Yesterday we had a power failure that lasted about an hour. We had one two weeks ago Sunday that lasted more than 3 hours. I must assume that the one hundred plus degree weather is causing people to fire up their air conditioners to a taxing level for the power company.

Living in an earthship with 37-inch thick earth walls makes the livin’ more easy in HVAC terms. We do operate a swamp cooler on the second level for a few hours a day when it nears triple digits. But the swamp cooler draws about one tenth the power of an air conditioner. Some people don’t like the damp air they exude, not really noticeable to us in this very arid high desert. The swamp cooler would be of little gain in Veracruz as the humidity would foil its efficiency. Then it doesn’t really get hot enough there to warrant any cooling system.

The lack of power got me to thinking about power systems independent of the grid (commercial electrical service). I find it interesting that in many places across this First World Power that some folks are without power for more than a week. The power stations apparently can’t meet the demand; especially on hot days. The future looks dim on this front. Of course, the United States uses about one quarter of all the worlds’ power. To characterize the US as power hog wasters would be conservative.

Power in Mexico is far less abundant and far less wasted. In addition the quality of the power is less and often circumspect. I have not met anyone in Mexico that has not had computer equipment failure; most likely due to power surges or low voltage and poor grounding. Most of the electrical coming to homes lacks a ground; taking precautions is not optional, it is required!

It has been mentioned here several times that Jim & Mindy are down and out because of a faulty modem. We lost a fine Yamaha audio system to a power failure at the Casita; this from a lapse of caution at an inopportune moment.

Being as independent of the Mexican power grid as possible is a good thing, but at what cost? For those of you with no knowledge of things electrical save hitting the switch to beckon light, sound, heat and the like, considering alternative power like a generator or photovoltaic solar system might be likened to brain surgery. Being independent of systems is no small task.

Starting from the top, to operate in your home with the same level of power use; to run your home seamlessly, to have all the power you might want on demand would probably run about $30,000.00 in equipment. A little more or less depending on your particular power use habits. A shocking starting point to be sure (pardon the pun).

As you might well imagine most people quickly learn to conserve power and spend substantially less dollars for alternative power systems. Even still it is not hard to spend $15,000.00 for a nice independent electrical system. My Internet amigo Gary has budgeted this amount for his soon to be “On the Road” adventure. At all of the Calypso family casa’s we have solar systems as adjuncts to the grid power. Our earthship proudly sports five solar panels on the south face. We have a couple other single panel systems and solar outdoor lighting. A couple solar panels on the roof of our camper at the Mexico Casita reduce the already inexpensive colonia power bill and I have a couple more at the Campo property. I have a half dozen assorted inverters ranging from a couple of behemoth 4000 watt sine wave units to a 150 watt square wave inverter that operates our decorative water fountain, all kinds of controllers, interconnects, meters, gauges and an assortment of batteries. Oh and we have a 7000 watt propane driven Onan generator.

It would be easy to write a 100-page booklet on solar systems, my mission here is more specific to mobile systems and still more particular to operating in Mexico. Adding to the confusion as to what to get and how to operate when going mobile are weight considerations, location of panels, batteries and inverters, mounting, security and more. Whew!

First off let me state in my jaded way that the professional PV system sales and installers may not always have your best interest in mind. I immediately head in the other direction when the conversation with them starts out with “How much do you have to spend?” A better approach is designing a system around power requirements then developing several possible scenarios; in other words what I will have to spend to be able to use various wattage-drawing devices.

Education is getting into the starting blocks. You cannot go into independent power without some knowledge or you are going to be a lamb on its way to slaughter when you encounter the sales market – I guarantee it. Knowledge is power. Or to put it another way: You will get more power for your dollars with some knowledge.

So let’s begin. Taking stock of how much power you really need and getting to know the power consumption of your desired devices is the beginning to understanding. You should do an energy audit where upon you may be able to eliminate power hogs or constant power consuming devices. So get a pen and paper or open a word processor and list everything that plugs into a socket. Leave a following column for noting how often and how many hours a day each you ues each item. From there you will be able to develop a power requirement, but before you do this, work on eliminating, replacing or developing strategies to reduce the usage of the listed items.

Some immediate suggestions would be:
A laptop instead of a desktop.

Consider getting a laptop that may be able to double as a television.

Any power cubes (those little black boxes that plug into the wall socket) have constant power draws and should only be plugged into power strips that can be switched off.

Consider windup clocks and gas appliances rather than their electric counterparts. Any appliance with a digital clock or television with instant on circuitry will be drawing power 24/7 unless it is on a switch able power strip. In the business they call these phantom loads. In other words, devices that draw power even when not in use are a bad idea for an independent power system.

I have mentioned compact fluorescent light bulbs here before. Personally, I think incandescent lights should be outlawed. The compact florescent bulbs are way more efficient and the long term cost savings is dramatic. DO NOT have anything with incandescent bulbs. What’s more, the 12-volt light bulbs that are the standard in campers and trailers are very inefficient. Try to use this lighting system as little as possible going to an inverted compact florescent light as quickly as possible. Use all 12 volt lighting sparingly. Also, on the horizon are LED bulbs. They already are the new standard in flash lights, more on this later.

You will have a better experience with some knowledge of square waves vs. sine waves. The simple explanation is some solar systems convert battery power to wall type AC power with different qualities of alternating current (AC). Microwaves, some vacuums, some plug-in power tools will not work well or at all with some types of inverters.

Forget about electric coffee makers, crockpots, electric heaters, waffle irons etc. In other words try and find an alternative to many kitchen appliances that plug in – boil your coffee water on your gas stove, make pancakes on the stove and get a liberal education on solar gain by parking your rig with the long way and most windows pointing to the south avoiding the need (or some of the need) for electric heaters.

Boy, I have already churned out nearly 1500 words here and we are just getting started. I haven’t even mentioned solar assisted hot water or sun ovens. PLEASE do not be overwhelmed. Yes, there is a lot to think about and you will be exposed to new words, math and devices that will require doing some homework. At the end of the day you will be doing yourselves and the planet a great favor. It is an effort with a reward at the end I assure you.

I think you can leave COMMENTS now – we will see how this plugin suggested by my buddy John Paul works to keep SPAM out of my Blog. In the mean time you may contact/comment via email as blog at vivaveracruz dot com (convert this to my email address).

Sorry I am STILL on dialup – hopefully I will see that new modem today.
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Please Stay Tuned!