Nkdave:


Good day Sir George, and all the trustworthy pioneers of this futuristic thread. I've been following for a while now, and I must say I'm impressed, although I had started using AE some while before I found this thread, I intend to go and grow forward with help from here.

Sorry, enough rambling, two questions please.

1. I have just a 1.2kva Mercury modified sine wave Inverter, + one 170ah trailer battery (due to monetary constraints at the time, and being experiential too), this gives me back up for between 4 to 7hrs depending on hours of charge it gets from Nepa, and ofcos my usage.
Now I want advice on wattage of solar panel I should add to the existing setup, that would provide better additional back up as recently we only see NEPA for a total of 6hrs in a day, sometimes even less.

nkdave,
welcome on board. even though its not really advisable using trailer batteries
for inverters, since you say its a temporary solution, no problem.
to incorporate solar power for your setup, here is what you need:

170ah multiplied by 1.2 (to account for system losses) will give you: 204ah
this gives a total power output of 2448w (assuming you are draining down to
a dod of 80 to 100 percent - which may not be practical.
for a 5 hour average daily insolation, you can get by with a solar panel array
of between 400w to 600w depending on cloud cover.

as for your brother, you need to get back to us with actual nameplate power
ratings for all the equipment mentioned in your list if you want proper system
sizing advice and cost.

DMerciful:
Hi my People,

I missed this forum.....been quite busy...work nor let me see road

Kudos Guys

dmerciful,
welcome back. hope you bring something for us?

I have new batteries in Stock From the US

Crown CR430, 6V Flooded L16 Battery

6VDC 430Ah
Flooded Lead Acid

Manufacturer Warranty : 3 Years


CROWN BATTERY
Model CR-235
6v 235aH DEEP CYCLE BATTERY
₦ 60,000



CROWN BATTERY
Model - CR-215
12v 215Ah Deep Cycle Battery
₦ 115,000


CC:
GeorgeD1
abunafiu
Akanniade
chris81964
richmon74:
pranil
DMerciful
kiekie,
mctrinity,
obimind,
earthrealm,
babaegun,
bigrovar,
mcci,
juo,
saipro,
dmerciful,
barezzi,
efuro,
dunka
dapsyra

Crown CR-215 - 12v - 215AH Deep Cycle Battery



CROWN BATTERY
Model CR-235
6v 235aH DEEP CYCLE BATTERY
₦ 60,000



CROWN BATTERY
Model - CR-215
12v 215Ah Deep Cycle Battery
₦ 115,000

aweso:
I have new batteries in Stock From the US

Crown CR430, 6V Flooded L16 Battery

6VDC 430Ah
Flooded Lead Acid

Manufacturer Warranty : 3 Years


CC:

Thank you. It is nice to have options. Crown makes good premium batteries. Price them well and you will do well

aweso:
Crown CR-215 - 12v - 215AH Deep Cycle Battery

Also In stock 12v - 215AH

taken that I use these batteries everyday ,how long can they last before replacement?

purplekayc:
taken that I use these batteries everyday ,how long can they last before replacement?

Crown Deep cycle Batteries are Flooded Lead Acid.
Durability of Any Flooded Battery will be determined by 3 factors.

Quality Of the Product
Periodic maintenance.
Rate of Charge and Discharge.

Note:

Crown products utilize the heaviest and thickest plates available from the battery industry - 10% thicker than those used by batteries like Trojan.

More plate thickness delivers longer battery discharge performance and cycle life

GENUS INVERTER
GENUS 875VA/12V 55,000
GENUS 1.5KVA/12V 70,000
GENUS 1.5KVA/24V 78,000
GENUS 2.5KVA/36V 145,00
GENUS 3.5KVA/48V 200,000
GENUS 5KVA/48V 450,000
GENUS 5KVA/96V 450,000
GENUS 7.5KVA/120V 550,000
GENUS 10KVA/180V 650,000
GENUS 15KVA/240V 1.1m
GENUS 20KVA/360V 1.2m,



