WAPA is the worst excuse for a power company ever!

What amazes me is that apparently there is no 'tipping point' in the eyes of the populace.

This may be a dumb question, but since you brought it up.......are the appliances destroyed from the power outages? I know where we have lived in the mountains, the brown outs cause damage to the refrigerators and freezers, but not to much else.....so just needing some info to prepare for what awaits. Thank you in advance

Eventually yes. Frigdes suffer. So do appliances with brains, like most modern washers, dryers etc. I am awaiting a new 'motherboard' for my washer right now. Whole-house surge protectors help a lot but they cannot help in a brown out.

We have lost power three (tree) times in less than 24 hours. We lost power at 10:00 pm yesterday. At 10:15 am this morning and then again at 7:30 tonight.

They should pay us for the damages to our appliances and electronics.

Hodges salary should be adjusted downward for every outage.

Amen on your suggestion Rotorhead.

i think wapa has been like this from it's inception...some years ago, if a transformer would blow and they didn't have a spare one on hand, they would have to ship it in and it took days...sometimes longer...blah on wapa

I don't think the problem is entirely WAPA's fault.
Rather, it's the fact that they/we are small. 120,000 people on three islands in the tropics.
Compare that to several million people and industries that are part of the average stateside utility grid.
In such a grid you can afford redundancy, and infrastructure upgrades.

How much does the govt owe Wapa right now? There's your maintenance budget.

I also find it kindof funny that people who want to live on an island in the tropics complain
when they don't get suburban amenities. I may feel differently if my icebox melts, if so, I'll let you know 😉

we have lost a few tv's even with a surge protector. hubby is going to talk to the landlord about getting a surge protector for the whole house.

Neil, you are right that there can be an economy of scale at work.

But in the case of WAPA, they have long since put the lie to that argument.

The major hotels on St. Croix have found it cheaper, both in terms of electrical generation costs and quality of power/longevity of appliances, to generate their own power. In fact, it was cheaper for the Buccaneer and Divi to generate their own electricity back when fuel oil was less than a buck a gallon.

That, to me, is the most damning aspect of this whole debacle.

I have been through 3 whole house surge protectors. Cooked by power spikes. My new ASKO dishwasher need major electronic service.Back to hand washing until the parts come in.WAPA is much like most of the large service suppliers on the island. They have some great people working, and many doing nothing but collecting a check.If I wanted St. Croix like my home in California, I wouldn't have move here. Every place has issues.

I guess we will depend on handwashing dishes, my main concern will be the refrigerator.....but I guess I will just need to make sure I don't have too much in it at a time....so if/when it dies, I don't lose as much food. My landlord is having us be responsible for appliances...so that is the reason for my questions...........I have lived at 7000 feet in 50 feet of snow for 12 years,.....so just same problem, different symptoms. I think I am ready for the tropics:D

"Caribbean Power Grid Is Feasible, Study Finds"
http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2011/08/01/caribbean-power-grid-feasible-study-finds

"Connecting St. Thomas, St. Croix and the British Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico's electrical grid with submarine cables is technically possible and economically feasible, according to a just-released study performed by the energy technology firm Siemens."

The article also says that a grid connection could lower rates and improve reliability for USVI.

A dishwasher? ha. I hadn't use those in years, even while I lived in the US. I never dirty enough dishes to constitute one. Plus, why would you waste the water and electricity on a dishwasher?? Unless you have the money to waste, you could save quite a bit just washing by hand.

Any case. WAPA is a corrupt business. They actively resist improvements and actively block competition. Then they wonder why the public hates them? Really... For a company that has to rebuild every few years, they sure don't seem to do jack to /improve/ the infrastructure.

A dishwasher? ha. I hadn't use those in years, even while I lived in the US. I never dirty enough dishes to constitute one. Plus, why would you waste the water and electricity on a dishwasher?? Unless you have the money to waste, you could save quite a bit just washing by hand.

Actually dishwashers use far less energy and water than hand washing: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/dishwasher_vs_h.php

So if you want to save money (and time) go get yourself a dishwasher!

Sean

 

A dishwasher? ha. I hadn't use those in years, even while I lived in the US. I never dirty enough dishes to constitute one. Plus, why would you waste the water and electricity on a dishwasher?? Unless you have the money to waste, you could save quite a bit just washing by hand.

Actually dishwashers use far less energy and water than hand washing: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/dishwasher_vs_h.php

So if you want to save money (and time) go get yourself a dishwasher!

