₦airaland Forum

Wrap your mind round it. Existence is bigger than any religion. The earth is infinitesimally smaller than a grain of sand in a beach. Live your life to the fullest today for tomorrow you are gone. All you've got for sure is now.
What people say about you does not matter one bit. You are not going to be here for long

PastorAIO:
Nothing per se. It's all a balancing act. Withholding belief robs one of conviction in action and an action not backed by conviction is doomed to fail from the start.

One needs some belief and some skepticism, the problem is when to apply both and by what amounts.

I understand you.
Believe is subjective to the believer, that is a very valid point and irrefutable. You the believer or unbeliever of whatever, solely determine when you think you have enough evidence or conviction to believe whatever...
BUT the mose critical man is more likely to sieve out deception or misinformation than the impressionable man.
Key is be critical as much as possible but not to the extent of being grounded from taking necessary actions per time

Comparism will be broad. Cost wise Reliability wise Maintenance wise Convenience wise
Will treat this topic in detail

Space booked for content

Stay tuned

kiekie1:
Nope wasn't out of stock bt on a little seasons break, simply call me against January 4 supplies ! Thanks

Thank you sir
Got that clarified.

chris81964:
You are supposed to clean them. It can reduce your production by up to 30%

Compliments of the season Mr. Chris
:d many may not be able to reach their panels, I think hosing them down should work to a good extent.

kiekie1:
Trojan batteries now in stock... Discount prices on TROJAN IND 17-6V industrial line flooded lead acid batteries (1202AH) .. Recent stock price increase to 355k but call now for Xmas bonus purchase/supply prices ... Thanks

Are your trojan batteries still in stock?
Need them urgently

Protect your home and inverter with a servo stabilizer.
Tip: get a central stabilizer that can carter for your home use and you lower the risk of fire hazards from high voltage supply, you get low voltages stabilized. This is better than having smaller units of stabilizers liter the whole house.
Below is a 10kva stabilizer.
Would carter for
1 air conditioner
1 freezer
Up to 3-4 tvs
20-30 or more Light points
All at once

Protect your home and inverter with a servo stabilizer.
Tip: get a central stabilizer that can carter for your home use and you lower the risk of fire hazards from high voltage supply, you get low voltages stabilized. This is better than having smaller units of stabilizers liter the whole house.
Below is a 10kva stabilizer.
Would carter for
1 air conditioner
1 freezer
Up to 3-4 tvs
20-30 or more Light points
All at once

geesampower:
For your solar powered street lights
Solar powered water pumping
Solar power electricity supply
For homes, offices, hospitals, schools etc

The sun shines everyday

Barezzi:
@Geesam
i'm very interested in having a solar powered water distribution system.
i'm looking at a 4000 liter capacity tank located at ground level, with dc or ac booster pump(s).

Seeing i already have a solar array for the house, is there any merit in a dedicated setup for this project?
i dislike the unsightly look of overhead tanks, that's why this will be enclosed in my battery room (water room).

The submersible and booster pumps should be dc.
How much will this set me back?
Thanks.

Ok found a reliable solution
Check the link out www.dankoffsolarpumps.com/flowlight-booster-pump/

But this costs a lot $1300 to be precise. Found alternatives such as shurflow booster pumps (I am familiar with their product, not hardy enough I must confess but cheap $125)
I will go for the dankoff booster pump it has a life expectancy of 15-20years and works with just 300w with an output of 3-5 Gallons per minute.

Why create this thread? If you are a regular reader here and at the auto section you will be familiar with several disputes that emanate from such business transactions.

Necessity would always make you need contractors here in Nigeria to execute your projects in your absence. So what do you do? How do you protect yourself? How do you get the best?

NOTE THE BEST CONTRACTORS YOU CAN EVER GET ARE FROM NAIRALAND.

1. We have a name to protect it is very embarrassing to be reported here online I Mean extremely embarrassing. Take advantage of this. The contractor that is not online can always cover his tracks and manage the embarrassment.


2. We have a lot of potential customers on the waiting list. Being reported spoils the whole reputation.

3. Quality of your work can always appraised by experts here. Patronizing an offline contractor means you just have to take what ever he tells you. Especially on subjects you no little about

HOW TO WORK WITH NAIRALAND CONTRACTORS.

1. GO FOR BIG REPUTATION NOT BIG NAME: don't be deceived by the glamour of Classy adverts, high caliber projects and other eye catching attributes of a contractor. Those in auto section here on Nairaland can attest to this, it is these set of people that defraud the most, because their genuineness is really questioned. Not saying the big name is not good, but they must also have a reputation. Imagine how much complaints has been made about some BIG names here and yet people keep falling victims to them.