LUMINOUS INVERTER
1.5KVA/24V ECO 73,000
3.6KVA/48V 180,000
5KVA/96V 350,000


MICROTECH INVERTER
1.1KVA,12V 50,000
1.6KVA/24V 75,000
3.6KVA/48V 170,000
5.5KVA/48V 340,000

MUST POWER STAR INVERTER
1KVA 1000W 12v 95,000
4kva 3000W 24V 220,000
4kva 3000W 48V 260,000
5kva 4000W 48V 350,000
6kva 5000W 48V 400,000
7.5kva 6000W 48V 450,000

BATTERY
GLT BATTERY
GLT BATTERY 12V/100AH 55,000
GLT BATTERY 12V/150AH 73,000
GLT BATTERY 12V/200AH 100,000

ZEEDIX BATTERY
ZEEDIX BATTERY 12V/100AH 45,000
ZEEDIX BATTERY 12V/150AH 70,000
ZEEDIX BATTERY 12V/200AH 90,000

GENUS BATTERY 12V/100AH 70,000
GENUS BATTERY 12V/150AH 88,000
GENUS BATTERY 12V/200AH 115,000


BATTERY RACK
BATTERY RACK 2 BATTERY 15,000
BATTERY RACK 4 BATTERIES 30,000
BATTERY RACK 8 BATTERIES 50,000


CHARGE CONTROLLER ROY SOLAR SERIES
20A 12/24V PWM CONTROLLER 20,000
30A 12/24V PWM CONTROLLER 25,000
40A 48v PWM controller (LED) 50,000
30A 96v PWM controller (LCD) 120,000
60A 48v PWM controller (LCD) 95,000

SOLAR PANEL
150w M-40,000
200w M-45,000
260w M-60,000
310w M-75,000

Bright Solar Power


Call-07058562938

aweso:
I have new batteries in Stock From the US

Crown CR430, 6V Flooded L16 Battery

6VDC 430Ah
Flooded Lead Acid

Manufacturer Warranty : 3 Years


CC:
GeorgeD1
abunafiu
Akanniade
chris81964
richmon74:
pranil
DMerciful
kiekie,
mctrinity,
obimind,
earthrealm,
babaegun,
bigrovar,
mcci,
juo,
saipro,
dmerciful,
barezzi,
efuro,
dunka
dapsyra

Drop your price list here, it will help!

Cheers

khanka:
Please, I am in need of your advice.

I’m thinking of changing my 1.5 KVa inverter for a 2-3 Kva 24V true sine inverter -charger with temperature compensation and multiple charging profiles. I will prefer one with local after-sales support. My budget is ₦500k. Any recommendations?

Call/whatapp 08117398294, or email Info@monzpowersolutions.com for enquiries

Nkdave:
2ndly, my big brother is setting up his personal home, and wants to start of with AE, if possible no NEPA at all.
I told him about this site and thread, so he said to ask what it would require and cost if he wants to power the following;
1. Two Refrigerators,
2. Two Air conditioners,
3. A 200L solar geyser (like the one Oga George has got) :-)
4. Three ceiling fans,
5. Three Led Tvs,
6. Two Home Theatre Systems.
7. Bulbs and lighting points as expected for a 4bedroom house
8. Pumping Machine for borehole water.
9. One 13kg front loader Washing Machine.

Thanking you all in advance.

Call/whatapp 08117398294, or email Info@monzpowersolutions.com for enquiries

abunafiu:
It's a blessing in disguise.
Early this morning, I woke up to see that my overhead water tank stand fell destroying my 2 tanks. It rained heavily yesterday night. The rain was accompanied by heavy wind. Though the concrete stand was not properly constructed and am paying heavily for this. Anyway.. .thats gone
Now I consider this an opportunity to do it better especially when I didn't plan solar water heater in the initial overhead tank stand
I still intend to use concrete with enhanced reinforCement to avert future occurrence.
Now I don't want to rely on what I know basically, I need design ideas from Members.

I am not happy at all as cost of building materials are still not pocket friendly.

Pls keep them coming, sketches and pictures.

See Before and after pictures

That's sad. Concrete stands are very durable and strong when mixed in right proportion(especially for bungalows) , yours was poorly mixed for it to collapse like that... God will provide

JohnKester:


Drop your price list here, it will help!

