Power supply for your cyber cafe business.

Like I said before, this is crucial for your business. Managing power supply (especially in Nigeria) could make or break your business. We depend heavily on generators. You will be using generator for about half of the time you will be open for business. That is if you are lucky. So lets say you have one generator as back up to the public power supply , Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). You may not bother with inverters and solar power, if you are using power consuming machines like photocopying machines. But if you don’t have these machines in your café, the use of inverters, batteries and solar power is highly recommended.

The solar power system is to collect solar (sun’s) energy (DC) and the inverter will convert this energy into a suitable form (AC), for use by your equipment. You may not want to invest in the solar energy thing because it is expensive. In this case, use batteries and inverters only. The battery (DC) supply will be converted by the inverter to AC for use by the café.

The idea here is to use your inverter/battery system when there is no public supply. When there is public power supply it charges the batteries. If your battery power is low, due to long outage of the public power supply, run your generator for some hours to charge the batteries for use with the inverter when the public supply is absent. 

If you decide that you want the solar power (and no generator), you may make some savings on fuel and generator maintenance. But you must be accurate in your calculations on power requirements for your cyber café. Use a professional for this task.

Also, if you are using air-conditioners, the inverter/battery/solar system may not be practicable. The power consumed by the A/C will be too much for inverter/battery combinations.

One good tip on generators is, buy original Japanese engine generator. They are more expensive but last longer and can withstand the rigors and long running hours of cyber café operations. 

Let me give an example of what a good generator can do. I bought a generator with original Japanese Honda engine when I started my café. Unfortunately, four months after, there was a dispute between the landlord of the building housing the café and PHCN. So for one month, power supply was disconnected from the building.  For that one month the generator worked from 9am to 9pm nonstop  everyday without any breakdown.

The use of uninterrupted power supply (UPS) equipment is indispensable. Use one UPS to one computer to avoid instant system shutdown. There is nothing more frustrating to a customer than having his or her  work of 45 minutes or more wiped out, because of lack of UPS. 

One important tip on maintenance of UPS is that you leave them on charge over night. That is, if there is public supply. If you have constant power supply at night times, better for you. Your UPS will last for a long time. Otherwise, be ready to be buying UPS batteries for replacement. There are actually two main troublesome components in the UPS. The circuit board and the battery. The battery will get spoiled easily if there is no regular charge on them when they are idle. While the transistors on the circuit board will break down easily if there are frequent power spikes in your café power system. These power spikes could come from Public power supply (PHCN), from your PHCN/GENERATOR change over unit, and other sources.  If it is from PHCN, most likely it’s from the transformer close to your café. If it is from inside your café then it is most likely from arcing in the change over unit.

If you are using air-conditioners, be sure to buy very good electrical equipment in the café, especially the change over unit. Buy genuine ones. It will last you a long time and save you a lot of headache.