Electricity in Goa
 

Hi All

I would like to find out from anyone who has owned a property in Goa or rented long-term what they did to overcome the electricity problem there! With power cuts almost daily, often several times per day, what did you do to solve this problem and keep your appliances going?

As I have mentioned, my family and I are going to be moving to Goa full time in September and renting first (probably for a year+) while we find land and have our own villa constructed. In the villa we are planning to have solar pannels installed to provide constant power. Does anyone have experience of these and know of any good suppliers? However renting we will obviously have the same problem and can't just go about installing solar panels in someone else's property! So wondering if anyone had any alternative methods they use to keep the power flowing as such!

Any help most gratefully appreciated! Thank you

Julia x

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

No replies so far! Does everyone here just 'put up' with the inconsistent electricity supply in Goa? Or do you try and overcome the problem?

Any advice and creative solutions welcome :)

J x

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Hi Julia,
Some discussion on this subject took place at this thread

I like your idea of solar panels and am contempating installing them at some stage to augment alternate sources such as inverters . do keep in mind that while goa gets lots of sun and though solar panels are available in india (and subsidised too afaik), the amount of energy produced using this method is rather limited - so you would have to have alternate means of backup like inverters (this was discussed on the other thread).
as we are on this subject you may find this film very interesting click here to watch - though not entirely about solar electricity, this 2 hour film for me was an eye opener about many issues that we face in the world today and it does touch upon alternate energy (hope this link is not considered too much of a digression)

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

this company actually makes solar inverters - you may want to look at their website for details or contact them for more information

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

It depends how long you are there. We do 6 months, laptop has 2 hours battery. Don't bother with hairdryer etc. have JML Light bulbs in kitchen and bedroom and also solar lamps from UK B & Q £6. also children gave us battery camping lamps for last christmas. This is enough for us. The fridge is o.k. as long as you keep it shut, only using it for emergencies,(like getting ice out for the 'noffi) electricity is usually back within a few hours, and I must say we usually get the worst cuts in Candolim, we watch the guys repairing the same old electricity boxes all the time.
:fingerscrossed: monsoon I leave the answers to J5 and Babu

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

candles for seeing with and the gas ring for my cuppas, lappy also has a decent battery.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Just to let you know that the power was off here (calangute) yesterday for over Eight hours. Which is not uncommon when the monsoon starts. I have two inverters double batteries in each and they cope quite well. I have a light and fan connected in every room and lights in the bathrooms as well as a fridge,tv and computer. Obviously it is best not to have everything on at the same time this gives you more hours. I also have plenty of candles but no experience of solar panels.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Hi Julia,
On our Acron site solar panels are installed for water heating only, they really work a treat. Another luxury we have is a piped gas supply, a real blessing.
Most people use an inverter for the power failures.
Tata supply solar water heating systems in Goa.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

There are several suppliers in Goa for solar powered water heating panels.

Racold, and Tata are only two of them. We used Racold (Mapusa) who were very efficient on the order and supply side. 2 panels giving 250 litres daily of scolding hot water cost 40,000 R/- as of late 2005.

An application for the 4,000R/- government grant was made to the government. This was supposed to have been refunded soon after installation. No money has been forthcoming and we are not chasing it up at the moment.

Cost of installation, all plumber's labour and materials, is at your own expense. Finding a good plumber who doesn't run off to Kerela with the substantial deposit for two months because he is having "marital problems" ("new married wife not yet having baby, must try harder") can be difficult.

We looked around at the time to find solar alternatives for all electrics, but found nothing in Goa. Hopefully, things might have moved on by now.

Let us know if you find anything.

Power cuts are fairly regular at the moment and quite prolonged (Calangute/Candolim). The monsoon has yet to arrive, and there is hardly any extra load demand from tourists. Since the rain is not yet bringing down trees on the power lines, I am not certain why there should be so many "outages".

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

I heard rumours when I was last in Goa that they are gradually putting in new power lines and putting them underground. If true it may cut down on power cuts but I wouldn't hold my breath. :blink::blink:

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

As this thread is getting a little muddled, clarification might be a good idea?

Solar Water heating;
Very basic low-tech. Involves running water over a black surface placed in sunlight to absorb the heat from the sun and then stored in a separate tank. Also requires plumbing for hot water which a lot of Goan properties do not have. Very simple to make, in fact the proprietory brands are exhorbitantly expensive for what they involve. Pretty sure they made a system on Blue Peter last month with a Fairy Liquid bottle and some egg cartons. As far as grants are concerned, the are only available to those with "residency" so a straight-forward FN is ineligible.

Solar Electric generation;
Still pretty high tech. As has already been mentioned, even a large quantity of panels will still have a pretty low output. Compared with the cost of electricity in Goa they simply do not make sense. Pretty sure that any worth using will be imported therefore expensive beyond sensible. Even where they are freely available in other parts of the world they are considered to be more of a "green" statement.

