As the country is hit by the El Nino phenomenon, the city has been plagued by the worst power and water crisis than we have ever experienced. We encounter power outages that lasts for up to 6 hours and the water supply is now being rationed. And they said the situation will still worsen until May or June where we hope the rains will come in, which I pray won’t be too extreme as how we have experienced from the recent typhoons that hit us. The condition of the planet is indeed changing rapidly for the worse and unless we act on ways that will at least help decrease pollution, we are doomed to find ourselves at the end of the road very soon!
Amazingly, we sometimes experience continuous power and water supply here in Zamboanga whenever we’re visited by prominent and influential people. Coincidence? I hope so! Otherwise I feel ashamed for how the city treats foreign people as royalty rather than it’s own constituents. But that is another story, and it is not my purpose to incite a propaganda and complain about trivial things. My main purpose for this article is to present to you guys a solution for the energy problem, an option if you will consider it.
Let me now stop with the drama and show you how this works. All you need is a good car battery a power inverter and a battery charger. How does it work? First off, we need the main ingredient which is a car battery. For my setup I bought a new car battery for only P3,300. You can buy used car batteries or if you have car batteries that you don’t use anymore, it will definitely help you to save. What I bought is a 2SMF, 9 plated battery. The principle here is a battery that stores more power will provide more power longer. You can get 11 plated or 13 plated batteries. Of course it will cost more to buy a battery that stores more power and it will take you longer to charge a battery as the plate increases.
Next you need a power inverter. Inverters converts 12V direct current from the battery to 220V alternating current. There are inverters that has a transformer that converts to 220V and 110V. What I got is a small one that only produces 220V so it won’t suck too much power from the battery, hence prolonging the life of the battery. I got it for only P1300. To help your appliances from possible power surges from the inverter, connect it to an AVR and surge protector. My inverter produces 600 watts of power, but you can buy one that can product up to 1000 watts. To find out which inverter you need, you will have to do a bit of math. You need to determine which appliances you’ll be connecting to the inverter. Then you need know how much power each appliance needs and add it all up. With my setup, I was able to get 6 hours of electricity. You need to take note here that as you increase the power that your inverter produces, it will decrease the life of your battery.
And finally, what you need is a battery charger, which is also know as a power converter. The converter converts 220V current to 12V current, which is what the battery stores. I plug it to the battery every time I have electricity and would charge my battery for 3 hours to fully charge it. I bought my charger for only P140. There are converters which can charge faster and others that charge slower. Take note that the capability and functionality of a device is directly proportional to the cost, so as the charging ability increases so does it’s price. I have posted the picture of my charger below.
All in all I only spent P6000 for my setup. Sweet deal isn’t it? Better than a power generator in my opinion, which produces too much noise when it runs and requires gasoline, thereby producing toxic air and would add to your expenses. I hope you guys find this information useful as well as entertaining. Please do not hesitate to add to this article to share to others, and please leave comments when you can! To God be all the glory!
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