₦airaland Forum

toyeoye:
This makes sense! Strong selling point and reason to get a Victron inverter I guess. While we ponder on this option/save up to get one, we're on our own?

Provided that solar panels are connected.

My puny inverter will prioritize solar over grid.

The issue is that the inverter has a PWM charge controller and I know that an MPPT is better.

So that is certainly an option if you don't mind the low yields of PWM charge controller.

toyeoye:
I agree, going big will ensure the system can sustain itself without the need to be grid tied but how many people can go big at once?

No one tells the regular 5kv 24v system guy that this is a problem to take note of

I also diverted the funds to fund another major purchase.

So I have to refill the financial tank.

Not everyone has the luxury of taking on several massive projects at once

toyeoye:
Very interesting!
There has to be a way forward sir
Folks trying to jump on the solar bandwagon TAKE NOTE

I wanted to go big.

You can start small.

Get top tier panels.

Get a decent charge controller, not necessarily the one with all the bells and whistles.

More cost effective than paying PHCN.

The other issue is that I slowed down to really understand the solar ecosystem before plunging funds into it

toyeoye:
Appx 15k a week when I'm extremely cautious chief...what's your experience?

10k a week without AC,

10k a day if I turn on the AC

toyeoye:
Hello good people, I wonder why no one talks about the huge amount of units consumed through charging the batteries if your setup is tied to the grid.
Na die o! in my opinion doesn't make sense right now because the point of going solar is to save money eventually.
This doesn't apply to folks using
only backup generator to supplement production during long stretches of outage.
Please share your experiences, thanks

How much are you spending a month on this?

zeestone99:
Of course. They are all tier1 panels. I remember back then people on this forum dissed jinko, it took a lot of convincing to educate them that panels are rated by their categories and not name.
Some b like what kind of name is jinko. It must be fake and only Canadian Solar is original

thanks.

Will do business with you in the second quarter of 2023

ValCon888:
A typical Nigerian girl has this entitlement mentality.
They believe you must do everything for them.
You must give them money, take them out, buy gifts, make their hair, recharge their phones (and still do the calling) etc.

You must give them money before they buy you gift. And they will only use 10% of that money for your usual boxers, singlet or roll-on birthday present.

She is never altruistic or selfless. If she does something for you, she expects you to do something even greater for her in return. It is until you date a foreign chick you realize a vast majority of Nigerian girls have nothing to offer.

A selfless, generous Nigerian girl is like a Taliban Christian. They don't exist.

Hmmmm

bigrovar:
Canadian solar also has the 210 mm wafer for their hiku7 series of solar panels. They are in the same class as Trina vertex panels

In other words, whether I go Canadian or Trina.

I can't go wrong!

Thanks.

samir101ng:
I am guessing you are referring to JA Solar.

They are also a Tier-1 rated solar panel. Their 550W panel and above use their Deep Blue 3.0 technology.

However, i also highly recommend Trina Solar Panels. They have an authorized distributor Solarpowertal & website you can order from.

They currently stock 380W and 540W panels. I particularly like the 540W Vertex panels because they have the largest cells at 210mm compared to the competition.

I really appreciate this.

The inability to see Jinko 540 or 550 watts and not knowing its equivalents has been a sore thorn in my side.

Will review both brands and make my choice

The floor looks like time sha.

This is the exact specification of Time I got.

Will post the Royal later

sethtsadopp:
You mean Virony is more expensive than time and goodwill? I bought Virony from a distributor at N3000 psm recently. I think Time and Goodwill are slightly more expensive. I may be wrong though. But which of the 3 of them has the best quality, Virony, Time or Goodwill?

They told me Royal is better than Time.

First time I bought Time.

Second time around I got Royal.

Here's what I noticed.

Time is slightly larger than Royal.

In both cases I got 60 x 60.

If you wanna notice do a side by side placement

UC92:
The earliest known building code.
Zoom in to see the interpretations at the base.

Men meant business back then.

Thanks for sharing.

