Suitable Net Income for living in Malta

The vast majority of households in Malta only use torches and gas lamps as a backup. There's a tiny minority that have a generator. Personally, I think you are grossly overestimating the inconvenience caused by our powercuts. However, if you're convinced that you need the system you're proposing, nobody is going to stop you from implementing it.

Such a fuss about power cuts!

They are the perfect occasion to slow down. Turn off your tv, your phones, computers. Have candlelight dinner with your beloved one(s). Surely you can live without A/C for a few hours? Go sit on the roof, enjoy the dark skies, the silence and the breeze!

(Although 11 in 8 months is perhaps a bit much. Don't think we've had more than two here this year.)

Maybe I'm overreacting as I might have not understood the real situation.
Thanks for explaining it is not a major problem.

Only 2 times where electricity was out ?
This not a big deal, not even worth discussing it.
Where they extremely long outages?

Again, I am confused. Some say it happens frequently and some say rarely.

I guess either way it's not an issue as if I come and find it's an issue for me, i can get my backup system.

kf2001 wrote:

Only 2 times where electricity was out ?
This not a big deal, not even worth discussing it.
Where they extremely long outages?

Again, I am confused. Some say it happens frequently and some say rarely.

I guess either way it's not an issue as if I come and find it's an issue for me, i can get my backup system.

Basically there is a mixture of opinions here that are confusing you.

Some areas of Malta/Gozo experience different amounts of power cuts.

1.) There are scheduled power cuts in certain areas and some more than others. These are advertised in the paper and give you warning, from what I am aware, this is around 2 a year for a couple of hours and normally in working hours. (They don't effect my area in st. Paul's Bay so someone else can advise.)

2.) There are unscheduled  power cuts, usually in summer. Around 2 a year are for 2+ hours and can be up to 12-15 hours.
Some are just short power dips, a few seconds to 10 mins, this happens more often, maybe 5-10 a year.

3.) Most of us don't take a blind bit of notice, a very valuable skill to have when living in Malta, so that is the question you need to ask yourself...Does it really matter? Is it a big problem going without Aircon? Because personally, if you don't have the skill/ability to not let things like this effect your life, then Malta is the wrong place for you to be!!

Thanks a lot coxf0001 for this insightful explanation.

From your explanation, it seems like you get 4 power cuts a year (2 scheduled + 2 unscheduled) and that the unscheduled cuts happen in the summer and are quite long.
The other cuts 5-10 times are short and I think they are negligible.

All in all, it doesn't seem like a problem to not to live in Malta.

I was thinking of living in St. Julians as I understand it is with many cafes, restaurants, shops and supermarkets. I just hope it's not a noisy area for living. what do you think ?

Thank you again for your help.

kf2001 wrote:

Thanks a lot coxf0001 for this insightful explanation.

From your explanation, it seems like you get 4 power cuts a year (2 scheduled + 2 unscheduled) and that the unscheduled cuts happen in the summer and are quite long.
The other cuts 5-10 times are short and I think they are negligible.

All in all, it doesn't seem like a problem to not to live in Malta.

I was thinking of living in St. Julians as I understand it is with many cafes, restaurants, shops and supermarkets. I just hope it's not a noisy area for living. what do you think ?

Thank you again for your help.

Simple answer, St. Julians and nearby Paceville (the roads run in to each other) are the party capital of Malta, so yes, loud and busy with tourists in the day and tourists and locals (teenagers) by night!!

Malta is very small and if you enjoy that sort of hustle and bustle through the day, then places like Sliema/Gizra would be better. You can live within walking distance to it but be far enough away from the noise of the nightlife but be warned, Malta is quite a noisy island, if it's not buliding/road works, it's Maltese out to work/school/general gossip at 6am!!!!

Also, when looking through the daytime, little bars may not be apparent but come alive at night (they can look nothing more than a door/garage with signage.)

That's exactly what I want. Close to the life but far from the noise.
I lived in center of Paris (Opera), very busy and alive 24 hours...but if you lived on a side street just a couple of buildings away from the main street, it was calm and nice.

i think so - over egging the requirmements to cope - €7k for a backup incase theres no power for Air Con - you can go outside in the shade or go for a swim.....go to the pub with wifi take your lappy wth you have a beer  -  i guess i bow to your needs and if you think you need it then who am i to convince you otherwise.... i just think its excesive- i lived there until 6weeks ago and was in IT too - needed internet access etc  - my longest "powercut" experience was of 9 hrs but that was 5yrs ago... and never experienced another one that length of time.... sometime 30-60mins and maybe others of 2-3hrs but i have to say in my experiences it was never ever a big problem for me/us - i can understand others have had different experiences.

@Toonarmy.

Yes, some of us have had wildly varying experiences but so what.
The sun shines and it's not continually raining or so cold we need the heating on in September.
And I spotted a road sweeper yesterday.

I guess you guys are right, seems the problem isn't that bad. I just read about some saying it is bad and needed advice from others like you to clarify it for me.

I guess you understand than when moving to a new country you always try to get more info before making the move.

Like toonarmy9752 said, the longest one was 5 years ago (9 hrs), so it seems it it got better. And the 2 hrs that happen "infrequently" is quite easy to live with.

Thanks a lot for everybody who has took time and explained things to me.

it may be beneficial to find some stats on the locations that get hit worst  - or more often  - for example some areas are prone to flooding and you would avoid them  if you knew about them wouldnt you...

Of course you're right.
But where to get such information ?

Stats:  that would follow the lies; damn lies ......then.

Sometimes the cuts are during high winds.  More often during road works when unknown cables and pipes are damaged resulting in lost internet/water/electricity.  Then there are those that just rot and fall down or are damaged by traffic passing underneath.  Frequently building contractors damage these utilities when working on individual buildings.

Put that on a map?  Well I can say for certain that none has been caused by heavy snow. RR

Roger Rabat wrote:

Stats:  that would follow the lies; damn lies ......then.

Sometimes the cuts are during high winds.  More often during road works when unknown cables and pipes are damaged resulting in lost internet/water/electricity.  Then there are those that just rot and fall down or are damaged by traffic passing underneath.  Frequently building contractors damage these utilities when working on individual buildings.

Put that on a map?  Well I can say for certain that none has been caused by heavy snow. RR

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization analysis, interpretation, presentation and organisation of data. It deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.  -     (C) Wiki - Roger you really must improve on your reading material there.

You went on to talk about, "High Winds"...."road works"....."damage by contractors" - the collection of this information is...................well I think you've guessed it by now. Then by using this information and the information supplied by the energy authorities (their statistics) you could actually plot where has been subjected to the most power outages over any given time.

There you go......How to put it on a map. Quod erat demonstrandum

What a tedious little man you are.

am sure they know  - but whether anyone takes the time or makes the effort to collate it is another matter.

Read the newspapers each day to see any forecast power outages. A matter of routine here for maintenance, upgrading and putting in new supplies.

Much more than enough, unless you want to eat out everyday at a good restaurant. Malta is a quite cheap place to live, some food can be a bit expensive, but only if you want particular brands or if you absolutely need to eat some things which are scarce on the island for one reason or another, but I think that never exceeding that amount.

The power outages are not a problem at all, at least it has never affected me after living here for 1 and half years. The worst you can get is getting a bit too hot if it is on mid-August, or have to throw some food out. Besides that, a bit of break for computing and a early day to bed is all that happens .