Cheers

Yes, I am also interested in price to compare with Trojan RE200 ( carbon )
The cycle life looks to be good on spec sheet . What are the vent caps the battery supplied with - the water saving ones ( spin top?)

Thanks loads Sir George, for ur articulate response.

Regarding my brother's quote, it might be a bit difficult, as I'm here in KD, whilst he is in Lagos, and rarely stays home, but all the same, thanks alot, we would see how to work around it.

Appreciations.

GeorgeD1:


nkdave,
welcome on board. even though its not really advisable using trailer batteries
for inverters, since you say its a temporary solution, no problem.
to incorporate solar power for your setup, here is what you need:

170ah multiplied by 1.2 (to account for system losses) will give you: 204ah
this gives a total power output of 2448w (assuming you are draining down to
a dod of 80 to 100 percent - which may not be practical.
for a 5 hour average daily insolation, you can get by with a solar panel array
of between 400w to 600w depending on cloud cover.

as for your brother, you need to get back to us with actual nameplate power
ratings for all the equipment mentioned in your list if you want proper system
sizing advice and cost.

abunafiu:
It's a blessing in disguise.
Early this morning, I woke up to see that my overhead water tank stand fell destroying my 2 tanks. It rained heavily yesterday night. The rain was accompanied by heavy wind. Though the concrete stand was not properly constructed and am paying heavily for this. Anyway.. .thats gone
Now I consider this an opportunity to do it better especially when I didn't plan solar water heater in the initial overhead tank stand
I still intend to use concrete with enhanced reinforCement to avert future occurrence.
Now I don't want to rely on what I know basically, I need design ideas from Members.

I am not happy at all as cost of building materials are still not pocket friendly.

Pls keep them coming, sketches and pictures.

See Before and after pictures

A blessing in disguise? Maybe. A terrible loss? Definitely! God will replenish your pocket and move you to greater heights (we Yoruba say, "aafin oba to jo'na, ewa lo bu kun" )

aweso:
I have new batteries in Stock From the US

Crown CR430, 6V Flooded L16 Battery

6VDC 430Ah
Flooded Lead Acid

Manufacturer Warranty : 3 Years

Didn't know I'd live to see the day Crown batteries are marketed locally. This is a big step up in the variety of premium batteries we get. I have lots of info on them (from a few friends out there who love them) and will shed more light later. Kindly publish your price list.

Before I disappear for another week or two, let me share an experience with you guys:

I installed and maintain 3 personal installations in 3 houses (my dad's, a cousin's and mine). We all live within a 1km radius so I just walk from one to the other. Enough about that. I boarded the batteries in mine recently and will soon do a private sale of my dad's batteries (mostly kept on float as he spends half or less of the year in the country).

I went against my initial logic of 6V being ideal for RE (had to consider the cost of available 6V batteries) and used 12V batteries (FLA). No sooner had I began using them than I noticed a wide (wild) variation in the cell states. I did a thorough second check and realised the batteries weren't all I had hoped for. No use crying over spilt milk.

By serial SG measurents in every cell of every battery and keeping tabs on internal resistance and battery voltage, I was able to group them into good, fair and manageable. The problem? I had only one good one and 3 fair ones. The others were manageable. In a 48V system, it's impossible to keep a balanced charge with such variation in cells. I broke the two strings up and split them into a 48V string (the good and fair ones) and 24V x 2 strings. Brought out my spare Xantrex controller and split the PV array in two. I broke out my new backup 24V inverter too (I had always sought an excuse to give it a test run). I ended up with the same power generation and the same battery bank size but at the cost of extra cabling, an extra controller and an extra inverter. My inverters are both PowerStar 3kW (a 24V and a 48W) so paralleling them was easy (held my breathe for a risk-all-lose-all-or-win-all moment when duplexing the output).

Still not satisfied, I gave it some thought for a whole afternoon and evening then came up with an idea which might work. I had spoken with Chris81964 earlier in the day and his home installation gave me an idea - go 24V all the way! I grouped the batteries (which had undergone alternate day equalisation for 10 days; pretty hard on them as I was literally boiling them) into roughly matching pairs in performance and ended up with 4 strings. Drew up an unusual cable path to achieve perfect balance and spent an evening cutting and crimping them into matching lengths (GeorgeD1's equal-link-cable variant would have worked just as well but I'd need lots more 50mm cable or really long and thick copper busbars). Also changed the inverter and CC cables to shorter, thicker cables as I'd be running twice the current thus risking roughly 4x the heating and 4x the voltage drop for high current draws.

