by: Jerome Auza
Before I had setup my experimental solar power system, a power interruption like that scheduled on March 9, 2014 would mean that we need to purchase gasoline worth around Php800.00 to keep the office network running. It’s probably more expensive these days with the gasoline hitting the Php60.00/liter mark.
I checked my solar system today and I have 57% charged batteries. The system seemed to have charged slowly the past two days. I expected close to 100% charge after two days with lots of sunshine. This is something for investigation later. However, at this time, what I need to know is how long can I run the network without resorting to the generators.
If the sun is out most of the day during the power interruption, I would expect to be able to run the network for at least 10 hours. To be sure, I plan to turn off some of the non-essential equipment like that powering up the LAN of the office since there will be nobody working.
My wife who runs a maternity clinic at Talibon, Bohol has her own solar system also and is currently fully charged and should enable her to run the most important equipment at her clinic during the power interruption. Services like ultrasound and fetal montiring for her patients at St. Gerald’s Maternity and Wellness Clinic should continue even without electricity.
I have one 300W solar panel coming soon so the articles in the coming weeks should be interesting since I can start configuring the system to run the office network 24/7 on solar power. I’m still a long way to go to being able to completely setup a 1.8kW system which I think can allow me to run the office off-grid most of the time.