DMerciful:
@Makavele
Was the test done about same time? Cos Sun angle is important as well as SOC of battery. I use sunshine and I get up-to 80% sometimes

Correct
Since November my harvest from sunshine has dropped to 40-55% of installed capacity.
Thank God i over sized my PV to get pass 6hrs absorption stage

mcTrinity:


Replace one battery in a bank after 2 years
Are you for real?

Yea! That is a reasonable option for me too. Unless he has millions in his vault.

Let him get BLS/balancers for older batteries.
Just my stake!

Oshomo12:
All my security light bulbs (11) is just 36.3 watts (3.3 w each) and quite bright too. The highest bulb wattage in the house is 10 w, just that one, the rest ~5 - 7 w.

My oga, you're on point, Energy efficiency is the key to successes in R.E.
However, some of us are discouraged by (not necessarily cheap) fake/poor led bulbs whitewashing Nigerian market. As a matter of fact, I have many energy bulbs waiting to replace unreliable led bulb that goes out. Thus requiring more power to run - more power to harvest.

JUO:
if you tell them, they don't need huge battery bank to enjoy 24/7 light it looks as if you don't know what you are saying. Imagine one person generating 18kwh in a 3-4 bed room apartment. What for, are you selling energy? Energy conservation is the only solution

You are right.
Also, It is a matter of choice to live off grid and drive your heavy appliances if you have the right installation. Let's remember the sun is free

babniyen:
Hello house. Please assist with this challenge. I have a 12V dc load drawing 6.3A, a 200ah battery, a pwm charge controller and 290 watt mono panel. Connected it up but i noticed that the battery is not getting charged. Please assist.

Attach pix of the setup. Panels, cabling, breaker, pwm and ur vpower battery. We are not magicians.

earthrealm:


nice. where and how much did u buy the epsolar ebox?... also the internet dongle, how is it powered. thinking of using such to monitor my villa set up remotely

Thoughtful. Villa setup always need remote tweaking too.
I wonder how he handled 3 - 5volts mismatch of remote devices.
Sure to get help from "meciful" legend.

SolnergyPower:
Solar Pump!!!

We just completed the installation of a solar pump for a water tank of 50,000 litres capacity!

Products used

a. Grundfos Pump
b. Grundfos CU200 Box
c. 20 units of 100W solar panels
d. Cables

Distance between well head and the tanks stand is almost 120 metres!!!

You may ask any question.

Our details:

0803-334-3911, 0803-860-4143.
Solar@SolnergyPower.com

Great.

Beta soup na moni

sireboy:
[color=#000099][/color]
Well bro, I construct them myself with some 4years experience. I am based in Lagos but have colleagues that do same in Abuja and Edo state

Keep it up bros.
U'll surely go places..

U need to append ur contact too.

DUNKA:
so ssd Please out the person so that other dealers do not fall into the same trap

JUO:
Other sellers be wise

Publish all his phone no. Here pls.
It is a very bad trend here.
We have very honourable members here. We may invoke referrals through known forum members soon.
Letz make Nija beta.

Apipia:

My system as i earlier wrote will have eight batteries. My inverter MUST comes with an inbuilt 80amps mppt charger.My bones with the would be installer, why is he insisting that another 90amps Epsolar external mppt charger will also be installed , My question is do i need to buy an external charger when the inverter i bought comes with its own inbuilt inverter

Are sure the inverter charger is not the normal inverter charging with grid/gen?

Will it do continuous sweeping d external charger does. There alot reasons to get external charger wen you can afford it

Apipia:
I bought a hybrid 5kva 48vdc with 60-80amps inbuilt mmpt charger, do my system require another external mmpt charger? My intended system setup requires 8 12vdc 210ah gel battery, 10 300w 24vdc mono solar panels. I want to use poly, the installer condemned it, but with poly i can have some money back in my pocket.,i questioned the need for external solar charging controller which crept in 190k into my budget, he said the system will fail. Lived a little outside rhe country, most hybrid inverter are not attached external mmpt. Connection comes from solar pv to solar input, public power grid to its input, most times no batteries, cos power rarely failed, this setup is just to have day energy saving cost, at dawn the inverter switches over to power grid
Why this insistence on external mppt and mono?.

