ola28:
HI, I have morning star coming from the USA(in 2weeks time) at a cheaper rate also I still have one midnite left. @ Niyiomoiyunade my price and the products are real and genuine and have sold to some people on this forum. Thanks

I've been a mid-term lurker, and just looking at you, Niyi, D1, zee, kie, maka, JUO, as well as other SE systems gurus on here with one corner of my eye... You guys simply ooze inspiration. Thanks!

Kindly take note of my moniker, because sooner or later, you folks will have to hear from me for help and guidance, either privately, or on here, or both.

Keep the education with civility, transparency, and camaraderie going, folks.

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P34c3
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jarkbauer:
i need to change my batteries.



should I go for quanta or luminous.

QUANTA QUANTA. Zeestone where u de?

makavele:


Oya gbera!!!

Drop the address shaperly

while I arrange some Bariga boiz !!!

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P34c3
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JUO:
and you have not tried windmill?

Ha! Seriously, any pointers to local real-world private usage around Lekki, please? (I apologize in advance if I omitted previous discussions of it on this thread.)

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P34c3
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duwdu:


Ha! Seriously, any pointers to local real-world private usage around Lekki, please? (I apologize in advance if I omitted previous discussions of it on this thread.)

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P34c3
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Have not seen any for close to a decade now !

Is this ground mount only or it will support a roof mount?

mank1234:
Solar Tracker Track Single Axis Complete Kit -8'' DC12V Linear Actuator for those who wants to follow the sun from sunrise to sunset.
http://s.aliexpress.com/Z77fmUvu

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Is this ground mount only or it will support a roof mount?

I think it's ground-mount. You can confirm from the seller. I've not used it before..

makavele:


Have not seen any for close to a decade now !

This slows down one's thoughts on it then. Thanks.

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P34c3
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kiekie1:


Congrats .. You can always rely on solar world modules ! Am glad you are happy . Cheer's

kiekie,
i'm afraid its not yet uhuru. until I begin to see harvests of above 25kwh as a routine
and yields of over 6,000 watts I wouldn't roll out the drums for solarworld just yet.

three weeks ago or less, I was still getting performance below 35% capacity which to me
is a shame given the 1st tier acclaim of solarworld modules. when compared with my original
200w suntech panels that I recently disposed off and given the fact that I never bothered
with washing those suntech panels for the over 5yrs I had them installed and yet they
performed excellently year on year, harmattan to rainy season, it leaves me in serious doubt
as to the veracity of solarworld's ist tier claim.

but all the same we will see how it all plays out. first year monitoring report will tell.

You may be unto something GeorgeD1, though mine sits around 60%...
I have them washed weekly sef

I'll equally do an assessment in a years' time.

Please is "DELIGHT" AGM battery as good as Quanta?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Dear friends,

Please celebrate with me!!!

The good sunny days are coming back again I got home early today and checked out my system performance only to see 76Amps NET flowing into my batteries. I could not contain my joy and so I whipped out my camera and started taking pictures to show the house.

Glossary:

Pic 1 - Net amps flow into batteries after deducting house loads and inverter self consumption - 76Amps

Pic 2 - MorningStar CC1 connected to 3.6Kw of Flames Panels (300w x 12 Units) - 47.7Amps

Pic 3 - MorningStar CC2 connected to 2.97kw of Canadian Solar Panels (330w x 9 Units) - 45.9Amps

This for me is stellar performance for a 6.6Kw West-facing PV Array.

And more interesting even to be able to benchmark the performance of Tier 2 Flames 300w vs. Tier 1 Canadian Solar 330w using exactly the same 2units of MorningStar MPPT 60A connected to the same 48v 800Ah battery bank. I will leave the house to discuss this aspect of the price vs. performance (value for money) equation.

NB: The Flames are now about 2 years old while the Canadian Solar are just very recently installed.

