LIGHTS FLICKERING OUT

[Al Berca]

Exactly.

[johanson]

Thank God for my battery back up, photovoltaic solar panel system. When CFE fails, the batteries take over for one phase and the panels continue to charge those batteries even when CFE is out.  I only have the important things attached to this backup circuit, you know the refrig., a light in every room, power for my Telmex router, satellite receiver and one TV, the ceiling fan in the bedroom and a plug for my computer.  In the day the panels provide the power continuously and at night the 8 six volt deep cell golf cart batteries take over.

There are times when the power goes out that I wouldn't even have know it if it were not for the electric clocks on my microwave etc which need to be reset.

[econ man]

My uneducated guess based on the behavioral pattern of  the momentary outages is that some piece of equipment such as a recloser or something similar (again, uneducated) malfunctioned and it took CFE some time to track it down. Just a guess.

[Ferret]

I have just put a rechargeable battery operated fan on my wish list from Amazon. Can't seem to find one locally... not even Steren's. Seems like it would be a good idea for some store to carry them... right next to the rechargeable flashlights. Sigh.

[ComputerGuy]

2 hours ago, Floradude said:

So, the general consensus is the electrical grid cannot meet demand.  The whole infrastructure is stressed and yet the building of new condos/apts, developments, houses is going crazy all along the lake.  Where is the electrical support for all the additional customers.  How about the water needs for all of the developments and people who are moving here.  Our old pipes are constantly breaking  and water runs down the streets until SIMAPA can get it repaired.  No, worry lets just keep building.  Then there are the roads.  I know we have the finest roads, and well maintained, so we  have no worries about  about all the additional cars and people who are going to be moving into those houses, condos, developments,.......

Obviously the local and State governments, past and present, do not care or worry; why should I?

There is a continuing lack of support for infrastructure expansion. Just ask the people out in Joco, when the Senderos ticky-tacky houses were being built. They didn't have enough water, electriciy, telecommunications long before the building started. And it has just never stopped. WalMart is a prime example of massive development with little to no direct municipal support for roads, trees, etc.

[ComputerGuy]

2 hours ago, Bisbee Gal said:

I don't know what is causing the yo-yo electricity delivery for the past 20 or so hours, but May is the lowest of the low season.  The snowbirds are gone and the sweatbirds have yet to arrive.  Many homes are vacant even of full-timers who smartly plan their vacations during May.  And it's mid-week....nary a Tapatio in sight until the weekend.

My guess is that CFE will sort this out in a day or two and none of us will ever know what the cause was.  

If the grid was going to show signs of stress, it would have been this past Dec. and Jan. when we had those extended cold snaps and Lakeside was full to the brim with full-timers and part-timers......with heaters ablazing.  Fans take very little energy compared to heaters and while some folks have a/c here, the vast majority do not.  

Again, I'd have to say lack of maintenance of their own infrastructure.  Most of us experienced major power outages and communications loss (including cellular) at the first hint of a breeze a few weeks ago during the early rain. Their shoddy equipment blows and blows and blows, and is repaired with paper clips, and that sucks.

I would also not presume to think that snowbirds are the only ones who use more power during hot days. There really are a lot of Mexicans here.

So far I'm hearing lots of reasons why it is not the grid, but no reasons what it might be otherwise. Oh, and fans use an incredible amount of energy. Somewhere on the Web I'm sure I'll be able to find a comparison of watts used. Plus, we all know how the CFE's power fluctuates, in particular often over the top end, not just dropping down. A sure fire recipe for frying home gear, and on a much bigger scale, CFE installations.

[Bisbee Gal]

6 minutes ago, ComputerGuy said:

Again, I'd have to say lack of maintenance of their own infrastructure.  Most of us experienced major power outages and communications loss (including cellular) at the first hint of a breeze a few weeks ago during the early rain. Their shoddy equipment blows and blows and blows, and is repaired with paper clips, and that sucks.

I would also not presume to think that snowbirds are the only ones who use more power during hot days. There really are a lot of Mexicans here.

So far I'm hearing lots of reasons why it is not the grid, but no reasons what it might be otherwise.

The snow birds are GONE, vamoosed!  It's the end of May: the dog daze of summer for this part of the planet.  The Tapatios mostly come on weekends, at least until schools are out.  No snowbirds and no sweatbirds to speak of.  

S*** happens and sometimes a broken thingamajig or doohickey or some random part just breaks.  And sometimes the trouble-shooting takes awhile and or sometimes the part isn't nearby and needs to be brought in from god-knows-where.  It was less than 24 hours of the off/on and seems to be fixed now. 

 

[Al Berca]

Exactly. Again.

[Bisbee Gal]

37 minutes ago, ComputerGuy said:

Again, I'd have to say lack of maintenance of their own infrastructure.  Most of us experienced major power outages and communications loss (including cellular) at the first hint of a breeze a few weeks ago during the early rain. Their shoddy equipment blows and blows and blows, and is repaired with paper clips, and that sucks.

I would also not presume to think that snowbirds are the only ones who use more power during hot days. There really are a lot of Mexicans here.

So far I'm hearing lots of reasons why it is not the grid, but no reasons what it might be otherwise. Oh, and fans use an incredible amount of energy. Somewhere on the Web I'm sure I'll be able to find a comparison of watts used. Plus, we all know how the CFE's power fluctuates, in particular often over the top end, not just dropping down. A sure fire recipe for frying home gear, and on a much bigger scale, CFE installations.

Here's the best comparison of electric usage by various appliances.  

