Predictions for Brownouts in 2012

I recently saw and almost bought a 2.5 or 3KVa diesel Generator with crank start and belt drive at Omega by the bridge (I think that is on Cervantes St. ) for Php19,000. I changed my mind simply because I have no place to store it and it is pretty heavy but it seemed like a good option for someone wanting to power most of a normal sized house (except aircon). Instead, I bought a small portable 950 Watt, 2 stroke gasoline generator at Handyman in Robinsons for Php7,600. It has a 4 liter tank and is supposed to run for over 5 hours. It is sufficient to run my refrigerator and recharge my laptop and emergency lights at the same time. I put a small LED light on the back of the fridge, wired to the compressor so that I can unplug the fridge when it is cold (compressor stops and light goes off) and plug in my TV, DVD player, and fan to watch a movie (cuz if the power is off here, not much chance that Fil Products is transmitting either!). In my experience, most brownouts in Dumaguete / Valencia are scheduled maintenance from 8 - 5 on Saturdays or Sundays. Most regular system related brownouts have only lasted a couple hours. A couple times, however, in the last four years they had major problems at some sub-stations and had to wait for parts from Cebu (that took over a day). Of course, depending where you will live, you can wait a day or two if poles and wired get knocked down during a storm. We were without power at my home in Valencia for almost 4 days after Sendong and others experienced longer delays (I believe some are still without power in the mountains west of Valencia, over three weeks already!). We were also without power 2 days last year because somebody with a shipping container on a truck hit the wires in Valencia and tore down about 5 or 6 poles at the same time.

 

You mean black out? And yeah... worse...

 

Hotels have generators, of course, yes? In case black-outs happen...

 

None I've ever been to. Though if you go to a very expensive place in a big city, I think they do. Just be prepared to pay Western, or higher-than-Western prices.

 

Aw, that's a bummer. Are black-outs a regular affair at the moment?

 

All the time. With 3rd orld infrastructure, you can't expect something like electricity to be easy to come by. If you move here, it's also quite expensive. Many pay US$200 a month. I'm currently paying 70, and I have no aircon. Just have to get used to it. That's life in parasite, er paradise.

 

well seems you have not been to Dumaguete, I would say about 90% of the hotels here have generators, it would be highly appreciated that you simply don't say anything if you have no clue.

I also doubt that 15-25$ for aircon rooms with wifi and ref are more than in western Hotels.

 

My asawa and I stayed at Check-Inn, two weeks ago. P1050 for queen and a double....aircon and WiFi. Our 5th time staying there.

 

Let Me add......very clean, friendly staff and centrally located.

 

Here's what I can tell you about that. It is one of those 'only in the Philippines' stories that I jsut shake my head and chuckle about.

I was staying at the Nicanor hotel in Dumaguete last night. At some point the power went off. It came on in a short while (generator or power restored . . . I don't know). When the power came back on the light bulb in the CR burned out. When I checked out today I was charged 50 pesos for the light bulb that went out. I did not raise a fuss so it is possible that with some degree of stress I might have been able to get my 50 pesos back but . . I smiled and walked away. Only in the Philippines.