⌛ BAD POWER SUPPLY IN DUMAGUETE and the rest

Couldn't have put it better myself. Surely tho, it can't be that expensive, can it? Negros provides power to Cebu and yet can not look after it's own house. Do you think solar power is the ideal solution? If so, is it economically viable?

 

Keep in mind as well that the Philippines is on "The Pacific Ring of Fire". Even if you earthquake proof your house (almost impossible), do you want to be stranded with millions of desperate poor people who are fighting over food drops because of some natural catastrophe ? There hasn't been a week that has gone by in the last 3 months where there wasn't an earthquake on the Ring !! Doctors also figure the next inevitable epidemic will come out of Asia. I hate to sound so negative but you don't build your life on shifting sand, metaphorically or literally.

 

Progmeister: Solar is improving in efficiency but I honestly haven't kept up with any new developments. I can't see it producing enough juice to power a refridgerator or aircon...that's for sure. Unless of course you have a few hactares of collectors. Go with LCD screens and get rid of any old picture tubes from monitors and TVs. Get a UPS for your computer equipment, not just a regulator, although the average store clerk wouldn't know the difference. Ask at the WhyNot internet cafe where they got theirs. I wish I could remember the place that knew what they were doing with electricity ..they were somewhere out by NORSU. Ask Roy Cang at the Bethel, he'll know. He's a ham radio guy.

 

This is bad news Chuck, so best alternative for uninterrupted power is having a generator than. Noisy and probably guzzles lots of diesel. A massive overhaul of power lines is the answer but this happening is nigh on impossible, right?

 

You really wouldn't want to substitute a UPS with a generator. A UPS will maybe give you a half hour of good supply and, in many cases, let you perform an organized shut down of your elctronics. I'd use a UPS as well as a generator although I would imagine the really good generators are well regulated these days. A geneartor, of course, is something longer term. I don't have any association with the DGTE power companies so I don't know what they are doing. Again Roy Cang might be in-the-know. A good UPS here in Canada is about $75 U$...but I haven't priced them in a long , long time. There are some specialty electrical shops, not bad either, in town. If someone really needs this info, I can try and track it down again but a quick call to Roy will get you the same info. Oh , by the way, you may have heard that the eastern US and Canada had a massive black out for days about 3 years ago. It was pretty hard getting diesel for the generators. The pumps at the gas station were ........ electric. Something to think about. :>)

 

Polaris is the electrical supply shop by NORSU. They actually have an engineer that will sit down with you, review your requirements and make sound reccomendations based on local (if uninforced) codes. They actually have Square D breakers, not the korean and chinese types every other shop sells.
I can't understand how or why the electric here works as well as it does. I spent a fair amount of time working in the construction trades, what they do here is simply idiotic. no proper grounding, open caps on almost every meterbase, frayed wires held up by bamboo poles in some places. I am sure more electric goes wasted in ground leaks than into the meters.

Most of the rats nest of wires you see in the city are cable TV and Telephone lines. Still the Electric infrastructure is a night mare. I don't think they ever reuse a cable line, just string a new one, In my place I dont have any cable connection, but their are so many truncated lines just outside my window, I get a pretty decent phantom signal. Enough to watch CNN and Bloomberg in the morning.

 

RHB...that is hilarious. Never heard of that before about getting a signal because there are so many line terminations on the pole near your house. That's a new way of getting free cable. Yes maybe it is Polaris but my buzzer never went off when I read it. I thought they might even have the word 'power' in their name. I'll try and double check with an engineering friend. It sounds like the place though. It was really hopping with tradesmen and techs when I was there.

 

Actually the number one reason I have for never buying property in a nation without an accesible legal infrastructure is simply because I find it impossible to stay calm and composed while your being ripped off for a significant chunk of your life's savings. A legal dispute can quickly turn into a violent altercation and then you're in big sh*t !! I had that happen to me in Mexico with a small farm I owned. Fortunately I had more money than a squatter trying to claim my land. First the currency, the Mexican peso, disintigrated which meant I'd never get my money out in Candian dollars, so I thought. I waited 10 years for inflation to get my original investment back but I lost another 50% of that in improvements. The worse thing is rolling around in bed at night instead of sleeping, swearing you're going to kill someone. Too much wear and tear on your heart and nerves !!

 

Well it seems like there is a bit of a revolution going on in the Visayas to fix theses problems. I just read an article in the Dumaguete Star and there will be lots of activity in improving the grid. Here's the article but be forwarned, you need to be a first class power engineer to read it :
Sun.Star Dumaguete - Power projects to boost Visayas grid

 

It's not the electricity only!

The city can't dispose of it's own garbage too.