From The Duke Engineering Quad to the Rooftops of a Ugandan Village

We started on Duke's E-Quad, but now...

We now have our first solar panel on the roof top of the Lwemodde Youth center. Today we successfully mounted the panel without breaking it or falling through the roof.

On the roof of what is actually the space just next to the youth center.

First we fixed the mounting planks on the frame of the panel. The ropes were used to bring the panel to the roof and to keep the panel secure while we mounted it.

Next we drilled the first three holes.

The panel was brought up and we used the panel to find the exact spacing for the other holes.

The bolts and wire came through.

The absolute master of roof work was this man who is nicknamed 'Obama Jr.'

Something which we were unsure about while planning the installation of the panel was how to ensure all the holes made are sealed to keep the roof free of leaks. They had the solution to this immediately and it was very new technology to Lydia and myself. They mixed some petrol with a random piece of polystyrene. The foam reacted to form this sort of goo.

Some unused polystyrene foam and petrol is passed up to the roof.

Forming the sealing goo.

The goo is then placed over any holes and as it drys it expands to the side of the hole and becomes impermeable to water. A very clever idea and apparently works!

For the remainder of the day we used another solar panel to do some demonstrations on the ground. Specifically we went over the effect of angle on the solar panel, current, voltage, the solar charge controller and how damaging just a slight shadow on the panel can be to the current output.

 Going over current and voltage.

Explaining how the current used to charge the battery will vary depending on light intensity.