2. RESEARCH YOU TARGET CONTRACTOR. What you need to watch out for is dishonesty and un-professionalism.

3. NO ONE IS PERFECT. I mean NO ONE. That you don't see any complaint online does not mean we don't have issues offline. Spygadget can attest to this. But how does the contractor handle the problems he has with his clients? That is key. In line with this is my next point.

4. BE REALISTIC IN YOU EXPECTATION.
I see a lot of silly praise of contractors here. Yes commendation is good, but these praises makes you expect the unrealistic from us. There is no established company in the world that has not had issues. Toyota has made lots of design mistakes that has lead to accidents, Samsung has had bloats in their phones etc. Work with us as humans, follow proper business procedures while dealing with us. There may be need to make some corrections in the course of the work or add more funds etc.

Then you can move to the transaction proper

5. HAVE A TRUST WORTHY REPRESENTATIVE HERE IN NIGERIA.
The key word here is TRUSTWORTHY. Yes. Most times the relatives here in Nigeria are your problem and our problem. I have had some relatives/representative. Making monetary demands from me even after the job has been completed. They always feel it is their money and we the contractors are "chopping" all the money.

6. DEMAND FOR A QUOTE and BREAKDOWN.
Don't work with whole cost EVER!

7. ASK FOR OPTIONS: VERY important. As for options available to you and what the contractor recommends and why.

8. SAMPLE QUOTES FROM SEVERAL CONTRACTORS. Don't just take cost quotation from one single person. Take from several contractors and compare. No 2 contractors does things the same, so don't look for superficiality, be after the fundamental content.

9. DON'T JUDGE BY COST. Yes, the biggest mistake of clients. Lol. I really laugh now.
DON'T EVER GO FOR THE CHEAPEST OR EXPENSIVE OPTION.
Cheapest could mean inferior quality, but sometimes it could also mean a modest contractor. Expensive is presumed to be high quality, at the same time it cld just mean expensive and nothing more.
Go for the fundamentals. What are the materials needed? What is their cost? ARE they standard? That is the key thing. What options do you have? What does these options cost?

10. DON'T PROOVE TO BE TOO SMART.
Yes! Don't! You begin too ask some silly questions, then you are going too far. Stick to the contract. Some people will take quotes from too many people. Taking quotes from 3 people should be enough. Abusing this is wrong and you end up wasting so many peoples time. End up confusing yourself, endup doing a poor job. Know what you want and go for it. Don't waste a contractors time scrutinizing everything, based on what others are quoting to you.

11. PAY FOR STAGES OF WORK DONE. If you are building a house for example, don't pay all at once. Pay for the stages of building. Foundation, Carcass, Roofing, plastering etc. Break it down. This way you can always control the situation.

12. PAY WHAT THE CONTRACTOR NEEDS. Pay on time and pay in full. Holding back funds won't help your project or prove you to be smart. For foundation stage pay in FULL, for the carcass, PaY in full. Don't make the contractor call you for everything, "oga we need nail, oga we need block, oga we need tissue paper".

13. BE PATIENT. If there is any issue don't flare up. Listen to understand. If reasonable be willing to go back to the drawing board. This is normal especially in construction. NOTE that it is never easy for a contractor to ask for more money than budgeted. Construction is beyond 1+1=2.

14. COMMUNICATE. This is perhaps the most important. Once or twice a day is important. Know what has been achieved per day. Set targets in a polite way for the contractor and ask about progress. Let the contractor tell you what he intends to achieve in a given time frame and follow this up.

15. BE POLITE. Don't think anyone is after your money or because you are in a foreign land, that makes everyone in Nigeria hungry. I have seen some threads here with some clients being so low, bashing and insulting like kids.

FOLLOW DUE Process and you will be safe

YOU can add yours and share your

Solution

TCD:
plus i can imagine here in the north during every police/security search you will probably be mistaken for carrying IED'S.

Seriously, we aint ready for this in Nigeria

Beautiful sunday

Happy sunday

Barezzi:
@Geesam
i'm very interested in having a solar powered water distribution system.
i'm looking at a 4000 liter capacity tank located at ground level, with dc or ac booster pump(s).
How much will this set me back?

My oga, we have discussed this o.
Ac boosters are readily available, let me see if I can get dc boosters even if we have to import it. It would be best to make everything dc.

1Segzy:
@geesampower - Wonderful thread. One of the very best. Thumbs up.
Can one build his solar power capacity over time? For example starting with 1kVA capacity in the first year, then in the second year investing some money and increasing capacity to 2KVA, then do this over again after some time till you get to the capacity you want? If this is possible, how can one go about it? What will be your advice?

