Power from above

When we first moved to the farm, we had no power supply at all. We managed with a couple of solar-powered lanterns from Andslite. We found this to be such a handy thing that we still have several of these that we regularly use! Hats off to Andslite for a great product, and thanks to a planter friend who told us about it when we had never heard of it. We found this company to be a splendid source for solar equipment, and in fact we would later buy most of our solar panels from them.

A small beginning

Then came a small solar system powered by a 100-watt-panel, and we could then use a few LED bulbs in our tents. We then added two more 100-watt panels to the system, and added a 110Ah battery, and it pretty much sustained us for almost two years. In fact, it was all that we needed, since we had no use for fans or ACs, and used no kitchen appliances.

During the initial days of living in the farm, we wanted to apply for an EB power supply, and in fact I spent some time figuring out what was needed for that. What I learned quickly was that there was an awful lot of paperwork needed, not to mention several trips to the EB office located 40-odd km away. And so very soon, we realized that getting an EB connection was going to take a lot of legwork and paperwork, and the prospects of that were not attractive at all.

Off grid?

Since our power requirements were limited, we thought to ourselves, why not try to generate our own power and be fully off-grid? We began inquiring about full-fledged power that would support our water pumping requirements, as well as some basic kitchen appliances. Though we were open to both  solar and wind, only solar power seemed to be viable for a small system.

By and by, we put together a solar pumping system, with some key technical inputs and components from a friend in nearby Palani. Earlier this year, we installed solar panels that would generate 2000 W, a complex circuitry to increase the voltage output, and a converter to change it to AC, which would then power the water pump about 600 feet away. And yes, it works!

Installing the 8x250 W panels on a tiled roof facing South - we saved on the cost of the frames by installing them directly on the roof :-)

After installation. Although a few trees can be seen, we are lucky that none of them cast their shadows on the panels - as of now.

The magic boxes that fine tune the power from the panels and send them down to the pump.

...et voila!

I must add that this pic was taken when the sun was on its way down...on very bright days we can pump a lot more  per minute, and of course there are lots of cloudy days when we can't pump any water at all :-(

 More use for the panels

A little later, we added a new, 3.7 KVA inverter, and four new 150AH batteries so that we would have a full-fledged power supply for all our needs. The fantastic thing about this was, of course, that all this would run off the very same panels when the pump was not in use.

The charge controller

The inverter and the batteries
(the inverter has to be moved a few feet away from the batteries - soon)

For sure, we have had our share of challenges with all of these equipment. The consolation, however, is that we can take care of things ourselves!

When friends visiting us ask us where we get our power supply from, we cheerfully and truthfully answer them, "From above!"