carbpow

I had a similar water problem everywhere I rented. Low pressure everywhere and in many places frequent outages. The outages allow contaminants into leaky pipes which is why after an outage in most places they issue a "boil water" notice for 24 hours afterwards. I was determined to have water when I built my current house. The developer has his own water system from a well but it is very dirty and hard. The well was not sealed properly. I put a 1000l tank on ground level with a pump and pressure tank. I also put a tank on the 2nd level in the attic which can supply water in case of a power outage. I put in a softener, filtration system and UV sterilizer. I have had the water tested and it is better quality than two samples I submitteed from local bottled waater supplier. I also installed a rain water recovery tank which is really easy and this rainy season we get a LOT of water from it. I'll attach a video of it. 116574315_590280364966238_385017725851347880_n.mp4

We did, all have to pay, we will start asking for receipts. It's a fairly new subdivision, not many homes yet and no HOA yet. They just started putting in permanent poles for electricity. On our street they broke through the 30 cm drainage line to dig the holes, went straight thru in 5 places. We went to the developer immediately and said we wanted our drainage rerouted or else the garage would flood. Wife quoted them the R.A. governing developers and they repaired the next day. When I asked the developer why the power company broke thru the drain line everywhere. He laughed and said that is where his design architect said they should be located. Having lived in the Philippines for a few years I found that not to be very surprising. We will be further investigating this fee for delivery. Most other homeowners are hesitant to question as the developer is the vice mayor.

I rented in two subdivisions prior to buying land in a new subdivision. We have built a house but are a little peeved at the developer charging for us 100php for every delivery made to our house. During construction we had to pay for every truck delivering building materials. Now that we have moved we are charged for furniture deliveries. We inquired as to who gets the money but the gatekeeper is not forthcoming with information. Does anyone else experience the same fees in their subdivision? I see nothing in our contract when we bought the land regarding these fees.

Jensen Beach, Martin County.

Yes but that 8 mil film is not easy to put on, the 6 mil works well enough thus far. I just wanted to keep a coconut from coming thru the glass in the event of typhoon. I made the mistake of not picking my coconuts [green cannon balls] in Florida before a moderate hurricane once. Glass shrapnel is disconcerting.

In a previous place I just put in old style colonial wooden shutters in the dirty kitchen. You could open them wide and let air in or smoke out depending on who was doing the cooking, then close and lock at night.

We tried to be as energy efficient as possible in selecting materials for our house so we never considered jalousie windows. The leak air terribly. However, if you do not intend to use AC they do allow for good airflow.

This 8 mil film is available here. I think they have different thicknesses. You can check online for the cost. If memory serves me correctly it was more expensive than getting the stuff sent in a balikbayan box from the USA. BUT, I was in the USA at the time so packing a box wasn't a big deal. The important thing to remember is put it on before the glass is installed in the frame or else the uncovered glass within the frame will break as if nothing was applied. My wife and I installed it on the glass for all our windows in about 2 days. We let it cure in the sun for 2 more days and then gave it to the window guys for final installation. They were very impressed and laughed when they told us they accidentally dropped a pane and said it bounced.

I sent it in a balikbayan box from the USA but later found it is available here. It is not that difficult to put on but make sure you put it on the glass before it is put in the frame. You need a break-off razor knife to cut it as the 6 mil film is thick and dulls blades quickly. Break-off blades are easy to find here. Use a LOT of water on both the film and glass. Squeegee the bubbles out, let it dry and then install. The film supplier should be happy to help with instructions. Does it keep a lot of heat out? Yes. Makes a noticeable difference. Is it it as good as double pane? No. But it's worth the effort. I went thru a Cat 5 Hurricane in Florida. I had storm shutters on most windows and 6 mil film on the others. The storm shutters protected the windows well, the 6 mil film? The windows broke but the wind and rain did not come in. Part of the roof flew off and a garage door blew in but that's another story. ;)

