Moving to the Philippines - Building a house

[OhYa1337]

Hi everyone, I am Brand New to solar, and have been watching all the videos & reading everything I can.
about my understanding;
I have an ok understanding of 12v Vehicle wiring / power
and 110v / 220v Home wiring / power
I am not an Electrician, but I have wired HIGH END Car Audio systems
I also built a Garage including the wiring.
I have changed / installed breakers, outlets, switches, GFCIs, etc...

Ok, so now on to what I am doing. (all devices / appliances will be new)
I am in the USA now, but going to be building a small 1400 Sq Ft home in the Philippines, where everything is 220v
I would like to be able to run 220v appliances, including
House Lights
2 small window Air Conditioners (apox 1250 watts ea)
1 Gaming Desktop Computer
2 32" Monitors
1 45" TV
Refrigerator
Deep Freeze
3 laptops
several USB powered devices

Anyways, so thats the basics. I don't really know what the usage will be & am not sure if its worth going 100% off grid or just doing something like 1/2 solar 1/2 grid
It just seems like thats a lot to try to run from batteries, but its the Philippines, so we have Sun pretty much all day every day.
I figured I would post this, to start getting input of things to look into & see if maybe others already run large systems like this at 220v and maybe already know whats up.
Thanks

 

[MichaelK]

While visiting my wife's family in the tropics I know that you'll be basicly running the air conditioners 24/7. Couple that with a full-size refrigerator& freezer, and you are talking about a very LARGE solar system. I'd guesstimate you'll need about 30-40kwh per day just for air conditioning. The rest of the loads combined aren't likely to equal even half of the aircon load. I'm here in sunny California, so I really don't have to worry much about too many cloudy days. In the Phillipines though I know you'll need air-conditioning even on the cloudy days, which there will be many more of. Without knowing anything about your location's insolation, I'd think you'll need at least 10000 to 15000 watts of panels, and a very large battery bank.

It is my understanding that in the Philipines the country as a whole has more than 1 electrical standard, with some parts having European 230VAC 50Hz and some with NA style split-phase 120/240VAC 60Hz. The serious inverter makers like Outback and Schneider make units that can service either, though not necessarily both. You're going to need to do much more serious research, and start getting ready to shell out BIG bucks for a system with 1000+AH battery banks at 48V with paralleled inverters powered by 10-15kw of panels. One more thing to keep in mind is it all has to be designed to survive the kinds of typhoons the Phillipines gets! It ain't gonna be cheap!!!

 

[DASH]

I agree with Michaelk. However, a much smaller system might be practical if You are concerned about having power for some essential items if the grid goes down. This is especially true, as unlike the United States where power outages are usually a maximum of a few days, it could be weeks in some areas of the Philippines.

 

[Wandersome]

The Philippines uses us voltages. Many of the islands are served by electric cooperatives designed and built using US RUS codes.... 60 cycle 120/240 volt. Electronics and electric appliances are reasonably priced there and plug and play. Enjoy your time there! If you go off grid why buck the system? Stick to 120 volt for small appliances and gas dryers and stoves... cheers!

 

[Jeremiah]

The Philippines uses us voltages. Many of the islands are served by electric cooperatives designed and built using US RUS codes.... 60 cycle 120/240 volt. Electronics and electric appliances are reasonably priced there and plug and play. Enjoy your time there! If you go off grid why buck the system? Stick to 120 volt for small appliances and gas dryers and stoves... cheers!

It's only a few places here that uses US voltages. Most of the country is 220v (I live here just outside Metro Manila).
The connectors are American style but the voltage is 220. I have to run my American appliances (vitamix blender, etc) through a bigass step down transformer.

I am in the USA now, but going to be building a small 1400 Sq Ft home in the Philippines, where everything is 220v
I would like to be able to run 220v appliances, including
House Lights
2 small window Air Conditioners (apox 1250 watts ea)
1 Gaming Desktop Computer
2 32" Monitors
1 45" TV
Refrigerator
Deep Freeze
3 laptops
several USB powered devices

Anyways, so thats the basics. I don't really know what the usage will be & am not sure if its worth going 100% off grid or just doing something like 1/2 solar 1/2 grid
It just seems like thats a lot to try to run from batteries, but its the Philippines, so we have Sun pretty much all day every day.
I figured I would post this, to start getting input of things to look into & see if maybe others already run large systems like this at 220v and maybe already know whats up.
Thanks

Mabuhai!
Are you a Pinoy OFW worker or you'll be an American expat? I'm happy to be in touch when you get here to help with the culture shock haha (ongoing). Try to be incognito, don't let the world know a foreigner lives there (security concerns). SInce you are building your place, you need to be hands on othewise they will just build standard cement wall place with crappy metal roof and zero insulation. Electricity in the Philippines is the 5th most expensive in the world! So forget your American prices and days of running the AC 24x7 unless you have a BIG budget. I mean BIG, lke $450 / month for your electric bill (I know, this happened to me in a small townhouse b/c I ran 1 big [inefficient] AC in my office room only for a full month and SMACK there's the cost. So your idea of being off-grid is actually very very smart (we are moving in that direction).
The electrical provider here is a monopoly and really sux and there is rampant electrical theft as well. Especially when your neighbors realize you are a "kano" they just imagine you've got bags of gold under your mattress and have no problem stealing your electricity, harvesting the fruit from your trees without asking, etc. ha. So yeah, get off grid as fast as possible.
I advise a 2 stage plan like what we are doing. 1st go hybrid. Harvest as much as you can, and use a hybrid system that switches to mains (as your backup power) when you're out of juice. I can tell you where to get cheap panels with 25 year warranty in country after you are here so you can keep adding panels/ batteries as you can afford to. And no, we do not have sunshine all the time. There are 4 seasons: Summer, Rainny, Summer, Rainny.
In rainy season your solar will come to a crawl; you may want to ask @fhorst about this; he lives in Neighboring Thailand and is happy to share tips; he's 100% off grid for some time now.

In order to calculate the average peak hours of sun you will have where you live, check out the solar insolation of major provinces in the Philippines. This gives you an idea per month on the peak hours you can expect (between 3.5 and 6 for most places though Baguio hits 7 hours in April). You can't just say "Ill have 6 peak hours" and go with it; you'll be disappointed.

Personally I'm aiming for battery bank of which I'll be using 14kwhr. I will be running an air-conditioner but only in the Peak sun hours (when it's the hottest). I won't be using any battery power to drive an AC (at first). This is a strategy to woo my significant other into loving solar since we don't use AC at all now lol.
If you'll be buying new appliances when you get here you can go for the super efficient ones and that will help. If you like doing projects I highly recommend you skip the ref. and get a second deep freeze and modify it to be your refrigerator. [google: convert chest freezer to refrigerator] you'll save like 70% in electrical cost. For AC make sure to get the "inverter" types with the best efficiency ratings you can find.
Our strategy for using AC is going to be to seal off our bedroom, insulated really nicely then that will be the "cool area" to escape to during the day. Otherwise we just walk down the street to Starbucks and "borrow" their AC for a while haha.
I hope you'll be near Metro Manila; it'd be nice to have an American friend here (or Pinoy expat who "gets" American humor etc . Feel free to PM me for insights in to Pinoy life. I've been here a decade.