The logic? The individual pairs are balance-matched and paralleled with other balance-matched pairs. Each string has equal current draw with the others. The strongest one determines the voltage and keeps the weaker ones from lagging behind. In heavy draw, the strongest takes a bit of a harder hit (but that's why it's the leader). In series, the weakest ones would have given all they had first and subsequently become power pockets or holes in the bank. They'd simply die off after a few cycles and become fast-charging and fast-discharging cells thereafter (having lost capacity) and force the others to gradually become like them. Or become them.

I have posted this to feed the body of knowledge as well as welcome contributions from other members in the house.

PS: The reason I have a 24V inverter as a backup is, if a battery or two were to fail (and they eventually will at the end of their service life), a 24V system is the natural devolution of a 48V system. That would buy enough time to replace whatever needs replacing. And, should the main inverter fail instead, I'd still have an inverter to use.

Saipro:
Before I disappear for another week or two, let me share an experience with you guys:

I installed and maintain 3 personal installations in 3 houses (my dad's, a cousin's and mine). We all live within a 1km radius so I just walk from one to the other. Enough about that. I boarded the batteries in mine recently and will soon do a private sale of my dad's batteries (mostly kept on float as he spends half or less of the year in the country).

I went against my initial logic of 6V being ideal for RE (had to consider the cost of available 6V batteries) and used 12V batteries (FLA). No sooner had I began using them than I noticed a wide (wild) variation in the cell states. I did a thorough second check and realised the batteries weren't all I had hoped for. No use crying over spilt milk.

By serial SG measurents in every cell of every battery and keeping tabs on internal resistance and battery voltage, I was able to group them into good, fair and manageable. The problem? I had only one good one and 3 fair ones. The others were manageable. In a 48V system, it's impossible to keep a balanced charge with such variation in cells. I broke the two strings up and split them into a 48V string (the good and fair ones) and 24V x 2 strings. Brought out my spare Xantrex controller and split the PV array in two. I broke out my new backup 24V inverter too (I had always sought an excuse to give it a test run). I ended up with the same power generation and the same battery bank size but at the cost of extra cabling, an extra controller and an extra inverter. My inverters are both PowerStar 3kW (a 24V and a 48W) so paralleling them was easy (held my breathe for a risk-all-lose-all-or-win-all moment when duplexing the output).

Still not satisfied, I gave it some thought for a whole afternoon and evening then came up with an idea which might work. I had spoken with Chris81964 earlier in the day and his home installation gave me an idea - go 24V all the way! I grouped the batteries (which had undergone alternate day equalisation for 10 days; pretty hard on them as I was literally boiling them) into roughly matching pairs in performance and ended up with 4 strings. Drew up an unusual cable path to achieve perfect balance and spent an evening cutting and crimping them into matching lengths (GeorgeD1's equal-link-cable variant would have worked just as well but I'd need lots more 50mm cable or really long and thick copper busbars). Also changed the inverter and CC cables to shorter, thicker cables as I'd be running twice the current thus risking roughly 4x the heating and 4x the voltage drop for high current draws.

The logic? The individual pairs are balance-matched and paralleled with other balance-matched pairs. Each string has equal current draw with the others. The strongest one determines the voltage and keeps the weaker ones from lagging behind. In heavy draw, the strongest takes a bit of a harder hit (but that's why it's the leader). In series, the weakest ones would have given all they had first and subsequently become power pockets or holes in the bank. They'd simply die off after a few cycles and become fast-charging and fast-discharging cells thereafter (having lost capacity) and force the others to gradually become like them. Or become them.

I have posted this to feed the body of knowledge as well as welcome contributions from other members in the house.

PS: The reason I have a 24V inverter as a backup is, if a battery or two were to fail (and they eventually will at the end of their service life), a 24V system is the natural devolution of a 48V system. That would buy enough time to replace whatever needs replacing. And, should the main inverter fail instead, I'd still have an inverter to use.

