Is the power situation better now? Noone has commented lately. . .

Rocky

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In Sosua

MrMike said:
In Santiago it is bad but stable, meaning we get at least 8 hrs. a day of electricity.
Maybe a bit better here, but not fantastic.
A lot better than the last couple of months with our beloved dictator, but still not great.
 

juanita

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In Santo Domingo, we're to mad to even talk about it! 5 to 6 hours of light per day! :tired:
 

Chirimoya

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Too right. I have developed strange nocturnal habits like getting up at 4am to check my e-mail and do the washing. The inverter is just getting enough charge to keep a couple of lights on at a time and we hardly switch anything on when there is no grid electricity so that we can have the fan on in Chirimoyito's bedroom for at least some of the early part of the night. There seems to be just enough power to keep the fridge cool enough for the food in it to stay edible, so far anyway.

The main problem for me is not so much the limited power but the incessant drone, rattle and hum of the generators that surround our humble abode, and the fumes that are doing invisible damage to our lungs and giving me that 'Mexico City' taste in my mouth.

However, I'm doing my best to keep positive, knowing that there are many people far worse off than us. I'm drawing on my late grandmother's Blitz Spirit rather than turning into a Whingeing Pom. ;)
 

andrea9k

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Chirimoya said:
Too right. I have developed strange nocturnal habits like getting up at 4am to check my e-mail and do the washing.... However, I'm doing my best to keep positive, knowing that there are many people far worse off than us. I'm drawing on my late grandmother's Blitz Spirit rather than turning into a Whingeing Pom. ;)

Here one worst case... We have 5 to 8 hours of electricity daily, my inverter doesnt run the refrigerator and the building shuts down the main water pump at 10:30 pm. BUT! Have enough power to have the puter on all day long...
 

Chirimoya

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andrea9k said:
Here one worst case... We have 5 to 8 hours of electricity daily, my inverter doesnt run the refrigerator and the building shuts down the main water pump at 10:30 pm. BUT! Have enough power to have the puter on all day long...

Using the PC brings down the inverter after a short while, so I am using the internet cafe in the Diamond Mall which is just across the way from my house. We have a tinaco so water usually lasts out.
 

Ken

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andrea9k said:
Here one worst case... We have 5 to 8 hours of electricity daily, my inverter doesnt run the refrigerator and the building shuts down the main water pump at 10:30 pm. BUT! Have enough power to have the puter on all day long...

Chiri and Andrea, what size inverters do you have? I ask because I've been thinking of getting one and am concerned how little service you get from yours.
 

andrea9k

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Ken said:
Chiri and Andrea, what size inverters do you have? I ask because I've been thinking of getting one and am concerned how little service you get from yours.

Mine is 1k (Xantrex/Trace) and has 2 batteries (Trojan), got it from MrMike's store. Very reasonable price, it is 1 month old :glasses: when i am home (weekends) i run a laptop and a fan all day long, and 2 13w lamps at night with no problem. Sometimes I add the stereo too. In this month, my inverter has never left me without power. If lights problem gets worse I would be getting 2 new batteries.

Jess :bunny:
 

Sharron

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Try living In La Otra Banda

No electric at all since the hurricane and no electric means no water in the tinaco.

Still smiling just, but getting muscles in my arms from carrying the buckets of water up three flights of stairs.
 

Mauricio

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Chirimoya said:
Using the PC brings down the inverter after a short while, so I am using the internet cafe in the Diamond Mall which is just across the way from my house. We have a tinaco so water usually lasts out.


we must be neighbours then chirimoya
 

Chris

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Ken said:
Chiri and Andrea, what size inverters do you have? I ask because I've been thinking of getting one and am concerned how little service you get from yours.


Ken, sorry to butt in - but we've just had a conversation with MrMike and they will be having a very good special on a specific smaller type invertor. So, if you want to contact him to size one for you, you probably could get it at the current special price that they are offering for the Cibao expo this week....

(No, I don't get a propina from MrMike - I just happened to speak with him today ;)
 

Chirimoya

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Ken said:
Chiri and Andrea, what size inverters do you have? I ask because I've been thinking of getting one and am concerned how little service you get from yours.

Ours is 2.5 so it should be doing a better job. It (and/or the batteries) got a hammering during the summer so there is probably something wrong with it. My husband doesn't agree, he says that 5-6 hours in 24 is simply not enough to recharge the batteries and that I expect too much from it. We have contacted MrMike's people in search of a solution.
 

Chirimoya

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Mauricio said:
we must be neighbours then chirimoya

I'm here in the Diamond Mall right now, but I haven't got a red carnation handy so you won't be able to tell which one is me. ;)
 