Credits to MorningStar Corporation who make these wonderful CCs, Zeestone99 and crew for the installation and JUO who showed me without charge some undocumented performance tweaks that allowed me to squeeze max wattage out of this mid-sized PV array as well as Gennex Tech for supply of Canadian Solar Panels at a bargain price

I guess your 48v 800mps battery bank were parallelled .do you use battery Balancer or equalizer for all the banks together as a whole. Or you use several Balancer.

I use several (4) balancers.

There are four parallel strings of 48v batteries (4 units of 12v 200ah in series) connected to heavy duty copper bus bars.

Each individual 48v string has a 48v ZHC HA02 Battery Balancer dedicated to it so I have and use 4 of the ZHC units. The wiring diagram that came with the device indicated one could use one single ZHC unit for two or more parallel banks but I took several measurements of current flow across the entire bank and ultimately decided to dedicate one ZHC balancer unit to each 48v battery string.

I am happy to report that I wrote to the manufacturer who ultimately responded that the right/best approach was to dedicate one balancer unit to each 48v battery string especially for a large battery bank - this also ensures that the balancer is not over worked pulling strenuous duty 24/7.

In the below pics Diagram 1 (topmost) is what I did for each set of 4 batteries. Diagram 2 (bottommost) was what the manufacturer seemed to want but later explicitly told me to go with Diagram 1.

So far so good I had up to 0.20volts difference when the bank was newly installed and I of course hit it with heavy loads removing between 160Ah to 250Ah daily from the bank but now I am at perfect sync 95% of the time or just 0.01volts e..g one battery reads 13.13v and another reads 13.12v briefly before going back up to 13.13v

samnaija:

I guess your 48v 800mps battery bank were parallelled .do you use battery Balancer or equalizer for all the banks together as a whole. Or you use several Balancer.

Please stick with the known and proven Quanta of which we are yet to get any negative reviews on it.

If the deal for DELIGHT is especially sweet then you may gamble on it and then report back to the house.

That said I have never heard of this DELIGHT and it may well be a better battery - regardless I would stick to the tested and proven Quanta

sharks776:
Please is "DELIGHT" AGM battery as good as Quanta?

This then is the price vs. performance paradox that we face in deciding to go with the Premium or Value offering.

KieKie can attest to how many times we haggled bitterly over me trying to get a good price point for supply of Solar World panels over the last 2 years - the guy would give me a quote and I would squeeze him hard for more discounts until he would abruptly end the discussion in frustration.

Using advertised prices on this forum for the larger size 300w range panels, I estimate the price of Premium Tier1 to at least 260naira per watt and a good Value Tier2 to at least 180naira per watt.

If I give the Tier 2 60% efficiency and the Tier 1 STC 77% or let's just say 80% I am still looking at the Tier 1 coming out more pricey. Again I would say 10 years forward is the usage horizon for solar panels because one would always want to upgrade to the latest tech even if the product in use was still performing.

This is the dilemma I face every day in making buying decisions for myself and clients especially those with a large budget. I have come to decide that it's mostly an emotional decision in the end hence I bought two MorningStar units for myself because I believe I can rely absolutely on them even though one Midnite Classic 96A may have done the job at 60% of the cost but simply because of the remote possibility of fan failure in the Midnite I refuse to use it.

GeorgeD1:


kiekie,
i'm afraid its not yet uhuru. until I begin to see harvests of above 25kwh as a routine
and yields of over 6,000 watts I wouldn't roll out the drums for solarworld just yet.

three weeks ago or less, I was still getting performance below 35% capacity which to me
is a shame given the 1st tier acclaim of solarworld modules. when compared with my original
200w suntech panels that I recently disposed off and given the fact that I never bothered
with washing those suntech panels for the over 5yrs I had them installed and yet they
performed excellently year on year, harmattan to rainy season, it leaves me in serious doubt
as to the veracity of solarworld's ist tier claim.

but all the same we will see how it all plays out. first year monitoring report will tell.

Barezzi:
You may be unto something GeorgeD1, though mine sits around 60%...
I have them washed weekly sef

I'll equally do an assessment in a years' time.

Outback CC users is this true please?