Reminds me of the Biblical Building Code in Deuteronomy 22: 8:

“When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.”

durodee:
I beg to disagree.
One day , at my business, the 5kva inverter kept tripping with overload fault showing. This was an inverter that had no issues with 1.5HP submersible pump and an 1HP AC together on a normal day.
I will switch it back on, check the load (@700w) observe for a while, get back to my office and about 10mins later it will trip again.
Out of frustration,i went to the DB and I started isolating the building, section by section until we found one area that anytime we switch it on, then the inverter trips.
I then called my electrician who came, checked , and could not find the problem. Soon the same issues resurfaced somewhere else .
So we searched socket by socket only to discover a useless phone charger was the culprit. One of my staff, oblivious to my dilemma, wanted to charge her phone . She will plug it, power will go, she will remove the charger use her phone awhile then plug it again when power comes. When i isolated a section of the building, she jejely moved to another part of the building to charge her phone . That day was not funny.
I made sure i destroyed that charger that day before someone go give me heart attack

Apart from killing one of the channels of the amplifier, plugging in that charger gave an effect that seemed like it wanted to suck the life out of the generator, I don't know how else to explain it.

The sound of the generator changed and the lights blinking made it clear that something catastrophic had occurred.

Looked for spares locally and all the spares were fakes, not exact substitutes or unobtanium

Now imagine that a little act of kindness resulted in having to consult Electrical Electronic Engineers on forums and via email, buy the service manual of the amplifier in the US and ship to Nigeria, study electronics so as to read and understand the service manual, test component by component, report back to those Electrical Electronic Engineers online, buy the equipment to help me remove and replace the failed components, get feedback from those Electrical Electronic Engineers on which of those components to use as it, and which to replace with something better, import the replacement components, study component datasheets and compare with the original components in situ, then they told me that to balance everything, I need to perform the same surgery to the left channel.

It was very clear to me that such a mistake must not be allowed to repeat itself.

As far as I am concerned, you did very well to destroy that charger

samir101ng:
Hehehe Hard luck.

This is why i have a Anker Multi-charger in my house and don't use anybody's charger to charge their phones. Just give me your phone and i will charge it for you even faster probably than your chinko charger.

Since then, that has been my position too, give me your phone, I don't need your charger. Unless I know you don't go cheap with chargers then I might bend my rule for you.

You responded to my question on GA Solar but the forum ate it up.

Please can you post again, and post any links as pictures or without the dots so I can respond

FEGEITOK:
My point was that if I bought an RCCB of doubtful provenance, then not only is there a risk of shock, but to my mind, my equipment is at risk.

Now, I am not under the impression that I need to save some cash to make extra profit, that is what some artisans would do. Neither am I willing to engage some heavy height electrical engineer for this to my mind very small project - the engineer will most likely use the proper RCCB but i will have to pay heavily for engaging him.

That said, since I have benefited immensely from this forum, let me also share so others can benefit as well.

If you need guidance on RCCB and ELCB and why the former is better, then please find time to watch these videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVJeh-PQGHM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J4LhGMd1Hw

I feel that my earthing is in order, but to test it. I will most likely need to engage a fit and proper electrical engineer for that task

Sapiosexuality

Sapiosexuality:
For example the recent ones PRAG, RCCB. Seriously whenever I think I'm beginning to get it and I see an analysis I get even more confused.

PRAG is a company that makes electrical equipment.

For RCCB, see post below

Sapiosexuality:
The terms you guys use. The more I stay to read and understand the more I get confused. It seems like every device has more than 10 different names it can be identified with.

Which term? Let's break it down.

ojesymsym:
Village people just use this neighbor. Bad charger with a faulty component most likely but why not just bring out smoke rather than destroy something else? Strange

As to your final question, I leave that for my opponents to answer.

Left channel is on its own. Right channel is on its own. Right channel power transistors died. If I remember correctly even a diode died. Those things aren't in Nigeria. I had to import replacements.

Left channel was still working.

But I wanted my equipment whole.

I was running off a generator at the time.

It was one of those poorly made mass market Chinese phone chargers.

If I disconnected the power supply to the right channel, the left would work.

ojesymsym:
I believe that the RCCB or even the ELCB are more of safety devices than protection of your equipment.

