Meralco unveils facility to guide consumers on electricity consumption

MANILA, Philippines - Want to know how much is the cost of using a certain household appliance, say per hour of use or per day of use ,so you can manage your electricity expenses?

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, unveiled recently its Power Lab, a multi-purpose facility that can test the power consumption of appliances and gadgets. 

The goal is to educate Filipinos on their electricity usage and help them understand the impact of energy management in their daily lives, Meralco said. 

“We want consumers to visit the Meralco Power Lab to discover how much electricity typical home appliances and gadgets consume and to realize how this impacts on their household expenses,” said Al Panlilio, Meralco senior vice President and head of customer retail services and corporate communications. 

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla welcomed Meralco’s initiative. 

“You can see the consumption of your appliances. It’s for people to be more conscious of the appliances that they use,” Petilla said. 

Panlilio said the facility would encourage consumers to become more conscious about electricity use and become more energy efficient. 

The Meralco Power Lab houses an Equipment Testing Laboratory, a Demo Area and an Intelligent Living Space. 

In two months, Meralco, through the facility, would also launch the so-called Orange Tags which would be placed on different household appliances sold in appliance stores. The tags would indicate the cost of using the appliance per hour, per day or per cycle, depending on the type of appliance. 

Meralco said the Equipment Testing Laboratory can be used to verify the energy consumption of air-conditioners, refrigerators and freezers, home entertainment systems, kitchen and other household appliances. The testing area can be reconfigured to accommodate different appliances, equipment and devices. 

The Demo Area, meanwhile, features appliance stations where interactive energy display monitors enable visitors of the facility to compare the energy consumption of common electrical equipment that use different technologies. 

“These include air conditioners and refrigerates that use conventional and inverter technologies, TVs that use LED technologies as well as kitchen, lighting and video player stations,” Meralco said.