I remember JUO's post 4yrs ago
indeed the legendary thread is dying!
at the time Nigerians need it more.


https://www.nairaland.com/post/28434119

DUNKA:
Yes boss. Your words ring true from experience. No one should be made to feel as if it is a favour a seller is doing to him. God forbid

love story of off grid Solar addict. I dey feel you bros, sometimes I envy fla users.
I hope you have battery equaliser.?.

Saipro:
There's a wrong way to do the right thing.

A few days ago early in the morning, I topped up my 12V FLA batteries before charging. First wrong thing (top up after charging unless cells are exposed). I was in a rush and miscalculated thus topping each cell with 300mLs instead of 200mLs. I ran out of distilled water on the 3rd battery. I had a half battery and another unfilled battery to go. No problem, I would distil water the next day to make up. Didn't happen as I got really busy. Minimally unbalanced rack. Easy fix.

A day more and I got back to it. Despite knowing the rote, I did the second faux pas. I topped up the other cells (again, before charging) and proceeded to do a straight away equalisation charge (without first completing absorb). Impatience is definitely not a virtue. From batteries 0.01V in variation, I arrived at a bank with 0.13V variation. The beginning of the end. Enter panic mode.

Waited one agonising day in order not to boil the batteries to death. At dawn, whipped out my standalone 12V charger, DC clamp meter and babysat the bank on Saturday. Did another equalisation after completing absorb, moving the standalone charger to hasten the lowest (last topped up battery) catching up with the others. Literally watched it go to float.
Bank temperature 34.2^oC
Battery voltages
- 13.07V
- 13.07V
- 13.06V
- 13.07V

Hourly review for the rest of the day. Checked this afternoon and everything is as measured the previous day.

Cardiac arrest averted. All is well. Time for some isi-ewu and Maltina.

Saipro:

He means your PV panels (IsC, ImP, VoC and VmP). What are the ratings. I however suspect you have PWM controller with your PV panels needlessly arranged in a 2x2 configuration instead of all in parallel. If that were the case, you could double your incoming current by merely breaking the current config and placing them all in parallel.

I agree with you to the extent that the 100w pv are truly 24v as his 24v-30a pwm will receive a max amps up to 20a on a good day where no other charging source exist as pointed out by dmerciful.

zeestone99:


Y my name no dey dere nw

my apology sir.
but you know you're popular as naira note.
I always enjoy checking ur good stuff on Facebook particularly that of yabatech.

just as I always download Dr. solar's videos on YouTube.

I do not mean to under rate legends like you and the rest but just to express my view.
anyway it is noted sir.

Oga marketer

1. your prices are commendable. this is what we need to further RE/AE in this part of the world.

2. I believed your solar panels and batteries have names and nameplates. please provide datasheets to support your brands of gears.

3. someone like me is ready to buy nija and grow nija if products are warranted.

4. discovering this forum and placing your gears here means that you may have gone through some pages. in case you don't know we have a referral tradition of verifying genuine marketer from pseudo marketer through renowned forums members.

5. many will agree with me that sending funds to JUO, KIEKIE, SOLNERGY, ZEESTONE99, BRIGHTSOLAR, IDSOLAR, SOLARDEPOT, DMERCIFUL, NIYI, and other honest marketers can be done with your 2 eyes closed. similarly, we want to say same with your outfit. be as it may, you have competitive price list.

just my view anyway.

binladen:
Available for urgent sales and delivery
300watt mono crystalline solar panel 72cell...46,000
250watt mono crystalline solar panel...38,000

Midnite surge arrester SPD 115 ....45,000

Voltron energy bluesolar mppt charge controller 150v 70amp with display neitherland ....190,000

10kva power star inverter American spec...320,000

Ericson pv combiner box, 6array...40,000

Brand new 2volt 500ah batteries...50,000


@Ashbod power technologies , ojodu Berger 08059338304 call and whatapp

GeorgeD1:
after rain, comes shine.
for those peeps here in the south-south, it seems happy times is finally here after all the weeks of never-ending rainfall

An average of 27.5kwh and 8.2kw realtime is superb.
A worthy template from the Master himself.
keep it up bros, you have touched our lives positively.

@McTrinity, @ Niyiomolyunade

thanks for your honest views.

I know cc don't like sharing input arrays. I thought our nija spirit has created a suitable work around as expected.

