[RE-wrenches] Solar NGO's in Haiti??

[William Dorsett]

Daryl, I greatly appreciate your offer to help us think through putting a
system together in Haiti. For some time we will be prioritizing the loads
not so much for the orphanage but for the doc and his wife. They are like so
many who buy into a project before processing that they are the ones needing
to modify their lifestyles..one of their priorities at our last meeting was
air conditioning. So it is going to take a reality check on equipment costs
for them to come to grips with actually living there. Even then these people
might have enough money to stick out as the Cadillac in a barrio. As we get
closer to a list of indispensable loads (even at that you'll probably have a
better idea of what can be bought in Haiti), then we'll know what size
battery bank, inverter, etc and I would like to get back to you on the
hardware and other design considerations that might be unique to Haiti. 

Bill Dorsett
Sunwrights
Manhattan, KS

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of
penobscotsolar at midmaine.com
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 5:23 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Solar NGO's in Haiti??

Hi Bill,
   I worked in Haiti this last year for a couple of months with an NGO and
installed a donated system. Customs took almost ten months to allow the
solar panels to pass through. They sat in customs through two different
trips down. There is much corruption and many scams. There is a company now
manufacturing panels in Port Au Prince. I do not remember their name and
Googling does not bring anything up.
   The only batteries available (at least last year) that were sourced
within the country were Trojan T-105's , very, very common and easy to
purchase in PAP.
   Why not use the charger built into the inverter to charge the batteries,
even when used as a UPS system? There really isn't a need for an extraneous
charger beyond that. You can source both Xantrex and OutBack inverters from
dealers in PAP and Leogane, where I was working.

Feel free to contact me off list if I can help,

Daryl DeJoy
NABCEP Certified PV installer
Penobscot Solar Design
207 326-0779




> A doctor in town has started an orphanage in Haiti and while it has 
> connection with government power for a few hours per day, it of course 
> is not reliable and is very expensive. We are still in the stage where 
> we are trying to figure how to shed as much load as possible. I have 
> no territoriality in this project and will help provide system design 
> and hardware at my cost, however apparently tariffs can be huge so we 
> may want to source as much as possible in country.  Can anyone tell me 
> which solar NGO's (SELF?) you'd recommend to tell us what hardware 
> (deep cycle
> batteries) is available in country? And if it is a simple UPS system, 
> storing from the grid, what grid-connected battery chargers does 
> everyone recommend for a fairly large battery bank? Used to be Todd 
> chargers and I wondered if they've corrected problems or passed on to some
other company.
>
>
>
> Thanks for your suggestions.
>
>
>
> Bill Dorsett
>
> Sunwrights
>
> 1715 Leavenworth
>
> Manhattan, KS
>
> 785/539-1956 Home/Office
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bill Dorsett
>
> Sunwrights
>
> 1715 Leavenworth
>
> Manhattan, KS
>
> 785/539-1956 Home/Office
>
>
>
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