Like Father, Like Son

Chores are more than chores in these communities. They are part of a process of children coming to age, acknowledging nature, and mere survival.

Karlapat Alternator Woes

Two weeks ago the Karlapat system generator stopped producing voltage. I was hoping to resolve the issue at the village, not needing to transport the alternator to town.

We did various trouble shooting at the powerhouse, confirming the coils and AVR are OK. However, we couldn't open the compartment where the diode assembly sits.

We had to bring it Berhampur 300km away. Sure enough a part of the diode bridge had been burned.

Silly folks in Berhampur are not motivated to find the root cause, even the village technicians have come up with ideas. If you have ideas, i'd love to hear them.

fyi--the voltage has never gone beyond 420 volts and the max load has been 7 kW. The alternator has been running for 1 year, even though it was purchased 2 years ago. We've had to replace the AVR once since only 350 volts were being produced.

A new diode bridge is around Rs. 6000, just as a new AVR. ...System has not been running for 2weeks :-(



Burned lead.


See the 7pm location of the burned diode?