I believe if your electronics are also of great concern with respect to over-voltage and fluctuating voltages we sometimes from the utility, you may want to be looking at home stabilizers instead.

No contest.

However ever since one bad experience I am extremely worried about connecting poor quality equipment to my electrical circuits.

I was enjoying listening to music on my high end audio amplifier worth thousands of dollars. I was the only one who had power. My neighbor knocked and begged me to help charge her phone. The moment I connected that phone charger to the same outlet as my amplifier, my amplifier went bad. A post mortem indicated that one of the channels died.

Since then I am worried about the quality of the equipment connected to my outlets.

So while RCCBs protect against shock, I imagined all the worst things that can happen if I bought a fake RCCB.

That was why I had to be personally involved in buying the RCCB.

Might have been a coincidence but until then why didn't the amplifier fail?

On the issue of VT, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having one.

But there is a need to balance the need for one and the need for the privacy of the homeowner.

Your visitor needs to feel welcome but does not need to know everything about you. So I have an issue with a VT that is placed in such a way that the visitor can see albeit briefly what is happening in any of the rooms of the house.

I also have an issue with placing it directly in the sitting room. It can be placed next to the sitting room but it should not be placed directly in the sitting room.

As someone said, there is a distinction between a VT and a GRT (Guest Room Toilet).

The issue of the foul smell can be easily remedied as someone also suggested through a variety of measures.

I feel though that every home deserves to have a VT and each room should have be self-contained aka ensuite

Since this is a build thread, let me share some information I shared on building efficiency and the use of inverter acs on another thread, as it will be relevant to homeowners who may not appreciate how it can create cost savings in the long run.

tolukemi:
Thank you. Here's the wattage:

1. lights - About 6hours during the night. (232W total but it would probably be about a third of this over the course of the day)
2. Four ceiling fans - 2 running from 6pm-6am (300W total for the 4 fans)
3. TV with decoder - 7pm-11pm (85W)
4. Refrigerator - 7am-7pm (200W)
5. Chest freezer 7am-7pm (110W)
6. Water pump - 1 hour during the day (1.5hp)
7. Possibly an AC in the future - 6pm -11pm (Considering a 1 or 1.5hp system)

Is it possible to replace the current lights with energy saving bulbs? How many lights amount to the 232W?

Is it possible to replace the ceiling fans wth those that take less than 75W each?

You will need an inverter AC if you want to run an energy-efficient system

As you will learn when you start using inverters and batteries - energy is not infinite. Although we tend to think you when we use utility power, we only begin to accept that you have to manage consumption if you run a generator or an inverter.

In practical terms, we watch very closely how many watts we take out from our inverters and batteries because they can only give us so much power as the rating allows.

We can even calculate for losses and so even if an inverter is 1.5kva we might not give it loads amounting to 1.5kva

What's the consensus on GA Solar?

As good as Jinko?

Curious345:
I have 2 spare surface 1.5hp water pumps for sale .just incase you need wm

Sorry that I did not respond to this before now.

1. What brand?

2. New or used?

3. Location?

4. Price?

mangolpupa:
Good morning & thanks brother. You're right, it always helps when we know how things around us works.

For me, I will be starting my electrical system integrity (connections & earthing installation) checks and upgrade within the next few weeks. So that I can be reasonably satisfied with what follows next.

NEPA has shown household shege, so I need to look for an alternative like many of us here. I have settled my mind for either Jinko or Yingli panels. 1st choice is Jinko. Do you know any authorized Jinko seller? I contacted techland and Paletteng but they only have 380W.

I also spoke to Palette/Techland and I am delaying my purchase because I prefer 550W to 380W.

Because of work I haven't really researched who else has but if I do, I will share with you.

Jinko is also my first choice.

But I might have to change plans if they are not available by April latest which is when I intend to set up the system at the latest.

BrickDevo:
Yes they should follow it up and ensure that before drawings are approved that it must be included and afterwards implemented. I must add, your comment wow very very enlightening....

In Nigeria the government gives the impression that all they want is to take money from Nigerians.

The American example proves that Building Energy Efficiency Codes can keep money in the citizens pocket.