No clear cut btw mono & poly poly nowadays. In fact my poly fires more juice than mono.
If money is not the issue, mono is better due to its purity and may depreciate less & last a bit longer.
I wonder why u need mppt when you have no batteries. Being grid tied you can get back ur credits after necessary approval. SMA Inverters are good in that regards.

kiekie1:


Hello Sir , thanks for the commendation , I promise to work more on satisfactory/improved customer relations especially when it involves "used items" . Remain blessed

.

Promise is soothing to the ear. Pls Keep it up.
Nigeria is yet to reach the threshold of 1% ratio of solar user to whole population.

Cheers

Barezzi:
Hmmm, na wa o.
This matter serious o!

This forum is a laudable place. We rarely have issues like dis.
We also know sir frank to be a good biz man. I think he should clear the air once and forall to make the forum healthy and possibly the best diy centre many members can reference.

tsmall:


We Repair Magnum, Outback, Xantrex, Schneider Inverter And Spare Parts Supply.

What of sukam or microtek inverters?

kiekie1:


Mr Obi, sorry for the mppt issue .. I was thinking you finally mailed ep solar as discussed then . I actually stopped selling E tracer for some personal reasons & felt you will enjoy I tracer like most clients do .. Once again , sorry Bro !

Impressive

earthrealm:



thnks for the offer of the cable, know as you can see from my story below.--- would not be needing it again
do you know if same happens using the bluetooth connection??.

in other news...my respect for epsolar jumped by leaps and bounds today.
so my offgrid villa setup.. was informed that it barely lasts 30mins...and goes off. since last sunday...there was no one i trusted to help me troubleshoot, so i didnt bother doing any serious trouble shooting. just had them check the 60amp ep solar CC and they confirmed it was dead.. no lights blank screen etc.

i assumed the cc had packed up...was wondering what would have killed it....no clues
so i had to buy a 60amp fangpusun cc from JUO and made the trip to villa.
there i observed that negative cable from cc to battery had somehow disconnected from the crimping...thus the cable wasnt connected...and the battery wasnt being charged by my 1500w panels...

the cables from the panels being connected...i feared the worst that the cc would have got burnt, cos morning star and some other cc expressly stated that connecting the solar panels without hooking up the battery will destroy the cc, as the cc wouldnt hv anywhere to divert the solar harvest.
to my pleasant suprise,, i crimped the cable properly and connected it to the battery.....and the cc roared to life!
ran through further checks..and everything was functioning ok,
now i have a redundant 60amp fangpusun cc on my hands +the bluetooth dongle which i have bought on amazon [enroute].
simply amazing!..epsolar mppt cc rocks

my take is that epsolar using the radiator fins for cooling..unlike other makes that use a small fan powered by the battery...the fins were able to keep the cc cool and prevent it from over heating and burning up...unlike the fan models which since the batt cable wasnt connected..the fans would not have been working..thus nothing to cool the cc, and it would overheat and burn.

pls confirm if the bluetooth cable will face the same problem as the usb cable.....lemme know if i will cancel the amazon order asap.
equalization is only necessary for flooded batteries abi?...so anyone running sealed batts would not have this issue

A wonderful plus to epsolar. This will make the cc rise in price soon cos marketers will cites it as truly rugged.

ghostt:
Completed unit using su-kam clone inverter drivers. Made in Nigeria.

God bless you! God bless Nigeria.

Reach out to BOI - Now!

Infinitikoncept:
Thanks bro efuro make I leave mctrinity matter. Kiekie1 told me he was sick yesterday and have been on drugs which is why I edited my update so it won't look like I dey bring down his good works and integrity.
Of a truth from his response he isn't a trouble some person and I don't know why someone that didn't borrow me money felt airing my feedback is now a crime.
Brox kiekie1 get well soon

kiekie1:


Yes I have been on medication even as I type.. We have individual differences and opinions .. He posted on few threads for a fairly new inverter tested in Lagos by his staff and started indicatin fault when sent to him ... I will definitely attend to him as I already replied his mail .. Efuro do not preach Fair when you have transacted severally in the past and know my mobile numbers are always reachable unless if something is wrong somwer... Let's be real .. Its unlike men to act like women! Cheers

Get well soon, sir.

mcTrinity:


mbok, this forum is strictly for knowledge sharing and general problem sharing... not for personal problems.
I believe you have his number. call him; whatsapp him; email him; warehouse him;

thanks
cheers

Be fair! Read all infinitikoncept post all over nairaland and put urself in his shoes.

I believe he said something about Whatapp as you've suggested.

Cheers!

