GeorgeD1:


brother, while purchasing a good quality cc, sometimes you have to look beyond price.
those chinese cc you're referring to may appear to be cheaper in the short term but you pay
for it in other ways.
and, if durability, ruggedness, peak performance is your thing, i think you'll be hard put to get
a better option presently in the market than morningstar.

Exactly

Well said Oga GeorgeD

For this very reason I have 3 MorningStar MPPT 60a units and as I take my array to 15kw I have been struggling whether to purchase a Fangpusun as the 4th unit or stick with MorningStar. Very likely I will stick with MorningStar even though it costs twice the price of a similar Fangpusun unit.

My experience when I snagged up a Victron Quattro 8Kva was similar, I moved from a place of wondering whether my 6kw Red VilPower Star would randomly pack up one day (has a very failure prone control board) to a place of quiet confidence and assurance with Victron.

GeorgeD1:


brother, while purchasing a good quality cc, sometimes you have to look beyond price.
those chinese cc you're referring to may appear to be cheaper in the short term but you pay
for it in other ways.
and, if durability, ruggedness, peak performance is your thing, i think you'll be hard put to get
a better option presently in the market than morningstar.

bigrovar:
for more info on what you can do with the axpert inverter series FOC https://github.com/ned-kelly/docker-voltronic-homeassistant

Yeah it's cool, but I prefer the solpiplog: https://github.com/njfaria/SolPipLog

good day.. pls if you have a cheap new/fairly used WATTS METER, DIGITAL CLAMP METER and PROGRAMMABLE TIMER SWITCH for sale. indicate here or contact/whatsapp me on 0802-057-4628

simydan:


I believe you can achieve this with a simple circuitry design or with a voltage timer relay.

Just do more research and you could find something handing. But, if am able to lay my hands on something that could help you I'll forward it to you...

Maybe this will help
https://www.bijlibachao.com/general-tips/time-switches-easy-automatic-way-to-switch-on-and-off-appliances-and-save-electricity.html

Thanks

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Well said Oga GeorgeD

For this very reason I have 3 MorningStar MPPT 60a units and as I take my array to 15kw I have been struggling whether to purchase a Fangpusun as the 4th unit or stick with MorningStar. Very likely I will stick with MorningStar even though it costs twice the price of a similar Fangpusun unit.

My experience when I snagged up a Victron Quattro 8Kva was similar, I moved from a place of wondering whether my 6kw Red VilPower Star would randomly pack up one day (has a very failure prone control board) to a place of quiet confidence and assurance with Victron.

why not a victron though.. I think they compare with morning star on performance and durability (if not more for the latter due to their focus on marine) but they also have the best IT integration of any of the solar product out there. Cost wise, they cost way cheaper compared to a morningstar and have certified service center in lagos.

GeorgeD1:


brother, while purchasing a good quality cc, sometimes you have to look beyond price.
those chinese cc you're referring to may appear to be cheaper in the short term but you pay
for it in other ways.
and, if durability, ruggedness, peak performance is your thing, i think you'll be hard put to get
a better option presently in the market than morningstar.

i started my solar journey with 45amps morning star mppt cc, but alas, i didnt understand fully, the difference btw Voc and Vmp, and hooked up 4 x 250w in series, during 1 of the periods i was trying to tweak my setup...the CC died after 1 month or so, spent almost 19 months total in service.
yeah the chinese products are cheap for a reason....i hv started to realize that. ....plan to gradually do away with them, .a reduced harvest of say 300 to 500w daily over time....will pay for itself overtime,

ojeysky:


Yeah it's cool, but I prefer the solpiplog: https://github.com/njfaria/SolPipLog

problem I have with that is the fact that it requires a GUI to function. You cant use it with a headless setup.

earthrealm:


i started my solar journey with 45amps morning star mppt cc, but alas, i didnt understand fully, the difference btw Voc and Vmp, and hooked up 4 x 250w in series, during 1 of the periods i was trying to tweak my setup...the CC died after 1 month or so, spent almost 19 months total in service.
yeah the chinese products are cheap for a reason....i hv started to realize that. ....plan to gradually do away with them, .a reduced harvest of say 300 to 500w daily over time....will pay for itself overtime,