I will have to pray hard then.

bigrovar:


How do you intend to configure the 10 modules. 5 x 5? ie 5 in parallel?

from my diy experience my cc runs cooler at lower voltages (2x5) but doing so I tradeoff benefit of mppt. but I will run on 3x3 config for early start & better mppt advantage. in both cases I have 16mm² multi flex cables to MCB.
i have 2 yrs old ipowerplus batteries still firing strong, am planning a separate 12v system for my night loads with remaining 1 module (since I have already config my house to essential loads and whole building). thus my 400AH@ 48v system for cooking and A/C and stay off at night. how
I wish I had 48v balancer like oga Niyi and the rest

I have a question for gurus only. is there anyway I can configure 2 separate pv stream on a single 300v DC mnspd. i could not get 115v dc type when I was buying and I had to buy the 300v because any form protection is better than non even though most cc protection is not up to 300v except TriStar

SolnergyPower:
Thank you sir for your patronage.

I'm glad you're enjoying your investment in Sunshine Solar Panels!

if your company failed me I would have stated otherwise.

you're welcome sir

Saipro:

Finally, we're getting somewhere.

Nigerian firms and warranty issues.

My experience with SOLNERGY

Few months ago when sunshine solar modules
were looked down upon as 'no where to go' when doing serious solar installation. I placed order for four 150w modules
Unfortunately there was a mixup by the boy in the store, I was supplied 3 -150w plus 1-130w receiving the items I made a complain and was promised a remedy in my
next purchase. So I installed them. About 4 weeks after i noticed, I considerable drop in harvest after running a trace, I discovered the 130w was burnt
I removed and contacted SOLNERGY hoping to hear "no bi me do am now?". Therefore I was surprised when I was asked to send the picture which I did. behold I was sent a new 150w through a driver and told to forward the damaged 130w.

In another occasion, I placed an urgent order for 3 panels of same 150w, it was sent by haice bus. Sadly 2 got broken when it was delivered. I contacted SOLNERGY who spoked with the driver to send to them back using their NURTW vehicle returning back, I got fresh delivery a week later and by then my sense of urgency had died.

My fellow diy, pros or marketers, I am not related to SOLNERGY, I am not in anyway advertising them, am just encouraging dealers in the house to take warranty issues seriously as they take their profits margin seriously. Many solar dreams are dead and many more are scared due to bad installation/ irredeemable warranty issues. I know Nigerians will get it right some day.


In a related development regarding sunshine modules, I recently acquired ten 300w modules (3kw) for my upcoming upgrade. Presently I don't have money to complete roof mounting so today I decided to test 4 modules (2x2) arranged carefully placing them on benches. I never expected the result I got more or less from sunshine PV modules. Imagine getting 1,170w from 1,200w (98%) despite darker clouds and rain droplets.

This under rated PV modules is really value for money 'at last' for me. I don't feel 2nd tier anymore.

Kindly check the snap shots below. Am happy and wish all solar lovers enough juice & happy days ahead.

Thank you for your time and i look forward to hearing similar experiences for the benefit of those hoping to joined RE/AE stuff.

Hello house.

today I decided to give few weeks 'off-duty' to my fangpusun 80A and keep it against my upcoming upgrade from 24v (2250w) to 48v (4950w), I replaced it with fangpusun 60A earlier reserve as backup.

I was handsomely surprised that it output 3.5A over it's rated capacity for about 15s. before now, I always believe it is limited to 60A input / 60A output. however the inputs as at the time of instantaneous 63.5A was 42.5A.

And for fans of ff60 or ff80 (fangpusun flexmax)
I think we should be happy its doing it's job despite these horrible days of solar harvest.

I will like to know if any diy guys in the house has observed any other brands of CC with this over amperage mistake.

kiekie1:


Hello, I guess the op was simply asking about the "Electric Iron" you publicized

Ooooops!

Oga Frankie thanks.

I picked one (i.e. 2nd hand iron@N2,500) from an electrical store and the new one @2k at gift shop within the hood.

Pix of Belgium one below and both still in service.

Good luck.

chris81964:
Installation has started. Tomorrow or Sunday we will tidy up. #Tesla Smart Lithium Ion in Port Harcourt.

Kai Money good ooo.
Money is gradually becoming a limiting factor in RE.

