The deep discharge batteries I have been waiting for since Tuesday arrived today at Solair, the solar and wind power dealer in Lilongwe that has been so helpful.
Solair's proprietor, Hamant, who has been incredibly helpful, with me.
Elias, my friend from National Solar and Power Systems is driving them up to me today, and we will install them first thing in the morning. We have two batteries plus a charge regulator to make sure the batteries aren't overcharged or over-discharged. These will provide a much longer reserve of power than the car battery I've used up until now.
I learned about these batteries on last Sunday from Mike McKay and Soyapi Mumba at Baobab Health, where they use them to power their Touch Screen Patient Registration Systems, and their Touch Screen Anti-Retroviral Therapy Systems which allow non-doctors to correctly prescribe ART therapy for HIV patients in Malawi. With 1,000,000 people of the 13.5 million people in Malawi infected with HIV, these systems are essential in a country with only 165 M.D. doctors. Their driver, Edson, took us to the shop to try to find these batteries and so many great things happened as a result.
