|
More brain, Miss Indonesia |
|
|
|
In Jakarta, even electrical power is unstable. Can your aircon tell the time? Mine can. Each time I hear it growl like a dying tiger, I know it is 10 p.m. At the same time, the old-fashioned, 40-watt tubular TL lamp in my room will suddenly stop producing its lumens.
The music from my home stereo will join the outbreak of sudden-death syndrome by ceasing to fill the background.
In the meantime, the UPSs will kick in and start to beep while pumping watts from their batteries to keep my two desktop PCs alive.
What they are all telling me is that the power voltage -- which in my house typically hovers between 180 and 210 volts -- has gone south.
Although most of the time it is just a dip in the voltage level instead of a total blackout, the impact is even more disastrous, as shown by the numerous casualties it has caused.
Among other things, it has put the death knell on countless hard disks. I now have to press the Power button on my stereo amplifier a couple of seconds longer before the green ON indicator lights up; I assume it's because the electronics inside have been subjected to unstable voltage for too long.
Throughout the years I have lived in this house, I have had to replace three 5 KVa Matsunaga voltage stabilizers to maintain our voltage at a minimum 220 volts. Since the day the third one died I haven't been able to decide whether to invest in another stabilizer.
We all agree that a microwave oven is a must-have. However, just one year after we bought our Panasonic, it stopped working despite the fact that we didn't use it very often. I took it back to Electronic City for repair before the warranty expired. The customer service lady didn't have to perform any diagnosis at all. "There's nothing wrong with it," she said, and she was right.
She plugged in the power cable, pushed the buttons and the appliance worked like new. Obviously, our house voltage is simply too low for the oven.
That is an indication of the poor quality of the electrical current that is fed into my house. Every month I pay state-owned electricity company PLN almost half my salary as a civil servant, but all they have done is cause me to put so many dead electronic devices outside my house for passing scavengers to pick up. More on / Jakarta Post
Comments () |
 |
|
|
|
 |