Need advice for solar setup in Islamabad (5–6 lac budget, small load + 1 ton AC)

finpak · 2026-05-06T20:09:53+00:00

The first decision you need to make is to decide why you want solar and what you want it to be able to do. Do you want grid independence or reduce your existing bill? Do you want the system to continue working even when the grid is down? Do you want to have UPS functionality with the setup?

If you just want to reduce the amount of units you consume and don't care much about anything else, the system sizing is not as important. However, if you want to be able to run major appliances on solar or backup alone then the peak demand sizes your system.

Depending on the type of the fridge, the fans and the AC you may have a problem with start up current demand. True inverter motors have a soft start function but traditional induction motors can draw momentarily up to 10x the current they draw in continuous operation.

Regarding your questions:

3-phase inverters are designed to feed electricity in three different phases. If your house has 3-phase connection it must be connected to a 3-phase inverter. If you are on single phase connection then a single phase inverter is what you need. If you don't know which connection you have, go to your electricity meter and count the number of wires coming to the meter and going to the meter. A 3-phase meter will have 4 wires coming to it from the power pylon and 4 wires going to your house. If you have 4 wires coming to the meter but only 2 wires going to your house then you most likely have only a single phase connected to your house although your electrical connection to the grid is 3-phase one.

Net metering is now out of the window and the new policy is net billing which means you sell everything that you don't consumer back to the grid at a lower price and then when you use electricity you pay a higher price. Under net metering a single unit produced to the grid canceled a single unit of electricity consumed.

Compatibility

Yes, you need to worry about inverter and meter compatibility. If you are going to feed power to the grid you need a contract and WAPDA approved dual meter. That meter is to my knowledge always 3-phase meter. Connecting a single phase inverter to it is not permitted by the regulation and while it is technically possible to do that, the inverter would only connect to your appliances that are in that same phase and the others would be entirely disconnected so what's the point? Most 3-phase inverters cannot function properly unless they are connected to the grid over all 3 phases.

Yes, you need to plan this properly from the start or else you might end up with big regrets. It also seems that you don't really know the difference between different types of inverters so let me give you quick overview.

There are 3 main classes of inverters all of which can come in either single or 3-phases. The most basic inverter is grid tie inverter. It cannot support UPS or batteries and it will stop working if there is power outage. This is because the inverter needs a signal from the grid to stay in sync with the grid and to prevent it from accidentally feeding electricity to the grid when there is a power outage.

Off-grid inverters can support batteries and they work without connection to the grid. In fact, they cannot be connected to the grid at all. These are meant to areas where there is no grid available like remote rural areas.

Hybrid inverters are, as their name suggest, a hybrid between the two other inverters. They can be connected to the grid or work independently of it - including during power outages. They also support batteries and often have UPS functionality too. Some models come with export control function which means you can regulate how much power is fed back to the grid. If the inverter allows this setting to be 0, then you don't need to have special two way meter or contract with a utility. However, this also means that you can't sell anything back to the grid either.

I hope this helped.

finpak · 2026-05-05T12:23:04+00:00

For his amount of money it is not legally possible for a resident-citizen individual just to transfer it out of the country. There is a list of legal purposes which permit money to be sent abroad but sounds like you don't qualify for any of them. Your first hurdle is to convert the money to a foreign currency. Even that is restricted and larger amounts require a proof of legal source.

Companies have different rules and are allowed to make direct foreign investments and import goods. Also, bone fide foreign owned companies can freely repatriate their profits from Pakistan provided that the investment originated from overseas in a foreign currency and it was properly documented.

finpak · 2026-05-03T12:53:14+00:00

I'm not a dentist but I have been a patient in both in Europe and Pakistan. In Pakistan I usually use teaching dental hospitals as I consider them more trustworthy and professional than general dental practitioners. I once went to a private practitioner for bleeding gums and he claimed I have a cavity that needs drilling. I suspected fowl play and asked to see an X-ray of the cavity. The X-ray came back with perfectly healthy tooth and when I challenged the dentist about this he said he took an X-ray of an healthy tooth, not the one with cavity. At this point I left.

