₦airaland Forum

rainmaker12:
5kva how much and how many batteries

5kva local pure sinewave inverter 48vdc(4batts) - 160k. Fully guaranteed for one year.
INVERTER ONLY

MONO-CRYSTALLINE OR POLY-CRYSTALLINE SOLAR PANELS: WHICH IS BETTER?

My View

What is the better type of solar panels for my home, mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline?

There is often great debate over whether you are better off with poly-crystalline cells in your solar panels or mono-crystalline solar cells in your solar panels.

I think this question is one of the last things I would concern myself with if I were buying solar electricity panels and here is the reason why.

When two solar panels are marketed at a particular wattage (say 200 watts) it means that (at standard test conditions) both will produce at least 200 watts, provided both of these panels have no negative power tolerance in their specifications.

This is the case even though one of these panels may use poly-crystalline cells and one of these panels may use mono-crystalline cells.

What is important to remember is that any slight differences in cell efficiency between poly-crystalline or mono-crystalline panels is already taken into account when they are rated and so is of little or no relevance to you as the end consumer.

It may be that the mono crystalline panel in the example above is fractionally smaller than the poly crystalline panel that produces the same amount of power, because perhaps the mono crystalline cells used may be slightly more efficient but in the end both are going to produce the same amount of power.

A better cell efficiency simply means that the mono crystalline panel might be fractionally smaller but if you look at the sizes of commercially available poly-crystalline panels and mono-crystalline panels of the same wattage (say 200 watts) they are very close to each other in size.

Both types of solar cells usually have a similar temperature coefficient and so in practicality both are likely to produce an almost identical amount of power over time.

Similarly, there is no evidence that either poly-crystalline solar panels or mono-crystalline solar panels decay at a different rate over time.

This is why I would not be too concerned about whether the solar installer I talked too offered me mono-crystalline or poly-crystalline solar panels. In other words, what the poly-crystalline solar panels lacks in cell efficiency, they gain in size. If you have enough roof space, you need not concern yourself with the type of panel you are given either poly or mono.

This setup goes for 100k. It includes:

1500va converted power inverter
2pcs 12v 100ah brand new batteries
24v 50ah external charger
Installation
6months iron clad warranty

This setup goes for 150k. It includes:

1500va converted power inverter
2pcs 12v 200ah brand new batteries
24v 50ah external charger
Installation
6months iron clad warranty

Allem:
bros can i see a clear picture of the charger? also how much will the set-up cost me. can i also do the set-up myself?

The purpose of the training is purely DIY (Do It Yourself)
It's also available for sale for those who cannot.

lakefist:
Wow this is really interesting..I have a blue type 12v battery just for my laptop.Can i use a ups as inverter?

Of course you can just follow the steps highlighted above and you are good to go. I'll be willing to guide you through.

bobojoshua:
Bros, i want to know if this kind of setup(modified ups) will affect the battery life since it has no battery indicator.

It will not. It has a battery indicator and a load indicator. Indicators have nothing to do with battery life. Remember the batteries are charged by a smart external charger.

More conversion pictures

Allem:
how many watts can the ups take? if I may how many watts is the ups?

The UPS is 1500VA and can conveniently take 900W of load. It will conveniently pick a fridge with other house hold loads like TVs, blenders, bulbs, fans etc.

APC installation in SuruLere, Lagos

iukpe:
These UPS conversions work well as long as you take care of the temperature increase due to load and longer run time compared to what they were originally designed for.

Yes, they work very well especially the APC. I installed one in a cafe of six systems with fans and other load since August 2015. The cafe opens between 9am and 9pm every day and there's not been a single issue. I have also installed for a couple of my clients, most of them got my contact through Nairaland. I personally use three of the APC myself and the results are quite heart warming.
So it works and works very well and it's also well protected against high temperature and overload.

Installation at Ibafon, ogun state using 1.5kva with 2pcs 100ah batteries

1kw APC UPS converted to INVERTER

1.5kva pure sine wave converted APC UPS/INVERTER

After conversion, had been in operation for 3months

Undergoing Conversion

For 24v get a 24v charger like this one in the picture

8. Get a very good charger and you're good to go. For 12v get a 12v charger like this one in the picture

7. Locate the red and black cables that connects the battery and extend them out of the Inverter. The end of the cable might be lugged or clipped as shown in the pictures below

bobojoshua:
@feflo Thanks for the detailed guide. Please, how do we know when the battery gets to 50% dept of discharge?

Knowing the depth of discharge(DoD) or the State of Charge(SoC) is a very difficult question to answer because it depends on so many variables. The type of battery(FLA,AGM, Gel etc), even the age of the battery is also a factor. I will answer your question purely from experience, at 11.6v -11.8v, some inverters cut off indicating a 80% DoD. Some go lower than that, some high end inverters even cut off at 12v (Note that i am using a 12v battery as case study).
So, generally from experience, 50% DoD is attained at between 12v and 12.2v for a 12v battery system.

6. Mark out the position of the fan on the outer casing and cut it. This is to allow the fan to extract out the hot air from the UPS

5. Carefully look for a DC point on the panel and connect the two cables from the DC fan to it. Note that if the UPS is 24VDC, you will need a 24VDC fan and if 12VDC, you will need a 12VDC fan.

4. Get a good DC fan(readily available in Lagos) and position it close to the transformer/panel as seen in the picture. You will need a silicon Gum to fasten the Fan to the base of the UPS

3. Locate the buzzer on the board and yank it off.

2. Open the casing(outer cover)

1. Get a working UPS (preferably an APC), remove the battery if its available

For those who find the price of regular inverter out of reach, i will be sharing info on how you can convert a UPS to an Inverter. I have done a couple of these conversions and have even sold to people and the result is quite heart warming.

Mesh Inverter

Solidtech Power Inverter

Charge controller