Congratulations on your achievements. You are truly one of the best in Nigeria.

I hold the believe that the particular Tesla module in picture is 60v. Will that inverter handle 60v input from the batteries?

Reprobate:


thnks, where can I see this to buy?where did you buy yours?

I got fm60 from Chris81964 & fm80 from JUO, very fine people.
Try JUO for decent price and less than 24hrs delivery.

dapsyra:


Yes oh, lady solar came visiting today.

Impressive, examplary, perfection.

In another country you would have been rolling back your grid meter and earning bucks from the sun. This is sweet pension fund from your solar investment.

hardywaltz:
Good day house please I need ur advice.

Please between these three Mppt Charge Controllers which is the most advisable to use for a 24v system (may be upgraded to 48v later on)

1. Fangpusun flexmax 60A
2. Fangpusun bluesolar 60A
3. Epever Etracer 60A

Thank you

They are all suitable for 12-24v-,. ,48v, 60v
Consider how they handle heat generated within the unit. No. 2 and 3 are fanless and are said to be robost.
Offered any of the 3 mppt, I will stick to flexmax as I have fm80 & fm60 (backup) respectively. ( cumulatively, The last time I checked, I am on the betterside MEGAWATT electricity generated as harvest even though that is tiny compare to what big boyz on the forum generate in 90 days).

If you choose flexmax, go for fm80 because it is so easy to replace the fan and I know you will not regret it if you adhere to simple diy rules and not blowup ur unit.

Welcome to the addictive world of RE - Best regards!

Reprobate:


have been searching for such steam iron..no luck..th3 least i saw was 1450w..n its the automatic steam type.i need the manual steam type.
busz me if u see such

Try this and thank me later.
It is the lowest I could get.
I rarely use PHCN for ironing, it is of no strain on my microtek inverter.
It intermittently draws 3A-AC/580w Max at start for about a minute or so.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Oga Barezzi! Many thanks. You were on point.

I visited the local electrical supplies store in my area and they had large beefy contactors such as I was looking for in stock - to think I go there pretty often and never thought to ask!

So I recently decided to come back on grid and use mains to run house loads and charge my batteries overnight. My battery supplier showed me that it was better to use and pay for mains when available at night vs incur battery cycles - but I ran into a glitch, I have a Sollatek AVS30 between my servo stab and mains input to the inverter - the AVS 30 was running hot and melting wires as it could not bear the simultaneous burden of charging at about 2kw plus house loads about 5kw - moreover the AVS30 comtacts could only take max 4mm wire.

Something Oga Pranil once mentioned came to my head, rather than use the AVS30 to switch the loads directly, use the AC voltage signal on the AVS30 output to energise a 220 to 240v coil on a contactor and this would then actuate a NO contact on the contactor to which the incoming mains live wire was already attached (contactor now carries the battery charging plus house loads). So with about 5k and an hour of rewiring, I have the contactor installed and so far so good things are working smoothly. This was to me a far better deal than paying 25k for a 100a voltage regulator of unknown provenance on Konga.

I got the Scheider Electric TeSys LC1 6511 M7 - a very large and beefy looking device rated 30kw 3-phase and my only regret was the coil voltage was rated 220v while my mains and inverter are between 215v and 235v - the U7 version contactor has a 240v coil although my local shop did not have these in stock

I still have plans for other hacks and tweaks and mini automations now that I have rediscovered the power relays and contactors.

Many thanks again Oga Barezzi and Pranil - this noble NL thread has provided a lot of learning and fresh ideas for me.

Kai ! Oyinbo too much.
I will I ever reach this level?

obimind:

It gladens my heart to announce to this honourable house that my ep solar mmpt(i tracer) has been fixed and is working perfectly well. Shout out to Dmerciful who made this possible. Man you rock!

Dmerciful has earned my salute again. Am proud of your selfless effort in making your fellow solar owners happy.

Oga Obimind, congrats and thanks for updating us back as requested.

durodee:


Had a nasty experience with someone on this forum recently on his dubious online prices. Well, business integrity seems not to matter to some people sha!
A word of advice to all forumites: In an anonymous forum like this, big business can come your way from the most innocuous members since you don't know who they are in real life and you don't know who is researching you!

