The neighbors were asking tonight if we were having any problems with low voltages, our response was nope so they were curious what was going on. I checked the voltage at our house (240) before stopping by their house. We have our own transformer for the house. Their average electric bill is 500 peso and basically have a small fridge and a few lights, very little load; checked voltage and it was between 150-190. There are between 8-10 houses tapped off the one transformer with extremely long secondary runs from what I've seen. The difference in voltage between us and our closest neighbors was quite a surprise, would you imagine that the voltage can be between 90 and 50 different AND fluctuating? When I say closest neighbor I mean I can actually throw a rock and hit them (stones throw away) but I do worry about injuring a rotator cuff. I do like this older couple so I got roped into agreeing to look at things better once the sun comes up in the morning but I am pretty sure I can narrow it down to a few suspects. The fix may be more than they are up for at the moment though. Shawn
You would think that this would be something NORECO would be responsible for. They are paying them for the service, they should come out and check the lines free of charge.
Guessing we had the same low voltage problem. The temperature alarm light came on the freezer and finally went out this morning. Cleaned the condenser coils and the dust bunnies and that was three days ago.
To me it sounds as if there is too much demand on your neighbours supply. Be careful in case they ( Noreco or Neighbours ) try to hook up your transformer, assuming your transformer is similar to the one below. As Wrye83 says, it is Noreco's responsibility to check the power supply from their transformer to the meter.
The transformers are overloaded, there are just way too many houses coming off of these. I could not tell without some binoculars or gaffs on what the taps are at but you look at some of the transformers and it is quite confusing just how may houses are actually fed from it. Someone with more knowledge can perhaps shed more light (no pun intended), but it seems as there are a certain number of NORECO supplied transformers and they have their load calculations based on the drawings to assume what the actual pull will be. This is so flawed as no one is taking into account extension cords/surge suppressors that will have another cord off of that because there is 1 receptacle in a room. For example I put 5 receptacles in our bedroom, 2 are used. The load is a laptop, cell phone/iPad charger and the router. How much load is that realistically? Our small kitchen/hallway has 8 receptacles, 2 on one circuit (GFCI) for countertop, a dedicated 10 amp circuit for the fridge and 2 receptacles on a far wall that includes 2 in the hallway. The fridge is used obviously, a microwave used a couple times a week, water dispenser always in use and I have yet to plug anything other than my multi meter into the hallway. A few exterior receptacles that will get used with tools as I play around with some projects. Other loads are the rice cooker that does seem to get used twice a day, if I'm eating rice or not, washing machine 3-4 times a week, ceiling fans and mostly LED lights with solar lights outside and the water pump that is used to fill the tank every other day and runs for around 10 minutes or so. I've actually had numerous conversations with NORECO on what my actual draw would be, which has proven to be fairly close; the thing that gets things a bit out of whack is the repairs on various motor bikes and the trike where they need to use the welder. When I designed things it was up to code (basically) but using common sense on what I knew I would use in the future as well as the convenience to be able to plug in without running extensions cords. My point is getting long winded by now, but other than the welding machine and the need to use saws and planers, my load is not different than what it was in the apartment. That had a 30 amp main with 4 circuits and I have an 80 main with 24 circuits based upon the drawings. I did the calculations/design myself so it was not a surprise, but I know, with common sense, I will never pull close to that. Your drawings (even not per the Philippine Electric Code) you could put 1 or 2 receptacles in a room and have a house twice the size of mine, and you would be allowed to tap off an existing transformer. If you had the same number of things in your twice the size home, you will be running cords to keep things going. You then have then helped to overload that transformer and now you see your voltage drops and some other issues with your newly installed LED lamps. Shawn
