Yesterday I wrote a post about power banks for a friend of mine. I got a response from another friend who asked me questions about his solar power situation and his water situation.
My original post is here and his response is at the bottom.
If I understand things correctly:
He does have electricity and gets a NEPA bill monthly for about 13,000 Naira. That irritates him a lot because it is one of the Guess meters where the electric guesses how much you will use and charges you accordingly.
The guess system annoys him because he's making most of his own electricity but the electric company is charging him as if he made nothing.
Getting a gasoline generator
Getting water storage for inside his home
He is a Doctor, I'm a Pharmacist. By profession I'm a little leery of giving advice to Doctor's. I don't know about Nigerian Doctors but Canadian Doctors are very much accustomed to telling people what to do. I think its in their blood...or at least its infused into them while they are in medical school.
There is a good reason for this: Doctors are responsible for people's health and lives. Their decisions are often life and death. Their education is top notch. They are used to dealing with people with limited medical knowledge. As a result: They make the commands to people to do what they need to keep them healthy!
As a Pharmacist I'm often put in charge of questioning a Doctor's orders or advocating on behalf of the patient. Typical conversations with Doctor's often start off with "You made a great recommendation, however, the patient can't afford it. Can we try this instead?". Those conversations are never fun.
In this case I'm not only dealing with a Doctor but one who comes from a totally different culture and country than I am used to dealing with. The result is that my ideas could come off as condescending, insulting, or just plain odd.
Result: I'll give my personal opinions and not give recommendations. If it is useful, great, but remember I'm coming at this from a totally different perspective than you have there in Nigeria!
I love Solar panel and I have been toying with Solar panels for years. Some setups have worked well, others have been far too basic. One thing that never changes is that they are never large enough!
As a result backup power is typically necessary. Now I have reliable electricity from the Canadian Power Company (BC Hydro) but I also own a generator as a backup. Not a large generator but a small one which would be able to charge up my solar system if there was an extended power outage during rainy or winter times (when there is little sun in Canada).
The generator I own is a smaller, older version of this one:
The model I have is much older and lower power it is the Yamaha 1000ES which doesn't have the inverter technology. I also paid a lot less for it at $200CAD ($140USD) rather than the $1349 new price.
The fuel efficiency of the models is actually fairly similar though.
3L of fuel will last about 12hrs at 25% power output. So, 250W of power for 12 hrs which means 3kWh for 3 liters.
In Canada the price of fuel today was $1.73CAD/liter which is about $1.31HBD or about 1000 Naira. I've read that fuel in Nigeria is about half the price at about 560 Naira/liter. It really doesn't matter though because the price is terrible either way.
Cost per Kwh is about 560 Naira when using gasoline
Cost per Kwh is about 50 Naira when using the electric company.
Using a generator is about 10x the price of the electric company. Sure its available whenever you want to pay for the fuel but remember
Then there are repairs to the generator as they don't last forever. There is the noise. There is the smoke. There is the environmental impact.
In my eyes they are a necessary evil but I will look for any possible to not have to use them.
You can argue otherwise but in my mind water is super important.
But the real question is how convenient does it have to be?
Right now my province is under drought conditions. It is very dry and there are water restrictions. People rarely even think of it. Every house has pure drinking water delivered it for less than 1 Naira / liter. The average person just doesn't even consider it as important. Conserving it is something few people think of.
Overuse makes shortages everywhere and when the tap runs dry people will riot on the streets and demand more water from the government. Silly people...the government can't make it rain!
it is a little differentHe has water to the compound he lives in but his neighbors don't want to use their generators to pump it. When his solar ran out he had no water to the house and had to use rainwater.
Now for myself I'm thinking what's the problem with rainwater?
Then again, I have a very simple water system.
He also mentioned getting a water tank for the house and I think that's an excellent idea!
In the Philippines my water pump looks much like this one:
At my cabin in Rosswood, BC, Canada it is the this:
Either way I use the water source to fill up an Intermediate Bulk Container which looks like this:
Source: jiji.ng
Now these are heavy duty tanks which hold 1000 liters of water. If used wisely 1000 liters of water can actually last a fairly long time.
I have a manual washing machine like this:
Which will wash my clothes using less than 6L of water.
For a shower I use the 16l bucket in the above picture (filled about halfway) along with a USB powered showerhead like this one:
Source: Amazon.ca
My in-laws use a ladel and a bucket to wash themselves but it is so much nicer having a shower! I just shower to wet myself then turn off the water. Soap and wash myself. Then shower back on to rinse myself off. I can wish with 8l of water but the extra 8 liters is just for some extra soak and relax time.
Of course a hot water shower is even nicer but since hot water tanks are huge energy hogs I just use this to heat up the water in the bucket.
Source: Amazon.ca
But then there is still the water that is needed for drinking and washing hands. For that I fill up some of these:
It is just a basic water bottle with a USB powered pump on top. Keep one by each sink and now I have either drinking water or hand washing water on demand...as long as the USB battery is charged. However, the battery will drain the entire 16l so I'm not too worried about running out!
This is my actual bucket and actual water dispenser.
If you notice the long hose on the bottom. I actually use this one to bring the water up about 3m to the top level of the house from a rainwater barrel outside. It's just easier than hauling a bucket of water up the stairs!
Why don't I just have a borehole (pumpwell) and big pump to give on demand water to the house?
However, I never want to take water for granted. When you have to haul every liter of water you realize how much you are getting and how important it is!
Also the large pump to bring up water from the well and having it on standby just sucks a lot of electricity. My electricity system is very small. If I do the manual labor to haul the water to the house the small amount of work to run a showerhead or faucet can be powered by a tiny USB battery and motor!
I still get running water for handwashing. I still get a running shower for, well, a shower. I can still heat the water for a warm shower. I don't have the huge electricity needs though!
As a sum it up.
Having a water storage system inside. I love the idea. It is really common in the Philippines but thought of as crazy in Canada. Either way I'd rather be crazy and know I have my own source of water.
Done right you can still have running water in the house using USB powered gadgets which don't really cost that much. Running tapwater. Running shower. Cheap and easy as long as you are willing to lug a water bottle around the house.
I don't know what the toilet situation is like in Nigeria.
In Canada it is either flush toilet (uses lots of water) or outhouse (outdoor pit toilet).
Or perhaps you happen to use the Filipino "poop and scoop" technique?
If its the pit toilet or poop and scoop then you should do fine with having water storage in your house.
If you use a flush toilet then you might want to downgrade to the poop and scoop variety.
If you are unfamiliar with what that is you can check out this website:
<a href="https://www.markblackard.com/how-to-use-the-toilet-at-your-filipinas-home-in-the-village/"Source
I will admit that when I saw a Filipino toilet for the first time I had no idea how to use it. There was no level to flush the toilet. When I asked what to do they pointed me to a bucket and a scoop.
My imagination ran wild and I was horrified!
It makes more sense now...
Thanks for reading and of course any questions or comments just send me a message. I love to hear from people!
