Hey everyone, living in Africa ain't for 'sissies' and with all our current drama, having regular power outs is up there with the most costly and frustrating. My landlord who is really well off finally at the ripe old age of 70 came to his senses and decided to go off grid. WHOOPA...
He had a couple of challenges initially, there are many trees on this property so in order for solar to be as effective as possible needed to be cut, so get to work trimming the taller trees around where they planning to put the panels had to be done.
These panels are 275 watts each, I am not 100% sure of his plan regarding powering the stoves and geysers as I can't imagine this setup will do those, but they might!
The reason they are manufacturing this structure is because the rooves on this property are all Thatch, installing solar panels on Thatch rooves are a really bad idea for many reasons. Fire risk, weight issues, cost implications etc.
This structure will be next to their kitchen, now that all the bigger trees have been cut to render more light they start digging holes and concrete in for the static main structure foundation!
After digging the holes and concrete building them in the main pre-fabricated structure is prepared for installation ontop of the uprights.
These installers have assured my landlord this installation will take between 2 - 3 days, rather impressive actually given the amount of work needed to be done, panels, batteries, inverter connected etc!
The tree fellers had done their business and off they went time for the Solar chaps to continue their good work!
This property really is super pretty, I have done many posts featuring it, Solar really is just the proverbial cherry on the top, we can literally survive here indefinitely with all the Fruit Tree's, Solar, Borehole (water) and vegetable gardens, all we need now is maybe a few chickens?
This will be part 1 of this installation I will do a follow up and final post in the coming days.
Horizontal beams welded and ready to be installed on the uprights, thereafter panels installed and connected, be sure to stay tuned for that! Truly nothing beats living off grid, decentralization surely is key!
I trust you have a super cool week further.
Cheer$;)