Electrifying Electricity

One of the biggest problems we faced in Pakistan is Electricity. Especially in Karachi, They run a system called Load Shedding. This basically means they divide up whatever electricity supply they have amongst the different sectors of Karachi. So at anytime of the day the electricity can disappear from 30 minutes to 8 hours. Now in the winter we get by, but during the summer it’s just ridiculous.

Temperatures knocking up to 47 degrees Celsius. Without an Air Conditions its impossible. So we were forced to get a generator for the place. We managed to find a second hand Honda generator for the house. Now we were told that if we get a 5 KVA generator that it would allow us to run one air conditioner on the generator when the electricity went AWOL. So my father went and bought a generator that looked like it was manufactured during the Second World War. We still have it, but it can’t really stand the stress of an air conditioner. We use it to run the fridge, water dispenser, lights, fans, and computers when needed.

The worst time they could pick for load shedding was night tie when good folks like myself wanted to sleep. Now the weather was too hot for anyone to sleep without an air conditioner or fan. But even with a fan I found it impossible. The other problem is you have to put a generator outside due to the fumes it produces.

Now there seems to be a big problem with generator theft in Karachi. So I couldn’t leave the generator on during the night and not bring it in. Sometimes they like to play games where the electricity will go for about an hour come back for 5 minutes then disappear again.

So as you can see that even with a generator we were still screwed.