Living without power

RumpledElf

RumpledElf

How would you do it?

We were supposed to have the power connected last week, the contractor got called away on some other job and didn't turn up so now we have to wait till August 25th.

Unfortunately we are booked to move out this weekend and tenants move in as we move out.

Really do need basic stuff like a fridge and fancy stuff like the computers between now and the end of August, unfortunately. Hot water would be nice too.

All this because installing meters for people getting solar panels takes priority over people who don't have any electricity at all.
 
Hire (or borrow) a generator for a while?? Plug in fridge, compter and TV

Use solar lights for lighting

Cook with BBQ

Don't shower but use the bath (fill with hot water heated on the BBQ)
if you don't have a bath.....go buy a kids paddle pool and bathe in that.

Have fun with it...pretend you are camping :)
 
How about heating? Can you hire gas heaters or something? Thankfully we have a gas cooktop as of Saturday.

We work from home and just landed a large job so we NEED power for the computers, or we lose the job.

Also bear in mind that we have absolutely no money at the moment, maybe $300 or so in the bank, so it kinda has to fit into that budget.
 
Can you go to your local McDonalds or library (assuming you have either in your area) to run your business? If it's all web based, then this might work.
 
Extension lead from the other house yes, but I'd have to write that into the lease that we're going to use the tenant's electricity, I have no idea how that would work, and if we trip a circuit we'd need access into the house to reset the breakers because the meter box here is internal.

There is a local library at the school but I'm not sure how they'd like us and the baby and the toddler coming in and yanking all the books out of the shelves all day, which is what the baby does at home and last time we were at the library (we have kiddy books on the bottom shelves and wedge the ones on the other shelves in tight so he can't get them out). We could do it and just leave it to them to clean up of course, which is incredibly rude.

I really can't think of many ways we can cope with 2 weeks without electricity just because some ETSA person decided not to come to our appointment to connect us. Especially since I promised the new client we can start next week, which was supposed to be almost a fortnight after the power was connected.

Its bad enough having the power out for the best part of a day but at least you get a compensation cheque when that happens. Last long power failure it got freezing, I ended up under about 5 blankets on the couch all day.

If this was in summer it wouldn't be nearly as bad, as evidenced by our winter electricity bill always being 4x higher than our summer one. We've had the solar hot water service for a week and it has been raining non-stop the entire week so the water in it is still freezing - in summer you get free hot water.

Other half has just found http://www.eiosa.com.au/index.html this link, I had no idea there was an electricity ombudsman.
 
RumpledElf said:
How would you do it?

We were supposed to have the power connected last week, the contractor got called away on some other job and didn't turn up so now we have to wait till August 25th.

Unfortunately we are booked to move out this weekend and tenants move in as we move out.

Really do need basic stuff like a fridge and fancy stuff like the computers between now and the end of August, unfortunately. Hot water would be nice too.

All this because installing meters for people getting solar panels takes priority over people who don't have any electricity at all.
Click to expand...

What power was the builder using to construct the house?

I would have thought the power would still be connected and that the only change needed would be a meter reading and the creation of your account?

Rooster
 
Rooster said:
What power was the builder using to construct the house?

I would have thought the power would still be connected and that the only change needed would be a meter reading and the creation of your account?
Click to expand...
The house was delivered. We've been providing power to the carpet guys and so forth on an extension cord from next door.

We were supposed to get the meter put in last Friday but they rang up, said they'd come Monday or Tuesday instead. And then today they said August 25th, which is waaaay after we have tenants moving into the old house.

We haven't even got gas heating, we have plans to get it but ran out of money and decided to just use electric heating until autumn.
 
I would call ETSA and explain the situation and mention your hardships that you will be experiencing due to their failure to connect the power. If they cannot connect sooner then I would mention that the only choice you had was to call the O word (ombudsman) to try and get some resolution.

In my experience as soon as you metion the O word whatever company you are dealing with suddenly do a Jekyyl and hyde and suddenly do whatever I need. Dont mention it in a smart **** way or in spite, you just have to mention it in a resigned manner as if you would rather they just fix the problem than you having to escalate the issue.

I would also play on the fact that you have small children who are freezing, there is OH&S issues with them not having hot baths etc.

