Water, power and gas

Electra is the utility on most islands. Outages happen. A serious house has a water tank, a voltage stabilizer and, on Sal and Boa Vista, often a generator or inverter. The brochure’s “sea view” does not mention any of this. The previous owner’s Electra bills do.

Power

Generation is a mix of diesel, wind and a growing solar share. The grid is improving and still island-shaped: a fault on Sal is not fixed by a line from Santiago. Voltage dips fry cheap electronics. A stabilizer for the fridge and the router is not fussiness.

A villa with a pool pump, two split ACs and garden lights will teach you the tariff faster than this paragraph. Solar on the roof helps the daytime load. It does not, by itself, run the AC all night. Ask for 12 months of bills before you buy. Winter tourist occupancy and August emptiness produce different numbers.

Water

On the dry islands — Sal, Boa Vista, São Vicente, Maio — water is largely desalinated. It is fine to shower in. Many people still drink bottled or filtered. A roof tank is not decoration. It is how you get through the afternoon cut without a drama.

Santiago and Santo Antão have more groundwater and more arguments about it. A house with a cisterna and a working pump is a house. A house that “has municipal water” and no tank is a house that will run dry during a dispute or a break in the line.

Gas and hot water

Bottled gas (gás) cooks most kitchens. Delivery is a WhatsApp message and a clink of bottles. Solar water heaters work well; they need a rinse after harmattan dust. An electric shower head is common and harsh on the bill.

Before you sign a lease or a deed

• Look at the tank, the pump, and the last Electra invoice.
• Ask who to call when the power dies at 21:00 — a name, not “the Câmara”.
• If there is a generator, start it. If there is an inverter, ask the age of the batteries.
• Budget a plumber in the first month. Everyone does.

Utilities are the least glamorous chapter in this guide and the one that decides whether you like living here in February.

Island notes for tanks and wires

Sal and Boa Vista: desalinated water, roof tanks, inverters, dust on the solar. Santiago: more municipal water, still bring a tank. Santo Antão: gravity, pumps, and a plumber who knows the village. Fogo: volcanic soil, cisternas, and a generator conversation that is not theoretical.

The prettiest terrace on Sal is still a terrace when Electra blinks. The boring house with a full tank is a home.

Lecture checklist

• Twelve months of Electra bills before a deed.
• Tank, pump, stabilizer — look with a torch.
• Gas bottle WhatsApp saved as “gás”.
• Generator started in the viewing, not promised.
• A plumber booked in week one of a new lease.

If you remember one sentence: the roof tank is the house.