Electricity

Julian - I look forward to seeing and hearing more as I am planning to build my own house and am getting ready to design what I want. I have quotes for solar hot water from a company in Santiago and am waiting for another from Puerto Plata  - also waiting for two quotes on solar electric for house, guest cabin and woodworking shop. Will ensure house design supports and accommodates these systems.....cheers

Solar will be an excellent investment if you can get a system inexpensively. I would suggest not going completely off grid until you learn at least the basics of electricity yourself.  I will also definitely suggest Lithium batteries over sealed lead acid batteries for several reasons. For the exact same voltage battery a lead acid battery is nearly 3 time as heavy as a lithium.  I was incorrect in my prior posting about cycle discharge between the two.  A lithium battery lasts 10 times longer than Lead Acid. PM if you want information on what you should look for in your setup. It would be a very long post to explain everything

I believe going fully off grid is not allowed.

That's something I will look into. i'm not here to break laws. In the rural areas most of the people have no electricity. I've seen car batteries hooked in series to power basic appliances. A small solar panel system would really help people.

Agreed honey.   I remember reading about a person who was completely off grid and they made him  connect.   

The poor who would benefit the most cannot afford the solar panel system either.

Planner,  everyone thank you for your comments on electricity  I have got an inverter  installed in a friend's apt there and will be working from there soon.

How do the power cuts affect businesses?

Like do stores have to have back-up power supplies to run their cash registers and stuff?  Or are businesses spared the power cuts?

And if you are relying on the internet to process credit card transactions or other payments, does that go down too?

In business here you must have a back up system. When looking at business locations a prime concern is what electrical circuit you will be on. And all circuits go down periodically.

As history shows, cash is always best. Most places that take CCs have a back up. No one seems to suffer.

Business suffers  badly when the electricity goes out and there is no back up. It's not just a cash register or computer or credit card machine. Its fans and lights and security, govt issue receipts etc etc

good afternoon Planner

I read recently and "thought" it was here on expat that TRACE (the ORIGINAL power inverter company) was purchased by another international company... and now I cannot find the information.

I have a property in Guayacanes and was surprised to find that the new company has offices outside of Dallas where I also live (Carrollton Texas).  and still mfg inverters *and solar.

I have lost the information but want to contact them about the models they made (before acquring TRACE) and see if I can also help others acquire manuals and parts for their older units.

wonder if you or anyone knows the name of the new company???  Also want to warn anyone reading this older thread that the companies that represents themselves as TRACE in R.D. are NOT the TRACE of o;d and is (I am told) selling Chinese Knock Offs that are not near the quality with the TRACE name

any help you can assist would be great.

for the life of me I thought I read it on here and going crazy trying to find the info again.

regards and thanks for all you do.. I follow your posts when I can

zacharias