Day 23: Install Day

Ready to go.

Today was install day!! At the workshop we gave all the electronics (break, dump load, control system and all) a last test then packed everything into the car, along with a few too many people, and drove tot he site. Here we were joined by the university students, some of their lecturers and other WindAid employees who came down to observed the installation process.

Firstly we mounted the turbine on the stand with the bearing, then put it up on the water tower. Afterwards followed a lengthy process of trying to align the bamboo pole with the vertical, which proved difficult with a bamboo pole with several kinks in it!.

Mounting the stand.

Mounting the pole.

After an hour or so we brought the whole thing down and had a snack and a drink that the family had kindly provided. We discovered that the pole connecting the bamboo pole and the stand had been mounted backwards so we smashed off the nut, washed the bearing and tried again. This proved more fruitful and we managed to get the turbine spinning properly. After a late lunch we headed back to sort the electronics while Michael was in the city running some errands. After completing the finishing touches and getting some pictures with a very happy family who will have a light in their room for the first time tonight we had time to think about what we had achieved while watching the waves by the sea.

I didn't envy them holding that.

After dinner we headed back to the workshop for about 9pm where we planned to try and get another turbine ready for tomorrow*, however once we got there and saw that the amount of work required didn't really make another install a reality, we decided to quit while we were ahead and end our time in Trujillo on a high, and went back to the house to celebrate what we HAD achieved in our few short weeks with WindAid.

Looking good.

Lining up the pole

Not much we can do but give directions.

Tico talking with the our spectator.

*tommorow being the last day we would all be in Trujillo