₦airaland Forum

Bodejohn, for how long have u been using those batteries in d picture. What amp hr capacity?. At 30% load, how many hours back up have experienced- with respect to %soc. I need 2 know this so that i can start planning my inverter portability.
Do you mean u connected ur 5 panels in series. Pls clarify stating ur panel specification.pls tell us as well the maximum charging current you've achieved so far @ 48v.

Prag central servo stab delivered. Power fluctuation damaged one of my 1.5kva inverters so after consultation wit chief george i decided to go the prag way to protect the second inverter. I observed that the 5kva century relay stab i use for the second inverter keeps inverter confused so it does not know when the batteries are full, it keeps charging up till i point the positive terminal got burnt. Thank God it was d cable alone that got burnt. I quickly placed order for my own prag.
OBSERVATION: I Opened the prag guy to see whats inside and to connect all required wires. I plugged it then u need to see the servo motor rotating as input voltage varies so as to maintain 220v output- interesting.
Even at 140v output remains 220v.
Wall mounting to be done later but for now am copying pdozie style by placing the prag on the table.

bodejohn: Thanks...
My porting things almost completed...
Sukam 3.5Kva...delivered!!!
Legrand modular distribution module...delivered!!!
DC circuit breakers...delivered!!!
2pcs of 50A 12/24/48V charge controller...to be delivered tomorrow!!!

ure welcome boss.
Abeg which one be Legrand modular.............
And is ur charge controller MpPT? Whats d make.
What PV module parameters and how many do u intend using.How do u in tend wiring 2 achieve ur nominal voltage of 48V.

bodejohn: Oga George, two quick questions;

1. Do you use any battery equalizer in your battery bank?

2. Looks like the Sukam 3.5Kva inverter is buy and use, i was thinking it could be possible to set some few parameters in it like maybe charging voltage. Is there any connection possible with it for setup?

Am answering u in d interim sir, my oga george may be busy.
Q1. No battery equalizer is used by oga george.
Q2. You have to re-phrase ur question- But if i get u right, No user defined settings available on sukham 3.5KVA, however, charging current may be adjusted between high and low; with the aid of a switch situated behind the inverter(on 1.5KVA which am familiar with). I believe the same goes for 3.5KVA.

I hope this helps.

Medley: Just heard that the presidents called off d strike cos d govt and d media were not yielding, any confirmation?

ALL LIES............NA LIE>>>>>>

[quote author=George_D]looks like i need to change back to my back and front module configuration.

presently maxing out at 3225w, a single charge controller may not be able to handle
all this power going forward.[/quote]pls what do mean by reverting to ur back and front config....i dont understand. pls explain further.

Are 48V inverters better than 24V, reasons pls.
What do you think about BLUEGATE inverters.
I saw a 3.5KVA and 7.5KVA all 24V inverters and i fell in love with them.

This cant be true, all the loads the poster claims the EMEL could power is over 2KVA, how is it possible?
However, my 1.4Kva Genius powers my 340 Liters fridge conveniently with my 120W 40in LED, 200W sound machine, a ceiling fan but as the load add up, it starts to sound funny( which means the load is becomming 2 much).
Conclusion: 1500Watts inverters ARE NOT DESIGNED TO POWER FRIDGES AND OTHER HEAVY DUTY STUFFS>
Go buy 3KVA and above.

Am still expecting ur views on BLUEGATE inverters.
Also, are 48V inverters better than 24V, reasons pls.

I need to know the pro and cons of buying 2kva and 3.5kva both 24V BLUEGATE inverters. How efficient are they. Are they pure sine wave or modified sine wave. Thanks.

earthrealm: AM INTERESTED IN THE TIMER WATCH...HOW MUCH DID U BUY IT..AND WHERE?

a friend got it for me at ladipo warehouse in lagos for 4k. Just check around all d electronics warehouse there, you may be lucky. It works fine. My fridge is now programmed 9am to 3pm.

I got my 7 day timer switch yesterday. I intend using it for my fridge. So my fridge can only work from 7am to 3pm daily.
Am still expecting members view on the relationship btw solar array vmp and mppt efficiency.

Most of us i think still live in rented apartment. Enjoy ur life while you are still living. Go install ur panels.
What do members think about the relationship between the solar array vmp and the system voltage for max use of mppt controller. I read somewhere that d higher the difference the better. The manual of my morning star mppt states a difference of 2v is where the controller operates at d highest efficiency. Your views pls. Attention: oga george.

