Yesterday, just before midnight, the electrician installed a new fuse for us.
With the new heaters, one fuse kept blowing, unfortunately, in the circuit that serves the bathroom and the bedroom.
The bathroom with a hot water boiler and washing machine, the bedroom with the air conditioning in the summer and the heater in the winter – all on a 16-ampere fuse (old) and now on a 32-ampere (new).
I can just hear the united outcry of German DIY and hardware store enthusiasts and the assembled electricians’ guild: “Are you crazy? Everything on one fuse?!” “That’s not possible!”
“Nope, that’s the way it is. And it works.”
Or, to phrase it another way: It’s functioning and serves it’s purpose.
The approximately 22 million residents in the greater Cairo area live with this. It can’t all be wrong.
The first outcry should have actually come after the first sentence:
Where do you find a craftsman who comes by just before midnight and then buys and installs a new fuse within 20 minutes? And all for about 6 US dollars?
Yes, certainly not in Germany. But here in Giza/Cairo.
Our apartment’s connection
The good news is:
No electricity or water meter, everything is, so to speak, all-inclusive with the rent.
For some reason – unknown to me so far, there are apparently a number of buildings in Giza that are subsidized with free electricity and water connections.
From three to two
Almost nothing works without adapters.
Scale one to three
I have already adapted to improvising with what is available. We quickly needed new sockets for the dishwasher and the fan in addition to the existing connection for the water filter.
Instead of the usual routing with cables coming from the back of the socket, I made a karimoo-style branch from the old socket.
