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July 30, 2009
Design = Finalized and Purchased
It's been a while since my last post, mainly because I was always thinking "Well, I'll just wait until tomorrow, because then I'll know more, or something will have happened." However, a couple days ago, we reached a pretty big milestone for the project - confirming our design and placing an order for it - so it seems like a good time for an update.
We confirmed our deal with Powertronics for a system that will provide power for three computers, a printer, and a network hub to connect the three. The $1,400 system will run on grid power when it is available, and when grid power fails, will switch to a taking power from batteries. The batteries will be charged through a combination of solar and grid power, and supply three hours of back-up. Powertronics said they will deliver the materials within seven days , and send an engineer to install the system three days after that. So theoretically, the system should be up and running by next Friday. However, if there's one thing I've learned well, it's that things have a tendency not to follow any schedule here, so we'll see what happens. In any case, the project should wrap up well before I leave on August 18th.
There is one addition to the system that we are thinking about making - right now, the batteries will be charged 50% by the solar panels, 50% by the grid. To charge the batteries entirely through solar power would require buying another solar panel, which costs Rs. 40,000 ($850.) Saturday (tomorrow) we will be discussing if this would be worth the extra cost and if we can raise the money before I leave. However, this is a small part of the system, and doesn't influence the overall design.
It's crazy that in just 19 days I'll be headed back to Michigan. I'm excited to be here, but looking forward to going home. I guess things are at a pretty good place.
-Raj
Posted by avable at July 30, 2009 10:16 PM