I got vertical sliding windows, single pane. We did put 6 mil security film on the inside of the window glass prior to final assembly. This was for UV and typhoon wind purposes. The 6 mil stuff is really tough. I really wanted double pane but could not find proper supplier. We did put security bars on the inside with hinged security bars on the second floor so escape is possible in case of fire. Once the house was finished we had an installer measure, make and install sliding insect screens. In retrospect I wish I had put hinged glass windows. The sliding windows don't allow much airflow. You can only open half the window but at the time I was concerned about finding someone who could make 3 hinge windows and I was in a hurry. Foolish me...never get in a hurry here, or most places for that matter. In a perfect world I would have put in double pane insulated hinged windows with the 6 mil security film. But I cannot afford a perfect world :)

I went to a Filipino friends house today who noticed my house seemed cooler than his yet my temperature was higher than his so he asked me if I would look at his air con. After looking at the specs of his air con and measuring the room I told him the problem is his air con is too big. This confused him until I explained that comfort is a function of temperature and humidity with humidity being the larger part. When an air conditioner runs it drops the temperature and removes moisture as the air gets cooler. If the air conditioner is over sized the temperature drops before the humidity has a chance to be removed. He said,"But I bought the size the supplier said I needed." I told him I am sure he did. The supplier in the Philippines is given a formula to calculate AC size but the formula only asks for the size of the room, how many people will occupy the room and the size of the windows. They get this formula from the supplier who gets it from the manufacturer. I have been told the formula is based on 4" hollow block walls, poorly sealed windows and many people in the room. This makes sense for the average purchaser. But if you have a house with better construction you will be sold a bigger unit than you need based on that formula. When I was building my house the supplier told me I needed 2.5 hp of cooling just for the kitchen living area and another 2.5 hp for the upstairs for a total of 5 hp. My calculation showed I needed 3.5 as an absolute maximum for the house. They sold me the 3.5 hp system but said they would not guarantee it would cool. Not only does it cool it has saved me a lot of money over the 2 window units I had for just 2 rooms in my previous place. My friend asked me how he could remedy his situation and we decided to turn off the upstairs ACs and let the oversized downstairs unit run a bit more. We'll see how that goes.

If any normal people are close to Lucena City in Quezon province need some help when a system is being installed I'd be happy to help. No charge. Just as schedule permits.

From my experience it is best to have more documentation than needed. If leaving the Philippines go see immigration and ask what is needed prior to departure. They do not always publicize the rules changes.

A not of caution and to be sure to cover all contingencies review this. If a child (under the age of 18) is traveling with only one parent or with someone who is not a parent or legal guardian, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) strongly recommends that the accompanying adult have a note from the non-traveling parent (or, in the case of a child traveling with neither parent, a note signed by both parents) stating “I acknowledge that my wife/husband/etc. is traveling out of the country with my son/daughter/group. He/She/They has/have my/our permission to do so.” CBP suggests that this note be notarized. If there is no second parent with legal custody of the child (e..g., the second parent is deceased, one parent has sole custody, etc.), relevant paperwork such as a court decision, birth certificate naming only one parent, death certificate, etc., would be useful as well. While CBP may not ask to see this documentation when the child enters the U.S., the U.S. is very sensitive to the possibility of child abduction and trafficking, and the child and accompanying adult could be detained if questions arise about the situation. While the U.S. does not require this documentation, many other countries do, and onward travel could be impeded without a notarized permission letter and/or other documentation. (Canada, for example, has very strict requirements in this regard). This advice applies to U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike. More information can be found on the Customs and Border Protection website.

I really like Mitsubishi units and wanted one but they didn't have multi-split at that time. Units from Mitsubishi Electric [not Heavy] and Daikin are my first choices with Panasonic being very close 2nd. The newer ones have coated PCBs to prevent damage from insects, lizards etc. If they are installed correctly, grounded, proper torque on fittings, tubing flushed with nitrogen , vacuumed down to 500 micron and hold for 30 minutes they should last for many years.