Sean

I read that "article." What a poor excuse for explaining that machine dish washers are better than hand washing. I have a hard time believing it mainly because the dishes basically have to be washed before they are put in the machine washer anyways.

I call BS.

 

In a good dishwasher the dishes don't have to be washed or rinsed before putting them in. We scrape our plate and put the dishes in basically and it works fine.

A more credible source for you might be Energy Star itself: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dishwash.pr_handwash_dishwash

Here's a quote from the site:
Save energy and water.

Thought you were efficient? A new ENERGY STAR qualified dishwasher uses less than half as much energy as washing dishes by hand and saves nearly 5,000 gallons of water a year!

Hope this helps.

Sean

😮
I had no idea!! Thanks Sean!

But really how can that be?*-) Washing by hand you run the water pump to deliver pressure and if you don't have solar water heating you'll pay for heating water. In a dishwasher, that same pump has to fill the dw with the same hot water, the dw then heats the water more if required, circulates water, and dries with heat as an option.

Just don't see it being more efficient.

It uses less water than hand washing. My understanding is a dishwasher doesn't "fill" up like a washing machine, it shoots water at the dishes at a very high temperature and speed to basically beat and steam the dirt off of the dishes. But I'm not a dishwasher expert 🙂

The studies I've read indicate that its possible to use less water by hand washing but highly unlikely you will do so. In real world tests the dishwasher always beats the human.

Sean

Neil, you are right that there can be an economy of scale at work.

But in the case of WAPA, they have long since put the lie to that argument.

The major hotels on St. Croix have found it cheaper, both in terms of electrical generation costs and quality of power/longevity of appliances, to generate their own power. In fact, it was cheaper for the Buccaneer and Divi to generate their own electricity back when fuel oil was less than a buck a gallon.

That, to me, is the most damning aspect of this whole debacle.

Actually, your comment isn't "damning", -- it supports the contention that WAPA can't compete with other fossil fuels BECAUSE there is no economy of scale. The hotels are a prime example of this. Rather, what it needs to do is move AWAY from fossil fuels...because it can't compete with them.

If WAPA would go solar and wind, then they can achieve an economy of scale -of a different sort because they can commandeer REAL ESTATE sufficient enough, whereas the average hotel doesn't want to put up 3 giant turbines in their parking lot.

"WAPA is the worst excuse for a power company ever!"

Wait a second! WAPA is a POWER company? Did anyone tell them??

😉

I have been looking into a countet top dishwasher. They hold 4-6 place settings, make their own hot water, and use 2.5-3 gallons of water.

Does anyone in the VI have one?

I am wondering how they do down here...

It uses less water than hand washing. My understanding is a dishwasher doesn't "fill" up like a washing machine, it shoots water at the dishes at a very high temperature and speed to basically beat and steam the dirt off of the dishes. But I'm not a dishwasher expert 🙂

The studies I've read indicate that its possible to use less water by hand washing but highly unlikely you will do so. In real world tests the dishwasher always beats the human.

Sean

I don't doubt you'll use less water but I'm concerned with electricity usage. I have plenty of free water.

Yeah I'm not sure how that works out other than energy star says it uses half as much energy. Maybe becasuse it's using so much less water that's less water that has to be heated by your water heater. If it's using 1/5 of the water than hand washing then the cost of the second heater in the dishwasher may be less than the cost of heating the other 4/5 of water you normally use (and pump).

Besides all that, washing dishes is a silly way to spend your time in this day and age 🙂 Does anyone really LIKE washing dishes? I hate it more than almost anything in the world, so much so that in college when it was my week to do dishes in my college house I went to Sam's club and bought paper plates and plastic forks for everyone to use!

Sean

What's yellow and sleeps five ?

A WAPA truck.

What's yellow and sleeps five ?

A WAPA truck.

this is the joke that i first heard following the workers' efforts to restore power after a storm, with the crews working double shifts and sometimes having to grab a cat nap - they worked into the nights through weekends, including sundays, while people were claiming that they were loafing. i saw them working very hard to restore power. i was out for several days myself.

it is a shame that our anger at the powers that be spills out into such a "joke" that creates antipathy towards the very people who actually keep us in power when the system, in all its outdated glory, fails.

suffice it to say, i don't think this is funny. nice to be anonymous on the world wide web so you can say nasty things and not have to account for them. looks like you registered just to post this too.