Moving to Hilo, have a couple q's. (apartments, rental)

[deepsleep]

I've decided to go to Hilo Community College by fall/winter semester and had some questions.

1. I'm wondering if I need a/c. Do you Hilo guys use a/c? I thought it would be standard in what I understand to be a hot and humid area but when I called the recommended places by UH, none of the apartments had a/c or allowed a a/c unit. How hot does it get indoors? Are we talking like 90 degrees?

2. Anyone have recommendations for "cleanish" studio apartments with a/c in or near Hilo? How much are we talking on average?

3. What type of car should I get? I'm looking to spend around 5k. I want to be able to go anywhere on the island. After doing some reading, it seems like 4wd/awd is needed but more importantly, high ground clearance. Is this correct? Would getting a Subaru w/awd limit my range when compared to something like a CRV or a Jeep Grand Cherokee?

Thanks for your help!

[mdand3boys]

A Cr-V would be no different than a Subaru. I have 2 CR-V's... To go "anywhere", you need a vehicle with a real 4x4 system and hopefully, also a transfer case to give you low range options. There are lots of small 4x4 pickup trucks on the island. Jeeps tend to be priced kinda high for what you get.

[cynmkolohe]

Regarding AC--we have air conditioners in our bedrooms, but almost never use them. Someone bought them for us when visiting from the mainland, so we've kept them, but have used the one in the room at the front of the house only a couple of times. Generally, trade winds keep things pretty cool. Every once in a while the winds get calm or come in from the west--then we turn the ceiling fans on high. We are at a lower elevation too, which can be warmer. Going uphill, it's cooler overall.

What may surprise you is how cool it can get at night once the sun goes down. Bring along a jacket. There will be nights you will need it.

[KonaKat]

What will really surprise you is the cost of electricity should you run those ACs very much. It's not that hot over in Hilo.

You will need a true 4WD, either the small pickup idea or an older jeep. Son has one of the small 4WD pickups, a Chevy S10 and it gets him anywhere. Even jeep prices are getting pretty low, no offense intended Mdand3boys We sold a fantastic one ('96 model I believe) with a 3" lift kit and great tires for $4500 + an old jeep in trade. Then we sold the older jeep which ran fine, needed some work and was old, for $1000. The guy is driving it all over the place.

[deepsleep]

Okay, I think I'll be going for a Jeep Grand Cherokee w/4wd or equivalent. Thanks.

Originally Posted by cynmkolohe

Regarding AC--we have air conditioners in our bedrooms, but almost never use them. Someone bought them for us when visiting from the mainland, so we've kept them, but have used the one in the room at the front of the house only a couple of times. Generally, trade winds keep things pretty cool. Every once in a while the winds get calm or come in from the west--then we turn the ceiling fans on high. We are at a lower elevation too, which can be warmer. Going uphill, it's cooler overall.

What may surprise you is how cool it can get at night once the sun goes down. Bring along a jacket. There will be nights you will need it.

What way do the trade winds blow? What direction should my windows face for max circulation? (don't really want to sacrifice sunlight)

When you say going uphill, do you mean like within Hilo? Or do you mean when you drive for 30 min inland or something? I wouldn't mind living a couple minutes from campus to have a cooler home but I don't really want a long commute.

Are there areas where mosquitoes or other insects are particularly prevalent?

Thanks for the help guys!

[hotzcatz]

Get a weekly vacation rental and then come over and look at the different apartments so you can see how they are before renting them. The tradewinds are almost always blowing so you will know which way to have the windows facing. Electricity runs about forty four cents a kilowatt hour, check your electric bill to see how many kilowatts your household used last month and multiply that by forty four cents to get what the equivalent electric bill would be here.

Uh, generally we hunt for shade to be in, not sunlight. Sacrificing sunlight is not a problem around here, finding shade is a good thing. Houses have three foot eaves so they will shade the side of the house, keeping the rain that far away from the house is just an added benefit.