Chinese product have played a huge role in lowering the entry barrier for using solar.. They have helped in crashing the price other wise this thread would have less than 10 users who can afford to buy premium Western brands. Eventually when you leg is strong in solar you can gradually start to go for western products. I started with epever controllers before moving to fangpusun.. Fangpusun allowed me trial victron controllers so much that I fell in love with the real thing and intend to get one a victron smart solar 150/100 for my pending upgrade.

bigrovar:
problem I have with that is the fact that it requires a GUI to function. You cant use it with a headless setup.

Yes indeed you are absolutely on-point, I had a GUI on my RaspberryPi in my case.

Bossman.

In my experience, using a RaspBerry Pi or similar Linux box headless (no GUI) is a feat only few masters like you can aspire to - being fluent in remote connections, command line, IP addressing web services, schedulers e.t.c in a no-GUI environment is a level of skill even some sys admins still struggle with.

I remember when I was trying to connect my RaspBerry to MorningStar CC for remote monitoring, even setting up a static ip address on my wireless network card took me hours to achieve - had to dive into mulltiple config files to accomplish something I would have finished under 2 minutes in windows.

bigrovar:
problem I have with that is the fact that it requires a GUI to function. You cant use it with a headless setup.

If the performance of the Fangpusun clones of Victron are anything to go by, then the actual Victron products themselves must be solid performers.

To be frank I have toyed with the idea of a Victron CC for a while due to my pleasant experience with my Victron Quattro - of a truth I can say Victron put a lot more work into their software, it's interface and ease of use than MorningStar did.

However, I have 3 MorningStars already, there are certain sinergies I could get from an integrated homogenous system vs.throwing a Victron CC into the mix.

Still undecided and would probably choose before this year runs out.

bigrovar:


why not a victron though.. I think they compare with morning star on performance and durability (if not more for the latter due to their focus on marine) but they also have the best IT integration of any of the solar product out there. Cost wise, they cost way cheaper compared to a morningstar and have certified service center in lagos.

earthrealm:


yeah the chinese products are cheap for a reason....i hv started to realize that. ....plan to gradually do away with them, .a reduced harvest of say 300 to 500w daily over time....will pay for itself overtime,

We were discussing our hervest pattern a few threads back, so you've figured that the culprit is the CC and not the panels? Or were you referring to Chinese panels in your comment above?

ojeysky:


We were discussing our hervest pattern a few threads back, so you've figured that the culprit is the CC and not the panels? Or were you referring to Chinese panels in your comment above?

the jury is still out, i easily averaged 5.5kwh - 6.3kwh, from 1.5kw panel array on morning star 45amp CC. i however struggled to achieve same with a 60amp epsolar itracer, 3s2p config, now that i have even switched to 2000w array, i still struggle to exceed 6.5kwh daily. the cc rarely displays absorb, so i could say that the battery isnt full always

Brand new axpert inverter up for sale!

Axpert 3kva 24v hybrid/solar pure sinewave inverter with user friendly programmable lcd , combined 70/80a maximum battery charging current & wall mount feature up for sale in Lagos State but can be waybilled to buyers location based on logistics.

Price.... N110,000

WHATSAPP::: https:///2348170385620

Contact,
Smartcellglobal services
081-350-319-51

Victron Bmv 700 - 75k
Victron bmv - 712 - 98k
Victron color control Gx - 235k

Call - 08117398294
Chat - /2348117398294
Email - info@mazinegroup.com

Other solar accessories and products such as batteries, inverter, charge controllers and solar panels available.

This restart/reset feature via software did not work out as planned - I may have bricked one of my units today when I tried to restart it via a software command - solar was of course disconnected.

I will know for sure when I get back home today.

