Let there be light
It’s been a very busy ten days* since my last post! I guess I’m taking my word of the year “Leap!” to heart in a few different ways. Last Saturday the technicians from Arequipa Solar dropped off our solar panels and equipment for shipment to Camaná, and the equipment and the two-man team Señores Javier and Samuel arrived Sunday morning around 9am.
Papá Miguel downloads the parcels with Señores Javier and Samuel.
The panels had to be lifted and propped on the edge of the roof to allow for other pieces to fit below.
After a bit of a struggle to sort out how to fit and safely secure the panels, structure, batteries, inverter, and tools, in the truck, we were able to make our way out to Jaguey (Haway? Hawai? Opinions on how to spell our new hometown in Perú vary somewhat wildly).
Sr. Javier finishes the final connections between the panels at sunset.
The work was carried out over the course a very long day. They finished up well after dark, so they weren’t able to complete all of the system checks that one might hope. The lights were on in the house, so we at least knew that the partially charged batteries were working with the house’s electrical system.
Lights on inside the house as viewed from outside the kitchen.
We dropped Javier and Samuel off at Turnee, and they headed home to Arequipa. I felt so excited that the house would finally have its very own off-grid electricity. Javier asked me to stop at the house the next day to check on how the panels were performing in late morning sunlight around 11am, so I did.
Unfortunately, the next morning the inverter registered zero input from the panels, so something was up.
Zero “PV” photovoltaic input in watts.
I contacted Javier, and he had me check what I could see of the connections between panels. The panels are connected in series, so if one connection is faulty or loose, the circuit remains incomplete. I couldn’t see anything easily identifiable as the issue, so he scheduled a technician to come out and take a closer look.
Yesterday, a tech named Bladimir arrived at about 3:30pm to work on the system. As suspected one of the mc4 connectors between the panels had a loose area inside and needed replacing. He was able to fix it, and the panels were up and running.
Here you can see the Inverter registering 1.04kilowatts of energy generation from the panels, but the batteries weren’t actually charging yet. The little solar panel symbol had appeared.
I checked the system this morning, but I found an additional issue - the batteries were not charging via the panels and were shutdown. I again contacted Javier, and he gave me a series of steps to reset the batteries and get them back on track with the inverter.
And poof! We have off-grid electricity!
It will be a process to learn to troubleshoot the system should additional issues surface, but it was a good experience all around. I’ll head back out later this afternoon to check on how the batteries are charging. Fingers crossed that they’re well charged and we have power to leave on lights. I am so very thankful for the opportunity to have this system installed, and I’m praying it keeps us going for years to come.
*Post originally written 01.25.2024 but posted later due to connectivity issues.
Shiny new solar panels on our roof in Jaguey - a sustainable energy dream come true.
Sunset as seen from our rooftop - you can just see the headlights of a vehicle coming around the bend below the cliff on the Panamerican Highway. It’s different every night.
