Have you had a‘brownout’ lately?

Out here in Lipa City, the week started with a brownout or blackout at two in the morning until two in the afternoon.

While I have long dreaded the possibility given that our power supplier is a cooperative, I did not expect it to be 12 hours long at the beginning of the hot summer months!

But then again, in Lipa and the Batangas area, such things are not unusual or uncommon. Electric cooperatives they say are not as efficient as Meralco.

I am mentally preparing myself for the possibility of regular power interruptions due to the fuel crisis as well as double or more in terms of monthly electric bills. It certainly gives new meaning to the term “electric shock.”

But last Monday was indeed a shocker in terms of paying P3,000 for 20 liters of diesel fuel to run the generator. That is approximately the same amount I spend for a round trip drive from Pasig City to Lipa City and back!

Aside from appliances and computers which we run on solar, we regularly use farm and shop equipment. Without them you can’t maintain even a backyard farm or do repair and maintenance work that needs to be done.

Fortunately, we recently invested a big amount of our savings to install modular solar power set-ups particularly for our water pump, lights and air conditioning during hot summer nights.

At this stage, it is no longer a luxury in the face of the fuel crisis. Because of this the busiest and hardest to book nowadays are solar power installers and air conditioning technicians.

For at least two years now, I have been writing that the government should promote residential solar power installations to drastically reduce one of the biggest expenses of every household, which is electricity.

The Department of Energy acknowledged the valuable resource and cost saving that solar power systems provide and mandated that government offices reduce their power consumption and shift at least 20 to 30 percent to solar power.

The GSIS recently announced the availability of  loans for members who wish to install solar power systems in their homes. I congratulate the GSIS for this real benefit and service to their members because the loan amount is realistic and covers current market price for regular installations.

The loan is called the GSIS Ginhawa loan (GSEL) which allows active members to borrow up to P500,000 for installing residential solar panels. The loan is payable over a period of five years at five percent interest per annum and includes a three-year insurance coverage.

If you divide P500,000 by 60 months you average around P8,333+. That would be the normal electric bill for many middle-class homes in Metro Manila and Lipa City.

What you can save through using solar can then be directed to paying for the solar power system that has a life span of 10 to 15 years. I hope and pray that the DOE, DOF, etc. can work out a way to copy the GSIS model and make it available to many Filipinos.

It’s crazy that all the commercial banks offer car loans but have not seen the logic and social benefits in offering “solar loans.” If the GSIS can offer a loan at five percent per annum with five years to pay, why not require banks to do likewise?

I’ve been asked by several friends about installing solar panels and set-ups. The key is to determine what are your top two equipment or appliances that consume electricity.

Then determine what you can afford, what you want or need the most. Is it water or is it air conditioning? For day time or evening, which requires batteries.

For city dwellers, the automatic answer is air conditioning and refrigerator or pressure pump/tank. In provincial areas people prioritize water pumps since many places do not have local water utilities and after that appliances.

Because we had limited budget and wanted to test out the technology, we asked our supplier to install one of those green solar-powered irrigation pumps to circulate and filter water in a holding tank, the same system used by vegetable and rice farmers.

On the other side of the fence, our neighbor installed a solar power set-up with no batteries just to run the deep well pump during the day. This modular approach is practical if you only want to fill a couple of water tanks for home or farm use.

This modular or separate set-up allows installation for those with a limited budget and if something goes wrong, only that part goes off, unlike integrated systems.

After several months, we were convinced that the system works within limits. We then bought a set-up with batteries that allows us to power lights, air conditioning or some appliances.

You will never be totally off grid because of overcast or rainy weather. There are also times when everybody plugs in and drains more power than the solar panels can store.

But people who have put up solar power have saved as much as 50 to 80 percent from their monthly electric bill. For me and my family, we find it reassuring to know that one way or another, we will have electricity regardless of the fuel crisis. Pray about it.

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