Frequency of power and water issues in various areas

[Kevin K]

We've rented in several areas of Lakeside (from West Ajijic to Chapala) and are currently in lower Chula Vista. Since September we've had a lengthy (8-12 hour) power outage an average of every two weeks. I wondered how much worse it would get when the rains came, and may have gotten my answer as we've had two 12+ hour outages in the past 48 hours. There are also huge fluctuations in line voltage (e.g. 50 – 0 – 80 - 30 – 60 – 0 - 90 – 0 – 50 Volts and finally back up to 115 in one 8 hour period), which of course wreaks havoc on appliances.

We're used to brown-outs and periodic outages and of course more of them during big rains, but haven't experienced anything like what I've described in any other area we've lived here. As we look for future rentals I'd be really grateful to know if there are any other areas with this level of electricity outages that we need to steer clear of.

(edit) Oops! I listed water in my post title but that's a separate and comparatively minor issue (water here is turned off without warning every couple of weeks for 4 hours or so at a time and we recently had a 27 hour dry stretch due to a broken pipe) vs. electricity. We do accept that this is Mexico and try to roll with most stuff.

[Ginger]

I've been pleasantly surprised at how few power outages I've had in the 3 years I've lived in my part of Riberas. I don't think there's been more than 6-8 with the longest lasting 6 hours & that was only once. I do have whole house voltage regulator & haven't lost any appliances. Other sections might not be as lucky, though. I've never noticed the water off - at least my ajilbe has never run dry.

[Travis]

We live in lower Ajijic Centro, on the east side near the La Floresta border and electricity outages of any length are very uncommon at our house. Sometimes it'll go out for an hour or so, once in a while substantially longer, but it's infrequent. That's at our house.

Now, just down the street, about five doors down, our neighbor has a LOT more trouble. They, and another group of houses in the neighborhood, are on a different feed than we are, evidently. They experience outages, some lengthly, fairly frequently.

So unfortunately, getting a general idea about electrical stability in various neighborhoods will only tell you so much.

[johanson]

Things are so much better than they were in my area of Ajijic. I have not noticed an outage of either power or water in several years.

One of the reasons why is that the water supply system for my home was built more than 20 years ago when there were all kinds of outages. So my storage tanks are very large, much larger than needed for todays conditions. So the water could be out for several days, and I would never notice (3 aljebas) Yes the power has gone out for maybe 30 minutes to several hours very occasionally, but I don't notice this either because of my battery backup and photovoltaic power system.

It all depends upon where you live and whether or not your infrastructure is up to date. Heck, for some reason, CFE even replaced all the wires up the hill from the main road and placed a new transformer there, which happens to be 100 feet from my house. The power almost never goes out

[Torontonian]

I live in the general area of Ginger - near the 7-11/Anglican church - and have the same experience. I'd say it's a non-issue. I only remember one lengthy outage in 2.5 years. Friends who live further east, but also on Calle San Luis, have at least double my number. I've always had water. Now, the TV...Shaw...that's a different story.

[exyyz]

I have lost the electricity the last 2 nights for 14 hours and 8 hours respectively in Chapala. And countless other times especially during the rainy season so now I have wind-up camping lanterns in my house. The first night the power was off, it was pitch black for several blocks. The second night, only my side the street was in darkness. The street water isn't on very many hours these days and hasn't been since January. Since I use street water for watering the grass, I can only do it after 3:30 and before 7:30 but at least I get enough water to keep the ajibe full.

[Mainecoons]

Travis, we're on the circuit you are referring to and, finally, they seem to have resolved the problems such that we have had much more reliable power in the last year. Prior to that, exactly as you described.

[Kevin K]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It seems pretty clear that all of lower Chula Vista and a part of the Eastern section of San Antonio across the carretera from us are in a CFE "black hole." Usually we can hear the transformer "pop" from here, and as I mentioned even when the power does work the voltage fluctuations are wild. We're in a similar "hole" with Telmex here....they haven't updated their lines in years so you get less than 2MB speeds no mater what package you pay for, meaning you really need both Telecable (fast but unreliable) and Telmex service to be functional. We love this area otherwise. This a.m. when power was out here I went for a walk and upper Chula Vista, San Antonio and all the businesses along the carretera on both sides within 2 blocks of us were fine. It's something that anyone thinking of renting or buying here should be aware of.

[Hernan Santiago]

Try Villa Nova. Has its own well and water purification system. Went without electricity three times so far this year. First time was a few months ago and it was for four hours. Then twice today, first time was for two hours and second time for an hour. In eight years, had one outage about six years ago that lasted a full 24 hours, other than that, it is usually two to four hours. Frustrating, if you are in the middle of a movie or on the computer, but in the overall scheme of things, not a big deal.. Villa Nova is also well-maintained, employs four full time gardeners, an amazing varitey of homes from 40 years old to brand new and from 150,000 dollars to well over a million dollars, has a pro active Board of Directors, who all get along, has never been involved in a lawsuit and is one of the wealthiest fraccs in lakeside. Over 1,000,000 pesos in the treasury and fracc fees have remained the same for three years. In addition, we are putting in secuirty cameras this year, much like Mirasol did and it is being paid for out of general funds. PS I neither sell real estate or own property in Villa Nova, although it sure sounds like I am one or the other. Just a tenant who will never move from Villa Nova.

[RickS]

Try Villa Nova.

Now water.... that's another story.

[Hernan Santiago]

Now water.... that's another story.

