Meralco 230V, 3-Wire Residenial Power Supply

[winterburn]

Good day! to all members of this forum.

Im planning to buy some power tools as pasalubong to some relatives in the Philippines. My concern is our supply voltage under Meralco franchise is 230V line-line, but recently when I visited the site of Meralco, I found out that they are installing now the 3rd wire which is the ground wire. I just want to clarify if the 3rd wire used by Meralco for its residential customer is the one which is coming out from the distribution transformer (center tap) and solidly bonded to ground. (here in north america, they called that as a neutral wire). Thanks in advance to all of you guys who will answer my query.

[bbn]

Hi Winterburn, welcome. There is a thread here somewhere that really chewed out that topic. The short answer is "it depends". Please look for the topic I believe it will have all you want to know.

[B2Bomber]

Welcome to pinoyhandyman.

Using the search function, I believe the following post is what lncc63 was referring to:
Meralco's 3-wire Service Entrance (http://pinoyhandyman.com/showpost.php?p=13&postcount=1)

This post might come in handy too:
110 Volts Supply (http://pinoyhandyman.com/showpost.php?p=1792&postcount=1)

HTH

[winterburn]

Maraming salamat Incc63 and B2Bomber. I've been to the threads you were mentioned but still not sure if the 3rd wire is connected to the distribution transformer. My concern is how to get a true 115V supply for the tools I'll be bringing home. May be we can asked some guys from Meralco if there is in this forum. Thanks a lot.

[B2Bomber]

Well, hmm... just a suggestion, I know they're supposed to be pasalubongs but how about try to ask your relatives if the tools are available in the Philippines, if so, just buy 'em from there. That'd save you the hassle of having to source out 110V. More importantly, you'd be able to save your baggage space/weight for other items that are truly hard to find or absolutely not available in the Philippines. Just a thought. HTH.

[JayL]

Around half of the tools I have are 110 Volts ( Table saw, angle grinder, polishers, recip saw, routers, sanders, chargers etc.. ) . Mostly sourced out from the US. There was a time when I too was thinking of wiring my shop with a Meralco 110 volts service. After much research and all the confusion I ended up using a 1.5KVA step down auto voltage stabilizer which worked well. I could have wired the 110v output to the shop but did not find the need to do so till now. I just use extension cables.

[guad]

There was a time when I too was thinking of wiring my shop with a Meralco 110 volts service. After much research and all the confusion I ended up ...

Did that boil down to confusion on the Meralco side (one part/person of Meralco not in sync with another part/person of Meralco, as to whether they offer or do not offer the service in your area, as to billing, metering, pricing, wiring, or some other technical or non-technical consideration)?

Or was it confusion on customer (i.e., your) side not attributable to Meralco confusion?