carbpow

My advice is free, worth every peso and from experience here in the Philippines. Use the same precautions you would use anywhere when investing. A house is a decent size investment and in most places here there are regulations as to permits, taxes etc. Best to find out the rules and abide by them. In the Philippines a builder who contracts must be registered but not a lot are, they get a registered engineer to sign off on the plans. That is fine and there are some very good unregistered builders.Anyone can draw your plans and submit to an engineer or you can skip the middleman and go straight to the engineer. Before you build write your own contract and be very specific about what you require, materials for finishing and quality thereof etc, and how much you will spend. Then take it to an attorney to put the finishing touches on it. Both you and your builder sign it, you then make legal recourse much easier if you have problems later. I initially hired a guy who said he was an architect and advertised himself as such on Facebook and in public. He seemed like a nice intelligent guy. Turned out he was not a registered architect and as time went on was constantly asking for advance payments. When we finally consulted an attorney he advised us to not pay any more in advance as we had already over paid. When we told the "architect" we would not pay any more money in advance he stole all the materials we had paid for to finish the house and left town. Criminal and civil charges are pending but meanwhile we are out of quite a bit of money. We later found some excellent craftsmen who are finishing our house and doing a good job. They are very amenable to adopting proven methods of construction, like using enough cement, proper termination of electrical components etc. The Philippine building code is actually quite good but a lot of builders do not know it exists. There are some great craftsmen in the Philippines but there are also an inordinate amount of crooks and the legal system to hold them to account is expensive and SLOW. I was warned by Filipino friends who had been ripped off by their countryman and I was cautious but not quite cautious enough. All that being said I would build here again and probably will. With the right guys and a clear legal understanding of expectations it is rewarding and fun.

Still waiting on Meralco to approve net metering, hope it happens soon, they say maybe this week. Since they just now read the meter after 3 months of estimating I got a nice 15000php bill. On a brighter note, Daikin came and replaced the PCB on the air con unit. Also installed a new thermistor and ran a new ground wire just to be sure everything was OK.. No charge for all as the unit was under warranty. From outage to running was 2.5 weeks. Probably would have been sooner but Covid-19 seems to have affected headquarters in Manila. All in all I am happy.

Another update. Meralco said they will be sending an engineer 'soon' to inspect the wiring coming to our house. It seems this is one of the final steps in the approval of net metering for the solar PV system. I was told there may be some expense if the wiring needs to be modified. There is 8 gauge wire to the house so one would think wire would not be an issue but, you never know.So far 1 month into the application for net metering for solar PV system.

Update. After I contacted Daikin headquarters for Ph. in Manila, explained the problem they informed me they will be shipping the PCB and also a replacement thermistor tomorrow, so hopefully will be up and running within a week. The thermistor replacement is not something the local tech requested but is a good idea as a faulty one can cause the control system to act goofy. Hopefully this works out as promised.

I had a similar problem with a Panasonic unit and the same warranty run around. I filed a complaint with my local DTI office. Panasonic had to send a representative to meet at DTI and issue was resolved. I hope I don't have to go thru that again to get Daikin to honor their warranty.

Here's an update for those of you planning AC systems. The multi split system I bought and installed 3 months ago was a Daikin system. Very recently the compressor shut down due to a bad PCB. All is under warranty from Daikin but has to go thru Daikin Manila for replacement parts. They are questioning voltage surges etc as to the root cause and have not been forthcoming with a replacement PCB yet. I explained that we have a surge suppressor installed on the main Meralco line coming to the house. Also explained that all other appliances are fine and no one else in the subdivision has experienced any failures due to voltage. I will keep everyone posted on how they handle this.

Yes, of course I thought about that and will do what I have to do but I just found it humorous that at this stage of my life I need a fake ID to get into places. Many years ago I went through the same thing but had nefarious means and purposes. I wanted a beer! Now I guess the government wants to prevent us from getting this virus as well as those under 21. That is very nice of them and I appreciate it but I have been shot, had malaria twice, dengue, typhoid and cancer. Recovered from all that nicely. BUT, I will say I'm wise enough to know luck runs out so I'll find an errand runner for those places I can't get into. Other large hardware stores aren't so strict so progress will continue on this house project when I feel brave and cannot find a runner.

Discovered today I need to get a fake ID if I want to get into Citi Hardware. Over 60, no admittance. Same at LTO.

In our case we used continuous copper tubing [no joints] from the compressor to the evaporators. Of course each room has its own separate supply and return line to the compressor so a leak would only affect that unit and is easily isolated. They were insulated and enclosed in PVC pipe within the walls. I rarely have had AC rated tubing fail, it's tough stuff. Yes, having one compressor does make for a single point failure but it was a trade off for me money wise. I have a survival window unit from the old apartment for emergency use . I am spoiled and like my creature comforts.

I am thinking of installing a multi split AC in our house but I have not got much info from people having them, if they are happy with their choice or not? Would you do it again if you moved to a new house? Have you noticed any downsides compared to single splits? I would absolutely use a multi split again. Only one condenser/compressor to buy and with an inverter unit you only utilize the amount of electricity actually needed. I have 3 evaporator units one each for two of the bedrooms and one for the living/kitchen area. If I only use one unit, example the bedroom unit, the compressor and the condenser fan slow down to just supply that unit. I previously lived in an apartment with a small window AC in one bedroom and it used more KW than this multi split while cooling two bedrooms. OF course this house is better insulated but still... A word of caution. The biggest problem I had buying this system was the AC suppliers all wanted to sell me much more capacity than I needed. I think that is why many people shy away from the multi split, expense. The problem is none of them do any heat load calculation they just measure your room and say X is what you need based on a chart given to them by the national supplier. If the house is made of uninsulated metal or 15 cm insulated walls and ceiling is of no concern to them. I had 3 different suppliers tell me they would not warranty the installation unless I installed what they said. As an engineer I found it to be frustrating but eventually got a supplier to agree to take my money based on my heat load calculations. Properly evacuating the unit to the manufacturers specification was a new experience for them too but we got it done and I have been happy.

There is now a guy working on this net metering deal with Meralco. It seems the hold up has been acquiring the needed paperwork from the city due to ECQ which Meralco needs but this will be completed this week. I'll keep folks informed as to the progress. Based on my experience thus far with the PV system my electric bill should be very small even with a multi split AC once the net meter get installed.

My Meralco meter which is not a net metering meter reads 'delivered' and 'received' Received being what I am feeding back to Meralco. Between 8AM and 10AM the reading is .20 to .40 KWH received. Then it jumps to 1.25 + as the sun gets higher until about 4PM when it goes back down to about the same as the morning reading. At night it reads 1.25-1.5 delivered. Back to my original question. Does anyone have any experience as to how long it takes for Meralco to approves a net metering application? I appreciate the help.

I have 16 panels total. Two strings of 340W LG panels.

Tes I can turn it off and just use the power supplied by the electric company [no battery back-up] but that gets annoying. Most of the power I feed back is between 11AM and 2PM so I would have to turn it off at 11 and back on at 2, IF I remembered.

I've been living in my house with a solar PV system for about 2 months. The problem is I don't have net metering approved yet due to the CV-19. Application is being processed. Meanwhile I have to pay full Meralco rate for any excess I generate which is a LOT. Even with only one string on I feed back about 6-8 KWH/day. Anyone know what the typical time is to get net metering approved and meter installed?