See the highlighted per attached screenshot

I am not sure we have Outback cc users here

Barezzi:
I am not sure we have Outback cc users here

Good evening my Oga, we have outback cc users but most clients I know don't really comment ! Cheer's

sharks776:
Please is "DELIGHT" AGM battery as good as Quanta?

Quanta is a known brand with less negative customer feedback whilst delight isn't a known brand and I don't known much about it. If quanta price is a bit on the high side to you, you can simply contact me for good prices on LONG Vietnamese battery brand ... Thanks !

duwdu:


I've been a mid-term lurker, and just looking at you, Niyi, D1, zee, kie, maka, JUO, as well as other SE systems gurus on here with one corner of my eye... You guys simply ooze inspiration. Thanks!

Kindly take note of my moniker, because sooner or later, you folks will have to hear from me for help and guidance, either privately, or on here, or both.

Keep the education with civility, transparency, and camaraderie going, folks.

........
P34c3
.....
...

You are highly welcome Sir .. My mobile number is 24/7 reachable

If I'm told the premium panels are 8%-10% more efficient than the tier 2 or 3 panels then I will be convinced of significant yield difference. For instance the pic attached is my harvest today from a 1.5kw sunshine panels. Meaning if I have 6kw of sunshine, I will be doing 21.2kwh......now compare and contrast! All in all, the difference does not justify the cost difference, my opinion though

NiyiOmoIyunade:
This then is the price vs. performance paradox that we face in deciding to go with the Premium or Value offering.

KieKie can attest to how many times we haggled bitterly over me trying to get a good price point for supply of Solar World panels over the last 2 years - the guy would give me a quote and I would squeeze him hard for more discounts until he would abruptly end the discussion in frustration.

Using advertised prices on this forum for the larger size 300w range panels, I estimate the price of Premium Tier1 to at least 260naira per watt and a good Value Tier2 to at least 180naira per watt.

If I give the Tier 2 60% efficiency and the Tier 1 STC 77% or let's just say 80% I am still looking at the Tier 1 coming out more pricey. Again I would say 10 years forward is the usage horizon for solar panels because one would always want to upgrade to the latest tech even if the product in use was still performing.

This is the dilemma I face every day in making buying decisions for myself and clients especially those with a large budget. I have come to decide that it's mostly an emotional decision in the end hence I bought two MorningStar units for myself because I believe I can rely absolutely on them even though one Midnite Classic 96A may have done the job at 60% of the cost but simply because of the remote possibility of fan failure in the Midnite I refuse to use it.

DMerciful:
If I'm told the premium panels are 8%-10% more efficient than the tier 2 or 3 panels then I will be convinced of significant yield difference. For instance the pic attached is my harvest today from a 1.5kw sunshine panels. Meaning if I have 6kw of sunshine, I will be doing 21.2kwh......now compare and contrast! All in all, the difference does not justify the cost difference, my opinion though

Ok, I am sold on this una sunshine panel.. will pick up one from a friend today to add to my array.. taking my total to 10. I will be moving all my panels to the roof (currently have 4 ground mounted) and would need to increase panel capacity to knockout expected heated related drop in yield

If you use the standard solar mount or the much cheaper but very reliable 'aluminium roof rails' such as myself or Zeestone improvised, I can assure you that there would be no heat related losses generated - the aluminium roof rails clear about 2 inches off the roof and underneath them is pretty cool because the panels would be reflecting heat off their surface. They also mount very conveniently using the standard solar roof brackets, clamps e.t.c

This is not a marketing pitch mind as they can easily be sourced off the open market at a good price - just something to consider that may be of help.


I am not a fan of mixing different panel brands except you know for sure they are nearly identical in rating, behaviour and performance - I always feel one brand would adjust voltage and amps output under load differently than the other and the least performing panel would become the limiting factor for the entire system.