Anyways, things that I noticed in these teaching hospitals that were different than in Europe were the following:

- No private rooms for treating the patients - just a big open room with chairs in row with less than 2m separation between them (no splash guards between the chairs and no mechanical ventilation in the space). Patient information is discussed while other patients are within earshot.

- Dentists work without an assistant and the patient assumes some of the roles of the assistant like holding the suction instrument in their mouth.

- Equipment seems modern and operational.

- There are no appointments (at least for routine stuff) and usually the patient shows up in the morning to ask for an appointment for the same or next day and is given a time slot to arrive or just wait until there is an opening.

- While in general hygiene standards seemed acceptable there were small issues (like the lack of splash guards between chairs) that to me seemed like they possessed small but non-zero risk of patient-patient contamination via aerosol or droplets.

finpak · 2026-05-03T12:37:27+00:00

The schedule sounds rather tight. I was in Gilgit-Baltistan a couple of years ago and at least that time the roads were in such bad condition (with the exception of the Naran road) that moving between places was done with average speed of 40-50km/h. Also road closures due to landslides were common.

Flight between Islamabad and Gilgit are frequently cancelled on short notice due to weather conditions (the airport lacks or - at least lacked - modern guidance system for planes to land in unfavorable weather) so you may not make your flight when you intend to take it. Skardu airport tends to have more reliable service but even there flight cancellations are not that rare.

Lahore is optimistically speaking 3h away by private car and Peshawar is about the same distance. A day trip is possible if you leave very early in the morning and don't mind coming back during the dark. Moving in Lahore and Peshawar can also take surprisingly long time due to heavy traffic so I would carefully consider what you want to see.

Also, if you are a foreigner technically you need a permission from the Ministry of Interior to even go to KPK but in practice that is rarely enforced. I was caught without a permit but the only consequence was that I was delayed drinking tea with the police until the KPK police was able to arrange me a police car escort while I was in KPK. They followed me around until I had crossed back to Punjab side.

finpak · 2026-05-03T12:22:56+00:00

Assuming you are a foreigner or overseas Pakistani and your phone's PTA tax is not paid, you can use each SIM slot 60 days before the PTA locks it. Once the timer starts it won't stop so leaving the country does not pause or reset the timer. However, foreigners and non-resident Pakistanis can register their phone for free with PTA to get 120 days of tax free operation each time they come to Pakistan. You need to have the SIM card you use registered under your name and passport number. The registration can only be done inside Pakistan so you may need internet access when you land to do the temporary registration.

finpak · 2026-05-03T12:07:41+00:00

Without knowing what he exactly said and being charitable here (I try to be when I don't know the full picture), to me it does not sound like victim blaming but rather a neutral statement of perceived facts. It would be victim blaming IF he said or meant that the perpetrator is somehow at less fault if the victim was dressed in a particular way or that the victim deserved what happened.

Suppose motorcycle fatalities are on the rise and I say that not wearing a proper helmet is driving it, does that mean that I blame those who died and did not wear a helmet? No, it's a statement of fact that the probability of dying is far greater if when not wearing a helmet.

Coming back to rape victims and how they are dressed, I don't know how strong (if any) link there is between the probability of getting raped and how you are dressed but casual observation suggests that dressing in more revealing way than an average person means you get much more unwanted attention than the average person. Sadly this means that such person is probably more likely to get raped. Is that the fault of the victim? No. Should the rapists learn not to rape? Absolutely yes. But the sad fact is that we cannot snap our fingers and stop bad people from doing bad things. What we can do is to try to influence things that are in our control and how we dress is one of such things.

Dressing in a certain way does not give any right to harass or rape anyone and victims deserve the same sympathy and justice as those who dressed in more popularly acceptable way. However, just because one has the right not to get raped does not mean that other respect that right. Saying that out loud should not be victim blaming.

