Update of
Solar Electric
System at Delgeruun Choira Monastery
October 23, 2007
By
John Huizinga
Tne commemoration of the 144th anniversery of Dava Damdin
was attended by hundreds of people and replete with all of
the colour and ceremony of Tibetan Buddhism at its finest.
At Delgeruun Choira I inspected the electrical infrastructure
and the solar system. The two young monks, Ereek and Tandzer,
who assisted me with the installation last year, expanded
wiring in about ten more small one person gers. In
doing this work they followed the examples from last years
installation and my instruction with great care and precision.
Rinpoche told me last fall, “Don’t worry, they
are monks, they’ve been trained to pay attention.”
They also kept really good records, as instructed, of the
how the solar system functioned during its first year. This
allowed me to determine that system had worked flawlessly.
The 30 amp charge controller I brought from China last year
was slightly undersized for an 850 watt system. I could not
buy the size we needed. Consequently I did not wire all ten
solar panels into the distribution box. On this trip I brought
another 30 amp charge controller from Canada, installed it,
and wired in the two remaining solar panels. The system now
produces 20% more electricity. The solar system can now support
a refrigerator and the additional lights that have been added
in the last year.
This year I finally abandoned my film camera and went digital.
This as it turns out was a very good move. I have a lot of
nice photos from this trip and am forwarding some of these.
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| John
Huizinga teaching the monks the principles of solar power
systems. Zava Rinpoche's sister, Gana, translated. |
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| John
and helpers at work. |
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| Charge
controllers installed. |
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| Checking
the generator. |
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| John
receiving a khata. |
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| John
and helpers, Ergedel and Dandar |
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| Zasep
Rinpoche inspecting solar panels. |
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