Rick this is old news and you are talking about four years ago when Villa Nova did have a water problem and had to replace the drilling equipment and we had to have pipas of water brought in, which Villa Nova reimbursed all of us for with a receipt. We are now and have been good to go for four years and we have the largest well in the area, which at current consumption, will provide water to us for more than 100 years and water is provided to all properties here 24/7/365. Never shutoff unless repairs need to be made and then we are warned well in advance by the Villa Nova e-mail system to all who live here. I appreciate you bringing this up as this unsubstantiated and now very old rumor about Villa Nova and its water still continues to this day due to folks spreading unfounded rumors. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to correct this incorrect and tired, old subject..

[Floradude]

No electricity then no water.

[Hernan Santiago]

No electricity then no water.

Maybe where you live that is true. Where I live, no electricity, still water, as it is pumped, clean and filtered and potable directly into our homes and we are not reliant on our aljibes or tinacos other than in a long term emergency situation. Fresh and purified water 24/7/365, other than the rare hiccups for a couple of hours. Villa Nova and Chula Vista are the only two fraccs in lakeside that have their own wells and water purification system.

[holdrja]

The 2 years that we've lived above Hacienda La Labor (just east of Chapala), the longest power outage that we've had has been 4 hours -- and the whole valley was out at that point due to a car hitting an electric pole.

Last night with the heavy winds, rain, lightening and thunder the electricity went out several times -- longest outage was about a minute. While we were running around unplugging everything :-)

I can't speak to water outages - we have our own well. Yup - no power, no water....

[tomgates]

We are in Ajijic village and have zero issues with either electricity or municipal water.

[mexilady]

Several years ago over a Christmas holiday, La Cristina experienced a power outage almost every day for a two weeks. Some for 2 or 3 hours some for 18 hours. The gringo side of the community discussed it and realized that all our lake front houses were occupied with Tapitio holiday visitors that were pushing our power grid to the max.

We made copies of our electric bills, documented the outages, had a Mexican neighbor make an appointment with CFE "big guys" in Chapala. We arrived " en mass" and showed them that the power grid had not been updated in ten to fifteen years even though our population had more then doubled in the neighborhood. Since we were all on DAC at the time (before a lot of us went to solar) we told them we expected better service.

Within the week, CFE arrived and shut down the squatters stealing electricity and gave us another generator. We still will have some outages on extremely busy weekends but have found that CFE will come out and get us up and running with a few hours even if its nighttime. On holiday weekends we have an ex-CFE empoyee that can get us up and running again as well.

Two weeks ago we had an issue with the water company only giving us water from 9pm to 9am. Since many of us use city water to water our gardens instead of water going through our softening and purification systems we found the current system unacceptable.We went and spoke to the Siampa. In two days the system was changed and we now get water during the day on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Our lesson learned is that there is power in numbers and the amount we all pay as gringos for those services. Above all is to remember that their isn't an agency in this village area that is out to "get us". We just have to learn that their are different perceptions to problems and problem fixing.

We all remember from our working days that we make assumptions and decisions on the knowledge we have. La Cristina has found that when those decisions don't work for us and we present our side of the argument to the various agencies we deal with we are treated very fairly and we thank everyone involved.

[virgogirl]

Heart of the town of Ajijic, on carretera near Colon. Never a problem with electric, water or Telmex. Just noise. I found that adjusting to the noise works better for me than facing those outage problems.

[cedros]

Raquet Club. We used to have a lot of electrical outages and brownouts. Several years ago residents presented a petition to CFE to improve the service and had meetings with them. Since then the electrical supply has been much better.

Myself and others are still having problems with the water shortage here.

[Mainecoons]

Couple years ago, a storm like last night's was pretty much a guaranteed power outage for us in SE Ajijic. This time, a couple of burps and that was it, power remained on.

Since we've lived here, there have been significant improvements in service from TelMex, Telecable, SIMAPA, and now CFE. We really appreciate it very much.

[Animalover]

Mirasol has no probls about electricity or water....

[todobien]

Power off in Mirasol since 10pm last night.

[RickS]

Rick this is old news Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to correct this incorrect and tired, old subject..

You're welcome. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

[hensley]

My power in Mirasol didn't go out until midnight but back on at 9:30am.

I will never live in a house that has a pressure pump, I like the old thinking of Mexico, Old water system and old water heater and I always have water and hot water, if there is no electricity.

I also have a butane curling iron and a hair dryer that plugs into the cigarette lighter of a car and lanterns and a book reading light. I am all set.

[ComputerGuy]

The power did not go off in lower Ch. Vista on Sunday night; probably because when we called Sunday morning to report the problem (it had not been reported til 8 am! We tried Saturday night at 11 after the BIG bang but gave up after 30 minutes on hold), we asked if we could report ahead of time for Sunday night. They have a continuous problem with the one pole; probably because of their habit of sticking a giant paper-clip in there instead of replacing the transformer.

Friday night was a brownout, and yes, you can expect the power to fluctuate wildly. Saturday was a much bigger and complete blackout; we heard two bangs, although one might have been an echo of the first.

This is not typical of Ch. Vista in particular, and if you have only been here awhile, you'll know that the power situation is much better than it used to be. However, Friday night's outage occurred down the street with only a spit of rain in the air; same thing on Saturday night. I expect outages in the rainy season here, but not before the rain has started.

[Monessen]

The power was off in our section of Chapala near Cristiania Park on Saturday (7 hours) and Last night until 6:30 am this morning. It begins just after the rain starts. This past week we have had no water in the morning until 9 am three times--a first for us. Watching storms by candlelight isn't too bad so far.