Utilities

If you’ve ever stayed on the beautiful Playa Encanto beach, you know it is one of the most beautiful in the world. Clean white sand as far as you can see is truly what makes this area so special.

The challenge for every home on this beach is that there are NO city services available (water, electricity, gas or phone). It’s a good news, bad news kind of thing. The lack of services has inhibited the building on the beach, making for a unique experience. However, Americans typically like conveniences, so here’s what's been done to make the beach home quite comfortable.

There has been a lot of hard work to provide 1^st class amenities and conveniences in the beach home so that "if you need something, it is there". Here’s the specifics:

	Water is very precious in Rocky Point and is one of the most valued commodities. With Rocky Point's explosion of new construction, the water resources have become strained. Although we had never yet run out of fresh water from the trucks coming from town, we knew the day would come sooner rather than later. In addition, we've noticed a steady decline in the quality of water delivered since the wells feeding the city are being so over pumped. In the culmination of a year-long planning and construction process, Casa de Olé has implemented a desalination plant to make fresh water for the house. With our expanded storage and production capabilities, we are now even more independent in our little beach paradise. In partnership with some neighbors, we have built a fully redundant, automated system. The technology used is reverse osmosis - we take ocean water and filter it at extremely high pressure through a reverse-osmosis membrane. In fact, this is the same process used by vendors in town and in the U.S. who sell water in the 5-gallon bottles. The total dissolved solids is about 225 - much less than delivered in the U.S. tap water system! The net effect of all this is that there is fully purified water now running throughout the house. The downside is that the system uses a lot of power to make the water, so conservation is still very important. Remember: think conservation and you won’t have any problems!
	The home gets its electricity from solar power. During the day, sunshine provides most of the power you’ll use, and the additional power generated is stored in batteries for nighttime use. In addition, there is an automatic propane generator that provides backup power if needed. Again, with a mind towards conservation, you probably won’t ever hear the generator kick on (which it automatically does, if needed). The systems work effortlessly in the background and ask for your help to reduce wear (and expense) on the equipment. You can help by doing simple things. For example, turning lights off in empty rooms, turning off the coffee pot after everyone’s done, etc., will dramatically reduce electricity consumption. The whole house is 120V, 60 Hz (just like in the U.S.), so any gadgets you bring down will work fine, although please don't bring any hair dryers, curling irons or clothes irons These high consumption appliances severely tax the solar & battery systems and quickly shorten their useful life. After all, this IS the beach - let the wind do your hair for you!
	Propane gas is also stored on the property in a large tank. It powers the hot water heaters, the backup generator, the kitchen range, and the central heating systems. During the Fall, Winter and Spring, one tank of propane easily lasts many weeks.
	The home uses a septic system, which is sized for the number of expected users on a part-time basis (10 in the main house, 4 in the guest house). One of the main reasons number of guests is limited is to NOT overload the septic tank. With moderate conservation efforts (i.e. asking everyone to minimize paper usage and flushes), the system works very well.
	Casa de Olé is pleased to offer free incoming and local phone calls to our guests. See our phone page for more information!
	Wireless high speed internet service is also now available for a small additional fee. See our internet page for more information!

With a mind towards conservation, you’ll probably not notice the utility systems in action very much during your stay. However, if you want a vacation of "excess" where you want long hot showers and not to have to worry about these kinds of things, stay in town or on Sandy Beach; they have all of that for you. You just won’t get the serenity of the wonderful Playa La Jolla beach!

Again, the philosophy has been to provide services that "if you need something, it is there". The systems are the finest that have been observed in all of "East Beach" and you should be quite satisfied. If you have any problems, you can see our local contact who can assist you.