Changelog

The solar calculator used a single figure for how much a Beirut roof makes in a year. It now reads the European Commission's solar model for the city's own coordinates and shows every month: about 94 units for each kilowatt of panels in January against 158 in July. The yearly figure moved from 1,650 to about 1,560, which is a little more cautious and better sourced — the model accounts for the terrain around the city and for real cabling, inverter and dust losses, where the old number was a hand-adjusted ideal. Payback comes out slightly longer as a result, and closer to the truth.

Put in what your rooftop and building tanks hold, how many people they cover, and how carefully you're using it, and it works out how many days that lasts, whether it reaches the next state fill (about every three days), and what a truck top-up would cost. Arithmetic in your browser — nothing saved or sent — with drinking water kept separate.

Three tools went live for Beirut. Will It Run on My Subscription? lets you tick the things you'd have on at once — the fridge, the water pump, a summer AC, the electric water heater — and see whether that fits a 5-amp or 10-amp generator line, so the choice is in front of you before you subscribe. Beirut Air Quality reads the fine-particle air over the city through the day, with the diesel-generator story behind it. And Feasts & Holidays in Beirut keeps every community's days in one place — Muslim and Christian feasts and the national holidays — working out the next date of each, so you can see when banks, schools and offices close.

The town page now opens with a colored-pencil drawing of the two Pigeon Rocks standing in the sea off the Corniche at Raouché.

Earthquakes recorded near Beirut lately, from the US Geological Survey's global feed, with the fault story behind them — Beirut sits on the Dead Sea Transform, which has shaken and once drowned the city. It is a record of what already happened, never a prediction. It also carries the one thing that matters most on a coast with no siren: if the shaking is long or strong near the sea, move to higher ground.

A neighbour-reported board of what the private basics cost right now — trucked water by the 1,000 litres, a drinking-water jug, a cooking-gas cylinder. Sign in and add what you last paid; the board shows the going median once a few reports arrive, so no single number can throw it off. These prices have no official source, so this is residents keeping each other informed.

A calculator for the real cost of a month in Beirut. Enter what you actually pay — rent, the generator, trucked and drinking water, gas, internet, school, food — and it adds them up in fresh dollars. It also totals separately the part that goes to replacing what the state should provide: the generator, the water, the school fees. Your numbers stay in your browser; nothing is saved or sent, and each typical range is sourced.

Enter your monthly generator bill to see whether rooftop solar could beat it — the rough size, cost, yearly saving and how long until it pays for itself. Plain arithmetic, no sales pitch.

The Generator Bill Checker was showing a tariff that turned out to be about a year out of date. It now uses the Ministry of Energy and Water's most recent published monthly ceiling (May 2026); the fixed monthly fees are unchanged. The ministry resets the tariff every month, so always check the latest before you compare.

Emergency, water, power and phone numbers in one place, with tappable numbers.

Enter your amperage and the kilowatt-hours you used to see what the bill should be at this month's official maximum — and check whether your operator is charging over it.

Beirut is now live, starting with two tools built around the city's loudest daily costs.