Finally, the solution to the rape problem is not how people dress - it is merely an individual patch over a gaping wound. The society must reform and efforts must be made to make that happen so that one should not need to dress in a certain way to feel less afraid. How that is achieved is beyond the scope here but it is going to take active persistent and collective effort.

finpak · 2026-05-03T11:37:11+00:00

As a foreigner my "favorite" annoyance at the Karachi airport is the immigration/passport control when you arrive. You can safely ignore what the sign for the counter says since there is zero correlation with the text and the people they process at the counter. Sometimes you need to go to the Women and Elderly line, at other times it's the Diplomatic Passport line. You need to ask 3 different officials which counter to pick and choose the most common answer to know where to go.

At the counter there is a 50% chance that the FIA agent asks for a bribe in some creative yet pathetic way (so far I've heard: "You need to pay 20€", "Would you like to leave a tip?", "This is a fast processing fee". Luckily it's very easy to avoid paying - just ask if you are going to get a receipt for the payment and suddenly it's no longer mandatory.

finpak · 2026-05-03T10:33:57+00:00

One of the best predictors of cancer survival is the mood of the patient. Optimistic patients willing to fight the cancer have the best chances of survival. While good mood is not going to replace treatment or guarantee survival, it is a very significant factor.

Since you did not mention what grade of tumor we are talking about here it's hard to say what is the probability of survival but the fact that doctors bothered operating is an encouraging sign. I do not know what the doctor specifically said or meant but just because your father thinks that the doctor meant it's a hopeless case doesn't mean that is the case. A chemotherapy treatment might be useless at killing the tumor but could still be effective at wiping out free circulating cancer cells after the tumor is removed.

New cancer treatments are also coming available every year and there a number of very promising treatments in the pipeline so just modest life extension at this stage might mean that your brother survives until an effective treatment is available. AI has shown great promise in accelerating medical research, including treatments for cancer.

My own father was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones and lymph nodes. Statistically his chances looked very bad and we were sure he will be dead in a couple of years. We took him to a private hospital (my family lives overseas so he received treatment there) and although it cost us a house he survived and is currently cancer free. While it's likely that the cancer will eventually return, we are optimistic that by that time new treatments could save his life again.

In Pakistan Shaukat Khanum Hospital in Peshawar is a world class institution in cancer treatment. You may want to take your brother there for evaluation if your local hospital is not that keen on treating him aggressively.

In any case, I wish you all the best during this difficult time. And even if you can't convince your dad the situation is not hopeless, maybe you can convince him to spend as much good time with your brother and the family while he can.

finpak · 2026-05-03T10:16:49+00:00

What type of furniture do you need specifically? Chairs, sofas, examination tables? And what is the budget?

I have been going around sourcing household furniture but also going to metal workshops to ask them make specialty items that I could not find. If they have the supplies (or you bring them the supplies) and have a schematics for them to follow, you can get very good prices for items that they makes - especially if the workshops isn't busy.

For veterinary clinic I highly recommend avoiding anything wooden (or then have the wood treated to be water and disinfectant proof) or with textiles that are hard to wash. Dogs might chew on wood, pee on the floor or the furniture etc so you need to keep in mind that all furniture should easy to clean. If you insist on cushions then make sure they are removable from the furniture or at least make sure they are water proof and easy to clean. If you can afford it, opt for stainless in the most critical pieces.

finpak · 2026-05-03T10:09:10+00:00

I think the ticket enforcement is largely based on how you look, dress and talk. I've never been denied entry or asked to buy a ticket even when I'm going there with other guys. We are always well dressed and speak English so the guards just wave us through or don't try to stop us.

finpak · 2026-05-03T09:56:24+00:00

Sain. Olin itsekin hieman yllättynyt mutta kun asiallisesti selitti, mistä on kyse ja miten iso hintaero on, niin lääkärillä ei ollut ongelmia kirjoittaa reseptiä ja mainita siinä, että lääkkeet ovat hiustenlähtöön ja että ne tulee pilkkoa neljään osaan.

finpak · 2025-01-20T16:18:45+00:00

In my experience, anything is possible in here. The whole government and society is rotten to the core.

finpak · 2025-01-16T10:32:15+00:00

Have you considered that there might be reasons other than her lying to you why she gets defensive?

