28268: lyall (comment) electrifying Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

from jdlyall:

The communes around Jacmel (all the way to Marigot/Peredo) have an electrical 
generating system which apparently collects it's bills.
The people there say that Hydro Quebec helped fix up the generators and there 
are local groups in each community responsible for seeing that the bills are 
paid.

Other people around the country have told me that this practice of setting up 
co-ops to be responsible for payment of bills is used in other poor countries 
around the Caribbean, but that it has never been done in Port au Prince.

Using your solar panels and batteries to power 12 volt lighting (in fluorescent 
and LED form) instead of using an inverter to produce AC current is very 
efficient. This works fine for lighting and a radio.
Fans use a lot more current, to say nothing of refrigeration.

I wired my house in Kenscoff to have a separate 12 volt system, where I ran 
radios, charged cell phones and flashlight batteries, and ran an LCD 
television. I did not have 12 volt lighting as the fixtures (at marine and RV 
suppliers) are expensive and I already had an inverter.
If I were setting up again in Haiti I would not buy a generator at all. Solar 
panels are a much better investment. Unfortunately, they are also a visible 
target for thieves.

I talked to some nuns from up in the country inland from Plaisance who wired 
two houses for 12 volts before they ever got an inverter (for computers and 
copy machines). You  can run laptops and special compact computers directly 
from a 12 volt system too.

Those big 6 volt house batteries will last up to 10 years if you never 
discharge them completely. With solar panels, my batteries never got completely 
discharged.