Is the gamble of living in the Philippines worth the rewards?

[Queenie O.]

13 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

   Try telling Mr Bows this is the sort of happiness we are talking about, NOT the sort he thinks he can Buy 

Jack--only a local expat that has been here for a while, can relate to the thrill of returning water or electric coming back on after a brownout! Priceless!

[jpbago]

13 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

   Try telling Mr Bows this is the sort of happiness we are talking about, NOT the sort he thinks he can Buy 

Something like if you lock your wife or dog in the trunk of your car, which one is happy to see you.

[Queenie O.]

7 hours ago, virginprune said:

Wow, still waiting for summer down here, had about 20 days without rain since this time last year. The last rain free was for two days before Easter, then Good Friday the thunderstorms started again! 

Virginprune--Wow! I'm always amazed at how different different island areas are weather wise. I think that global warming has changed weather patterns here. In Cebu we tend to be on the hot side during the dry season, with May always being the most brutally hot month. Some dry seasons bring daily cloudbursts, and others not. I shouldn't complain, because this year we had two extra rainy season months that brought cool breezy weather here from November until April.  In many areas, June signals a the beginning of a lot of rain, but not so much so here

 

7 hours ago, virginprune said:

Wow, still waiting for summer down here, had about 20 days without rain since this time last year. The last rain free was for two days before Easter, then Good Friday the thunderstorms started again! 

in Cebu.

[jpbago]

15 minutes ago, Queenie O. said:

Jack--only a local expat that has been here for a while, can relate to the thrill of returning water or electric coming back on after a brownout! Priceless!

Our electricity came back after 2 blackouts......at about 300 volts as we had to replace 4 light bulbs and one starter. (they are called bulbs because of their shape)

[Queenie O.]

4 minutes ago, jpbago said:

Our electricity came back after 2 blackouts......at about 300 volts as we had to replace 4 light bulbs and one starter. (they are called bulbs because of their shape)

Yeah JP, is that from power surges when the electric comes back on? We usually unplug or fridge, aircon and computers etc. during a brownout, because we're thinking about possible power surge damage when it comes back on. We lose bulbs quite a lot-- maybe it has to do with what you're talking about.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Queenie O.

[jpbago]

2 minutes ago, Queenie O. said:

Yeah JP, is that from power surges when the electric comes back on? We usually unplug or fridge, aircon and computers etc. during a brownout, because we're thinking about possible power surge damage when it comes back on. We lose bulbs quite a lot-- maybe it has to do with what you're talking about.

Yes, it is from power surges. Maybe they don't have a regulator at the utility. We do unplug some things and we have surge protectors for other things but for lights, there is not much that you can do other than opening the main breaker until you think that the voltage has leveled off after a blackout. As you said in a soft way, it is more of a challenge to live here. Luckily, we live 2 blocks from a hardware store. They love blackouts.

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, jpbago said:

Yes, it is from power surges. Maybe they don't have a regulator at the utility.

We have our own Transformer  that keeps things level on the return of Power but I am not always sure it does, we unplug the things we need to and make sure all the Light switches are Off. Electricity will find the weakest point of Resistance and lights are just that

[jpbago]

6 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

We have our own Transformer  that keeps things level on the return of Power but I am not always sure it does, we unplug the things we need to and make sure all the Light switches are Off. Electricity will find the weakest point of Resistance and lights are just that

It depends on the type of transformer:

Voltage regulation is the measure of how well a power transformer can maintain constant secondary voltage given a constant primary voltage and wide variance in load current. The lower the percentage (closer to zero), the more stable the secondary voltage and the better the regulation it will provide.

A ferroresonant transformer is a special transformer designed to regulate voltage at a stable level despite wide variation in input voltage.

[Jack Peterson]

Just now, jpbago said:

It depends on the type of transformer:

Voltage regulation is the measure of how well a power transformer can maintain constant secondary voltage given a constant primary voltage and wide variance in load current. The lower the percentage (closer to zero), the more stable the secondary voltage and the better the regulation it will provide.

A ferroresonant transformer is a special transformer designed to regulate voltage at a stable level despite wide variation in input voltage.

 same as this 15kv.

[jpbago]

39 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

same as this 15kv.

We have one something like that at the street corner but our VR often is clicking to make adjustments so I think that the transformer comes close but not too exact on the voltage.