Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Day Late and about $3000.00 short.

The power company engineer ( that term is applied very loosely ) finally showed up, a day later than the appointed days they specified. His whole concern about the electricity was where I wanted to mount the meter socket. Then there was the question of 120/240 volt single phase service. He wanted to add poles at $700 a wack, add a transformer about a half mile away at $3000 and, man oh man, was he ever worried about where I wanted to mount the meter socket. I don't know where he went to school but I am sure one of the courses he took was in how to milk the gringos. After all was said and done - I agreed to build a place to mount the meter socket and he agreed to use the existing transformer a half mile away and the existing high tension line to carry a 120 volt 50amp service. I will install the underground service to the guest house when the addition is done. The cost will be in the $100 range, after the cost of the ever important meter socket ($20) and pole for the service drop ($25). It's no different here than the U.S., a little common sense will take you a long way.

The gate is finally done. It takes about twice as long to weld with 1/8th rods at 70amps but that's all I can get out of my rigged up generator/welder outfit.
If I let the welded wire run wild over the top of the gate. In the U.S., I would have someone suing me tomorrow. As it is, I won't just have the wire running wild, I will string up barbed wire on top of that. The folks here use broken glass embedded in the top of walls and steel bars in the windows - an ounce of prevention I guess.

I'll be in town for a day or two, so I will probable post tomorrow about a thing or two.

1 comment:

  1. It sounds just like dealing with the hydro company here in Ontario, Canada. We have to deal with them for our home construction business and every time its "oh we cant hook up there, oh you will need to pay for new polls, oh we already disconnected the power"(that was two weeks ago and the hydro line is still there and on). Well it's nice to see things are the same even in Ecuador with Hydro services, lol. Usually as long as you talk to them for a bit though you can get them to do what you want, it's all about the negotiation and the small talk.

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