In the meantime please do not use this feature or use at your own peril

NiyiOmoIyunade:
For MorningStar CC users;

After 3+ years of faithful service, I finally summoned courage to restart/soft reset my MorningStar CCs via modbus commands from the MSView software - this saves you from manually disconnecting the CC from battery to force a restart/reset after a settings change.

Happy to report this 'control reset' feature works flawlessly and does not brick the CC.

Please be sure to have disconnected solar from the CC before attempting a software update or settings change via MSLoad/MSView.

Dear nairalanders,
I wish to know whether zinox ipowerplus xplus 3kva 48vdc puresine wave inverter can last say for more than 5 years when it is used in an off grid Home on a daily basis? I mean the newly produced Red inverters.
Will the inverter power a 100 litres thermocool chest freezer?
What about the Gel batteries?
Thanks for anticipated answers.

Please house where can I buy original 850va inverter?

You can use the attached device, it's a timer. You can set it for Monday till Sunday and it continues to work every other day.

We do set for most clients from 8am till 3pm everyday. That means the timer triggers your load ON by 8am and turns it OFF at 3pm

It goes for about 10k or so in Alaba.

olaolu11:


Everything except my fridge. And that's because my inverter is too "small"(900av) to carry the load. I shall change the inverter to a 1500av soon. The koko is energy conservation. Bulbs are 5 watts(enter room, on light. As you step out,off light). TV
is at least 10hrs daily(its illumination is enough in parlour, no light while TV is on). 130 watts ox fan on low for max 6hrs(I have ordered 33watts rechargeable as replacement), blender, laptops, phones, decoders etc. What i did was rewire the house to exclude heavy loads(fridge, washing machine etc) off the inverter and use on as need arises so there wont be "mistake". And when we do use, we compensate by no fan, or no tv. Transformer in our area has been out of service since April yet I have not used gen in last 3 or 4 months. I also have 5v5w dc bulbs drawing directly from the battery in rooms so I can use light without necessarily putting on the inverter thus eliminating idle power the inverter uses. With the setup, except I need 220volts, inverter remains off. I am presently reading about BMS that regulates fridge and switches it on and off. With that in place, fridge will be wired to work only when we are not home for about 5hrs.

ayo1984:
Please house where can I buy original 850va inverter?

Pure sinewave inverters;
Luminous 900va 12v .... 45,000
Axpert 1.2kva 12v with LCD.......50,000


WHATSAPP::: https:///2348170385620

Contact,
Smartcellglobal services

XMAS SALES BY SMARTCELL! DONT MISS OUT!!

(1) Monbat 200a 12v made in EU fta die-hard batteries (June/July manufactured) ... 116,000 per unit , 115k 4 upwards !

(2) USA Trojan 12v 205a die-hard deep cycle batteries fresh from the oven .... 170,000 160000 for two units upwards

(3) Durable Made in China Oliter 12v 200a agm battery ... 92,000 per unit , 90k for two units upwards

(4) Morningstar 45a mppt charge controller ... 140,000

(5) Morningstar 60a mppt charge controller ....205,000

(6) Schneider 1.5kva 24v solar inverter ...... 68000 per unit , 66000 two units above

(7) Set of foreign solar panel roof mounts which can take up to 4 units of 300 to 400w panels ... 28,000

( Quanta amaron 200a white carton battery ... 122000 per unit , 120000 for two upwards

What are you still waiting for ??

PLACE YOUR ORDERS NOW !!!


Contact,
Smartcell global services
081-350-31951
WHATSAPP::: https:///2348170385620

SolnergyPower:
You can use the attached device, it's a timer. You can set it for Monday till Sunday and it continues to work every other day.

We do set for most clients from 8am till 3pm everyday. That means the timer triggers your load ON by 8am and turns it OFF at 3pm

It goes for about 10k or so in Alaba.

thanks


name of the device and the link at alaba

olaolu11:


I am presently reading about BMS that regulates fridge and with that in place, fridge will be wired to work only when we are not home for about 5hrs.