Honestly I don't think it is nasty.
Nasty dealers should be exposed esle I see beginning of the end of this this noble thread.

solibayo:
Gurus in the house...i need your opinion and help please

i paid for solar plus inverter back in January this year at a cost of over N700000 for which the installer supplied a 2.4kv prag inverter plus two GDM 200Ah batteries and three 300w flames mono solar panel with a roy solar controller
...

because as it is...the prag inverter is crap(i mean i knw many ppl on luminous that has worked for years)

the solar is semi crap

now it seems the battery too is giving up

all these barely 4 months after installation that cost over 700k

ppl just don't have fear of God in this country

load is about 4 fans, 3 energy bulbs, 2 lcd TVs and 2 laptops

any suggestions on how to remedy this pathetic situation highly recommended!

thanks in advance

I am always saddened wen I hear stories like this particularly wen Being reapoff by horrible non solar installers. No wonder KOLN Solar guys call them 'cowboy solar installers' . I remember my first post here was similar to being ripped off too( thank God I detected early). So I feel your pain particularly wen you worked hard for the money and you believe solar is doable.

Not having engineering background I became diy from the foregoing, so you have a great chance to learn and with the good disposition of members of the forum, am sure your simle will come back.

However, I suspect HALF TRUTH statements in your story so far. For instance on your inverter / loads. You will know if your inverter has factory problem minutes of powering the setup. The hidden load that affected your prag can also prove difficult for it's replacement.

Sir
1. Yes you have 300w x 3, are they properly oriented? Esle they may perform like 80w panels thus low amperage.

2. I was seen as ' too know' wen I told an installer he was using the wrong cable for one 150w PV meant for a clock in device close to my office. You can see my laugh wen dey replaced last week with another similar AC cable. My point is that are you sure the proper cable was used for your setup?
3. Is Your CC correctly rated? With your load I have seen people enjoy their setup with Roysolar (as their bulk converter) as being observed earlier.
4. Are you located in the south or in the north ( because of hours of sunshine and cloud effect) my point is that you seem to be using same consumption day & night thus ur batteries are having a hard time completing their cycle. You may need to conserve energy at nite to put back during the day particularly if you are in the southern part.
5. You need a serious installer or good DIy close by to help you audit your setup. Do not be discouraged. Your on the bridge and will soon cross over to enjoyable land of RE/AE.

Cheers!

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Please can anyone help with a contact who can remould broken/degraded Trojan L16 battery L terminals? I came across a new client who has 3 or 4 broken in a bank of 16.

The would be repairer must be willing to commute to Lekki to perform the fix as client is unwilling to release the batteries to go out of their control/custody.
I
Please see pictures below

Close to 30yrs, was the first time I had seen a battery charger using size AA Berec battery cathode and 12v DC to weld. Today am sure they must have mastered the skills


As DIY.
If am in your shoes, I will just weld 35mm cable permanently to the terminal and long enough to disallow it pulling off the terminal. Such a battery is too good to be idle.

Oga Niyi, with your taste & level of professionalism, I know my suggestion may look crude but keep the house posted so that we can learn.

obimind:

It's annoying when I see you lie unnecessarily on this forum. When the ep ever (I tracer) I bought from you developed a fault what effort did you make to bring it back to life? When I called on you to show my disappointment you declined and never gave me any support. Honestly I forgave you as I had to forgo that cc which I bought from you at 150,000 and 5,000 for transport making it 155,000. I promised myself I'd rather stick to my pwm cc than go for the so called ep solar cc (I tracer) or whatever you call it. Pls watch what you say on this forum bcus we aren't kids.

Problem SOLVED ! I think Kiekie can still fix it since he claims it can easily be repaired.

Please reconnect him for repairs and feed the house back. This will allow us to know IF KIEKIE 1 is lying and be guided.

sinistrian:
Hello guys,
I noticed this afternoon that the battery supply circuit breaker keeps tripping off when the inverter is switched on - even when there is no load connected to the inverter output. What could cause this?

Is it really a DC Breaker. You will not find high success rate using a breaker btw bank and inverter. It will always trip under surge, Ask marketers in the house for 150-250A battery switch is available if at all they have.

Anyway am sure better experienced and knowledgeable guys will explain more.

GeorgeD1:
babaegun,
now you can see why the spambot was working overtime to ensure that
i don't get the message out. so strange you would think seun and protek
are working in league! anyway, things do happen but good enough i was
able to get the review out hook and crook!

