Posted by Pinay Home

Save Up On Water

And with the summer heat extending until July, our water system needs all the help it can get from its consumers. We all need to save and lessen our water consumption. And there are many ways on how we can do it.

Water is very important in our life and if you still not aware of it, your body is made up  mostly of water. We need water to function and to survive. But we don’t need water to use excessively. And so if you want to conserve water, you must take note of the activities where you consumed most water. For use here, its laundry, bath, washing the dishes that consumes a lot of water. Maybe if I will lessen our consumption with water, I can afford a term life insurance (something that I will need if ever I will apply for a loan, so I can buy a mac..woot!) from our savings in our water bill.

We have been practicing some tips on how to conserve water. One of this is not using the shower when we take a bath. We use dip and pail instead and we already turned off the flush in our toilet bowl. I am also using laundry detergent that will help in saving up more water. I plan to practice all the tips there is in terms of conserving water. I can only count on myself to help in our water crises.

How about you?

It Just Needs Some Cleaning

We thought we needed a new air con and in my mind I was quite excited to buy a new one (of course I am eying an inverter air conditioner). I am trying to save my earnings so I can buy an inverter air con anytime soon. I can’t wait to see the barcode scanners in the appliances store register the price/amount I have to pay. It’s like telling me, congratulations..this is your earnings and soon you and your kids will enjoy it.

Our air con has been malfunctioning for almost a month, must be the heat and the almost 24 hour usage. And then, one lazy afternoon, hubby decided to take it out and give it a general cleaning. We remembered we hadn’t cleaned it since we move here, which is 3 years ago. Good thing that there was a neighbor who knows how to clean air con. We paid $10 for it and whoa! The dust and the dirt inside our air con was unimaginable. It was thick, it can replace a cardboard. And so, after it was cleaned, it good as new again. The kids and I suddenly needed our blankets again amidst the summer heat.

The Aches Of Moving

We all dream of having our own house. There is so much our own house can give us and one of the best thing about living in your house is that you don’t have to move from time to time. Moving ca really be tiring and exhausting, not just physically but emotionally and financially.

First, the financial burden of moving. The cost of moving is not cheap. You have to buy moving boxes and avail of the service of moving companies. These are companies that offer full service movers and helps a mover in all their moving needs. Though it is not cheap, you can actually look for moving companies that will provide you the best service for the price you will pay.

That leads me to physical exhaustion that goes with moving, but of course, given the right moving company partner, that exhaustion can go as easy as a dust.

And then the last one, which is the most difficult to deal with, the emotional pain of moving. Being in the community for long and leaving it will really break any mover’s heart. Imagine you have been there for years, you already have friend in the community and then suddenly you will leave them. This will be harder if you already have kids and your kids already have playmates in the community.

ABCs And 123s

It has been a while since our house was decorated with ABC and 123s. Last year our house was full of artworks that can be compared to some postcard printing. It was colorful and with a lot of images.And because of the flood that hit our place, all my poster are gone. I wish I can more time to do it. It will school year again and it would really help a lot specially to my second boy. And of course it will also help in stimulating Sati’s brain development.

Street Lights

Have you ever wonder who pays the bill for your street light? I do, and good thing that Meralco.com.ph supply some information regarding street lights. Below are some text I got from the Meralco website.

Streetlights serve a role in society that is not limited to enabling people to see where they are going. On a broader perspective, the existence of streetlights emphasizes the value of safety, peace and order and a robust economy. Aside from these, the bright streets give a nice, warm feeling of contentment and happiness.

At present, MERALCO has around 285,000 streetlights all over its franchise area that it installed and is currently maintaining. This goes to show that Meralco is committed to installing and maintaining streetlights, whenever the need is manifested by streetlight applications.

There are however more things that we need to know about streelights, that is not only informative and interesting but also helpful for a general understanding of the intricacies of the streetlighting system.

How To Identify Meralco Street Lights

MERALCO streetlight facilities are identified thru:

  • Pole-mounted streetlights – MERALCO numbers that are written on metal pole tags wrap around concrete or wood poles
  • Ornamental streetlights – MERALCO numbers on yellow stickers installed on the streetlight steel poles. There is also a yellow sticker with the MERALCO logo on top of the pole numbers.

Of streetlights installed, majority are high intensity discharge (HID) lamps. The rating or wattage of the streetlights are 70 watts high pressure sodium (HPS), 125 watts high pressure mercury (HPM), 150 watts HPS, 250 watts HPS and 400 watts HPS. The bulk or more than 90% of the total number are 70 watts HPS and 125 watts HPM. The rating or wattage of the streetlight luminaire can be easily determined and seen from the road surface thru yellow stickers bearing the numerical wattage such as 7 or 07 for 70 watts, 15 for 150 watts, 25 for 250 watts and 40 for 400 watts.

Street Lights Billing:

There are two (2) types of billings that MERALCO charges for streetlight service as follows:

  1. Flat rate streetlights service – Applied to MERALCO-owned streetlight facilities. The amount is based on the rating of wattage of the lamp and electricity consumption that has been computed by MERALCO for a duration of 12-hour night time operation per month. MERALCO has five (5) ratings or wattages for the company-owned streetlights: 70 watts HPS or 125 watts HPM, 150 watts HPS, 250 watts HPS and 400 watts HPS.
  2. Metered rate streetlight service – Applied to customer-owned lighting facilities. The amount of billing is based on the electricity consumption that is registered and read thru the kilowatt-hour meters every month. Customers under the metered rate streetlight service are local government units, barangays, homeowners associations, commercial center associations, industrial estates, and real estate developers.

How The Street Lights Operate:

Streetlights operate during the night normally for 12 hours, from 6 pm to 6 am. They are either individually controlled or group controlled. The switching on and off is thru a device called the photocontrol. The photocontrol is device that senses the amount of light and automatically turns on and off the lamp inside the streetlight luminaire. The photocontrol is mounted on top of streetlight luminaires for the ones that are individually-controlled, and on top of lighting control panel box for the streetlight luminaires for those that are group controlled.

All streetlights owned by MERALCO are controlled by photocontrol for automatic dusk to dawn operation.

Lighting facilities owned by customer are also automatically controlled by photocontrol, however, some do not have photocontrol and are manually operated. Their personnel switch on and off the lights at certain hours.