Hinchebyinch
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
- Messages
- 9
I just wanted to say hi to everyone, I've been watching videos on youtube and it has helped me so much.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself, me and my wife live in a small town in Haiti called Hinche. We have grid power, but its only about 10 hours a day when its going well, sometimes they will have a problem and the system can be down for weeks. When we first arrived almost 2 years ago, we didnt know a lot about batteries and inverters. Our friends took us to buy the stuff and we ended up with 6 x 6v trojan lead acid batteries and a 1500w 12v magnum inverter.
Our system works great for us, most of the time. There are things that we cannot do on batteries, so we wait until we have grid power to use the washing machine, or pump water into the tank on the roof. If we are in a pinch we can hook up to a generator and do what we need while charging the batteries. We aren't super heavy electric users, we have a small, efficient fridge and a chest freezer, a couple of lights that we run and our laptops. It is hard to buy what we need here, so we tend to shop in bulk in the capital for any meat or dairy and store it all in the freezer. Our biggest problem is when there is a storm or riot or something and we lose mains power to charge our batteries.
I would love to integrate some solar into the system. We are on a tight budget because we are doing volunteer work here, but I am hoping to do it modularly. The one thing we are not short of here is sun! I am thinking about adding 400-500w of solar panels into the system to help keep the battery topped up. I would like a charge controller that can work at 12 or 24 or 48v. In a few years when the batteries die, i would like to replace them with a 24v lithium set up. Longer term, I'd like to change out the inverter for something that can handle bigger loads. Super long term dream - run air conditioners in the day to the rooms aren't hot at night, then we dont need air-com once the sun has gone down
One of our biggest challenges is that we dont have much equipment here, we cant just go on amazon and order what we want. Everything has to be made from what we can find locally, bring in a suitcase, or occasionally fit in a barrel a friend is shipping
I'd love to hear any suggestions anyone has for me, and if anyone has experience of trying to set up a solar system in a developing country. Thanks for all your help
Sam
Let me tell you a little bit about myself, me and my wife live in a small town in Haiti called Hinche. We have grid power, but its only about 10 hours a day when its going well, sometimes they will have a problem and the system can be down for weeks. When we first arrived almost 2 years ago, we didnt know a lot about batteries and inverters. Our friends took us to buy the stuff and we ended up with 6 x 6v trojan lead acid batteries and a 1500w 12v magnum inverter.
Our system works great for us, most of the time. There are things that we cannot do on batteries, so we wait until we have grid power to use the washing machine, or pump water into the tank on the roof. If we are in a pinch we can hook up to a generator and do what we need while charging the batteries. We aren't super heavy electric users, we have a small, efficient fridge and a chest freezer, a couple of lights that we run and our laptops. It is hard to buy what we need here, so we tend to shop in bulk in the capital for any meat or dairy and store it all in the freezer. Our biggest problem is when there is a storm or riot or something and we lose mains power to charge our batteries.
I would love to integrate some solar into the system. We are on a tight budget because we are doing volunteer work here, but I am hoping to do it modularly. The one thing we are not short of here is sun! I am thinking about adding 400-500w of solar panels into the system to help keep the battery topped up. I would like a charge controller that can work at 12 or 24 or 48v. In a few years when the batteries die, i would like to replace them with a 24v lithium set up. Longer term, I'd like to change out the inverter for something that can handle bigger loads. Super long term dream - run air conditioners in the day to the rooms aren't hot at night, then we dont need air-com once the sun has gone down
One of our biggest challenges is that we dont have much equipment here, we cant just go on amazon and order what we want. Everything has to be made from what we can find locally, bring in a suitcase, or occasionally fit in a barrel a friend is shipping
I'd love to hear any suggestions anyone has for me, and if anyone has experience of trying to set up a solar system in a developing country. Thanks for all your help
Sam