CLASSMAN:
Nice thread, I have same thing similar but 2kva thinking of adding solar to it but heard that if u are not careful the overcharging or undercharginging can kill d batteries faster interested in best c.c to use and panel either mono or poly

Am happy you asked.
The question can better be answered by urself, how deep ur pocket is. U have cc of 5k and dat of 500k plus. Same with panels. The previous fine line btw dem has greatly faded out in production wise. In fact I have equal no. Of both ( 6 mono -6 poly of 150w) & my poly is producing more. However, some believe mono will out live poly possibly before or after 25yrs

For a small unit like yours, u can buy few mono but for large scale like 5kw & > poly will do the job.

I also believe every solar setup is unique irrespective of design flaws.
I wish you a stress free upgrade experience.

Apipia:

I am asking Why? Ain't we democratic men?

To enrich urself pls Read this thread. I gained a lot from it

https://www.nairaland.com/390522/solar-energy-complement-fta/297#61473643

Apipia:

Thanks for the effort to guide, not that i am totally off grid, our power grid is always off from 10am to 3pm, or 11am to 5pm, sometimes off again from 8pm to 12am or stays thru the night, what of if i up it to 2, 300w poly pv? Or 4units of 150w?

Just add one more 200w same brand as b4 and ur ok.

200w x 3=600w x 0.8 (where 0.2 is loss due various factors)=480w
480w x 6hrs=2880wh/day or 60% of batteries power sufficiently restored if at all u deplete it by 50% daily.

Remember 3 panels =27amps lower than ur 30A CC which is safe.

Thus ur setup will effectively bridge the gap of no grid. Mind u, the grid equally cycle ur batteries too.

However, u may which to expanded gradually by buy 300w for keep till ur ready. Personally I prefer 2 150w to a single 300w, don't ask me why.

makavele:
I run a 12V system
On a bright sunny day, i can use the refridgerator, 42” led tv, dstv , rechargable fan
a couple of intermittent led bulbs
and battery hovers from 13.0 to 13.3
When there is intense cloud cover, battery
hovers between 12.7 and 12.9
Can someone pls explain
Thanks

Yours above is sign that your enjoying ur investment. Keep it up @ 12.7 and you'll be fine even at the threat of N51/kw you have nothing to fear!

Penuelseun:
Hello my ogas in the house, I have a question, I have a zenith 200ah battery that I have been using since last year, I built a charger for it myself as I can't get a smart charger here in akure, my question is can I connect a solar charge controller with an 18volts charger so that the controller can regulate the charge that goes into the battery, can the charge controller work without a solar panel?

If Bolded above is true, why then do you need CC since have made us proud by building a smart charger urself

pranil:
http://punchng.com/electricity-tariff-may-increase-by-61-5-soon/
.

I dey ready 4 dem!

Dooms day preppers

Apipia:
@efuro, thanks for your honest information, my primary aim is to have my television (70w) satellite decoder and home theater (75w) table top fridge (105w) Binatone ceiling fan (60w) charge our phones and tablet on during the day. And have my 15 pcs (not all)of 5watts led bulb on at night especially 3room 2bulbs per room, 2 balcony lights, 1bulb per balcony to be on all through the nite, 2 toilet to be switched on and off as per use, the tv ,home theater, satellite decoder,bulbs in the lounge to be off by 11pm, including all other bulbs, excluding the balcony and kitchen.
Hence i suggested to the former installer for a hybrid configuration, he instructed me to buy the solar pv 200wx2 , Solar charger, 4mm flex cord, on the solar pv, i want him to up to 250 or 300w, by this i need additional suggestion . Those equipment I mentioned, i need them operate during the day light hours, typically i work from home

Your loads are generic, nothing special.
It will be interesting to know or see pix of What type of CC u have, nevertheless, you'll be betteroff if u add one more panel for the seek of ur batteries on a cloudy days.

Addition, DC watt meter will do you good if installed @ output terminals of ur batteries to monitor ur consumption @ nite.

Cheers!

Apipia:
I dont know if this section is the appropriate forum for my question thus, i have a 1.5kva inverter 24volts powered by 2 12v 200ah batteries, but now want to configure it with 2 panels of 200watts 24volts solar panels i have also a 12/ 24vdc 30amps charger control. My question is, are the 2 200w 24vdc solar panels connected in parallel well ok to properly charge these batteries? to there prime full charging point from 10.30 to 4.30pm?

