Electric Shower Heads?

Plumbing just isn't done the same way in Peru as it is back home. (see Peruvian Bathrooms) But it's not just the toilets. The showers have their own thing going on too.

Namely, the electric shower heads. Yup; Electric, Shower, Head. Doesn't sound very safe does it? To me it you may as well be saying "Bathtub Hairdryers". The good news is I wasn't even aware of the situation until it was too late. I had already mastered getting the shower to a temperature I could deal with, so I was already somewhat comfortable in there before I learned why the shower head looked so funky.

Read more about another's similar experience in Cusco here.

The good thing is that the shower head only heats water as it passes through, eliminating the need for a big ol' water heater tank, saving energy - much like any other hot water on demand system. Also, since the water is heated at the shower, flushing doesn't interrupt the shower...

But .. having two showers going at the same time can cause problems. In my head I had mistakenly thought that since the systems were independent  of one another .... I was only half right.

Innocently enough, I took our 5 year old for a shower last night, unaware that his grandfather was in another shower in the house. When the water went cold on our soapy little boy, it still took a while for me to get to the bottom of what happened, as I have yet to learn Spanish to any functioning degree.

Long story short, we (I) blew a fuse when we (I) turned on the second shower. This left my 70 year old father in law (only 3 weeks removed from major surgery) to complete his shower with cold water, in the dark ... and my soapy 5 year old wrapped in towels and eventually dressed in sweats till we came up with a solution. Every breaker in the house has been switched on and off multiple times - and there is still only electricity in about half the house. An electrician will be coming tomorrow.

I will note this - the whole family really teamed up to find a solution. Doc (the grandfather) and Uncle J. quickly assembled a network of extension cords all along keeping in mind that I work online  very early in the morning. Here I was having a minor hissy fit over a minor inconvenience, and all they wanted to do was to help me. One of the biggest "fruits" I'm reaping from my time in Peru is definitely about family. Everyone has each other's backs - and this is just one tiny example.