Airconditioning

[jadegil6]

Thanks Chas. I am looking forward to this move. I will have to check into the solar power option when and if I build a house. I think I will be a renter for a long time, but maybe I will get some others interested in helping me to build a children's shelter, and that would be a good place to install some solar power.

[wayne208]

I have to ask what is a Nipa Hut ? Is it a Joke that I am Missing or what ??

[jadegil6]

nipa-hut.jpg (65.41 KiB) Viewed 5597 times

This is a nipa hut. Many people in the Philippines live in nipa huts. There is a picture of a nipa hut on the Home Page and Pictures Listings Page of jaderune.com.

[cheryz]

that picture is one of a beautiful nipa hut i saw , it reminds me in my childhood in 1990's a lot of people used nipe hut and our family one of them because of climate tropical country very hot, when you lived in a nipa hut its something like you feel fresh air ..

[jadegil6]

I was in one in the mountains north of Bayawan City in Negros Oriental that was built about 2 meters above the ground. It had a bamboo floor with the length of the bamboo cut into narrow widths, and placed side by side, and attached to wooden floor joists. I am a big guy, and I felt a little nervous walking or standing on this floor, especially when I was in between the joists with only the narrow bamboo pieces supporting my weight. But bamboo is really a very strong material, and there was no real danger of it collapsing under my weight.
The nipa hut had no electricity, and I had my fully charged laptop with me, and decided to play an animated movie for the children. I started playing "Ice Age", and before long there were about 30 people (kids and adults) all around the room sitting of the floor, watching the movie. Many of these people had never seen a movie before. Many had never seen a white man either. lol
The way the floor was built allowed the air to flow up through the spaces between the bamboo, and it was surprisingly cool inside the nipa hut. They are definitely much cooler than the traditional block wall houses with their sheet metal roofs. Those are sweat boxes compared to a nip hut.

[Smiley]

Solar power is getting a lot more practical all the time.Even a small group of panels can charge a pretty good sized battery bank.The price of LED`s are coming down all the time as well There are 10 and 12 watt led bulbs that give off more light than a 100 watt incandescent bulb.
If you just need some light and perhaps a charging station for cellphones and laptops You would not need very big panels or a very large battery bank. I don`t know how common NiCad truck batteries are in the PI but I imagine they can be found.Even regular lead acid car or truck batteries will work well but deep cycle will last longer.
In a nutshell:Your solar panel will charge your battery bank. The battery bank will be connected to an inverter which will give you 110v AC that will power your stuff just like at home.By adding additional batteries connected in series it will take more solar energy to charge but you will have a lot more power in reserve.
I`ve installed several solar lighting systems for friends in the country that have buildings too far from the homesite to make it worthwhile to run power out to them.Small systems can work very well and they don`t have to be very elaborate.