Your are a leader any day.
Thanks for your time and reviews so far.

Personally, I have always fancied solar water heating through water heaters with 12v DC element powered from cc diversion of excess pv harvest, though I fear cloudy days.

Thanks Oga GeorgeD

earthrealm:
so i recently audited a system.
48v 5kva highpower inverter and 4 x 12v 200 long agm batteries, not upto 2months in service, 3 batts were reading 13.03v while 1 battery was 12.89v, so this is how soon batteries go out of sync !!!..so installed the 48v hao2 battery balancer, thoguh apart from a high freq whine, there is no way of knowing if the device is working or not., no leds, no screen, no nothing....at least my good ol desulphater had a bliniking led, and voltage display screen, abeg is there a way of knowing when the device is working?

I helped a neighbor having 48v 3.5kva prag Inverter and 1.8kw poly array having similar imbalance battery problem.

In his case, the installer added 100Ah alongside 3 other 200Ah gel batteries to extract the 48v.
How can a sane Installer do that. Making the owner believe " solar too get problem"

I ran a battery load test on the 3 200Ah batteries and they survived and added a new 200Ah battery & HAO2 48v balancer.. 3 months now the owner still dey send me recharge cards.

On your question, i wonder how one can measure it's effectiveness unless you shutdown to do battery test. To work round that, I personally prefer and still use victron clone balancer (as on the picture) with couple of watt meters on incoming solar input and/against battery outlet to inverter. Aleast this gives me, relatively what is going on on the setup.

Last weekend, I shutdown the system for few hours to see if the balancer had effect after months of usage. Surprisingly, they held 13.1v . mind you one set of my batteries (ipowerplus) which the dealer gave me 6months warranty are 2yrs plus .

DMerciful:
Change to 3*2 panel configuration

Hello house

For fans of outback.

New flexmax 100 - 250v/100A
allows series up to 7 of 300w > PVs and
Reduces installers' stress and lowers cost of installation for large arrays.

Plus other features as stated on the attached link below


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T5i09-F2IY

sharks776:
Hello everyone, I'm planning on increasing my solar panels, I currently have a total of 780 Watts (130w x 6) arranged in 2*3. Although, My new cc max PV is 1500w at 24v, which I plan to maximise. My problem is can I add 6 more panels (in 2*3) which will total 1560 (a little above the specified max pv). The cc is Fangpusun flexmax mppt60a.
Also, any idea on a good tier one 130w PV?

With 6 extra 130w at 2x3 or 3x2 for flexmax 60A, you have not really max it out. I will recommend you go with 3x2 to enjoy flexmax mppt function (at about 1A for every 30w extra ur PV can make).

Pls note, if you have PV of different make and type, Going above 3 in series will give your flexmax hard time to read during instantaneous sweep. At the end you have production always beneath optimal setpoints for your array.

Above from my diy practice.

NoMoreTrolling:
my gel batteries are dead in just under a year.

talk about depressing

don't know if i should call police for the niggga that sold this shhh to me

I mentioned about 2 years ago that batteries are the bane of RE in Nigeria.

First check if you're not the primary cause of early battery death because that same battery you claimed died under a year may yet be serving another customer much longer than 2 years.

Channel your anger towards SON and not the deallers. When a whole consignment is destroyed. Inferior batteries will gradually die out. Remember it is easier to get a replacement through SON than to save for new set of batteries which may also be substandard.

It is sad!

For those desirous of low power A/C (305w) check out this link :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF_H85aS55o

Maybe marketers here can begin it's importation.

foonshur:

I want to believe its due to lightning strike or solar flare cos its been on the same system for about a year now. just discovered the CC senses voltage but no current at all. there are 45 panels on the CC and about 10 with this problem.. my question is could this be the reason the CC not sensing no current at all?

10 out of 45 PVs is alarming. You must have gotten a premium CC to have handled the hasle of such failure within the strings. I know from my Diy experience that where you have 1 or two of such burnt out PV in a string and across parallel, you are bound to have current drop and your CC will be in a perpetual state of struggle to do it's job.
Yes you often register no current as you rightly observed. It is gradually becoming a common experience nowadays with cheap PVs abound in Nigerian market space where our 'SON' is dead.

This is my experience. other diy enthusiastic on the forum can add their rich experiences too