This is a direct quote from those screenshots above:

Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners have helped American families and businesses save 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs, and achieve 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. Over the lifetime of the program, every dollar EPA has spent on ENERGY STAR resulted in nearly $350 in energy cost savings for American business and households. In 2020 alone, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped Americans save more than 520 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and avoid $42 billion in energy costs.

So please take it seriously

In my next build, this will be considered from the building design stage

FEGEITOK:
By the way I just ran a search and found zero reference to the Nigeria Building Energy Efficiency Code on this forum as a whole and the property subsection in particular

This was my initial post on the Nigerian BEEC

BrickDevo:
that i ignore it doesn't mean it will affect nature negatively, most times it is done to reduce the energy consumption in the building, but which energy are we even reducing if the energy/power supply in Nigeria is epileptic and already reduced.

If you monitor how the NERC keeps increasing electricity tariff rates, and how we now have inverter ACs, inverter fridges, extremely low power lighting lamps that are as low as 5 to 7 watts but still bright, the increasing dependence on inverters and alternative power supply sources, then you will agree with me that energy efficiency is a thing that is being practiced haphazardly here.

If you also monitor how the economy is going down for so many people in Nigeria, then this is one way to make the little money the client has go further.

The issue is that if the building owners and building contractors don't jointly work on this, anything the building owners do afterwards will be afterthoughts and can never go as far as building the house from the ground up with this in mind.

By the way, I took time out to read up the Nigerian BEEC and even posted on it a while ago, there are several useful ideas that every building contractor ought to be familiar with and gradually introduce to their clients.

Maybe the problem is that the recommendations therein are just recommendations and not mandatory.

Overseas, it is not just a direction, it is often times mandatory.

In America, private homes and even commercial facitlites can even be energy star certified.

Truth be told the EPA in America has played an outsized role in making this happen. The Federal Ministry of Housing in Nigeria has done well to set up the BEEC but it should collaborate with the Federal Ministry of Environment to make it a thing.

mangolpupa:
My Oga I greet you. Be assured that my comments are generic and well intentioned with nothing personal in it in case misunderstood.

That said, thank you for uploading this Sir. I and others are sure to learn from it.

I never took offense. From our chat here, I had to go back and install earth wire in my home AC unit and office AC unit.

That validates your point.

The second issue that validates your point is that with so many technicians the client maybe more educated on the stuff that he is contracting the vendor/tech on. That to me is very bad. Its your field. Why can't you keep up with the technology? Why can't you hold a conversation on it with your client? Isn't that a chance to demonstrate your mastery and make the client relax that you know your onions?

So I never took offense.

You raised a very valid point on earthing and I am determined to confirm that all is well on that front since I have no other way of confirming that they did the proper thing.

Third issue that validates your point is that lights were blowing left right and center until the client decided to replace the DB the vendor/tech installed with a another DB.

It is events like these that make me take a very active interest in whatever installations are done for me.

I don't want my money to work for me. I want to understand exactly how the money is doing that work for me so I can interrogate the process.

If I didn't have that knowledge when I found out that the ELCB was bad at 11pm (as I just stepped into a dark house meanwhile everyone had light around me and the indicators were showing that I had light at the meter).I would have remained in darkness till the next day. Which tech was I going to call to come and sort me out at that time?

But because I have such knowledge I rigged up temporary lighting until I was able to replace the ELCB with a RCCB

blyted:
"A touch of green"

The word green came by painting or led lighting or energy efficiency .... Or the plant on the wall makes it green

I am also watching and I am yet to see any architect or builder on this platform reference the Nigerian BEEC or clearly state that the Nigerian BEEC influenced the design and build

Neither have I seen anyone say this or that was incorporated because of Energy Efficiency considerations

GloriousGbola:
Which introduces an additional power drain. Fine if you always have nepa.problem if you run on gen

True that

To add to the discussion of height and water pressure.

If one does not want a very high water tank, then he needs a booster pump, then he can keep the tank at any other height since the pump will do the work of creating pressure.

Money that would have been spent on a very long structurally sound tank-carrying structure can be spent on a pump.

I haven't done a comparison to say which approach is cheaper than the other