As "BMS", d'you mean Battery Management System?

I DIYed a 12v relay module that directly switches on the inverter (relay is paralleled to the inverter switch) once the battery voltage on the SCC reaches the reconnect voltage and switches off at low voltage disconnect. The relay was salvaged from a bad fridge guard.

I needed some "delay" feature to allow some time between inverter power start up and freezer startup. So I used a functioning fridge guard (they come with startup delay function).

olaolu11:
Good evening house. I am too lazy to read these days. Pls, does a DC TV works on battery directly(12v) or still needs to be connected to an inverter(220v). Thanks

Those I've come across work much like the DC fans.

Their power pack is usually external (220VAC to 12v/19v DC) into a DC input jack on the TV. So that means you can equally plug in a 12vDC source into the jack directly from a battery so long as the required ampere draw is met (eg 12v 3A for some 22" TV and 19v3A for some 43" TV.

Note that most laptops use 19v3A DC power source, hence you can equally power those 19v TV with that same laptop power bank as I've seen someone who does. Gets like some 3.5hrs runtime on a 33wh power pack of that Zinox power bank.

Meet those guys selling electrical products.

olaolu11:


thanks


name of the device and the link at alaba

Hi guys I made the transition from my base in abuja to lagos, as such I had to decommission for solar installation over there and sold it (for scraps) to neighbours. I intend to start from stretch a new installation. I have already gotten 9 x 355w Yingli Solar Panels and A Victron Smart MPPT 150/100 Charge controller, I would be reusing my Axpert 3KVA 24v Inverter from the previous project. My problem now is batteries. I am at a loss which battery to go for..

My traditional choice are Tubular Batteries (Flooded) but they can only take limited number of currents.. and with a setup able to output over 100A my fear is even with opportunity loads, I would still be over charging those batteries almost on a daily.

AGM seems to be the way to go and Yes everyone says Quanta truth is Quanta's own datasheet https://www.quanta.in/images/pdf/Quanta-SF-Brochure.pdf does not cover itself in glory It states a between a 500 - 700 cycles at 50% depth of discharge this is about 2 years max of useful battery life.. economically I don't find it viable. I know people who have been using their battery for more than 2 years and still rave about it. But when a manufacturer says their product will last 2 years if used ideally.. I pay attention.

I am also considering ThunderVolts 6v 400AH from solar deport, unfortunately there is hardly any official spec sheet on the battery, no manufacturer's details, no recommended charge voltage no nothing. Some asked about the spec sheet and got no reply. If anyone has used it before place share your experience

Fullriver is within my purview but most of the fullriver sold in Nigeria within the 200AH range are the HGL Model which are not designed for deep cycle application the DC model designed for deep cycle (hence the name) is only available in 260AH at a price point above my budget.

Monbat too has same issue, the model sold in Nigeria are not designed for deep cycle application (I can be wrong)

If anyone has suggestions on good AGM batteries please share.

bigrovar:
Hi guys I made the transition from my base in abuja to lagos, as such I had to decommission for solar installation over there and sold it (for scraps) to neighbours. I intend to start from stretch a new installation. I have already gotten 9 x 355w Yingli Solar Panels and A Victron Smart MPPT 150/100 Charge controller, I would be reusing my Axpert 3KVA 24v Inverter from the previous project. My problem now is batteries. I am at a loss which battery to go for..

My traditional choice are Tubular Batteries (Flooded) but they can only take limited number of currents.. and with a setup able to output over 100A my fear is even with opportunity loads, I would still be over charging those batteries almost on a daily.

AGM seems to be the way to go and Yes everyone says Quanta truth is Quanta's own datasheet https://www.quanta.in/images/pdf/Quanta-SF-Brochure.pdf does not cover itself in glory It states a between a 500 - 700 cycles at 50% depth of discharge this is about 2 years max of useful battery life.. economically I don't find it viable. I know people who have been using their battery for more than 2 years and still rave about it. But when a manufacturer says their product will last 2 years if used ideally.. I pay attention.

