Power-It's not just for city folk!

So one of the things most people find shocking about our medical clinic is that it has real electricity.  It did have a solar panel and battery installed four to five years ago but it was not a system that was matched up or sized to the need.  Add to that its age and lack of working charge controller and you have a system that normally is sounding more alarms than solving problems.  In fact the inverter has spent most of every day with the fault alarm going off. One of the exciting things this quarter is the money to put in a proper solar power generation system for the medical clinic.

Barnabas Bear inspects the solar panels

This included two each 50 Watt Panels and two each 100 Ah Batteries a charge controller and DC/AC Inverter for the solar power generation part of the project.  One thing we were doing this time was only one part of the system would be running off AC power-the lab equipment and cell phone chargers. The lighting system would all be DC with LED lamps.  That is one thing they do well here is the availability of DC LED lamps.  We do this because they  use less watts than AC lights and by not going through the inverter there is no power loss.

Some of you may wonder why it is so important they recharge the cell phones.  As you may remember from a previous blog that is how money is managed here and how all employees on site are paid.  But just as important is that most of them have flashlights built into their phones and that is what they mainly use to get around various areas at night.

Some changes to the installation were made, like the solar panels were installed on top of the large concrete water tank so we could face them south/north and expose them to more of the daily sunlight available and because of the steepness of the roof it would be difficult to get the correct angle.  Because of our location being near the equator (4 degrees into the southern hemisphere) a low angle from flat is better.  Our angle for the initial installation (until the actual frames can be made on site) is 13 degrees facing north (remember we are in the southern hemisphere).

Barnabas Bear verifies we still have Power after the first row of connections

Another change we had to make was to the power distribution grid.  The original layout was designed for AC lighting which could be used for DC lighting with some modifications at the switch.  However the original wire is extremely difficult to work with and almost impossible to strip the outer insulation without also stripping the inner insulation (they had melted together in the attic space).  So Barnabas and I reran all the wiring for power distribution for the medical clinic.  

So you are probably wondering how much power are we generating.  To put it in simplest terms we have 28 lights in the building some of which (externals) run all night, we charge 5 cell phones and one portable exam light all day, a microscope and eventually several other pieces of electronic lab equipment (scales, centrifuge etc when those are added to the needs).  We still generate enough electricity we can almost handle a fridge for medicines and will eventually be able to add to the system to accommodate this need.

2  Batteries for new solar power generation 

Finally a working Charge Controller

Yes I am an Engineer and I do mark my wires

 

Actually took selfie of me working in attic

 This took about 8 hours one day and four hours on a second day to install the solar power generation, AC inverter and the new power distribution wiring, most of which was in the attic space.  At my age 12 hours in the attic bent over and crawling around was enough for my back for the week.  Especially since it was in the upper 90s in there despite the outside being in the 70s due to the constant wind.

Another fun selfie

They don't have wire nuts just these absurd splicers

 While doing this I also finished up my large bottle (10 liter?) of water and decided to move into solar water heating phase 2 testing.  I simply painted one side black and fillled about a third of the way with water and set out in the sun for a day.  It got fairly warm, good for washing my hands after being in the attic but not bath warm/hot.  It still needs a wind screen more than anything to keep the constant winds from cooling off the container and then of course some reflective sides to direct more sunlight energy to the bottle.  I was encouraged it at least got warm with the heavy winds present on the day of testing and lower atmospheric temperatures. 

solar water heating experiment 2nd Phase

 One of the really fun parts of my life here is hanging out with the Pre-school kids.  The major concern I have is that I am a distraction from their studies so I limit my time there in class and try to get them used to a "mzungu" (actually means European but basically foreigner)  But this week was special as I had printed out a nice picture quality version of July's Full Dimension Ministry Newsletter with the front page article about our Pre-School teacher Sarah. You can see the newsletter at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9nAT1qHfxmAd3I2c1pTUGYyWVk/edit?usp=sharing

 The day had two lessons separated by a play break.  They started by learning the letter "L" and all the various vowel sounds that go with it and then some words.  The second lesson was addition and subtraction which is always fun for me because I get to grade everyone's work in their books.

After that is a delightful meal of porridge and then everybody walks home.  I get to go back to work on the power grid.  However I did get to see the playground equipment I had repaired last month in full and very active use.

Kids playing on repaired playground

New Teacher Enos

I get to grade the math work

Students solving math problems

Meal time

Meal Time

 Lastly for this trip is an update on the road work I have been telling everyone about near the clinic site.  This week they had almost finished the work (85%) on the first bridge, the larger of the two.  Interesting is the use of a small concrete mixer truck to mix the concrete on site.  This was my guess on how they would do it so I was glad I have not lost my touch.

Small Concrete mixer truck used to mix concrete on site

The bags of cement they have to load into mixer truck

The large bridge

They actually have a concrete vibrator

Top of large bridge

small bridge steel work