There is nothing worse than the power going out when you need it most, whether it is at home or work.  Power cuts disrupts our daily lives…we cannot get work done, our children cannot study, our food spoils, we miss our favourite T.V shows and, most importantly, our homes are less safe.

There is no need to dread going home because you know the power will be cut and you don’t want to sit in the dark…you can buy a backup or solar-backup system.

Before I installed my solar-backup system my life was miserable.  The worst part of it was knowing the power was going to cut and trying to decide what to do while I waiting for it to come back on…that is until I learned about installing a backup system.

I first started with a Barefoot Power 5w PowaPack.  It was a simple, “plug and play” system with four lights, phone charging and it could also play a small radio.  I put two lights in my living room, one in the corridor and one in the kitchen.  The PowaPack ensured we had a nice bright light at night for less than 200,000 Tsh.

After installing the PowaPack I decided to install a 15w Home Lighting System to provide security lights outside of the house.  I installed the panel on the roof, the two tube lights on the outside walls under the facia board away from the rain, the motion sensor light near the gate and the additional two LED lights in the two bedrooms.  It was very comforting to have lights on when the power was cut as it let everybody know that we were home.  For less than 400,000 Tsh the system was worth the money.

15w solar panel and tube light with switch wire

This year I finally decided to invest in a larger solar backup system.  This system was much larger than my previous systems, having a 1500w inverter/charger with 400 amp hours of battery back.

240 Watt solar panels provide charging during the day

the charge controller indicating the solar is charging the batteries and the status of the batteries

The benefit of the solar backup is that the 240 watts of solar power allows us to use power all day while keeping the batteries topped up for use in the night.  The inverter/charger is integrated into my main switch so when the grid power cuts the system automatically switches over to the backup system with no interruption in the power supply.

Inverter turns on automatically when the power cuts

Charger automatically charges the batteries when the power comes back on

The solar backup system is powerful enough to run my outside security lights, lights inside the house, ceiling fans, 32” T.V, DSTV, DVD player, two laptops and internet modem.

The power cuts is no longer an issue at home. In fact, I rarely notice when the power is cut.  We also installed a slightly larger system in our office and work is no longer disrupted.

Inverter/charger sitting on top of the battery box

Whether it is a smaller system to provide some light in your home or security light outside, or a larger system to be integrated with your current A/C grid connected system I hope my story has helped you realize that you don’t have to accept darkness.  You can invest in solar and solar backup systems.