Costa Rican street corner
It was relatively late Saturday night, some time past midnight, when the transformer blew across the street from our house, waking up the whole neighborhood. I swear it looked and sounded like lightning in our living room, leaving a shadowy imprint on my retina and a ringing in my ears.
The explosion woke up the whole neighborhood – everyone came outside in their pajamas to investigate, thinking a bomb had gone off. The electric company, ICE, was not answering their phone, so everyone called 911 and the operator called the fire department. A whole truck full of Tico firemen (yippee!) showed up almost immediately to assess the sparkage for possible fire risk. ICE didn’t come as fast as the firemen, but the amount of time we went without electricity (12 hours) was not bad considering it was Sunday. Plus we don’t have AC, so it’s not like we could complain about the sudden onset of heat like we would have if we were in the same situation in South Carolina.
Close up of our electrical wires coming into the house off the city lines.
According to Julio, this is about as rare an incident in Alajuela as it is in the US, only occurring under extreme weather conditions such as lightning or heavy winds…although I didn’t think the wind was blowing that hard…AND we had another one the following Friday as I was writing this. So two in one week. Still, not as bad as Puerto Viejo where the electricity flickers on and off several times every night. The part of me that is addicted to the internet is really happy to be living in Alajuela, close to the bustling city of San José.
The electrical wires coming into our house.
San José, the capital of Costa Rica, was the third city in the world to install public, city-wide electrical lighting. Seriously. 1) Paris. 2) Manhattan. 3) San José, Costa Rica. This is something all Ticos are taught in school, so maybe it is this fact coupled with the pura vida lifestyle that allows them to be more relaxed about electricity than we are in the US?
The shower head in our bathroom.
When I think about electricity in the United States, I think about fluorescent black and yellow warning signs and light bulb cartoons singing songs about avoiding contact with power lines, wall sockets, and toaster ovens. Switch gears to electricity in Costa Rica, and I have visions of Julio swinging from the haphazardly hung power lines. I’d describe the Tico philosophy on electricity as…pura vida electricity. Keeping the electrical current within the wires really isn’t their first priority. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shocked myself on the shower heads, especially the ones that have been installed incorrectly, causing the water nozzle and water itself to become electrified.
But I’m still here. Pura vida. FYI our new shower is installed correctly and I can now turn the water on without a shock.
What is the electricty in the shower head for?
To heat the water. You have 2 choices: 1. cold shower or 2. electrify your shower head.
Your average Tico doesn’t use a hot water heater tank like we do. I don’t know why, but I would guess that a hot water heater would be too expensive and cumbersome. First the high import fees on something that large, then the cost of keeping water hot all the time, plus there really isn’t space to keep a hot water heater. They build their houses differently, too. And I bet earthquakes play a factor. There are frequent earthquakes here.
I wonder if they sell those new tankless instant hot water heaters here…? I’ll have to check. Seems like that would be a happy medium. But then you would also have to install a hot water line…maybe all that hot water is just too much for this laid back tropical climate.
We were redesigning our bathroom not so long ago and got rid of our traditional water heater. We bought tankless one and for now (2 years and counting) we can not be happier about that decision.
It’s impossible to ran out of hot water and I must say my daughters love it… even to much 😉
Very interesting!
Hi erin, you are right about the hot water tanks. The instant hot water shower head is also quite common in parts of Europe and Asia, as they are very economical, and most older buildings just do not have the plumbing for separate hot water. In some European hotels, you have a ‘pay’ hot water heater, where you drop in a coin, and it provides hot water for 5-10 minutes. Of course if you stay in longer, and don’t have a stack of coins handy, it shuts off and you suddenly are taking an ice cold shower!
If you go to EPA in San Jose (don’t know if they have one yet in Alajuela), they have the instant on heaters for kitchens, bath, etc. They can be installed under the sink. Of course you will also have to have a source of electricity for it too.
I wonder if I ever encountered those in Europe…I lived with my family in Denmark, Europe when I was still in grade school, but it was so long ago that I don’t remember many small details. We did a ton of traveling, so I’m sure we did. I’ll have to mention it to them, it might bring up some funny memories!
About an instant hot water heater for the sink – I am DONE putting in new electrical lines in our house. We have had one upset after another. The most current being yesterday – our oven was finally hooked up to a proper 220 line and as soon as the electrician switched the breaker there was a power surge that fried our refrigerator and tv…which were on separate lines. I don’t know exactly what he did, but he denies doing anything wrong, as does the initial electrician who installed a 110 line for the oven and mixed up several hot and neutral wires. I thought I had an advantage being engaged to a Tico, but apparently these problems with unqualified technicians are not specific to gringos. Qualified, honest contractors, electricians, and plumbers could make a killing here, IMO.
And there is an EPA in Alajuela now. It is only about a 10 minute drive from our house 🙂
Erin,
Just about any ferreteria will have the tankless hw heaters, not just EPA. Often pays to shop around. Note though that a decent tankless heater is going to require some big wire (bigger than what goes to the shower head) and a 220V circuit than can deliver 50 amps. We opted for a 20 gallon tank heater since we don’t use much HW and it’s on a timer.
Go to any ICE office and get a pamphlet on their residential tariffs and you’ll see why Ticos use those shower heads and don’t plumb for hot water in their houses. The rates climb dramatically with usage, especially over 300 KWh, which is not that much.
Very nice blog, I’m adding you to my site’s blog-list.
Pura vida,
Casey