Lights On!

What a thrill!

After all the crap we have been through, and all the crap we still have to endure, I saw the lights on in our house today...for the first time.

Granted, we were using a generator but we got it done.  In fact, we are able to move into our house from the electric stand point now.  However, we have no water, sinks, toilets, much less hot water, installed so it is a moot point.

But a pretty big club to use on our builder to get him to finish the house though.

I have been working on purchasing the right plugs and wire to make an extension cord to connect our generator to the house electrical box for several weeks.  This may sound simple but it is not.

To start with, their are dozens of different plug configurations available.  I located a really good electrical supply house in David.  Then, I got the generator manual on line and printed the specs for the plug.

They actually had this unusual plug.  But, don't you now it, it was not the right one.  The manual was wrong. So I had to return to Boquete to get better information.

I made a drawing of the female receptacle and took it back to the electric place, another trip to David of course.  They didn't have it.  He told me to get the numbers on the receptacle from the generator which would be better.  Hell, the numbers were so small I didn't even see them when I made the drawing.

That would require another trip to Boquete and back to David.  But, as we walked around PriceMart, we saw our generator and got the numbers.  What luck!

Back to the electric place and they had the plug.  Will wonders never cease!

So far so good. 

My friend who knows electrical systems, helped me wire it up.  He told me that every house he has worked on has had a short somewhere and required trouble shooting to get it working.  So I was prepared for a set back.

It worked perfectly the first time!  Every light, ceiling fan and outlet worked.

Now for an interesting phenomena in Panama.

We had been told by other people using our electrician that he was not trained and didn't know what he was doing.  There was a big long story about how his brother was the one who really knows, so the electrician would go back to the brother to get the scoop.  It this way, he would limp along, doing an inadequate job of it.   They fired him and got their own electrician to complete the work.

How does this happen down here?  The information floating around is flat out misleading at best, and preposterous at worst.

If I had listened to them, I would be in a real mess now.  This guy was great!  He wired a flawless system.

What more can you ask for?