Anyone else without electricity?

Rincon area was having difficulties, as well, because a substation caught fire

Another substation fire?  We had one of those a few months ago and it knocked out the power island wide for a few days.  I remember it well as we were in the airport in SJ with no AC!  Everyone was bitching about the heat?

My suspicion is that lack of routine preventive maintenance has created a very failure prone system - all the more reprehensible when you factor in the highest cost per kWh in the US that we pay in PR.

How many folks on here have back up generators at home?

Not sure if Hawaii is higher cost per KWH

I would certainly invest in a backup generator.

Extended power outage is a big problem without a backup power generator.   We got hit by a hurricane in SE Texas and the power was off for about four or five days.   The deep freeze thawed and we took a car load of meat (that we needed to cooked ) to our son's college dorm in Austin and the boys had a real good BBQ feed! 

No AC and lights in SE Texas in the summer is misserable  -- just like PR, maybe worse as the humidity was really high.

Hawaii power cost may be a little higher, but when you're already in the stratosphere, what's another penny or so?   I wonder what it would cost to go solar off grid?   The pay back timeline may shorter than I think.

To go off grid you will need a set of batteries for when the sun goes down. Tesla sells them. You will still pay around 15 bucks for a connection to the grid. Not sure if excess power pumping into the grid gets you a payment from the grid or not in PR.

Sitka wrote:

I wonder what it would cost to go solar off grid?   The pay back timeline may shorter than I think.

I've seen 4.5 KWH systems for about $9000.  If you have any experience pulling wire, installation doesn't seem all that difficult.  If the terms "inverter" and "transfer switch" are just so much gibberish, you'll want to secure the services of a licensed professional.

I have also seen subsidy and rebate programs.  My suspicion there is that you would purchase a solar power package from an island company who would do the install.  Expect the initial price to double, though you should recover some of that from the subsidy/rebate.

Rey is correct that you would want a battery.  When the grid is up, your solar panels will engage in "net metering" which means that if you produce more power than you use, your meter will run backwards.  In effect, your solar cells are just one more power generating plant contributing to the grid.  However, when the grid goes down, your solar cells will do nothing.  To fix this, you run the power through a battery.  In normal operation (with grid up) you do net metering.  When the grid goes down, you power your house off the battery and use your solar panels to keep the batteries charged.

The Tesla battery that Rey mentioned looks pretty good.  It's lithium, not lead cell, so no nasty gases.  If I recall, a battery runs about $5000.  Don't know how long they are expected to last.

In short, low-end cost looks to be about $15,000.

I plan on installing just such a system.  While the initial price is a little high, there's no need for a generator, and I expect my electric costs to be near zero (apart from the basic charge).  I'll also install a solar hot water heater, a cistern for potable water (through a reverse-osmosis filter) and greywater landscape irrigation.  My goal isn't to live "off-grid" but merely to be both economical and prepared for either service interruptions or price hikes.

Update: Found the link for that solar package.  http://www.solarelectricsupply.com/kyoc … lar-system

Tesla has a newer model of the battery that came out around October, I think it is around $3,500 and has greater capacity. Not sure what the markup is in PR. You may need 1 or more, they stack to save space.

Especially for Rey, being I have now seen his view, I'd be thinking a Wind Generator.
Your open to the Easterly's that are fairly constant.
And since you have cloud cover on a daily basis (and the wind seems to be blowin' at night there), it looks to be a decent alternate.

Well, as long as you don't need a tall tower that is. That's where the real expense of a Wind Gennie is.

olddawgsrule wrote:

Especially for Rey, being I have now seen his view, I'd be thinking a Wind Generator.
Your open to the Easterly's that are fairly constant.
And since you have cloud cover on a daily basis (and the wind seems to be blowin' at night there), it looks to be a decent alternate.

Well, as long as you don't need a tall tower that is. That's where the real expense of a Wind Gennie is.

That is something to consider the main one is if the neighbors will make a fuzz about it or not. At that altitude (1,00 feed above sea level) wind is fairly constant at about 15 miles an hour mostly from the east. I will consider it when it is time, thanks.

As for the Tesla Battery.. It's just a lot of 18650 (laptop size) batteries wired up.
If you know how, and should before attempting, it's not all that hard to do.

A friend is building a 5kwh Power wall as a starting point. I'm learning as he does it. He's at a fraction of the $5500 Telsa wants...

Interesting,  where can I get more info on this idea?

Sitka wrote:

Interesting,  where can I get more info on this idea?

http://insideevs.com/cant-wait-afford-t … build-300/