Truly You have been away for long to know the thread is not what it use to be. "No free knowledge again" so I hear. Anyway sha! some of us know & appreciate passionate ones like you.

More blessings!

I like the idea of having a backup 24v inverter system when your main inverter is nominal 48v - for me it happened entirely by chance as I experimented, learned hard and expensive lessons and traded up in battery and inverter quality while keeping the still useful parts from old installations.

Is it possible you share a picture or rough schematic of your current design? Did you get improved performance with this new design over the previous? What brand were these 12v FLA batteries? - my first experience with FLA was Mercury 12v 220ah - they came brand new but with very poor performance ab-initio - my hydrometer test showed low SGs all round so I had them taken back to service center and refilled with a proper SG electrolyte mix + a long equalization charge and they did pretty well after that - used them for a year before I sold them off and upgraded yet again.

My current bank of 8 pieces 6v L16s also showed one weak battery during the rainy months with poor solar yield - I used a cheapo manual charger to boil/equalize the guy and it has since come back to life with SG & voltage similar to others though slightly lower - I do believe the key to battery recovery is to isolate the faulty battery/ies & charge/equalize it/them individually with SG & voltage measurements and then load tests to assess recovery - of course you have to detect the problem early for best results.

Saipro:
Before I disappear for another week or two, let me share an experience with you guys:

I installed and maintain 3 personal installations in 3 houses (my dad's, a cousin's and mine). We all live within a 1km radius so I just walk from one to the other. Enough about that. I boarded the batteries in mine recently and will soon do a private sale of my dad's batteries (mostly kept on float as he spends half or less of the year in the country).

I went against my initial logic of 6V being ideal for RE (had to consider the cost of available 6V batteries) and used 12V batteries (FLA). No sooner had I began using them than I noticed a wide (wild) variation in the cell states. I did a thorough second check and realised the batteries weren't all I had hoped for. No use crying over spilt milk.

By serial SG measurents in every cell of every battery and keeping tabs on internal resistance and battery voltage, I was able to group them into good, fair and manageable. The problem? I had only one good one and 3 fair ones. The others were manageable. In a 48V system, it's impossible to keep a balanced charge with such variation in cells. I broke the two strings up and split them into a 48V string (the good and fair ones) and 24V x 2 strings. Brought out my spare Xantrex controller and split the PV array in two. I broke out my new backup 24V inverter too (I had always sought an excuse to give it a test run). I ended up with the same power generation and the same battery bank size but at the cost of extra cabling, an extra controller and an extra inverter. My inverters are both PowerStar 3kW (a 24V and a 48W) so paralleling them was easy (held my breathe for a risk-all-lose-all-or-win-all moment when duplexing the output).

Still not satisfied, I gave it some thought for a whole afternoon and evening then came up with an idea which might work. I had spoken with Chris81964 earlier in the day and his home installation gave me an idea - go 24V all the way! I grouped the batteries (which had undergone alternate day equalisation for 10 days; pretty hard on them as I was literally boiling them) into roughly matching pairs in performance and ended up with 4 strings. Drew up an unusual cable path to achieve perfect balance and spent an evening cutting and crimping them into matching lengths (GeorgeD1's equal-link-cable variant would have worked just as well but I'd need lots more 50mm cable or really long and thick copper busbars). Also changed the inverter and CC cables to shorter, thicker cables as I'd be running twice the current thus risking roughly 4x the heating and 4x the voltage drop for high current draws.

The logic? The individual pairs are balance-matched and paralleled with other balance-matched pairs. Each string has equal current draw with the others. The strongest one determines the voltage and keeps the weaker ones from lagging behind. In heavy draw, the strongest takes a bit of a harder hit (but that's why it's the leader). In series, the weakest ones would have given all they had first and subsequently become power pockets or holes in the bank. They'd simply die off after a few cycles and become fast-charging and fast-discharging cells thereafter (having lost capacity) and force the others to gradually become like them. Or become them.

I have posted this to feed the body of knowledge as well as welcome contributions from other members in the house.

