Bagamoya, like a lot of older apartment blocks, has a single municipal pipe providing water to the entire building. The meter for this is on Brunswick street at the back, under a manhole cover on the sidewalk.
The cost of water is currently just divided between all of the units, regardless of consumption, since it isn’t currently possible to measure the water use of each individual unit.
The city inspectors have access to read our water meter and bill us the appropriate amount.
Electricity
The electricity room is on the ground floor, next to unit 3. The key is under the rock, next to parking bay 3.
Consider a better or more secure way of keeping the key. Perhaps adding another lock box next to the electricity room.
Electricity is fed from the municipality to the electricity room, from where it is divided to the individual units (and the common property).
The top half shows the electricity readings for each unit. Once a month one of the trustees (thanks, Melani!) sends a photo of this to both the Bagamoya WhatsApp group and to Steer, who calculates and charges the amounts due to each unit, including the common use areas.
The bottom half has switches to disable electricity for the individual units, and a mains switch to turn off all electricity for the block in case of leakage or other emergency.
The on-off timer for the corridor lights is on the bottom left of the panel.
Here, it is set to turn on at 18:00 and turn off at 06:00. This can be adjusted seasonally, based on the times for sunrise and sunset. The inner most dial shows the current time; turn it to make sure it is accurate. To turn on all corridor lights (for instance during the day, while the timer is off), turn the small ON/OFF dial at the top right of the timer switch.
Also in this room are a ladder, garden tools, and other things that Farrington uses on the property.
Consider experimenting with load-shedding bulbs, especially for the lights under the staircases, if and when load shedding becomes a problem again.
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