Chile Forum

Now see RWS, that makes sense to me! While it feels cold to an old gal like me used to tropical weather, it does actually seem fairly warm, considering....The rain is incredible, and the flooding is beyond belief. Went to Argentina yesterday and the Fu was all out of it's banks, fields were lakes and the road to Trevelin and Esquel HIDEOUS with potholes. Anyway, just as when you have cloud cover, it's warmer, and clear skies tend to go with chilly nights, it would make perfect sense. But then my weather-sense involves opening the front door and deciding if it's a one-pair-of socks day, or a two-pair-of socks day. Then there are the "It's too damned cold, I'm going back to bed" days.

My car insurance for Argentina cost me 47,000 pesos for one month of traveling back and forth. Now tell me that isn't the biggest stinking rip-off of all time! ONE MONTH! And just about the only safe vehicles on the road with actual brakes and turn signals and good tires, are the CHILENO vehicles. I like old cars, but the baling-wire, rattle traps with no headlights and batteries strapped to the fender wrecks they drive in Argentina take me back to my days in Costa Rica! 47,000 pesos, disgusting rip-off.

Also...after months of 7-12,000 peso electric bills, we just got a 37,000 peso bill for the month of May and June. Now, lets see, how many candles did I have to burn over the past two months?????? The little bar graph shows that we supposedly used twice as much electric in these two months as we did in January. If January was 11,000 pesos, why is this bill 37,000???? April was 7,200. May we have frequent outages, as we did in June.

I've seen quite a few town meetings going on, I will ask Guido from the town council what's up. Other than that, more folks returning, and several families from Chaiten coming back and finding lodging here.

And so it goes....

Vicki

Re electric bills, not sure if it is Chile-wide but here, in the winter season, we are charged normal rate for up to 20% over our summer usage rate and then any usage over that is effectively double the charge. Which actually leads me to believe it's better to waste a bit more electricity in summer and thus save on the costs in winter. Definitely encourages more thoughtful use of energy as it can sting. We had some american guests in our house last winter and the monthly bill went from 30,000 to more than 250,000. Environmentally it's a beyatch, as it means we burn more and more wood for heating as the cheapest option, and thus contribute to the smog soup. However at least we have done what we can to insulate our house! And have finally sourced some sustainably managed forest firewood.
As an aside, went to argentina last weekend and noticed no smog at all, as they have gas. Huge difference. Though at the rate they use it for central heating they can't have much left nowadays....

I don't have AC but the usual other stuff like a dryer, ceiling fans, dishwasher, toaster oven. Our bimonthly bill went from about $300-350 to almost $600 this month because of the cost of fuel. PR has among the highest energy cost anywhere i read recently.

It's funny the different perspectives as I wouldn't call that the usual stuff at all! I think that lot would blow the circuit on our house.

On the subject of recent electric bills in Central and Southern Chile

Santiago Times - July 8 wrote:Electricity prices in central and southern Chile appear ready to fall,
following a 36 percent drop in energy-production costs since April.
Meanwhile, electricity rates in northern Chile continue to rise.
Heavy May and June rainfall in central and southern Chile has swelled reservoirs, increasing production of low-cost
hydroelectricity.

Between May and June, energy-production costs fell by an average of 29 percent, from US$252 to US$180 per
megawatt hour (MWh). Experts predict this drop to continue. If it does, it will benefit the 93 percent of Chile’s population
whose electricity is supplied by the Interconnected Central System (SIC), which connects all users between Taltal and
Chiloé.

However, electricity consultant María Isabel González told Chilean daily La Tercera that the future of electricity prices
could depend entirely on the position of the dollar. A rise in the dollar may lessen, or even cancel out, the predicted
benefits of the recent rainfall on electricity prices.

It is the usual stuff in the tropics (and very usual in the places most of us are coming from). It rains here every day so you either build a covered porch to dry laundry or you have a dryer. I work 60 hours a week so I don't have time anyway to mess with laundry. I was only comparing the costs of electric.
I can understand not having a dryer, but a toaster and a fan (in hot weathe) are not out of the ordinary.



****Yes the dishwasher is a luxury.
In the old days in Chile there would have been "Help" to do that stuff. When I was growing up in Chile you either had a maid or were a maid and even some of the maids had help in there own homes. It is still that way in many parts of Chile, many families still have staff and Nanas who even live in.

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:. . . .

Santiago Times - July 8 wrote:. . . . [T]he future of electricity prices could depend entirely on the position of the dollar. . . .

I infer that this is because imported electricity is priced in dollars, still not uncommon between states. Or are the utilities paying other more or less fixed costs, such as engineers' salaries, in dollars?

Our electric company in Temuco is Codiner. And they do something similar to what g-p-o says. They take the average of the 6 (spring & summer) months and use that for your ceiling rate. If you use a lot during that time than you have a higher average. So the current rate is around 124.56 pesos per KWH to the ceiling and 202.76 pesos per KWH for the usage above the ceiling rate. While it is not a 100% increase, it is more than 50% (62.78%).

