Electric power and the demise of an ancient electronic...

The electricity here in Brazil is odd at times. Not talking about the weird thing of having two different voltages throughout the country (110/220). My topic is the weird fact that the power will turn off at weird times for no reason and come back on just barely. Usually it happens once every two months and there isn't a cloud in the sky. It's the amperes part of the electricity. Yeah the lights will work but no appliances will.

For example, we had a very powerful tropical storm last Saturday that actually flooded the front part of our house, but luckily I was here to use this broom type thing to keep pushing the water out the front door. It was so intense that we had a roof leak in our livingroom and a bedroom. Our roof is a typical roof here, but not built to withstand a hard rain or for that matter a long steady rain. I consider it a very poor design. With this crazy storm the power went off a couple times, but always came back on with no problems at all.

So Sunday night I hear the noise that announces, hey the power just went off and came back on. It's our ancient printer for the computer. This printer turns on and does a test with every flicker of the electricity. You know the test of moving all its internal parts around and making the typical printer noises from the 1990's. Yes, that's it! It's very possible that this printer is actually older than our 9 year old son. The printer still works very well and I don't mind its ancient ways of sometimes only printing when it wants too or the fact it only works with an old laptop computer. Its temperamental at times I guess, but I don't have the heart to let it go.

Well this noise happened sometime early Sunday morning and it made me roll over in bed. Not a big deal and it's nice to actually get a heads up that the power is back on now. Usually when this happens I venture into my office and turn the printer back off. Well that morning the printer was off, but the lights in the house worked. I knew then there was a problem with the electricity. Went into the kitchen to find the refrigerator not working, well one light inside worked. Next, I turned on the coffee maker and the "on" light works just barely, but it not powerful enough to pump the water.

So unfortunately the printer couldn't handle the off and on of the past few days of power and has since gone to the electronics heaven. We are currently in the process of searching for a worthy replacement. Its sad times in our household...well for me it is. I think my wife could care less! I will sleep a little less assured now with this ancient electronic not warning me of potential problems.

I will make sure to disconnect the next printer when not in use. It was attached to a power strip with protection, but didn't work. Perhaps old age finally got this ancient relic. I think this is great advice to anyone living in Brazil. Disconnect any unused devices to prevent loss.                   

The shower has electricity going to it...Zap

Let's talk about the wiring here in Brazil. It's very similar to American wiring, just a little bit more juice involved and some caveman style application. The voltage here is 220 volts and I have experienced a jolt a few times with the well that doesn't work. A little more painful then the standard 110 volts like in America. The weird part here in Brazil, is the whole country is not 220 volts. There is parts of the country, mainly around São Paulo that are 110 volts. Plus, many Brazilians buy in America and bring the electronics here. Its standard to see a 220v-110v converters here and there. I have a bunch of them in random sizes depending on the appliance they are used for around my house.

There is also no water heater tanks in the houses here like you would find in an American house. The only type of water heaters I have seen here are for the pool and shower. Yes, there is wires going to the shower. At first it seems like you got to be kidding me and then its who the hell thought of this. That's 220 volts right above my head, when I am naked and wet. All I can think of is those warning pictures of a man standing in water messing with electrical wires. This is a very odd thing for an American.

Well, if you have read my earlier post on the rain in my office, you would of heard about my shower head debacle. So, these showers are very expensive and fancy with a digital temperature gauge. They are also not very good quality. The water here has some calcium build up and will clog very fine holes like the ones in these showers. So I have started a little graveyard of the ones that blew up and use what parts I can to keep the last one working. I am hoping to get another piece to fix the other shower in the master bedroom (the head). The only reason I like them is because I can see the temperature. The basic showers that I replaced the others with have 3 selections of temperature: warm, hot and extremely hot. Its nice to select an exact temperature!

I went out and bought 3 basic showers to put in the boys bedrooms and the guest bedroom. For a little while we shared the the master bathroom shower and it was getting crowded each night trying to get ready for bed. Time for them to move back to their rooms. The new showers were a great price at R$120 (USD $37.50). As you can see in the pictures they are huge and have two different ways for the water to spray out. A true rainfall shower and that is actually a true statement here. The water to the house is gravity fed from the two large tanks in the tower on the roof.

The problem with the new showers for me was the fact they were not pre-wired to just plug into the wall. A very weird concept of buying a supposedly ready to use shower but you need to wire it to plug into the wall. Or there is another way...shove the 3 wires into the receptacle. The shower adapter to the water line screwed in easy and the whole shower attached to that. So easy to install but now it was time for the wire part. It took me about a week to work up the courage to shove wires directly into the receptacle. Yes, I turned off the circuit breakers to the house...all of them. Just because a receptacle is in your kitchen doesn't mean the circuit breaker box next to the kitchen is responsible for it. Found that out when we hooked up the dishwasher...a few kitchen receptacles go to the garage downstairs for some strange reason.

First I made sure a responsible adult was in the house, in case I had an accident and shocked the piss out of myself. Then I just went and did it! Prayed I put the wires in the correct holes even though the Internet told me it could be backwards. This could definitely happen here! All wires are in and I started the process of turning all 3 circuit breaker boxes back on. No strange bangs or burning smell and everything seems fine. Next was to test them out and see what happens. Luckily they all worked and no problems at all.

Old Showers, one is currently inoperable 

New awesome simple shower with wires shoved in the receptacle 

For me this is a strange concept of no water heater for the whole house and the fact you can shove the wires into the receptacle. Well until next time, thanks for reading!