[quote author=deeplo]@ abunafiu, pls kindly contact me on this email. Macjcomm1@gmail.com. I need your help asap. Expecting to hear from u. Thank u[/quote

earthrealm: oooh the panels are 120w 24v....wondering y u dont prefer the 250w 24v panels..they would take up less space...or is there any particular reason peeps are avoiding it?...i hv already ordered 4 units o!

am avoiding 250watts due to cost and secondly my supplier told me i cant get 250w mono crystalline. Transportation is also a major constrain as my car can easily carry 10 pieces of my 120w but i doubt if it can carry a single 250. I also think in future i'll have a car park space like akinade so these plenty panels would be useful.
But please, let me know if there is no harm if i eventually add 250w, are they compatible wit my existing 120w.

Yesterday, i added 2 more 24V @ 120W panels to my existing panels. I now have 10 panels. My charging current increased to 33A from 28 to 29 average maximum charging current.
Observation: the temperature of my 6mm wire starts to rise which means am loosing current. I need to double the wire to achieve 12mm and then buy similar wire double it (12mm). Which means i'll use the old one as NEGATIVE and the new one as POSITive.
Am i making any sense at all.

1

A solar related joke for democracy day....
I was busy around my BATTERY BANK when my wife called 2 ask what i was doing,
i told her "dear, am busy with my battery BANK.
Later that night, we were discussing home finance,
my wife quickly reminded me that."dear pls let us withdraw small amount from ur battery BANK because ure always busy everyday with that BANK at least by now you would have saved enough".
Funny.

I know most women are jealous of us treating our battery banks like babies. Before going to work and when i return, i do check the voltage and temperature of my battery bank and my wife would say "i know those batteries are more important than me"....Dont mind her, after enjoying all the DSTV movie line up for the whole day without interruption from PHCN.

Thank God for solar, and God bless all solar frontiers on this forum. May we continue to grow in PV arrays and battery BAnk.
Happy Democracy DAY.

a word from the elders. what's battery equalization all about. i believe my batteries are sealed and according to documents i have re d online, sealed batteries need no equalization. i did enabled equalization on my mppt . what do you have to say abt that. happy democracy day.

Akinade, thumbs up 4 ur latest installation.
I also need 2 apologise 2 d house for delay in posting pics of my new installation. Am having serious challenges here due 2 poor mobile network reception due 2 d location of d new site.. I'll need 2 post the pics when am in d office.
Meanwhle, akin kindly give d specs of ur solar panels, inverter and battery bank. Your initial post are not clear enough for me. Thanks. Congrats.

House, the used tellco batteries are not worth it. Pls always buy new ones @ totalgreen u are very correct.

I successfully installed my site......pics 2 follow soon but for poor internet connection.

olarevo: Thank God I got my e Tracer MPPT solar charge controller. Today
Pictures of my revised installation to follow soon.

Let me be the first 2 say congrats........ure welcome BOSS.....

[quote author=George_D]abunafiu,
congrats on your relocation to a better site. you should ordinarily mount your solar panels
facing south and using your location's latitude as your reference from horizontal if you want to
get optimal performance from them. however, from experience this may not always be practicable due
to physical limitations on ground. therefore you can always tinker with the horizontal angle
orientation as long as the panels are facing south at the end of the day.[/quote]Thanks sir, am still on planning stage...observing the sunrise and sunset pattern of my new site.
I hope i'll be tru by this weekend.

yesterday, i successfully dismantled my setup. i hope to give pics showing step by step installation on new site.
which is the best, south facing roof or what?. am sure my dstv dish faces east,,so i can take it up from there.

oga earthrealm, kindly share what ur experience was like when u were using toks tellecomm batts.
My current battery bank consist of toks tell batts.
and i am enjoyin them....Before i paid for them, i was allowed to use for 1 week.
what i did was that i charged the batts to float(26.9 to 27.0V) with PHCN, i then disconnected the batts for 3 days, the batts maintained a voltage of 26.5 after 3days so i was convinced the batts were still good. On loading the batts, the volatge at d terminals read 25.6 which is more than 100% soc.
So sir, kindly share ur experience because economy hard these days o....Expecting u sir.

I dont know if this is right,
Can i connect a second inverter[b](non charging type)[/b] to my set up
such that i can reduce load on my 1.5KVA genius. Its power source shall be
my battery bank.
This means two inverters on a single battery bank but only one of the inverters can charge.

deeplo: Please i need your help on these setup of mine.
I have 2 setups of inverter, a 24v-1.5kva (home) and 48v-3.5kva (office) both Sukam.

1. I need a solar panel connection (either in series or parallel or in combination of both) suitable for the setup above.

2. Number of solar panel watt ie. 100w, 120, 200 or 250 suitable for this ( i read mono crystalline is good)

3. MPPT Amps type ie. 20, 30 or 45 ( i read morning star, tristar and secta are among the good ones)

4. Wires... i guess 6mm is okay?

I l already know how to manage battery consumption and dod.
I will appreciate any additional information that could be added.


