Dealing with blackouts

[Dim Witty]

I'm not well, pushing 80 years-old and currently living in an apt on the 12th floor neat Callao y Corrientes. Does anyone know if areas are warned before a blackout? I'm afraid to leave the apt to buy candles (and maybe a flashlight) without knowing if I'll be able to access the elevater when I return. Thanks, and please avoid danger.

 

[Ries]

no, there wont be a warning.
It usually happens on very hot days, when the grid is overloaded by everyone turning on the AC at once.
Its a good idea to have a flashlight.
If you have a gas stove, the piezo starters wont start, so you should have matches.

Ours was off last night, in Retiro, from about 1:30 am till 4:30 am, but ten years or so ago, it was not uncommon to have 2 or 3 outages each summer, of up to 8 hours each.
The grid has been slowly improved, and there are less blackouts now than there used to be.

 

[nikad]

No warnings unfortunately. We lost power in Recoleta last night from 8 til 11 pm. I suggest you fil a few pots and bottles with water and hang in there. If power goes out you should have emergency lights in the hallways. Keep your phone charged. After the holiday do get flashlight, camping light etc. Stay safe and hydrated.

 

[Ale65]

Keep your phone and or tablet charged and you can use the flash light function. Fully charged it lasts for a long time. If you have an old plastic bottle or two put water in it and freeze it. If the electricity does go out you can refresh yourself by putting the bottle against your pulse points and drink the cold water as it defrosts You could also go knock on a neighbours door to see if you can borrow a candle.

 

[nikad]

In case of emergency if you are by yourself and need help (water, doctor, get out ) write down the emergency numbers 103 Civil Defense, 107 Same ( medical ), 911 ( police ).

 

[Silvie]

As this usually happens during the hot summer days, I advise you to buy at least a couple of LED emergency lights at the hardware store whenever you can, so you won't need candles or flashlights and also check out the city's web page. Yesterday the city mailed me information on the shelters where people may go if it gets too hot throughout the city of Buenos Aires for a while.
I was thinking that if I had another power outage I was ready to go anytime. Check out the 2 links of these "refugios climaticos" near your home, just in case. Refugios climaticos en Buenos Aires
and utm_source=Mail&utm_medium=Ola+De+Calor&utm_campaign=Ola+De+Calor
Mapa.

 

[FrankPintor]

Remember that if power goes out, you might lose water as well, since pumps in the water supply will most likely not work. Temperatures hit 38 degrees yesterday, and I saw several reports of power outages. As they approach 40 degrees, like likelihood or power cuts increases, particularly on working days. So have water on hand, for drinking and other purposes.

I understand gas is generally not affected by power cuts, so that might help. Otherwise, a gas cylinder and a 2-plate cooker will do.

I keep our mobile battery chargers full, we have some nice Xiaomi 10,000 mAh ones that deliver 2+ charges for our mobile phones. Mobile phones should generally work, assuming the operator has battery backup in the base stations. Personal should generally have it, Claro has been known to skimp on non-essential things.

 

[Caribbean Cool]

I could be considered like you in a 'situation". I can think of a few reasons you should not be living on the 12th floor. My building has 2 elevators. One was broken yesterday. I was thinking.....'what if?" No thanks. (I am on the 5th floor) Neither of us belongs on the 12th floor.

 

[steveinbsas]

I'm not well, pushing 80 years-old and currently living in an apt on the 12th floor neat Callao y Corrientes. Does anyone know if areas are warned before a blackout? I'm afraid to leave the apt to buy candles (and maybe a flashlight) without knowing if I'll be able to access the elevater when I return. Thanks, and please avoid danger.

If you have a DNi and your building has a portero/doorman who can accept deliveries and bring them to your apartment, you can buy several items on Mercado Libre that will serve you very well during a power outage.

Delivery is free for purchases that total at least $33.000. Items that are published in the category "full" are almost always delivered the next day and you can probably find a number of things that you use frequently (if not daily) that you can combine in a single order, not just emergency lights.

For example, early this week I bought two Luz de emergencies and two other items. The total cost was about $36.000, the delivery was free. I placed the order about 6 pm on Monday and the package arrived about 4 pm on Tuesday.

Here is the link for the emergency lights.:

Mercado Libre

If you search "Luz de emergencies de 30 leds" you will get a huge list of available items. Then click on the option to see the ones that are offered in the "full" category and then click on "filters" and ordinar with the precio menor and lowest price lights will appear at the top of the list.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. One feature of some but not all of the lights is that they plug into a standard wall outlet and the battery is usually fully charged when the power outage occurs, and the lights automatically come on on either high or low when there is no electricity.

There are also emergency lights with 60 leds and they will appear in your search list for lights with 30 leds, even after you apply the filter.

This flashlight, like the 30 led emergency light above, uses an easily removable and rechargeable lito 18650 battery, and it comes with a separate charger (though I suggest also buying a better charger):

Mercado Libre

A better charger:

Mercado Libre

And this head lamp will leave your hands free when you may need to use both:

Mercado Libre

I consider these the minimum items necessary to deal with a power outage of less than six hours. I think having two 30 led emergency lights (both with high and low settings) is better than one with 60 leds.

This combination of lights presently costs $40.485 pesos (about 27USD) with free shipping. If bought tomorrow, even in the early evening, they will be delivered on Saturday, even where I live, about 650 km from Capital Federal.

If you already have a Mercado Libre account you can click on the links to the above items and add them to your cart. Then you can browse for other items (in many categories), adding them to the cart as desired. Before making the buy you can uncheck anything you don't want to buy now, but they will stay in the cart.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions.

 

[Quilombo]

I hope everyone's power has come back and stays on, but as someone who dealt with this all the time living in the Edesur part of CABA basically my entire time in Argentina, my suggestions are similar to what others have said, plus a few others:

- I found a fan is the best indicator of "when" things will start to go wrong. Very rarely did my power just cut off without warning, it often started with a massive spike or shortfall in voltage. If you connect the fan directly to outlet without a surge protector, you can hear/feel the motor spinning up and down respectively, and that usually gave a 3-5 minute warning that I was going to lose power (enough to fill the tub with water)
- I strongly recommend voltage protectors, you can buy them on ML and the kind with the digital voltameter are the best as they also give a heads up for when things are going to go wrong. You'll want them for at least any appliances like your fridge, washing machine, tv, phone charger, etc. as friends and I have lost electronics due to voltage spikes, and while you can get them repaired in theory via a claim to ENRE, it's a pain in the ass to do so
- As Nikad mentioned, Civil Defense is probably the best point of contact for your building as they can help fill the tanks/run the pumps if you run out of water. They helped us several times, and while in theory it should be provided as part of municipal services, a "solidarity contribution" from the neighbors will help them come faster/stay longer/etc. we realized with each time we had to call
- Join or make a neighborhood WhatsApp group; this way you can organize together by ensuring everyone is making the claims for outages, sharing claim numbers incase anyone is denied compensation for their claim, go to Edesur together (as we did), and eventually to have enough people to cut the street as we did (it was the only thing that got our power fixed after several days)
- In the summertime, save your receipts for any perishable food you buy, you can also claim it via ENRE
- Remember that even when the power returns, it might not be all the phases for your building, so the elevator/pump still might not work, and Edesur burned out our elevator's motor and the water pump, and the neighbors had to pressure the consortium to demand Edesur pay for the fix/replacement because they wanted to pass it as an extraordinary expense instead

Hope your power comes back soon!