The water we receive from the city is considered “potable” and is safe for washing, bathing, and even dishes. You can also cook with it if boiling something, but most gringos choose not to. (I’ve been cooking with it for years and years, and am alive to write this blog.) I don’t know anyone who drinks it, save for a few local families. Everyone buys commercially prepared purified water (agua purificada), delivered to your doorstep.
The city water is metered and costs about the equivalent of $5.00 US Dollars per month. It trickles in to your home and is stored in a “tinaco” which is made from high impact plastic and/or fiberglass. They can also be made from cement!. The tinaco is normally located on the roof and is almost always black in color. The black color absorbs the sun’s rays and in turn, heats the water stored in the tinaco. This could be the original forerunner of solar heating! However, keep in mind that when the sun goes down, so goes the temperature of the water in the tinaco, and hasta la vista agua caliente!
There is no pressure provided by the city unless you consider a gravitational trickle comparable to low pressure! The water flows from the tinaco to your taps via gravity. If you’ve never experienced it, perhaps you can imagine how long it sometimes takes to complete a shower. Lots of folks liken it to a gentle rain.
Personally, I’m not much into gentle rains. Give me a storm! Therefore, I purchased a pressure system for my home. When I did, the water heater I had (only 3 years old) sprung a leak and was determined to be “unfixable” due to the pressure system. Therefore, I trotted down to Home Depot, discussed the problem with a water heater technician (so-to-speak) who just happened to be in the office picking up installation orders, and I purchased a fancy Bosch model with an electronic ignition and on-demand hot water. This water heater is made especially for pressurized systems. Wow, good to go!
It’s the type of water heater that provides “on demand” hot water and doesn’t have a pilot light to go out all the time. When you turn on a hot water tap, the water flows through a special valve in the water heater and it, in turn, causes the electronic firing system to produce a spark, which then lights the gas to heat the water. Sounds complicated, but it works. (I have to remember to replace the batteries ever few months, or there will be no spark to ignite the gas!)
So, I now have pressurized water, hot and cold, in every tap in the house, including the washer! Talk about creature comforts! I don’t often allow myself too many extravagant luxuries, but I do like my hot showers and I like ‘em under pressure!
We’ll see how well this continues to work, and how long it will last. Hopefully, long enough to get my money’s worth out of it!
Friday, October 2, 2009
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Let me know how that works for you. We had one of those and had it taken out, it is instant hot water but also instant cold water when it decides the pressure has changed. It was either our pressure system cutting in and out - ours does that when the pressure drops below a set number - or it was when you add cold to the hot and thus reduce the pressure of the hot. At any rate, the only way to not have the water go suddenly cold while the soap was in your hair was to leave the hot water on in the sink. That seems such a waste and nothing else they did worked. We dumped the Bosch and got a regular one. I turn it off in the summer and on in the winter. Oh, and we have a tan and insulated tinaco on the roof and it does keep the cold water a little cooler in the daytime. It's not cold but it doesn't scald you.
ReplyDeleteWe built a special platform on our roof so the water now drops 3 stories to get to us. Great increase of water pressure.
ReplyDeleteI, too, cook with faucet (tinaco) water. Boiling pasta, etc. I discard that water after use though. I use tinaco water for brushing my teeth also. Still alive and kicking!