSE Edenorte broke the water lines and "it's NOT their fault". Nor will they repair them.... unless you have photos of the equipment, men and the break. Make SURE you get photos of the boss's and close up of ID tag. THEN you can raise all sorts of..problems. I found that ONCE I'm in da face taking photos... all gets fixed real fast.

Been there and done that LOTs of times. Your camera CAN be your best friend.
 
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Ringo

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windeguy said:
Sent you a PM
Click to expand...

Got it windeguy and thank you. I noted your appreciation of the situation that you were dealing with and your restraint and proper actions.

Thanks for the PM.

But I have to stop and think? If you keep doing the same thing that gives the same results time after time.... perhaps you do something different?

Not sure what else to say.

With my respect.
 
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AlterEgo

AlterEgo

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Jan 9, 2009
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Hey dv8, we're selling all the solar panels, controllers and cables we shipped down and never used, maybe you're interested?

In DR1 Classifieds

:)
 
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dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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ha, thanks alterego, nothing is more fun than a nice kick, since i am already down, amirite? :) :) :)
i shall tell miesposo. maybe it is a good idea...

good news is that coraaplata showed up and fixed the water problem. let's see if that holds... bad thing is still no power. but our inversor is still holding, well over 24 hours now!

we filled all buckets with water (since pump ain't working), i looked for candles and matches. all mobiles are fully charged and ready to become wifi hot spots. we are ready for whatever comes. at worst i can throw extension cord over the wall to the neighbour and charge inversor a bit with his generator, sharing the cost of petrol burnt.

and i think we figured out where was the problem. it looks like not the parking but wall construction was in the bottom of all this. miesposo went to investigate. i will keep you posted.
 
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dv8

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the power is back, after about 30 hours sans luz. and our inversor lasted!

and as i was to click "post" it went off.

(shakes head, cries)
 
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ffritz

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Feb 7, 2008
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www.gymbar.blogspot.com
A few years we had 5 days without power in Costambar - no problem for us.

UNTIL

I noticed the tinaco was almost empty ... truck ordered & then the power came back.

Power has been bad in Sosua the last few weeks - last week we had 15 hours without power :O

<tries to remove smug look from face>
 
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