Thank you

As for me, i use 1500WATTS genius inverter @24V,
4 pieces of 155AH used tellecomm battery,
8 pieces of 120W MONO solar panels and i intend adding 2 more soon
and recently a 60A tristar MPPT.
I use it to power
1 40in LCD for more than 12hrs daily,
2 ceiling fans for aprox 16hrs,
4 20W bulbs for aprox 10hrs
and a 300W fridge(4 to 5 hrs daily)
I hope this answers some of ur questions...you can as well see pics of my set up.

[quote author=George_D]abunafiu,

take my advice and don't stress yourself over your tristar hvd alarm.

when i first started using mine, i was a little worried myself and almost decided to
install a contactor but after so many years of use i'm glad i never bothered to install
any. the hvd alarm is an oem feature built into the tristar and should not really be a problem
for you. for one it is not audible (so no problem of beeping or anything like that). the leds
of the tristar are designed to cycle for a while and after a few minutes it will reset itself
and resume charging from where it left off. it requires no manual intervention from anyone.
however you can always reset it by pushing the reset button if you want it to return to
charging mode earlier.


again, forget about the contactor and just go ahead and let your controller do its thing.
like akanniade said, most high-end charge controllers like your tristar were built with a
hybrid setup in mind. they are designed to work with multiple charging inputs including solar,
wind, geo-thermal and direct public power all charging your battery bank at the same time.
if working with multiple power sources were a problem for charge controllers then nobody
would be installing a hybrid system as of today.

i have studied most hybrid inverter and charge controller wiring diagrams online and never once
have i seen anywhere a contactor was installed between the inverter and charge controller.

you too can take your time to go online and verify this.[/quote]Most grateful sirs.......
i am worried due to fact that i did not come across the HVD in any of ur posts.
Your endorsement sweet me like eyes water[i][/i].........Thanks Sir.

[quote author=George_D]abunafiu,
sorry i'm just seeing your post for the first time. i guess i must have skipped it when replying akanniade.

ok, so the issue of your tristar not getting into 'bulk' mode is exactly as total green has explained. for
tristar mppt charge controllers, 'mppt' takes the place of 'bulk'. you only get to see bulk mode with ordinary
tristar pwm controllers.

hvd alarm in tristars usually comes up when your system voltage gets higher than the solar array output voltage
and this usually happens when charging simultaneously with phcn and solar panels and when your battery voltage
begins to rise as it becomes full. this is a safety feature with tristars and you don't have to worry about it.

however, if you still want to avoid this alarm entirely, you either don't charge with phcn and solar
simultaneously (in which case your system will no longer be a hybrid system) or maybe you could install either
a normally open (no) or normally closed (nc) contactor. this is not my field so i cannot expatiate on the fine
details. your suggestion of using a changeover (or knife switch - as you call it) may not cut it as it will be
too cumbersome to operate since it will require continuous monitoring by someone who needs to be constantly
on standby to switch it on and off.

hope this helps?[/quote]Sir,
You are on point. A contactor will fit in as u said. When ever there is PHCN, it should cut out power(battery and Solar simultaneously). Once there is a power cut, it'll restore them simultaneously.
I will have to work on the design on a vero board an see how it goes. Once tru, i'll give the complete circuit diagram so that others can benefit.

Thanks to zeebozie and totalgreen for ur prompt reply.
I still need other pros in d house to explain better charging batteries with PHCN and Solar.
Thanks.

Need additional lectures...
I usually discharge my batteries to 24.5V(50% soc) daily, i noticed the following:
Charging stage 1: MPPT
Charging stage 2: ABSORBTION
Charging stage 3: FLOAT

When is BULK suppose to set in, or am i experiencing a normal thing.
I downloaded the MSVIEW software but i was unable to connect the controller to my PC using ETHERNET.
I downloaded one TRISTAR NETWORKING COMPANION and i saw directions but i still dont get it.
I need my OATTs(oga@d tops) to put me tru.


Also, i need to know why the controller displays HVD while charging with PHCN and solar simultaneously...Although the HVD comes after about 2-3 hrs of charging and bright sun.
Am i suppose to modify anything,on my setup because i have disconnected PHCN totally for the past 3-4 days.
I also read some that one can add a switch that can simultaneously cut power TO and FROM the controller as well as the PV, i now came up with the idea of the KNIFE SWITCH(people use often as change over). If connected prperly, i think this can disconnect the PV and BATTERY from the controller simultaneously.
I need suggestions pls.

All my post have been hidden.........
Let me quickly add these pics.
Picture showing the whole set up and my day 1 harvest....Kwara sun badth.....