PS: The reason I have a 24V inverter as a backup is, if a battery or two were to fail (and they eventually will at the end of their service life), a 24V system is the natural devolution of a 48V system. That would buy enough time to replace whatever needs replacing. And, should the main inverter fail instead, I'd still have an inverter to use.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
... my current bank of 8 pieces 6v L16s also showed one weak battery during the rainy months with poor solar yield - I used a cheapo manual charger to boil/equalize the guy and it has since come back to life with SG & voltage similar to others though slightly lower - I do believe the key to battery recovery is to isolate the faulty battery/ies & charge/equalize it/them individually with SG & voltage measurements and then load tests to assess recovery - of course you have to detect the problem early for best results.

Yeah, boiling was done in clusters where possible (the 48V bank) and individually for 2 of them (one had 3 cells down and the other had two cells going down; difficult to equalize with others). Modified a cheap manual charger to become a battery killer and and boiled under supervision.

efuro:


Truly You have been away for long to know the thread is not what it use to be. "No free knowledge again" so I hear. Anyway sha! some of us know & appreciate passionate ones like you.
More blessings!

Hmm. And here I am thinking we finally have a DIY thread. No worries, the thread lives on as a compendium of information and as a resource centre!

The thread is akin to a river, it ebbs and flows.

On the other hand, there's prolly nothing new to discuss again. Just marketers/installers doing their thing and DIYers in hiding.

Anyone with any product for sale

TSHIRT2:
Anyone with any product for sale

Sunshine Solar Panels For Sale (Wholesale Price)

Sunshine Solar Panels

Mono Price List

300w mono: ₦65,000
250w mono: ₦55:000
200w mono: ₦43,000
150w mono: ₦37,000
130w mono: ₦34,000
120w mono: ₦28,000
100w mono: ₦25,000
80w mono: ₦20,000

Poly Prices List

300w poly: ₦60,000
250w poly: ₦52:000
200w poly: ₦40,000
150w poly: ₦32,000
130w poly: ₦31,000
100w poly: ₦22,000
80w poly: ₦19,500

Call/WhatsApp: 0803-334-3911. Calls: 0803-860-4143, 0705-315-7206.
eMail: Solar@SolnergyPower.com
Website: http://www.SolnergyPower.com
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/SolnergyPower/

Saipro:


A blessing in disguise? Maybe. A terrible loss? Definitely! God will replenish your pocket and move you to greater heights (we Yoruba say, "aafin oba to jo'na, ewa lo bu kun" )

Exactly my brother.
That Youruba proverb is 100% correct.
It's gonna be bigger and better thistime

Saipro:


Didn't know I'd live to see the day Crown batteries are marketed locally. This is a big step up in the variety of premium batteries we get. I have lots of info on them (from a few friends out there who love them) and will shed more light later. Kindly publish your price list.

Prices are As Follows

order Now

CROWN BATTERY
Model CR-235
6v 235aH DEEP CYCLE BATTERY
₦ 60,000



CROWN BATTERY
Model - CR-215
12v 215Ah Deep Cycle Battery
₦ 115,000

aweso:


Prices are As Follows

order Now

Errr seems you slept off bro
Abeg update...

CROWN BATTERY
Model CR-235
6v 235aH DEEP CYCLE BATTERY
₦ 60,000



CROWN BATTERY
Model - CR-215
12v 215Ah Deep Cycle Battery
₦ 115,000

efuro:


Truly You have been away for long to know the thread is not what it use to be. "No free knowledge again" so I hear. Anyway sha! some of us know & appreciate passionate ones like you.

More blessings!

I don't know anyone who has come here seeking knowledge and has left empty handed. Its just that of late we have seen less DIY people and more of people who just want their system to just "work" without putting in the needed time to make it work. DIY is not for everyone and it is not easy, if it were everyone would be doing it. It takes time patience and lots of learning which most are not ready to do. What people do here nowadays is problem dump. Dump their solar problems here and expect people to fix them often time they provide very little information. Its hard enough trouble shooting a problem from post from a forum. whats worse is trouble shooting without little to work with. In most cases the best thing for some persons is to seek professional assistance. If you are not ready to read and learn and get your hands dirty. DIY is not for you.

Barezzi:

Errr seems you slept off bro
Abeg update...

egbon no dey waste time.

bigrovar:

egbon no dey waste time.

Aweso, what of the CR-430?