Visit Iban Church in Kuching, Sarawak

On December 2008, I was invited to witness the completion of a renovation church building in Kuching , Sarawak, East Malaysia. The church belongs to the local people, the Ibans. The renovation work is provided by a group of volunteers who are doing good works during their weekends to help churches.

The congregations are seated for rhe church service and also thanking the volunteers for their good works.

I came across an interesting bridge crossing for a stream. It looks strong enough to hold my weight!

Light of Aoral 2, 1KW Photovoltaic System

We have installed a 1KW Photovoltaic System at the Medical Outpost at Aoral, Cambodia, on 13 October 2008. The medical facilities is managed by an NGO, Project Khmer Hope. The system will complement the existing diesel generator. Most of the time, the diesel generator is not used and the solar takes over. Only at times when alot of power is needed, the system will do a manual switch over to the generator.

The system is a single phase inverter while the generator is operating 3 phase. Hence we place a switch on the red phase of the generator output which can be manually switch between solar and generator. At the distribution box, only essential appliances such as fans, lights and TV are connected.

The inverter (COTEK, pure sinewave) can produce 230Vac 600W, hence the number of electrical applicance connected to the red phase should be limited below 600W.



The intelligent charge controller is from Phocos which can handle 1 KW power from the 8 solar panels. (125 W each)

A total of 10 deep cycle batteries 100Ah are connected to the system, operating at 24Vdc.

It took 2 days to mount the structures to hold the 8 solar panels on top of the water tank. First, mounting of the metal structure, including arc welding them, paint undercoat on the structure, mount the solar panels and finally wiring for 24 Vdc operation.


The system is able to charge the batteries when the sun is shining and during the night, when the 4 fans and 17 security lamps are switched ON, you can see the battery voltage dropping until the next morning with the batteries are charge by solar again.



The team that install the system is below.

Solar 4 - 660W PV System

We install a 660 Watt photovoltaic system for security lighting at a training centre in Prey Veng, Cambodia. The polycrystalline silicon solar panels are from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, PV-MF110EC4 gopen circuit voltage of 21.2V, and short circuit current of 7.16A. Its Vmax is 17.1V and Imax is 6.43A. The solar panels are mounted on a flat roof above the factory building. The batteries used are 4 deep cycled battery, each 100 A-hr operating at 24Vdc. The solar panel, each giving a rated peak power of 110W.

A total of 16 lamps, each comprising of two 3 watts LEDs with electronic switching mounted in a weather proof outdoor lamp casing. The lamp is designed to operate at 5 watts, giving it an equal brightness of a 40 Watt incandescent lamp. These lamps provide security lighting around the factory building and the 6 houses in the compound.

Charging and monitoring of the batteries are provided by a charge controller, Morning Star Prostar 30. Wiring for the system uses a 6mm diameter copper wire which will provide minimum voltage drop losses along the wiring. The wires are places in a pvc conduit.

We have a build-in timer switch (12 hours) which automatically switch off the lights 12 hours later if the user forgot to switch it of during the day time.

Recce Trip to Philippines

I visited Philippines to establish contact with the locals to explore possible community projects on 21 Feb 2008.

They brought me to Kasiglahan Village in Montalban, Rizal to identify possible solar lighting projects.
This area is a relocation housing that the government provide for them, majority of the recepient are squatters in Metro Manila in the past.

A third of the housing in that area are not within reach to grid electricity.

As a these houses do not have electricity, they do an illegal tapping of electricity to provide they needs. 

They has identified a cluster housing (15 units) where they are in need of solar lighting for these houses, a lamp for each house.

They source of income is by collecting and recycling waste from the rubbish dump and also making souvenirs to sell in the city.

.

A typical transportation is called the "Jeepney" which is colourful and has the 'cool factor'

Conclusion, until we are able to get sponsors for the project, it will have to wait.