I need to congratulate you on your focus towards enjoying 24hrs electricity in our beloved country.

Your question is expected perhaps due to the huge cost of batteries. Even though your setup is small, things has to be done right.

There factors to considered when doing solar system design. I am going to make some assumptions since the information you supplied is insufficient and probably you may have connected your stuff already. However, you've stated you have "30a" controller plus 2 "200ah" batteries means amps matters a lot.

I hope you have rated cables, meanwhile I assume your controller is pwm which is OK for a small setup like yours. 200w will give you around 9amps, so take a look at:

To charge your batteries you have

2x200w In parallel= 18amps and 9amps in series
18x6hrs sunlight=108ah for pwm controller while with mppt controller in parallel=20.3amps and a little more in Series
20.3x6hrs=122ah which is 61% of your 200ah battery bank@24v

In essence, you have only 50-60% of your batteries as daily disposable at nitetime. So manage loads consumption to less than 10amps or 240w/hr till sun comes up and you should be fine for years to come.

Welcome on board. Let's leave Nija better than we meet it.

foonshur:
brethren... I don come with my questions again o
pls can the charging state of a cc affect the charging state of the inverter.
I ask becos a friends TriStar45 will normally indicate high voltage disconnect just after about 3 hours of charging and about 15mins later, the inverter stops charging too(meaning ba3 is full). Nw jst after 8 months, doz ba3s r gone. So I'm thinking maybe d cc is sending wrong info to the inverter or d ba3s r not good to begin with.

I have not used TriStar 45 but I know it is a powerful CC and it should have GT Mode function.

I will advice u state the type of ur inverter or snap both cc & inverter so dat those with similar type can assist you with settings.

adewasco2k:
My setup and advise on improvement or do good maintenance?

PV array: 2 piece of 130w mono
30ah CC
250ah 12v battery - Lifepo4 battery
1kva Inverter


So far everything works great!

Congratulations
Let's celebrate with pictures of ur instalation too

Obimind1:
Its been over a month now, I lost my batteries and my charge controller(60ah mppt) all at the same time under 8months of usage. It was a tough time for me though, but the truth was that I had no one to run to. I managed to get a set of new batteries which will clock one month on the 19th of this month. I also had to fall back to my 30ah and 20ah pwm charge controller which I dumped sometime ago. Now this are my findings: I noticed that my pwm seem to have an effective cut off strength compared to my mppt cc. My pwm does not exceed 28.2v at peak Sun periods and even when I'm charging my batteries with national grid power(Phcn), but when I was using my mppt I noticed that at peak periods my cc voltage rises up to 30v and every 28 day of the month it shows that its equalizing at this point my battery voltage rises to 32v during peak Sun hours. To cut the long story short I lost my batteries and my precious 60ah mppt cc under eight months. My charge controller started showing (battery OVD). Now I'm starting all over again. I must say I learnt my lessons the hard way. Had I known I would have maintained my pwm which I was using conveniently for over a year b4 going mppt. If I am to go the mppt way again, I have to do a lot of research to know what capacity of mppt cc will be efficient for my 24v set up.

It is painful to loss over 250k to ba3 & CC in just 8 months. Ba3 equalizing @ 32v for too long is suicidal for ba3 that are not dead.

Had I known I would have maintained my pwm which I was using conveniently for over a year b4 going mppt. Don't be discouraged with mppt. Is ur mppt CC under 2yr warranty? That is why I like buying from forum members, you can always redeem ur warranty as fellow mates.

Best wishes!

makavele:



Well I am just starting out, so i expect a lot of hiccups here and there, I had wanted to get an extra 100ah battery but I am waiting for just a while to get the hang of it.

Nice Pictures, also elementarily kool for a beginner. Enjoy ur freedom 247.

Dam5reey:


Alright, it's good your PV was over sized, you will have the advantage to use and charge during the day, but your you will only get 30Amp plus from a potential 40Amps + PV...
Hope the battery can take 30A,
if cash was not the issue, 200AH 40A cc would best match

Need not to worry, the CC will handle amps going into the battery. My fear is ur consumption/backup time.

Talibanis:


I will rather pray for the price of renewable energy products to drop this encouraging people going green.

price drop?

How often...
Prices rarely drop. Check out top range inverters (almost N1m), cc(almost N.5m) and batteries (hmmmm).

My prayer will skewed to licensed local manufacturing of solar accessories and gadgets in the country, hopefully things will become affordable to all across West Africa.