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The information below describes our experiences setting up and using utilities including electricity, water, sewer, trash, telephone, cable, and internet in Hilo, Hawaii. It also has information about car licensing, mail services, garbage services, and the Hawaii County offices.
HILO UTILITY SET UP AND EXPERIENCES Here are a couple of notes and suggestions about setting up utilities:
Sewer - The sewer service for Hilo can't be set up until the water service is set up. Once the water service is set up you can go to the county sewer department (next to Checkers Auto Parts) with the account number given to you by the water service and fill out the paperwork. They bill you every other month; our bill is $27/month. Water - Water service for Hilo is set up at the Department of Water Supply for the County of Hawaii in a complex at 345 Kekuanaoa Street in Suite 20. You must show a signed lease, photo id, and pay a $50 deposit. They provide you with an account service number to to set up sewer service. They bill you every other month; our bill is $25/month. If you live outside of Hilo and dependent on a catchment system for your water, be aware that Hilo and Puna do have droughts. The recent drought required many residents to call for water trucks and the wait can be weeks for a truck to come. I was surprised that in a rain forest, water might be an issue. The county has recently requested that residents, particularly on the west side of the island, conserve water. Just something to consider when planning for water. Electricity - In Hilo, HELCO is the electric company. HELCO is located in at 1200 Kilauea Avenue. To start or convert electric service, get there early, show your lease or property ownership, photo id, and pay your deposit. The deposit is 2 months based on past usage at the residence. Be prepared to wait. We have blogged about the expensive rate of electricity in Hawaii and some ways we cut back our electricity bill. Unlike the mainland, there is no gas service. Some folks get propane delivered in tanks for their stoves, but most houses are dependent on electric from HELCO. Although HELCO has been supporting the use of alternative energy and adding solar power generated from homes and business to the distribution system, most of the electric on the Big Island is generated from small diesel burning power plants. The cost is high and will likely continue to escalate. Our efforts to cut back on electric have been fruitful. We reduced our electric bill by 1/3 (from $350 to $220/month) by replacing light bulbs with low energy bulbs and carefully monitoring our hot water heater usage. Prepare for expensive electricity that will likely continue to escalate. Telephone - We initially picked Hawaiian Telecom for our local phone service. Their service can be set up on the phone or online. After switching our cell service to T-mobile, we changed from Hawaiian Telecom to T-mobile's internet phone for our home phone which reduced our $35/month bill to $10/month. The downside of an internet phone service is that if Oceanic Time Warner's internet service is down, the telephone is also down. Cable and Internet - We picked Oceanic Time Warner Cable for our internet service. We signed up for their high speed RoadRunner service. Oceanic Time Warner's office is located at 1257 Kilauea Avenue across from HELCO and in the Hilo Shopping Center. (*Note Oceanic Time Warner is moving their office to a building on Hwy 11 in Hilo)  The package includes internet and cable service. We were not able to set up our service until the previous renters canceled their service. Since our rental house had previously had cable, we used the install-it-yourself cable modem box and got a discount for doing setting it up ourselves. Trash - The trash pickup companies in Hilo are all local entrepreneurs. Most folks take their garbage to the Hilo landfill themselves where garbage bags can be easily thrown down a chute to garbage trucks waiting below. Since we don't have a pickup truck, we use a service to pick up our garbage.
We used Leo's Rubbish service which picks up one can of garbage once a week, although they will pick up more often if desired. Other trash services exist, so rates and service may vary. The best bet is to ask neighbors what service they use or recommend.
We reduce our trash by recycling what we can. Hilo doesn't have curb side recycling, so we take it over to Reynolds on Kilauea street or other recycling centers in town. There is a 5 cent reimbursement (HI5) on most plastic and aluminum drink containers. We drive to the Hilo landfill to recycle our glass, cans, cardboard and paper at the Hilo dump in special dumpsters set up for recycling. They have a booth set up to pay HI5 reimbursements on plastic and glass. They also have a place that accepts green waste as well as provides compost for gardening, a necessary thing when living on a volcanic rock. The landfill is located at the end of Leilani street on the airport side of Hwy 11. Another note: We noticed folks in Hilo drive their utility payments to payment boxes located in front of each utility rather than mailing them in. We wondered why this was so prevalent until we received a thank you from a furniture store in Hilo to our house in Hilo. The letter had gone to Honolulu and back. We guess there is no local sorting in the Hilo Post offices and that local Hilo mail often goes through Honolulu. So we usually drive our utility payments to the payment boxes. HILO MAIL SERVICES
Post Offices Hilo's zip code is 96720. It also has 96721, but only for PO Boxes at the downtown post office. The mail cut off time is later at the airport Post Office, so we often drive there to get an important letter out that day. Mail to and from Hilo can be slow, so you have to prepare accordingly for the delay.
FedEx and UPS
Both FedEx and UPS are near Hilo's airport. UPS is on the road to the airport terminal and FedEx is on the opposite side of the runway from the terminal accessible from Hwy 11 via Operations Road.
There are also private mail services, such as PostNet in the Prince Kuhio Plaza mall parking lot. We have used them during the holiday season when lines at the post office are hours long. HAWAII COUNTY OFFICES Apuni Center has many of Hawaii County's offices. It is the place to pay property tax bills, sewer bills, get information about parks and recreation, investigate county land records and get building permits. To give you an idea of the offices in the Center, below is a photo tour.
Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010
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