Moving to Kathmandu

Hello Basudeb,
I am from the UK and have worked in Nepal this year and return there next year in January. Regarding load shedding, there are schedules (available on line - I don't have the web reference to hand) detailing when the electricity is on or off. The city is split into areas, and the load shedding varies by area. At the moment there are 8 hours a day without electric, and this will increase towards the monsoon. As the electric is hydro generated the cuts should be less once the rains come in July. Some businesses and tourist areas have generators. It is still possible to run a refridgerator for provisions.

Regarding health, there are local traditional medicines, pharmacies seem to sell any drug you could wish for. There are also doctors and clinics referred to as 'western' clinics that offer a good service.

I am going to Mysore in the south of India to teach in March. Which part of India are you coming from?

Best wishes and Merry Christmas,

Anna Greenwood

Thanks Anna. I will be moving from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Do you think it will be possible to have a generator or inverter so that we have uninterrupted power? Do you happen to know how good is Lincoln School?

Hi, I am sure there is a way to get some power - the shops run small generators which are noisy, but give some power, so the generators will be available to buy.  You can buy strip lights that charge when the electric is on. I worked and lived in a monastery which had its own generator so I did not explore the options.

I do not know the schools at all. Perhaps you can Google it, or ask at your Embassy? I'll ask a couple of my contacts there about it - maybe they can help.

Best wishes
Anna

Overall, are the living conditions likely to be reasonable in Kathmandu, especially with a young family?

If anyone else on this forum can provide some information on Lincoln School, I'd be grateful.

Hi again,
I've been in touch with a friend of a friend who graduated from Lincoln school in 2007. She sent these web links to look at:

lsnepal.com/
lsnepal.com.np/

I spotted a load shedding schedule for the power cuts on the second web link.

Anna

the loadshedding schedule looks terrible. is it really that bad? are there neighbourhoods in the city where the situation is better?

Hi I've sent you a message with an email contact for a lady who was at Lincoln School.

Regarding the load shedding, it will get worse up to the monsoon. Yes, it is pretty bad. The most we had this year was 12 hours without electric spread over two blocks of 6 hours.

Load-shedding in Nepal is currently pretty bad.
Check out the website of NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority) for the most recent load-shedding schedules: http://www.nea.org.np/ in the upper-right corner.

Sometimes there are some areas where loadshedding isn't applied.
Most times this is if high-level politicians move into an area or if new ones have been elected. Quickly they will then get their own feeder line though, and the area is again on the regular schedule. You can expect this to happen within half a year or something.
Other areas that are on different load-shedding schedules are appointed industrial areas. These get continues feeds for a certain amount of time, say Monday to Thursday or Friday, and then no power for the rest of the time.   

The only exception to this are areas that generate their own electricity and are as a whole not connected to the National grid. These are mostly remote areas, far outside Kathmandu valley.

Load-shedding can be dealt with by using inverters (UPS) which store electricity in batteries and release it during power outages, although when the number of outage hours is more then the number of hours when you can take electricity from the grid, inverters are of limited use. They then just don't have enough time for recharging the batteries anymore. Inverters are clean, noiseless and inefficient. The batteries need a lot of maintenance to keep working during high load-shedding hours, this is really taxing for the batteries. My inverter runs currently at 68% efficiency, AC to AC (on paper is was 98% efficient - at full load! - which it can only maintain for 2 hours at most before the batteries would be depleted). You'll be hard pressed to find a more efficient one. To coop with 12 hours of load-shedding you need to over-size your inverter and have it run at only 10 - 20 % of it max. capacity).

Hence the generator. Smelly, noisy and also expensive in fuel consumption. That is... if there is fuel available. The last half year we haven't really had too many fuel shortages, but the year before there were extensive periods (many weeks in a row) when there was not enough fuel (diesel / petrol / kerosene) to go around for all. This resulted in long queues at the petrol stations, and limited distribution when there was some petrol available. Not a good situation if you want to run of a generator.

Solar panels are an option, if your electricity consumption is relatively low. You can run a TV and a couple of CFL lights of a decent solar panel setup. Don't expect it to power your refrigerator though, but you might be able to have it power your laptop.

thank you so much for these details. i did look at the loadshedding schedule earlier - but somehow could not believe it was real! now that you confirm, I got to believe it! it seems generator is the only option for uninterruted power.

i hope the school schedule does not get affected by the power cuts. I am thinking of either the Lincoln School or the British School for my children.

I am hopeful that the situation in Nepal will improve this year. it may not solve the loadshedding problem rightaway, but at least some positive changes will take place.