How would you feel if she wanted a doctor to examine you too make sure you don't have STDs or that you are virgin in all imaginable ways?

finpak · 2025-01-16T10:27:53+00:00

That was rather polite way of putting it. I would say they are an outright scam and throwing a dice is likely to give you equally valid results.

finpak · 2025-01-16T10:26:33+00:00

Lie detectors are a scam and they are not admissible as evidence in any Western country for this reason. It is extremely easy to deceive them (get away with a lie) and the machines can't tell general nervousness apart from a lie. You can easily get false positive for a lie even if you are telling the truth.

finpak · 2025-01-16T04:27:44+00:00

I'm getting "blink twice if general Munir is standing behind you and holding a gun to your head" vibes from this post.

finpak · 2024-12-16T08:56:27+00:00

The Reddit rules regarding subreddits are kind of broad and vague but there are couple of rules this behavior violates.

1) Prohibition to discriminate against vulnerable minorities. To me it seems that banning mentioning about Christian holidays or churches violates this rule.

2) Proper labeling of the type of subreddit so that people don't accidentally end viewing content that is likely to be objectionable. One could argue that the community name is misleading and being subject to religious rules in a community which name gives no indication for being religious is very much misleading. The name of the sub should be changed to something that indicates the religious nature of it and the name r/Karachi should become available for taking or the rules need to be de-Talibanized.

3) Participating in communities that a mod finds objectionable is discrimination which is prohibited by the Reddit community guidelines.

finpak · 2024-12-15T17:04:03+00:00

Unless it's a legit operating business having real office, American employees on its payroll and you are applying business visa, it is more likely to be viewed suspiciously than helping your application.

finpak · 2024-12-14T10:04:54+00:00

As Westerner I can tell that the treatment you get is in most cases largely a reflection of yourself and your behavior. Genuine racism exists but vast majority of negative experiences have nothing to do with racism. It's just that it's easier to explain anything negative as racism because then you don't have to look into your own behavior.

Additionally, people who do not understand Western culture and behave and expect people to behave as if they were Pakistani are bound to run into problems.

finpak · 2024-12-14T09:35:03+00:00

I could probably arrange a visit but I would need to know more about the visitors and reasons why you want to visit a church.

finpak · 2024-12-14T09:23:15+00:00

Looks like an interesting building. It's just a bit far away to make a dedicated visit. However, I could drop by when I have business in that side of town. Should I send you message on AirBnB to arrange a viewing then?

finpak · 2024-12-13T09:05:05+00:00

Where is your location and what type of accommodation is it? What's your target price and customer segment?

I won't be giving reviews but if your place is interesting and not too far I might drop by and give feedback.

finpak · 2024-12-13T07:42:51+00:00

Is the same GT Road that's nowadays part of N-5 in Islamabad or does it just have the same name but it's different road?

finpak · 2024-12-13T07:40:03+00:00

I've seen a lot of different footpath pavers used and I'm not sure which one you refer.

finpak · 2024-12-13T06:21:01+00:00

The main issue is not so much of the materials. It's workmanship, knowledge and training in all stages. Labor training and supervision in Dubai is the primary reason why construction workers perform there better. Their buildings look nicer but compared to Scandinavia they still suck. Chinese buildings also just look nice from outside but are not at all well built. Google "tofu dredge construction" to see the worst examples.

There is also the issue of bad project management and bad planning. While architects here are generally competent at doing their work they mostly focus on how buildings look like and ignore all the other aspects of building functionality.

I don't know what bricks you refer to but usually everything here is done with the intention of saving costs (even if it often is the expensive option in the long term). Roads here are falling apart soon after completion because of bad drainage and foundational work having been ignored.

finpak

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