Rocky

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3 factors

Chirimoya said:
Ours is 2.5 so it should be doing a better job. It (and/or the batteries) got a hammering during the summer so there is probably something wrong with it. My husband doesn't agree, he says that 5-6 hours in 24 is simply not enough to recharge the batteries and that I expect too much from it. We have contacted MrMike's people in search of a solution.
1) The brand of inverter/size of charger/strength of current.
If you have a cheapie inverter that only puts out a maximum 50 amps and the street voltage is low, you might only be sending 25 amps to your batteries and this may not be enough to recharge your batteries for the few hours that you have street power.
2) As you mentioned, your batteries may be a bit worn down, but if this is the case, you might want to refer to the EDTA post.
3) You may not have enough batteries and/or street power hours in a day. The only way to overcome this problem, other than having a back up generator, is to reduce your consumption by being frugal, never running any unnecessary lights/appliances/etc, buying economy bulbs, taking the refrigerator out of the circuit and keeping it cold with ice, etc.
The bottom line is that you need to reduce your consumption down to the point that the batteries start building up a bit more reserve power and eventually get them up to a full charge.
If you can get your hands on a cheap voltage tester, here is a layman's guide to a 24 volt system.
All measures are without the charger on, during power failures.
26 volts = Full charge
25 volts = Still looking good
24 volts = Half power consumed
23 volts = Time to get out the candles
22 volts = State of emergency, you're about to shut down
 

Chirimoya

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Rocky said:
1) The brand of inverter/size of charger/strength of current.
If you have a cheapie inverter that only puts out a maximum 50 amps and the street voltage is low, you might only be sending 25 amps to your batteries and this may not be enough to recharge your batteries for the few hours that you have street power.
2) As you mentioned, your batteries may be a bit worn down, but if this is the case, you might want to refer to the EDTA post.
3) You may not have enough batteries and/or street power hours in a day. The only way to overcome this problem, other than having a back up generator, is to reduce your consumption by being frugal, never running any unnecessary lights/appliances/etc, buying economy bulbs, taking the refrigerator out of the circuit and keeping it cold with ice, etc.
The bottom line is that you need to reduce your consumption down to the point that the batteries start building up a bit more reserve power and eventually get them up to a full charge.
If you can get your hands on a cheap voltage tester, here is a layman's guide to a 24 volt system.
All measures are without the charger on, during power failures.
26 volts = Full charge
25 volts = Still looking good
24 volts = Half power consumed
23 volts = Time to get out the candles
22 volts = State of emergency, you're about to shut down

Thanks Rocky! I am afraid that techno-speak brings out my inner blonde ;) but that made absolute sense. Mind you I had to read it S L O W L Y.

Armed with renewed confidence I will try and decipher the EDTA thread as suggested. The problem is that with limited time on the PC I haven't had time to read much on the boards lately.

Cheapie inverter - guilty as charged (ouch!)

Batteries - we have eight.

We are in austerity mode for electricity consumption. The fridge came off the circuit a couple of weeks ago, and when there is no grid power we don't use anything except for one or two low energy lightbulbs at a time, and the fan at our four year old son's bed time. Should we be economising even when there is grid power?

We're waiting for one of MrMike's technical people to come and give us a diagnosis, but I guess they are mega-busy this week.
 

Peter & Alex

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Cabarete

Pro Cab to be precise.
Power back on for the last few days after the residents clubbed together to buy new poles!! Cables restrung and we're getting sufficient grid power daily to charge the batteries but not long enough to equalise them yet - will maybe go the EDTA route soon?
Our contractor, (you wait forever for Edenorte), worked his butt off to get the mess sorted and I lost a bottle of red wine in the process - stupid bet really!!!
Good effort all round considering the freakin' mess after the storm.

Sorry, forgot to mention that we run a Trace 3.6 with 12 batteries and only have the ocassional problem - but then we do have a 5.5 planta on the side. (AND no comments from you Gjsuk about having something on the side)!
 

Rocky

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Chirimoya said:
We are in austerity mode for electricity consumption. The fridge came off the circuit a couple of weeks ago, and when there is no grid power we don't use anything except for one or two low energy lightbulbs at a time, and the fan at our four year old son's bed time. Should we be economising even when there is grid power?
Sounds like you have done everything possible to economize and there should be no problem when grid power is on.
Having an inverter with too small a charger is like having a water supply that gives you less water than you need.
I had a similar problem with my smaller inverter which had a charger with a maximum of 50 amp charging capacity.
Most of the time, I couldn't get much more than 25 amps out of it, because of low voltage, so I did 2 things. I switched to the other 110 volt line which seemed to have a bit more voltage and installed bigger wire coming in, as the wires were warm and wasting some of the power.
This did help, but nowhere near as much as when I finally caved and bought a Trace 3624 with a 100 amp charger.
Having the double power charger means half the time to charge the batteries up.
Nobody wants bad news and to have a surprise expense come up out of the blue, but, if you think, as I do, that the power problems are here to stay for a long time, then better to do it now rather prolong the pain.
The good news is that there's always somebody out there looking to buy a used cheapo inverter.
 

Lambada

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The other thing you can do, Chiri, is to turn up the rate at which your invertor charges. I know, before everyone jumps on me, this is not good practice & you should trickle charge slowly, but for a brief interim before MrMike's people get to you, it won't do too much harm. We have a 3.5 or 3.6 invertor with 12 batteries & only once did it go down entirely even in the very long hippo blackouts. Also put bags of ice in fridge freezer section, divided up into small bags, double wrapped.
 

ltsnyder

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8 hours a day! . . . . . .

I had no idea this situation was ongoing. Sounds like the electrical crisis got bad to start with, and never got better. I had no idea. Hope things clear up soon, the thought of Santiage or Santadomingo with out power for most of the day is troublesome. For Puerto Plata, the town is so small I'm use to it and it is no big deal. There if you really want a place with lights you just hang out at the Playa Dorada Mall.

-Lee