Getting Electricity

[astr]

Scott,

I greatly enjoyed your article regarding building your mountain home in Costa Rica. It looks like it turned out beautifully!

My wife and I are looking at a remote parcel of land with the intention of building a home. I will be back in Costa Rica later this month to inspect the parcel again and get some of the paperwork started. One of my concerns is the lack of electricity at the parcel. I noticed that you have a line item in your costs for bringing electricity to your land. What did that cost cover? How far away was electricity from your parcel?

[costaricafinca]

astr, although you have addressed this question to Scott, I will put my 2 col. in anyway!
Having purchased an ‘out of the way’ parcel rather than remote, I would tell you to be very, very careful before you decide to go ahead and purchase the property. Of course, when we bought it, we were told ‘of course their is power, just at that other farm…’ Which there wasn’t. We ended up buying an adjoining piece of property on the other side of the mountain, solely because it had power.
While, one may like the ‘remoteness’ at first, trying to bring in any utilities to make life livable, may be impossible or just very expensive.
Is there water on the property?
Near a road that has power poles on it?
While many say that a phone line is not really necessary anymore, do you want to have to climb another hill to make a call? And how about receiving one?
Where we are now, it cost over $7,000 to get phonelines.
There are many bargains to be had, but most of us that have actually lived here, recommend renting first. It is very easy to buy….but very difficult to sell.

I should also have added that even if one sees phone lines going past your door, do not ‘presume that getting a phone line’ will be easy. If the maximum number on that line, maybe on 10 lines, you will have to wait or possibly pay for another one. This happened to us and we were lucky that we ‘purchased ‘a phone line from someone who moved from further down the hill but neighbors right next door waited 4 years…

Edited on Oct 21, 2009 08:56

[astr]

Thanks for your reply costaricafinca,

I’ve lived off and on in Costa Rica and my wife is from there so have had some experience with the idiosyncrasies of CR. We’ve been looking for some time for property and very much like this parcel that we are currently considering. There are no phone lines in the vicinity but cellular signal is strong at the proposed building site. There are several natural springs on the property so water shouldn’t be a problem. During this next trip down, I will measure the flow rate and get samples to check for contamination. My biggest concern is the availability of electricity which I know will require some outlay of money to get. Hopefully, I can get a better handle on what it will cost this next trip down. That was the reason for my original question, to get other peoples experiences.

[DavidCMurray]

I have two thoughts to share: First, I’ve been told that you do not automatically have a right to use the water that’s on or underneath your property. As I get it, even if you dig a well, the law considers the groundwater to be a public asset and you must get a concession to use it. Maybe someone can elaborate or confirm (or deny) this.

Second, there are companies which can bring a single strand of wire from the main ICE lines to your building site. I think it’s called a “primary feed” or somesuch and it carries 2,400 volts. Then, once at your site, it’s connected to a step-down transformer (which you must supply and maintain) that converts the current to the 240 volts that are needed for residential use.

One advantage of this approach is that the “primary feed” wire is a single strand, not three, and it’s smaller. And the poles can be farther apart. Accordingly, it’s cheaper to install.

The other advantage is that, since the conversion from 2,400 volts to 240 volts occurs nearby your house, there is no dropoff in voltage as there would be if you brought 240 volts all the way from the main lines which might be many hundreds of meters away.

[costaricafinca]

Yes, you must get permission to use the spring.
We had problems on the farm when transferring ownership…it took 2 years…mainly due to ‘officials’ saying we had a year round river/springs on the property, which we didn’t. We ran out of water, in the previous years
They said we had to ‘give them’ that block of land for public use.
They eventually realized, that they were wrong…

Edited on Oct 30, 2009 09:19

[astr]

Thanks for your reply. I definitely will need to get clarification on the water isuue.

I do like your suggestion regarding the electricity. The other advantage to owing the transformer is that ICE will not be tempted to feed other properties from it. I’ve seen that happen in the US where a friend of mine paid the power company to put in a transformer but it remained the property of the power company. Over the years, they connected more and more drops to that transformer until he started having problems with low voltage during heavy use hours. The power company suggested that he get his own transformer to remedy the problem. Took intervention by his attorney to remedy the problem.

[DavidCMurray]

astr, if you do the 2,400 volt primary feed to a 240 volt step-down transformer, I’ve been told that you’ll have enough power to supply ten or more homes. That sounds like exactly what your friend’s experience was.

[albertoB]

That would depend on the size of the transformer David. Transformers can be bought in varying sizes. The power companies are like internet companies, they add new subscribers at low cost to themselves until someone complains. You should have a written agreement with them that no others will be added to your transformer. A transformer is some isolation from voltage fluctuations, but if your neighbor is on your transformer and he uses industrial motors or welders or has badly wired his property, you will get the full effect of his bad voltage spikes. The power in Cr is not stable at the best of times due to overloading undersized wires and lightning strikes. If you can get your own transformer you start out right.

Alberto

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