Tags: General News, Water Electricity and Utilities
By Alexander Villafania
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – By now, most home owners in Metro Manila would be sweltering not just because of the extremely hot summer season but also because of the rolling power outages and the mind-blowing electricity fare hike that the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) initiated recently. With electricity ever becoming scarce and power costs going up, it is not a surprise that people are taking up arms – figuratively, of course – against power companies, particularly Meralco.
Just recently, members of the local blogging and social networking community launched an online protest against Meralco’s failure to provide adequate electricity while raising power prices. The online protest is concentrated on Facebook and has gathered around 3,600 fans since it started this month. The goal is to reach 100,000 fans before forwarding the petition to authorities.
The protest stemmed from several bloggers’ experiences with what they call as unjust electricity hikes by Meralco. A post by Cecile Zamora in Chuvaness.com revealed that he incurred a whopping P41,902.95 in his March electricity bill for their house in Pasig. Since then, he’s been using an anti-Meralco icon in some of his posts, especially the ones related to his electricity bill.
Other bloggers who have suffered similar ordeals include Mom Blogger Noemi Dado who said her bill doubled to nearly P15,000. Carlo Ople, CEO of Catalyst Inc., also wrote that his bill nearly doubled to P4,800 despite working out of his home and not using his airconditioning unit. Comments from Dado, Zamora, and Ople’s posts shared the same sentiments, many of whom said they tried to cut down on power consumption but were still surprised by the increase in their monthly billing.
My brother and I have also tried to cut down on using many of our home appliances and gadgets, particulalry our airconditioning unit and LCD TV. To cool off while sleeping, we essentially use ordinary desk fans. Since our apartment is surrounded by taller concrete structures, wind scarcely goes in or out. Thus, the temperature in our house can go as high as 34 degrees. We basically sleep on banig (palm mat) sprawled on a marble floor. It’s particularly harder for my brother who works in a call center by night and sleeps by day. We’re just hoping that our bill won’t double up this month.
It’ll be harder for most to manage their electricity bills during these days. Airconditioning units and electric fans will be running more often just to stave off the heat. The blog Clean Energy Philippines project has nifty tips to keeping cool this summer while keeping power consumption low. Here are a few:
In addition, there are also methods of counting how much electricity one uses at home. Meralco has an online application called the Meralco Appliance Calculator that can help users measure how much electricity is generated at home.
With a little more patience and a stricter compliance with energy consumption, these tips can definitely give a bit more comfort this summer and perhaps shave off some of the electricity bill.
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