I am also considering ThunderVolts 6v 400AH from solar deport, unfortunately there is hardly any official spec sheet on the battery, no manufacturer's details, no recommended charge voltage no nothing. Some asked about the spec sheet and got no reply. If anyone has used it before place share your experience

Fullriver is within my purview but most of the fullriver sold in Nigeria within the 200AH range are the HGL Model which are not designed for deep cycle application the DC model designed for deep cycle (hence the name) is only available in 260AH at a price point above my budget.

Monbat too has same issue, the model sold in Nigeria are not designed for deep cycle application (I can be wrong)

If anyone has suggestions on good AGM batteries please share.

From all you've said I got about 3 points
1. You want a battery with high charging current.
2. A battery that is durable with longer cycle life
3. Cost effective

I'm certain that lithium ion phosphate (lifepo4) will work very well for you, except for the price aspect.
It comes with a very high cost but if you get a good one, it will pay off in the long run. If built to you spec, they can be charged and discharged at their rated current and can go 2000 cycles at 100% depth of discharge and still retain 80% of their initial capacity. Up to 5000 cycles at 80% DOD.

Not to say that, there are no other batteries within the agm, gel, flooded etc that are good. Actually there is but most of my research and test centered on lifepo4 so I can't give you device on the others but, if you chose to go for lifepo4 then, I can help out.

GeorgeD1:


brother, while purchasing a good quality cc, sometimes you have to look beyond price.
those chinese cc you're referring to may appear to be cheaper in the short term but you pay
for it in other ways.
and, if durability, ruggedness, peak performance is your thing, i think you'll be hard put to get
a better option presently in the market than morningstar.

Morningstar CC has a fatal weakness that kept me away from it. If the battery disconnects from the CC in the afternoon when there is sun, or if you mistakenly connect the PV before you connect the battery, the CC will catch fire and be damaged. I will never touch a MorningStar, ever.

Hi bigrovar, welcome to Lagos
One thing I have come to realize in going solar is that batteries are the weak link and you can end up spending a fortune on it just to get it right.
Just like you I was in the market for battery replacement some few months ago, when the 4 units of 200AH Monbat batteries i was using suddenly gave way less than two years of usage. Interestingly, I had a victron BMV 712 hooked up to the battery bank and also with battery balancers making sure I rarely discharge less than 50% of capacity and yet, they failed to even see past 2 years of usage
Quanta batteries were being hyped left right and center some couple of months back on this forum but going through the sheet specs, their cycles were abysmal. I had wanted to double my 48V 200AH bank so buying 8 batteries would cost about 1M and in two years time get replacement for another sets say 1M. so going Lead acid route, in two years I will be spending 2M on batteries
just when the quanta battery debate was heating up, a couple of folks also suggested Lithium Batteries. I reluctantly started researching on LiFeP04 having full knowledge that their initial cost for procurement can cost an arm and a leg.
Long story short, spent weeks on researching and carrying out cost comparison overtime between lead and lithium, I finally settled for Pylontech US3000 Lithium batteries. There are other rugged and less expensive brands of lithium which I also personally feel will perform better than Lead acid batteries anytime any day that you can also choose from. Personally I believe lead acid batteries are not suitable for Nigerian market due to regular power outage that can last for days/weeks forcing one to heavily discharge and re-charge the batteries
I Hope this helps...………
PS: Battery balancers appears to be the culprit in the untimely death of my previous bank. story for another day......

NiyiOmoIyunade:
This restart/reset feature via software did not work out as planned - I may have bricked one of my units today when I tried to restart it via a software command - solar was of course disconnected.

I will know for sure when I get back home today.

In the meantime please do not use this feature or use at your own peril

Oga Niyi any update on this
Association of Morningstar users will like to know the outcome

Please what do you guys think about battery desulphators? Any Experience with them?
Do they really improve battery life?

cc: Hancock, adrusa, SolnergyPower, NiyiOmoIyunade