Power Problems?

[Jung]

While the Philippines is a great place for an Expat because of the friendly people, warm weather, cheap living and all that; one of the bad things is the irregular power.

They call them 'brown outs' here although I am not sure why. In my ten years living here I have only had one real brown out the rest are black outs! No power what so ever...

This usually happens during a storm but to tell the truth, they seem to hit whenever they want but this sort of power lines may be part of the problem... Who am I kidding, not 'might' this is definitely part of the problem.



Yeah, I know, the mess is mostly phone and cable lines but the way they string lines with little regard to shielding or safety or standards, it is no wonder there are some problems.

The sad part is, I have seen far worse than this picture but just as I was looking through the hard drive I saw this picture and I thought I would share a slice of life here in the Philippines.

Peace,

[Rhoody]

While you talk about no power, here what happens to a friend of mine...

Our barangay was hit with a huge surge with loud explosions coming from all the transformers and lines. I lost two big tv's, two home theaters, two satellite boxes, wifi modem, range, washing machine, fan, and damage to my computer. Fortunately, I have a backup SmartBro modem. Estimated loss 250,000p.

I bet he would prefer a brown out

Thanks, the Noreco power line was cut and I am the last house and transformer on the line. Al hell broke loose, everything plugged in to the main panel was zapped. Replacement cost for same would now be about 300,000p, my voltage regular was for the microwave and both were unplugged. Aircons have separate breakers and were spared. I need a VR for the whole house. I will now battle for some reimbursement.

The nightmrare continues...

You don't want to have this happen to you. Noreco Engineer and inspector came and had a look at all my damaged appliances. They checked the receipts we had and updated their list. So I asked how long they thought this process will take for reimbursement or repair. Their answer, 2 or 3 months. So I said you expect me to go without refrigerator, washing machine, range, computer, tv's, fans, for 2-3 months? He explained the process is they will have someone come and pick up all the appliances and send them out to the appropriate repair shops and see if they can be fixed. If not, the report will go back to the gm and they will determine reimbursement. I said I have a better idea, send the service repair techs out to my place and they can quickly determine if any appliance can be repaired. I said meanwhile, I will go and buy a refrigerator today and if you can fix my old one, you can sell it.

They asked if I can wait until Monday, they have scheduled a meeting to review and assess the situation. This gave me a real warm feeling, NOT! I called the gm's secretary and asked her to let me know after the meeting what is happening. The Bacong mayor also had damage (his daughter is the Noreco 2 Board Director for the Bacong area). Depending on the feedback I get Monday, I will determine my path forward. Will you all please make sure you pay your Noreco bills on time so they will have funds to reimburse me.. joke

Btw, they saw my meter is not running, I told them I will run all my aircons 24/7. They said if the meter is not working, they will use last month's bill for the current month billing.

cheers

Rhoody