How far away is your power transformer?

[Gary D]

55 minutes ago, jimeve said:

That's huge 50kva, are you going to supply the whole barangay? Ours is only 15Kva and have a 3 story house and a second house.

Yes that's over 200 amps, you starting a server farm or growing cannabis.

[fototek1]

Its a Motel so lots of air con, water heaters, and laundry. The Meralco engineer came back today and his figures were the same as mine. 50KVA  for current building and 75KVA if we do an expansion. He wanted to double check the loads. If we switched the water heaters over to a gas system with a storage tank......When we were building everyone told me not to do it that way so I didn't. The cost to install would have been a little more than all of the individual units and cost to run so much less......I think. Anyway its done for now. 

[bastonjock]

The problem with voltage is that it drops ,theres a loss over distance 

One way to compensate is to increase the guage or csa of the conductor 

 

[fototek1]

Imagine my surprise to find out the price to wire the transformer and connect our panel is P 950,000. That is in addition to the price of the transformer. So now we are investigating other options. 

[Mike J]

38 minutes ago, fototek1 said:

Imagine my surprise to find out the price to wire the transformer and connect our panel is P 950,000. That is in addition to the price of the transformer. So now we are investigating other options. 

You could buy a very nice off grid solar system for that price.   Adds value to your home and reduces the electric bill to almost nothing.    And as a bonus, you could tell them to pound sand.  

[fototek1]

Reviving the old topic! We just arrived back in the Philippines and need to address the power issue I brought up 3 years ago  We have not installed the new transformer yet. Instead, we did things the Filipino way, we (I mean they) installed 4 meters to power different sections. When our place is full, low voltage is still an issue (not surprising since they all run off the same transformer over the same wire that the single meter was tied to) so now we are going to install the transformer. As I previously mentioned, its a Motel and we have 21 rooms with Aircon (window units) and electric hot water.  We could get by with the 25 KVA but are planning on the 50 KVA in preparation for expansion. Hopefully we can get the price straight this time. Was over 1 million in 2019. The Father inlaw just had a 75 KVA installed in Bataan for 280 000 so he is having his electrician look into having ours done. 280K is ok but 1 million no way

[jimeve]

1 hour ago, fototek1 said:

Reviving the old topic! We just arrived back in the Philippines and need to address the power issue I brought up 3 years ago  We have not installed the new transformer yet. Instead, we did things the Filipino way, we (I mean they) installed 4 meters to power different sections. When our place is full, low voltage is still an issue (not surprising since they all run off the same transformer over the same wire that the single meter was tied to) so now we are going to install the transformer. As I previously mentioned, its a Motel and we have 21 rooms with Aircon (window units) and electric hot water.  We could get by with the 25 KVA but are planning on the 50 KVA in preparation for expansion. Hopefully we can get the price straight this time. Was over 1 million in 2019. The Father inlaw just had a 75 KVA installed in Bataan for 280 000 so he is having his electrician look into having ours done. 280K is ok but 1 million no way

You could have an on grid solar power supply If you have space for a 20 kw system.

 

Edited June 4, 2022 by jimeve
Size of system I quoted was too small

[Possum]

32 minutes ago, jimeve said:

You could have an on grid solar power supply If you have space for a 20 kw system.

 

If you ever decide to use grid tied solar install more KW than you need. Meralco charges 10php/kwhr but only credits what you feed back to them at 5php/kwhr. Also, due to various factors you PV system will likely not produce the same as the total KW of panels. Example; I have 5500w of panels installed which get full sun but realistically only get about 4-4.5 KW out of them. It's just the nature of the beast as PV ppanels are rated at optimum conditions. That being said my electric bill averages around 2000php/month so I am quite happy. I have 4 split AC units and 2 of them run pretty much 24/7, numerous other electrical appliances.

[fototek1]

11 hours ago, jimeve said:

You could have an on grid solar power supply If you have space for a 20 kw system.

 

 

10 hours ago, Greglm said:

If you ever decide to use grid tied solar install more KW than you need. Meralco charges 10php/kwhr but only credits what you feed back to them at 5php/kwhr. Also, due to various factors you PV system will likely not produce the same as the total KW of panels. Example; I have 5500w of panels installed which get full sun but realistically only get about 4-4.5 KW out of them. It's just the nature of the beast as PV ppanels are rated at optimum conditions. That being said my electric bill averages around 2000php/month so I am quite happy. I have 4 split AC units and 2 of them run pretty much 24/7, numerous other electrical appliances.

Our building is large enough for lots of solar panels. 40m x 13m . The issue is rocks falling from the sky! We are constantly repairing the roof because the kids behind us are practicing their pitching skills. It's a design flaw on our part. The land behind our building is 7 meters high and when we built the retaining wall we only left 4 meter space from back of building to the wall. 

When we add another building (2025) maybe we will put solar. For now I wish I could come up with a plan to prevent rocks from landing on the roof. Apparently this is a common problem in the Philippines according to the inlaws. 

[fototek1]

Price for 50KVA transformer installed with new 1/0 (60mm2) wire is P250,000. I gave approval but was over ruled by Tatay! The best part is that Father-in-law doesn't want us to spend the money because Meralco said the issue with low voltage was damaged wire and its now replaced. I am fortunate to have great in-laws that want us to keep our money in our own pockets. Tomorrow I will systematically turn on all  25 air conditioners (as I measure voltage and a few hot water heaters (if voltage is not dropped to brown out levels) and see how low the voltage drops. We have 4 meters hanging off a 100KVA transformer along with many (maybe 20)low power users (maybe a few lights and fans each)...... I am curious to see what happens here. BTW, Did I mention I am an American Electrical Engineer????? It's been extremely difficult for me to deal with the way electrical is done in this country but I am just rolling with the process here.