See pictures of the kind of roof rails I had in mind attached.

bigrovar:


Ok, I am sold on this una sunshine panel.. will pick up one from a friend today to add to my array.. taking my total to 10. I will be moving all my panels to the roof (currently have 4 ground mounted) and would need to increase panel capacity to knockout expected heated related drop in yield

This is not entirely true, as harvest is proportional to usage.
You squeeze every juice from your array cos house energy usage far outweighs production, hence your fantastic efficiency numbers.

DMerciful:
...For instance the pic attached is my harvest today from a 1.5kw sunshine panels. Meaning if I have 6kw of sunshine, I will be doing 21.2kwh...

To make a comparative analysis you have to keep certain variables constant. I did not change my loads to get this harvest infact nobody was at home just my regular loads on inverter. Also you did not question the numbers shared for the premium panels but you want to question the conditions surrounding this one

Barezzi:
This is not entirely true, as harvest is proportional to usage.
You squeeze every juice from your array cos house energy usage far outweighs production, hence your fantastic efficiency numbers.

Maybe i'm seething with jealousy and envy

DMerciful:
To make a comparative analysis you have to keep certain variables constant. I did not change my loads to get this harvest infact nobody was at home just my regular loads on inverter. Also you did not question the numbers shared for the premium panels but you want to question the conditions surrounding this one

NiyiOmolyunade Sir
I have similar issue with epsolar itracer struggling to track max power point when the panel voltage was 106v Vs battery voltage of 25v. Reading through the manual it is recommended that PV voltage should be twice battery voltage so I changed my configuration to 2*3 so that Vmax is BTW 52v and 60v and since then there has been improved stability and improved harvest. I sold a fangpusun flexmax to someone and he complained that the performance was low compared to his Atracer 40A epsolar, I asked him to send it back and I experimented with different PV voltages and realized according to the manual, pv voltage of times 2 battery voltage is best for the flexmax provided ur cable size is thick enuf. Now he is very happy using it and he now install for others using this standard. So different voltages for different controllers

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I saw your prior post RE: Flames panels performance but I decided to keep quiet on it as many factors from battery SoC, mounting angle to orientation to shading to ambient weather, temperature and cloud cover and as you rightly pointed out quaity of CC used e.t.c affect yields.

I have had several opportunites to compare the performance of MorningStar vs. EP Solar side by side and the MorningStar consistently gives about 30% extra yield but bear in mind it costs twice as much sha MorningStar will lock to a Max power point and maintain amps output even as cloud cover e.t.c changes but EP Solar would just be jumping up and down and picking a lower yield point to settle on.

I was able to sample the Fangpusun series thanks to JUO and they do give far better performance than EP Solar as per MPPT tracking and amps output but ultimately I decided to go with my trusty MorningStar of which I know it and its capabilities in and out and have also attended a lot of their technical training e-sessions. The Fangpusun interestingly comes in at a lower price point than EP Solar.

Talk to JUO for supplies of the MorningStar or Fangpusun as with him you are almost sure to get the best prices available locally. If you wish to import a MorningStar CC and save about 20k with a 2 week wait then I may be able to help you but you have to pre-pay

You will always do better with the premium vs. china origin CCs but don't forget price vs performance. Someone here also has been offering the Midnite Classic at what seems to me an impossible price so you may wish to explore that route... but before you buy a new CC be sure to eliminate other system bottlenecks that may be giving you poor performance

It appears the vaster majority of people here are Midnite CC fans and they swear by their Midnite's performance but as for me and my house, we will stick with the MorningStar we know and love and trust

But I don't agree 100%. Oga DMerciful's point still holds.

Those Tier 2 Sunshine panels are generating impressive yields and its not coming out of thin air. Loads or consumption or Battery SoC aside, the panels are generating 3.5times their name plate rating in one day - this is not bad at all for Chinco specs.

I use a rule of thumb that says all other factors being constant, 1kw of panels will generate 3kw daily in an average quality installation, 3.5 to 5kw daily in a very good installation and above 5kw per day in a superb installation.

Oga DMerciful's qualifies as a very good result in my book and we are not even at peak sun season yet.