Well, well, well. I'd not anticipated using air conditioning (not minding the Chilean heat so much as the Chilean cold, and disliking much use of electricity anyway), but perhaps I should reconsider in order to be able to keep from either freezing or becoming impoverished during wintertime.

helibel wrote:... but a toaster ... [is] ... not out of the ordinary.

For the average Chilean and expats like me, it would be an unneeded luxury sucking up even more electricity. I'm doing fine with my toaster tray you put over the stove. This contraption is also used to cook rice in a pot over a range burner.

RWS wrote:

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:. . . .

Santiago Times - July 8 wrote:. . . . [T]he future of electricity prices could depend entirely on the position of the dollar. . . .

I infer that this is because imported electricity is priced in dollars, still not uncommon between states. Or are the utilities paying other more or less fixed costs, such as engineers' salaries, in dollars?

I'm not familiar with the electric generating industry so I assume she must be referring to fixed costs as the topic was on in-Chile hydro production.

eeuu, do you use the toaster tray over a gas stove? I have seen them in the stores everywhere. I think I will go pick up one and use it. It reminds me of the thing we used to bake mochi on years ago.

While speaking about gas stovetops, do all of them have only two settings (a bit more and not so much; medium low and something less than medium low)? The gas stovetop that we had before allowed you to adjust as fine or as much as needed.

mlightheart wrote:eeuu, do you use the toaster tray over a gas stove? I have seen them in the stores everywhere. I think I will go pick up one and use it. It reminds me of the thing we used to bake mochi on years ago.

While speaking about gas stovetops, do all of them have only two settings (a bit more and not so much; medium low and something less than medium low)? The gas stovetop that we had before allowed you to adjust as fine or as much as needed.

Yes, buy a stainless steel one for lasting durability. I'm still using the one I bought six years ago. Mochi - HA!! - I recently ate some fresh mochi when I was in So Cal.

My gas range: made in Brasil by Whirlpool is adjustable but has two lock-feel-type settings for maximum and minimum.

From Alan Sullivan today (seablogger.com)

Sernageomin has posted another bulletin. Seismicity has begun to decline at the volcano, and the geologists are increasingly confident that the eruption is winding down. The webcam view is clear this morning. It shows a copious but weak plume shearing east at low elevation. I do not think it will be necessary to update again, though I’ll keep an eye on the area for awhile. My interest in Chaitén has always been its potential for affecting global climate. The eruption has been a large one, but the volcano only made a few brief shots into the stratosphere. This was an unusual event with a very long sustained, moderate venting of ash. It buried the countryside nearby, smothered all the local valleys in mud, but it did not affect the upper atmosphere. I remain concerned about cooling driven by the solar minimum (no sunspots today) and other factors, but the obscure South American volcano now seems very unlikely to exacerbate the problem.

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote:Now see RWS, that makes sense to me! While it feels cold to an old gal like me used to tropical weather, it does actually seem fairly warm, considering....The rain is incredible, and the flooding is beyond belief. Went to Argentina yesterday and the Fu was all out of it's banks, fields were lakes and the road to Trevelin and Esquel HIDEOUS with potholes. Anyway, just as when you have cloud cover, it's warmer, and clear skies tend to go with chilly nights, it would make perfect sense. But then my weather-sense involves opening the front door and deciding if it's a one-pair-of socks day, or a two-pair-of socks day. Then there are the "It's too damned cold, I'm going back to bed" days.

My car insurance for Argentina cost me 47,000 pesos for one month of traveling back and forth. Now tell me that isn't the biggest stinking rip-off of all time! ONE MONTH! And just about the only safe vehicles on the road with actual brakes and turn signals and good tires, are the CHILENO vehicles. I like old cars, but the baling-wire, rattle traps with no headlights and batteries strapped to the fender wrecks they drive in Argentina take me back to my days in Costa Rica! 47,000 pesos, disgusting rip-off.

Also...after months of 7-12,000 peso electric bills, we just got a 37,000 peso bill for the month of May and June. Now, lets see, how many candles did I have to burn over the past two months?????? The little bar graph shows that we supposedly used twice as much electric in these two months as we did in January. If January was 11,000 pesos, why is this bill 37,000???? April was 7,200. May we have frequent outages, as we did in June.

I've seen quite a few town meetings going on, I will ask Guido from the town council what's up. Other than that, more folks returning, and several families from Chaiten coming back and finding lodging here.

And so it goes....

Vicki

I am quoting myself because I have some corrections and detractions. First of all, I realized today that insurance in Argentina for my truck is in ARGENTINA PESOS, so 47 pesos is actually extremely cheap. Sorry Argentina, and thanks.

And my rant about the electric bill? I'm humbled. I went to the office to pay, and the cajero shook his head and pushed back some of my 10,000 peso bills back at me and explained that during the entire "emergencia" no one pays for any electric use during that time. My bill for April (which hadn't arrived when the eruption hit) and went through May 2, and the first part of July was 12,000 pesos. I'm ashamed of my ire, and bitchiness....cabin fever? I apologize for the mis-information. Not that anyone is considering spending the winter here!

Vicki