My posting schedule on my usual living in the Philippines subjects has been a bit spares lately … in a few hours it should improve … like Major League baseball I have been on the All Star break, but the game kicks off, live, in just a couple minutes (8 am Philippine Time on Wednesday).
I’ve also been honored to be added to the staff of my friend Bob’s Philippine Living Magazine and I’ll be writing a regular column there: http://www.liveinthephilippines.com/dstarr/
I’ve decided to write one of my multi-part articles here about energy saving and self-sufficiency, here in the Philippines and (in many cases) no matter where you live.
It’s a really hot topic today, with oil prices as they are, and I see a tremendous amount of misinformation floating around out there, especially online. perhaps I can shed a little light on the obvious scams as well as offer some positive suggestions.
I’ll give you a good example of something that is both hot and stupid right now … I was looking at some statistics regarding a fellow I know who makes a significant living selling products for others on-line .. commissioned sales or more commonly, affiliate marketing. This guy is currently earning something like $15,000 a week, so you can be sure I snooped around to see what in the world he was promoting. Anyone hazard a guess?]
Three different eBook on "how to add a gizmo to your fuel line that will run your car on water".
Folks, even if certain people in the US can suspend the Constitution, no one can suspend the laws of physics and thermodynamics. You can’t add a gizmo to your gas line that converts water to hydrogen and runs your car ‘free’. But you square as the dickens can find thousands and thousands of people who were thinking baseball or football during their science classes who will rush out and buy a book to let them think they can suspend those laws.
In my energy series I hope to dispel those myths … and propose a few suggestions that will make life a little easier as well.
Here’s the high-level outline I am going to cover:
Living in the Philippines and reducing your:
- Electricity Costs
- Fossil Fuel Costs
- Water Consumption
- Waste Production
Those are four biggies that are all well within the average person’s capability to influence meaningfully, and all will have a direct impact on our personal and world well-being … so stay tuned.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Hi Philly,Love the story you mention about the guy selling a Gizmo,so that your car can run on water.As PT Barnum once said”There’s a sucker born every minute” ha ha,regards Chas.
Excellent! I am glad you will be doing this topic. Looking forward to it and hope it creates more interest. Cheers, Ellen
Cool, glad to see you on Bob’s magazine.
He still needs to get an rss feed for the magazine as a whole, though!
*see the egress…right this way —–>*
This will be a big help to all who are interested in saving in some areas that might otherwise be overlooked.
Did your league win Philly? hehe
Cheers all,
~marshall
@Ellen: Thanks Ellen. I’m going to highlight the question/calculaions you posed in one of our prevous discussions also … how can one make a $30,000 + USD investment to power their house … or do they need to?
@Jonathan: Thanks Jonathan … it would be more appropriate to forward that idea to Bob, I have nothing to do with LiP except producing my column. I’ll mention it, though.
Hi Philly: My research shows that to power a house comfortably with one aircon (anybody can correct me on this) you need 4 to 5K watts. Looking at the price lists in some US companies, it looks like this runs around $25-$30K. Hopefully, over time, this will start to come down and I think it will. To get it grid-tied, your meter may actually go backwards and the electric company starts giving rebates. Alas, here in the Philippines, it seems like this is still something the electric companies are unwilling to do. So assuming no rebates and all your power comes from solar energy, you save or don’t need to spend the $1200 per year electrical bills. This equates to 4% on your investment of $30k.
The above is the background info. Now the analysis: Nowadays, there are no banks here that give 4% interest income, esp on US$ term deposits. There are US and Canadian companies that do give more than that in terms of dividend yield, but you also face the risks of the stock market fluctuations. I do not know the market situations in other developed countries, so they have to do their own analysis. So, for those who have spare cash, just sitting in the money market earning less than 4%, this option looks reasonable. Financing it by borrowing is still not a good option at this time and defeats the purpose of having a positive cash flow. Rising energy costs and lower start-up costs for solar energy will make the ratios look better
. The non-cash benefit is of course, total independence from the electric company’s irregular power supply.
On the side, I am actually quite amazed at how a lot of people here look at the monthly payment amount rather than the “financing rate” being used. I have seen financing scheme of 19%! Wow, that’s highway robbery to me, but what surprises me most is that they don’t seem to care about that – I get comments like – “that’s okay cuz the monthly payment is only 5,000 pesos.” Amayonaissing, but true
Ellen
@Ellen: Hi Ellen. That’s exactly the issue I am going to address in my next installment. In short, you are right and you are wrong at the same tome.
To reliably produce 4 or 5000 wats continuously is going to require more solar panels than any of us is willing to buy and if you want to do it 24 hours a day you are going to need a second house to hold the batteries (not really, but the investment will be all outof proportion to the benefit).
I don’t know how to power ahuse with conventional air conditioning with no commercial power at all in today’s environment. MY conventional air con is humming away across the room as I write this at 4 pm on a 30 degree C afternoon.
I do, though, how to reduce the need significantly and I know a liittle bit about what works to reduce that need. But to reduce it to zero … that is never needing Meralco? Not likely just yet, for me anyway.
I got a chuckle out of your amazement at people paying 19% + interest and ‘liking’ it. If you think that’s high you ought to calculate the true interest the majority of Amercians are paying on the credit card balances (or especially car leases, which don’t even have to disclose their annual percntatge rates) they routinely carry .. makes 19% look like a bargain.
I am hoping not to run the aircon all day or my husband’s face will be permanently stuck right in front of the amp meter. And I still hope 4-5k is enough.
In the boat, we only have 4 panels, and it seems to work for us, but we don’t have aircon, just lots of electric fans. But you are right, we still need the electric company – cuz what if it is cloudy for several days?
Re 19% – I did mean to add “this is just about as bad as the credit card rates”, I saw the 19% actually for house financing, and thought that was too high, especially if the house is also used for collateral. But I guess this is what you pay for not having any credit background whatsoever for the banks to lend you directly. I was in Norway when the Nobel Peace prize was given to this Indian for giving microfinance loans to the villagers in India. So if he can do it and still get the Nobel Peace prize ….
Cheers,
Ellen
From reading the Philippine forum (search solar energy), I think solar power is catching up here.
http://forum.gov.ph/
Ellen
@Ellen: Indeed it is catching on, Ellen. Likewise getting mor epopularis curing the power problem closer to the source … example solar airconditioners that need less than half the power of conventional units. At least with cooling, that problem of less power from the sun when it is cloudy becomes less of an issue becuase you need a lot less cooling when the sun isn’t shining as well.