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

8 hours of a space heater on MEDIUM will draw 7.2 KWH

8 hours of a space heater on HIGH will draw 11.5 KWH

8 hours of a 52 inch (large) ceiling fan on HIGH will draw 0.8 KWH

8 hours of a 100 watt lightbulb will also draw 0.8 KWH

So, a ceiling fan draws about ONE TENTH of that of a heater.   Or the same as a light bulb.  

 

 

[Joco]

The electric has been going off and on in Joco for several days but none as bad as today. I bet it went off 15 times today between 9 am and 12:20 pm. Then it stayed on until 7 pm. Since 7 it has gone off 3 times. 

The only thing I can think of that would cause this and throughout the N. Shore is that maybe they are replacing wiring. They wait until a harness is ready, electric goes off until it is plugged in and then there is electric unless that piece needs more work. 

Maybe some technician can offer ideas. I think it stayed on all day yesterday and over the weekend so if it was bad equipment, wouldn't the problem be continuous and not sporadic?

 

 

[ComputerGuy]

I am more than happy to concede that fans take a lot less juice than heaters. I will not concede that only snowbirds use fans. That is ludicrous, as anyone who has lived here 35 years and watched fans come into existence in this country, and watched Mexicans walk out of stores with more and more fans every day, will tell you.

However, we are quibbling about bits of bother. Joco makes a good guess, but that's not the way the business works. What you are seeing when the power flickers repeatedly is failing equipment due to heavy strain, not workers replacing wiring in the middle of the night (rather, the system is set up to recognize a fault, isolate the problem, and auto-switch to a secondary source). And certainly not to the extent that it causes TelMex, TelCel, and Telecable, and Pemex, to be without power. These are mostly huge monopolistic corporations that have a major stake in keeping things running.

[Joco]

1 hour ago, ComputerGuy said:

I am more than happy to concede that fans take a lot less juice than heaters. I will not concede that only snowbirds use fans. That is ludicrous, as anyone who has lived here 35 years and watched fans come into existence in this country, and watched Mexicans walk out of stores with more and more fans every day, will tell you.

However, we are quibbling about bits of bother. Joco makes a good guess, but that's not the way the business works. What you are seeing when the power flickers repeatedly is failing equipment due to heavy strain, not workers replacing wiring in the middle of the night (rather, the system is set up to recognize a fault, isolate the problem, and auto-switch to a secondary source). And certainly not to the extent that it causes TelMex, TelCel, and Telecable, and Pemex, to be without power. These are mostly huge monopolistic corporations that have a major stake in keeping things running.

No, the lights were flickering here during working hours. It doesn't start until 9AM which is why I think it is due to repairs and not chance. 

[ComputerGuy]

CFE now has 24 hour repairs, and certainly some power fluctuations are going to be due to repairs. But most were seeing actual outages, brief though they may have been, continuously, and at all hours.

[Bisbee Gal]

8 hours ago, ComputerGuy said:

I am more than happy to concede that fans take a lot less juice than heaters. I will not concede that only snowbirds use fans. That is ludicrous, as anyone who has lived here 35 years and watched fans come into existence in this country, and watched Mexicans walk out of stores with more and more fans every day, will tell you.

However, we are quibbling about bits of bother. Joco makes a good guess, but that's not the way the business works. What you are seeing when the power flickers repeatedly is failing equipment due to heavy strain, not workers replacing wiring in the middle of the night (rather, the system is set up to recognize a fault, isolate the problem, and auto-switch to a secondary source). And certainly not to the extent that it causes TelMex, TelCel, and Telecable, and Pemex, to be without power. These are mostly huge monopolistic corporations that have a major stake in keeping things running.

I never said only snowbirds use fans.  What I said was the snowbirds are GONE.  Snowbirds by definition are here in the WINTER.  And as I said, the sweatbirds are not yet here.  And many fulltimers are on vacation.  Ajijic is a ghost town practically, not just this May but every May.  We go out to dinner in Ajijic every night....the restaurants are empty on weeknights, many of them have or are closed for summer break. 

Yes of course MXNs use fans.....and again, fans use as much power as a single light bulb. 

As I said earlier, this will be fixed soon (and it likely already was when I said that).  And we will never know what the problem was.  

Between the time we first bought a home here in 2008 and now, we see little difference with CFE and its service....should they have improved in 10 years, certainly.  But considering the growth in the last 10 years they continue to at least tread water.  

[bruno]

gotta say....thank goodness for chapala.com....without which my transplant may have proved too much. now let's see....where was i ......?

[Alpha1]

Voltage currently stable at 116.6 V. 👍

[Joco]

My electric started going off and on after 9AM again and I hope it finally stopped at 4:15 PM. I can tell when the electric is shutting down because the swamp cooler starts browning out. I think they are working on the equipment before the rains start to prevent problems but it is nerve racking.

[CHILLIN]

My own theory is that CFE has a whole workforce devoted to fix broken down equipment. In the North, they believe in preventative maintenance, they determine the useful life for a transformer, lets say, and this is determined by the manufacturer. If that transformer breaks down prematurely, the the manufacturer  is held at least partly liable. It is the same with automobiles, if one headlight or tailight goes, it is best to replace them all with new ones because the old ones have reached their useful life.

[pappysmarket]

2 hours ago, Ajijic_hiker said:

Would have been helpful if CFE made a public statement, to help all this 2nd guessing....

That would be the day after Hell freezes over.

[Ferret]

And if Hell froze over, we wouldn't need CFE to keep the fans and air conditioners going.

[cedros]

Be thankful that you just have flickering lights. In the Raquet Club residents got a message from their office that since voltage is very low they can't pump water to the homes until an unknown date.

[Alpha1]

4 hours ago, Ajijic_hiker said:

Would have been helpful if CFE made a public statement, to help all this 2nd guessing....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushroom_management