Monsoon;
Both these systems are of limited use during the monsoon period as they require plenty of bright sunlight. Although the monsoon has breaks and the sun comes out, it can still be wet, grey and full cloud-cover for days on end. As this is when the electricity supply is at its most intermittent, not such a good idea as back-up. The money will be better spent on inverters and banks of batteries if you just can't manage without power for a few hours.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Thank you for all your replies! When I said solar panels I meant the ones for electricity generation. Although solar water heating is also a good idea. We have searched the internet and found some manufacturers in Delhi and Bangalore which we will check out. I know they don't provide much power, but hey in these long power cuts then anything is better than nothing! We will probably have a combination of mains and solar power in our house. I like the idea of an inverter. Not being an electrician myself I don't know much about these, but my husband is great wit this stuff! Will definitely look to get one of those too!

Thanks for all the alternative methods also! I will definitely be packing a few JML Light bulbs in December!

Julia x

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

When you get to Goa you will find solar panels on sale - they are always on show at the "exhibitions" at Campal and Bosco School in Panjim.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

J5 has told me to tell you to disregard what I have just told you - they are not electric :thumbdown:

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

oh dear

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

So what inspired you to have signature about "the taste of sperm"?

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Pardon! where did that come from.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

babelfish at a guess <g>

AndyD 8-)#

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

J5, Is the signature Russian or greek? If you don't know, please can I have one of whatever you are smoking, either that or Saturday night must have continued into Sunday morning for you. . . . . . . . . . .

Regards

Hemingway.

P.S. - someone once told me that it's a lot to do with what the 'donor' has been eating relatively recently.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Its Russian.

Yes Andy, I started with Babelfish, which also told me he was "beating his quince" (!?!)
Then checked it with half-a-dozen others and the only thing they all agreed on was the "taste of sperm" bit.

Hemingway, too much information!

Still puzzled by the full meaning, and why it is this person's signature.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

The mind boggles. :scaredhair: :scaredhair:

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

If you check this person out, you will find he spends most of his time on the Australian forum, and mainly on mindless/slightly obscene threads, with a very limited group of like-minded people.
Why he should suddenly pop up on here with a strange two word post and a russian signature about bodily fluids I do not know.
Probably best to forget he ever happened?

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Agree with you, there are some really odd threads which make my hair: scaredhair: :scaredhair: :scaredhair: we are so good generally on here, or nieve

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

This is a general question on inverters. I am curious that those of you who spend say half the year in Goa and half in UK (basically those who are away from Goa for a longish periods) do anything special to keep the inverters in good shape. Do you leave them connected to mains and batteries while you are away, or do you disconnect them? What are the pros and cons of leaving them connected or disconnected for long periods while one is away?

Regards

IJ

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Good question!
Although we are (or were) trying to spend most of the year in Zimbabwe-on-Sea, we did have to leave our inverter for four months, a few months after we bought it.
Couldn't get any advice locally so thought it through and decided that it would be better left on and connected. Any battery (the most expensive part of the system) will be happier going through a charge/discharge cycle and it also meant that security devices could be connected to the UPS connection in the sound knowledge that they would remain "live" at all times.
The only maintenance the system needs is topping up the distilled water in the cells. As I wouldn't trust the locals to sell me distilled water instead of tap water, I make my own by either defrosting the old fridge (new one is frost-free) or using the mobile AC which produces at least 5 litres per night.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

I agree - a battery left for several months will discharge itself, and a discharged battery will sulphate up and be un-recoverable.
Good modern inverters have a low voltage intermittent trickle charge phase, and most deep-cycle batteries these days are fully sealed (so no water needed).
'Course if a fuse blows while you're away, or the electricity dept decides you haven't paid and cuts you off you're £00's up the Swanney.

AndyD 8-)#

AndyD 8-)#

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Most deep-cycle batteries in UK are sealed, have you found these in Goa, and most important, at a sensible price?

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In my case I have the inverters serviced on a regular basis so problems are minimal.
Also there is always someone in the property whilst I am away.

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

see my post #23 here - or just check out http://smartpower.in

AndyD 8-)#

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Thanks for your informative replies

IJ

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

Andy,
The "smartpower" link takes you to a site where the battery section is "under construction", hence not informative.

I can do web searches as well as you can, but as you are a proponent of these batteries, I asked you;
I can find a million things on the Net that are available in India, and be pretty certain that absolutely none of them are available in Goa!

Re: Electricity in Goa
 

I haven't yet bought, am just trawling the market - when I looked at their site they were advertising sealed batteries. I'll have another look.

AndyD

(_)?