I personally will not use Sunshine panels but rather Flames or other brand I have personal experience with but the point still holds.

In my benchmark case which I posted earlier, the Canadian Solar 2.97kw array was producing nearly same results as Flames 3.6kw when attached to exactly the same type of charge controller with exactly the same custom settings and both charging the same battery bank at Bulk/Absorb. Though Canadian Solar clearly performed better, it still only made sense to buy it because I got a super duper bargain price from Gennex for the panels. If I had paid high prices like what other sellers post on this forum then it would not have been worthwhile because essentially I would have paid and even over paid for whatever potential upside I was getting.

Not to bash Tier1 because now I am going to be using them a lot more mainly to save roof space with installations since they clearly generate more power per meter square but I was not overly impressed especially as the Flames panels used had been on the roof for 2 years so they had suffered some performance degradation as expected while the Canadian Solar were just about a month old.

Barezzi:
This is not entirely true, as harvest is proportional to usage.
You squeeze every juice from your array cos house energy usage far outweighs production, hence your fantastic efficiency numbers.

No you are okay Sir.

Its the struggle we all face when an inconvenient fact comes up.

Same thing I faced when JUO sent me a 60A Fangpusun Blue Solar clone to benchmark vs. my MorningStar MPPT 60A and I found to my chagrin and utmost discomfiture that it was giving out almost exactly the same amps as my prized MorningStar and even reported the power generated much more accurately because I was verifying both CCs' readouts with my Fluke 376 DC Clamp.

After all said and done the 10 to 15% gains the MorningStar made did not justify paying twice the price for it but you know what I did? I started bashing the Fangpusun for poorer chassis design made of plastic, poorer thermal managment, smaller transformers and less beefy internals overall and told JUO I did not see it lasting very long under heavy duty use. Of course the man just kept quiet looking at me

Ultimately I voted MorningStar winner because of its superior build quality, endlessly customisable charge settings including the ability to limit amps and absorb time, communications/data interface e.t.c all of which the Fangpusun lacked. But when it comes down to it they were putting nearly the same amount of amps into the test battery bank over a 2 week test period.

Barezzi:
Maybe i'm seething with jealousy and envy

Many thanks Sir. This is noted.

I will find a chance to do some tests and report back

DMerciful:
NiyiOmolyunade Sir
I have similar issue with epsolar itracer struggling to track max power point when the panel voltage was 106v Vs battery voltage of 25v. Reading through the manual it is recommended that PV voltage should be twice battery voltage so I changed my configuration to 2*3 so that Vmax is BTW 52v and 60v and since then there has been improved stability and improved harvest. I sold a fangpusun flexmax to someone and he complained that the performance was low compared to his Atracer 40A epsolar, I asked him to send it back and I experimented with different PV voltages and realized according to the manual, pv voltage of times 2 battery voltage is best for the flexmax provided ur cable size is thick enuf. Now he is very happy using it and he now install for others using this standard. So different voltages for different controllers

Hello chief niyi and Dmerciful

It rained heavily last night and the effect is seen on the sun right now, very poor now in Lagos

My Panel is sending 3-4Amp to the batteries.

I want to use the inverter now and still allow the Panels to continue to charge. My question is if I load the batteries now, will the load be on the batteries by draining them or it would be like normal electricity that charges batteries and also supplies power without depleting my batteries?

I hope you get my question

If solar is your only power source and your loads exceed the 3-4amp solar charge current cominng in then your batteries would start draining since they must make up the power difference.

Even if there were no loads 3-4amps is very small to charge a battery so I would say wait a while for the sun to come out later in the day before you start putting on your appliances.

davodyguy:
Hello chief niyi and Dmerciful

It rained heavily last night and the effect is seen on the sun right now, very poor now in Lagos

My Panel is sending 3-4Amp to the batteries.

I want to use the inverter now and still allow the Panels to continue to charge. My question is if I load the batteries now, will the load be on the batteries by draining them or it would be like normal electricity that charges batteries and also supplies power without depleting my batteries?

I hope you get my question