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QUESTION:Here are the informations we(and others) requested from the mayor,
as you can see, they are big power consumers... 97 kw.
But you can also note that they use quite a lot of power to keep food in
freezer... maybe there is a workaround here. any idea?
ANSWER: First of all, to put you in the picture, everybody here on Pitcairn in
some ways are mechanically minded and has wood working skills as we
build our houses and make our living from making wood carvings.
For myself I am the Supervising Engineer in charge of all Government
plants, machinery, etc.
I can weld everything including aluminium.
Also a heavy equipment operator, dozer etc.
I am the Dentist and Radiologist.
I have worked with surveyors during surveying of an airstrip.
Also buildig of the landing place. We here are quite skilled in most
types of construction.
Fibreglass moulding is the only thing I have not actually done.
There are people skiled in plumbing and electrical.
Here on Pitcairn everyone has to be self sufficient, jack of all trade
and master of none.
Geo:
There is no lime, coal or peat on the island.
We do not know of any place on the island that feels warmer than other.
We have had geologists here and no report of any geothermic source.
Bio;
We grow avocado and coconuts, but not enough to produce oil.
Pitcairns geography is mainly hilly, high and densely wooded in places.
The coconut trees do not tend to grow in those areas.
Also in one of Steve Spence emails, someone mentioned corn oil, but we
can only manage to grow enough for our home use in our small garden plots.
There is insufficient land suitable for a large production farming.
Our sewage is long drop toilets which has already been looked at to
produce gas for cooking.
The vegetable and food scraps which is not very much per house are feed
to the chickens.
We have not tried obtaining alcohol from vegetable fermentation.
WATER
Water is a big problem here with garden, as we collect our water from
the roof of our houses into storage tanks.
We depend solely on rain for water.
During summer there is very little garden done as it is so hot and dry.
We can not afford to water our gardens.
There are no water fall or stream on the island only two little springs
which tends to dry up in summer..
One was dry for three years.
A water catchment can be built on top of the island, but with the amount
of rainfall we get which is 65 to 70 inches average a year, this would
evaporate in an open type construction.
I would forget about water as it is a big problem for us here for
domestic use. That is why we do not use flush toilets.
There is no tidal pool or small creek that could be made into a dam
anywhere near Adamstown.
The cliff face around Pitcairn in front of Adamstown is approx. 300 ft
of solid rock that makes access by machines impossible apart from
Bounty Bay.
There is no part of the coast that is constantly hit by strong waves.
Generally the water temperature is around 25 degrees centigrade.
WIND
The average wind speed is recorded as force 4, generally from the SE to NE.
Upon the hills it might be abit fresher.
We are not in the hurricane or cyclone belt, but we can occassionally
get strong winds that can gust to about 30 to 40 knots.
There is a suitable place on Pitcairn that has been looked at for a wind
generator which is approx 800 ft above sea level, known as Ship Landing
Point. This area is exposed to the wind from nearly all directions.
Extensive research has gone into doing something like combinding diesel,
wind and solar, but funding was the main problem. From ship landing
point to where the generators are situated it is approx. 1000 metres.
This was measured for the cables.
MISC:
There are 33 houses connected to our power grid.
26 of these houses have fridge and freezers which has approx three 27
cu ft freezers in them, as freezers play a very important role here.
Our supply ship comes twice a year so we have to store flour and most
every dry goods in them to stop spoilage and weevils.
We have 33 street lights with 70 watt bulbs with light sensors on them.
We have all sorts of electrical appliances that you would find in a
normal house, but not used all the time.
Yes, we use water pumps to transfer water and workshops have drills,
bandsaws, power tools etc.
Each house uses approx. 3 kw of power @ 220 240 volts at 50 hertz.
Our main generator pushes out 97 Kw ten hours a day.
Five in the mornings and five hours in the evenings.
The morning run is mainly for the freezers.
It consumes approx. 5000 litres diesel a month.
We have two smaller standby generators 48 KW, which we use, but we have
to split the lines between the two engines.
One cannot handle the load by itself. Even now these generators are
struggling to cope.
All the houses are located in Adamstown except two which is approx. 300
metres out of the village and there is a significant power loss at this
distance using 12mm power lines.
GENERAL
Here on Pitcairn the only type of heavy equipment we have is two farm
tractors, a D4 cat and a 6 ton Digger.
Any sort of heavy items heavier than 2 tons can become a problem.
Shiping is also a big problem in bringing supplies to Pitcairn. At
the present freight is approx. NZ$400 cubic metre. Nearly all our
cooking is done on gas. We bring in 90 Kg bottles then it is
decantered to smaller bottles for home use.
Gas was used for cooking about 3 years ago, because electricity became
expensive at 50 cents a kw unit and the generator could not handle all
the load.
We also use wood for cooking and water heating.
Whatever source of alternate power is looked at, it must be 100%
reliable as we cannot afford a power failure.
We depend so much on electricity for our freezers which is our principle
items. Some homes have 3 KW backup generators just incase we have a
power breakdown.
Hope this is helpful to you and others.
I have spoken to several others on this subject and nothing became of
it. My personal opinion is wind generator and existing plant for backup.
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