I might also mention that maybe it is best that due to ETSA failing to adhere to their committments that maybe it is best if you move into a hotel for the next 3 weeks at ETSA's expense.

I would certainly be kicking up a stink, especially with small children and If ETSA didnt give me a satisfactory outcome the ombudsmans office would be my next port of call :)
 
Might not be the best solution but perhaps hire, borrow or buy a generator for the period. Preferably a quite one.

Then ask for compensation to cover the fuel.
 
Yeah, someone put me onto the ombudsman (never heard of an electricity one) a couple hours ago. I only found out about the extra 20 day wait at 5:30pm today and understandably I'm a little freaked out - we were supposed to have power by now.

I already had to pull the ombudsman on Telstra, they had our phone booked to move to the new house today (with 6 weeks notice) but totally neglected to inform us that we had to dig a trench and get another company to put in a lead wire. That other company turned up this afternoon and had a good whinge that they didn't need to be there at all and Telstra should have done it (there was no trenching involved) ... and now I'm concerned that I'm going to get the phone transferred to a house with no power.

I've had crazy issues with Telstra over the years and had to use the ombudsman a couple times, this is the first issue I've ever had with electricity.

In the last 2 weeks I've had the plumber just randomly appear and disappear without warning, the builder not issue any keys to the finishing trades (but their contractor left a window open so at least we got that covered), builder NEVER answers their phone calls, Telstra stuff up the new connection, the carpet guys delay by two days, and the furniture people shelve our new furniture in the 'deliver end of August box' instead of the 'deliver ASAP' box. On top of that its been raining for a week and our solar HWS is cold and the backyard is all mud. I'm impressed we have a house at all.

Its enough to put anyone off building. Thankfully the house is really really really nice, mud and cold notwithstanding.
 
I hope it all works out and congrats on the 5000 posts! :)

I think there is an ombudsman for everything, they are like a secret cult that hangs out with the masons or something and when they get a phone call they get their kick **** boots on and go to work.
 
I just have too much free time to post - think I've been spending more time on the phone lately though, should see my phone bill from the last month trying to coordinate all these damn tradies, the bank, the builder, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggggh I'll be SO glad when this is over. And I've officially written the largest cheque of my life last week too (bank only paid for $65k of this house).

I think I've sprouted a few dozen extra grey hairs and the other half deals with stress considerably worse than I do so he's a nervous wreck right now.

Makes you just want to go outside and hide under the red mud. Like the toddler is doing. Way to make a human terracotta sculpture.
 
Electricity supply is a basic necessity for a home. If it is not connected due to trades incompetence your ombudsman needs to know why and immediately.
 
Definitely the ombudsman and do the mother hen act because your babies are going to freeze !

A Current Affair would love this, no connection for mother and babies in freezing weather yet have time to connect solar panels in winter :confused:

At worst I would would offer the tenants free rent for the use of their electricity until connected.
 
Strannik said:
is there only one contractor who can do this kind of job?
Click to expand...
Yes. ETSA. Since it is just a matter of dropping the meter in the meterbox. Their wait time shot up from 6 weeks (the builder gave us 5 weeks notice in a letter saying 5 weeks is heaps) to 10 weeks because of the solar panels thing.

As to the tenants, they're actually desperate and have offered us a lot higher rent to rent the house short term - they need a place to stay between a work contract here and renovating their house in Adelaide, but they also have 3 kids and that's a huge power load to put on one house, even if they agreed to something I'd be worried if the house could take it, we regularly trip circuits when we have the heater + some other appliances on at once. That and leaving both houses with a window open in mid-winter to run extension cords is cold :( (and the insurance company wouldn't like it). Used to run extension cords out a hole in one of the old crappy timber windows but we replaced those.

Time to go phone ETSA I think ...
 
Yup, rang em first thing, had power at 4:30pm. So was getting a bit worried by 4pm since that's when they usually knock off.

Same thing with Telstra actually (they stuffed up bigtime too) ... they had a tech booked for the 18th, they've come back to the 11th and waiving the connection fee.

And we got our bedroom suite delivered today - another one that they wanted to put off to late August.

And it was sunny all day and some of our mud dried!

Pinch me!
 
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