Just get an old beater 4WD. Nobody really cares how fancy a car is around here. We have a little Suzuki 4WD which goes pretty much anywhere. Most of the time it stays in 2WD and you can generally find someone with a truck that you can talk into going holoholo to where ever you wanna go if there is a 4WD place you wanna go and don't have a truck for it.

There are bugs and mosquitoes everywhere. Get some Avon Skin So Soft body wash and use that in the shower. The mosquitoes will stay away from you. The rest of the insects aren't really gonna notice it, though.

[deepsleep]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Get a weekly vacation rental and then come over and look at the different apartments so you can see how they are before renting them. The tradewinds are almost always blowing so you will know which way to have the windows facing. Electricity runs about forty four cents a kilowatt hour, check your electric bill to see how many kilowatts your household used last month and multiply that by forty four cents to get what the equivalent electric bill would be here.

Uh, generally we hunt for shade to be in, not sunlight. Sacrificing sunlight is not a problem around here, finding shade is a good thing. Houses have three foot eaves so they will shade the side of the house, keeping the rain that far away from the house is just an added benefit.

Just get an old beater 4WD. Nobody really cares how fancy a car is around here. We have a little Suzuki 4WD which goes pretty much anywhere. Most of the time it stays in 2WD and you can generally find someone with a truck that you can talk into going holoholo to where ever you wanna go if there is a 4WD place you wanna go and don't have a truck for it.

There are bugs and mosquitoes everywhere. Get some Avon Skin So Soft body wash and use that in the shower. The mosquitoes will stay away from you. The rest of the insects aren't really gonna notice it, though.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll do the week rental thing you mentioned. I'm living in my parents house so I cant really calculate what the electric bill would be in a studio. Do you have any idea the difference in cost between a non a/c and a/c studio apartment?

I don't really care what type of car I get, as long as I can get around the whole island and is reliable. I love exploring remote places so I'll need something I can rely on. I was under the impression that Suzuki (at least in the past) makes crap cars. I have much research to do as I've never been into SUV/trucks. Maybe an old 4Runner or Passport would be better than the Jeep.

[Brav989]

$.44? When did it go up so high? Remember couple years ago it was something like 24-30 per hour, wasn't it?

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Get a weekly vacation rental and then come over and look at the different apartments so you can see how they are before renting them. The tradewinds are almost always blowing so you will know which way to have the windows facing. Electricity runs about forty four cents a kilowatt hour, check your electric bill to see how many kilowatts your household used last month and multiply that by forty four cents to get what the equivalent electric bill would be here.

Uh, generally we hunt for shade to be in, not sunlight. Sacrificing sunlight is not a problem around here, finding shade is a good thing. Houses have three foot eaves so they will shade the side of the house, keeping the rain that far away from the house is just an added benefit.

Just get an old beater 4WD. Nobody really cares how fancy a car is around here. We have a little Suzuki 4WD which goes pretty much anywhere. Most of the time it stays in 2WD and you can generally find someone with a truck that you can talk into going holoholo to where ever you wanna go if there is a 4WD place you wanna go and don't have a truck for it.

There are bugs and mosquitoes everywhere. Get some Avon Skin So Soft body wash and use that in the shower. The mosquitoes will stay away from you. The rest of the insects aren't really gonna notice it, though.

[Galactastica]

hilo is a lot cooler on average than the kona side, and even over here people don't normally use air conditioners. i would almost be surprised if you found a studio, ohana or apt with an ac!

make sure you get a 4wd, not an awd. it won't cut it most places, and the rangers at the summit of mauna kea won't even let you up there with an awd, it's just not the same thing. 5k will get you a 4wd of many sorts no problem.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by Brav989

$.44? When did it go up so high? Remember couple years ago it was something like 24-30 per hour, wasn't it?

Last year some folks over on the other side of Hilo were discussing electric rates. They calculated their electric bills and they all came to the conclusion they were paying 44 cents a kilowatt hour. I'm off the grid, myself, so I wouldn't really know since we don't get an electric bill. We are invested in Hawaiian Electric (HE) and they do pay us dividends so plug in all the air conditioners you want!