I am so sorry for the late reply. Saw it when posted intended to reply but forgot all together.
Thanks for the compliment sir.
It is easy to add to your solar array (the interlinked solar panels), but the inverter needed for current conversion would always end up being wasted. Eg 1kw inverter to 2kw inverter then to 3 kw inverter would mean the 1kw and 2 kw becomes a waste.
What you can do is start with the highest number of inverter possible, a high mppt controller. And about 100% increase may be possible in future without any equipment being wasted
If your eventual target is 3kva, then go for 3kva inverter. If you need to generate 7kw perday eventually, then use. A 60A 48v charge controller at least and you can start with an array of 800W-1000w and increase to 2000w in future.
Conclusion. Target shld be on the panels being increased not anything else

mike404:
ARE YOU NOT SUPPOSE TO
BE MOURNING YOUR DEAD SISTER

Bloggers and lies. Are u sure that lady was her sister? Bloggers disgust me. And if true then this girl is one heartless desperate ***** imagine displaying the corpse of a sister the way she did. A sane person would only. Post pictures of the damsel when she was alive. This vivian disgusts me

Eugenedimgba:
It took you just a day to mourn your "blood sister"?

Barezzi:
Yeah, a second FM60 cc should do the trick.
I use the auxiliary output to control loads on a second db.
When the battery SOC drops to 50% it knocks off power to DB#2.
DB#2 carries all the 13A loads outside the master bedroom.
DB#3 Carries the 15A non inverted loads.
DB#1 Carries the remainder...
When I have guests gaming and using up my stored energy, once the SOC drops to 50%, it shuts off the tv, fridge etc leaving just the lights and fans on.

Tech savy

Barezzi:
That's correct. That's why I installed more panels. When you discount inefficiencies, it should clip the current at 60A

That clipping means high temperatures. Your controller is "working". What of adding a controller. They can work in parallel to each other if your battery bank can take the high charge.

Barezzi:
I've just ordered for 9pcs 280w panels. I'm moving the 130w and 220w to the village.

Once installation is complete, I'll post pics.

15pcs 280w panels @ 4.2kw against the current 18pcs 3.78kw cocktail

Lol. Cocktail indeed

Barezzi:
I have a cocktail of different rated panels, I'm yet to confirm if these have any impact on performance.

6pcs 130w panels all connected in series... String 1.
6pcs 220w panels in 2 strings of 3 panels... String 2 & 3.
6pcs 280w panels in 2 strings of 3 panels... String 4 & 5.
Voc hovers between 100vdc and 110vdc
1pcs Outback Flex max 60cc
410Ah Battery bank (8pcs 6vdc 410Ah batteries in series)
Magnum 4300Va Inverter.
Dc disconnect box
Combiner box
Breakers etc

Your flex max can't output 3700watts. Max output would be in the region of 2800watts per time.
I love ur setup. You go for the best

Barezzi:
I have a cocktail of different rated panels, I'm yet to confirm if these have any impact on performance.

6pcs 130w panels all connected in series... String 1.
6pcs 220w panels in 2 strings of 3 panels... String 2 & 3.
6pcs 280w panels in 2 strings of 3 panels... String 4 & 5.
Voc hovers between 100vdc and 110vdc
1pcs Outback Flex max 60cc
410Ah Battery bank (8pcs 6vdc 410Ah batteries in series)
Magnum 4300Va Inverter.
Dc discnnect box
Combiner box
Breakers etc

4
Yes using different panels of different capacities has great impact on the output.
Eg. If you connect a panel of 17v 4amps to that outputing 15v, 4amps, you would expect to have (17X4)+(15X4)= total watts 128watts, but no what you get practically is 120watt equallizing to 15v for both panels in parallel. In series voltage adds up but current is compromised in an unambiguous array.
That is why shadow on just a single panel affects the whole array or having a panel with broken cell. The fault affects the whole array, same with connecting different panels. Reason why big installations should use AC panels, the problem is peculiar to DC panels.
I hope to learn more on micro inverters and ac solar panels. They work better in arrays than DC panels

Barezzi:
LOL
Calabar. It's usually 5 to 6 hours on average Sun light daily. Most of the harvest happen between 10am and 2pm. Instantaneous power hovers around 2.7kw to 2.8kw. I'm sure you're aware that harvest depends on demand and the battery state of charge.
Grid supply is very good here.

The efficiency is around 70-75% on average.
I'll post pics when I visit next week.

I concur.

FabioPeter:
3780W array and you generate just 12kwh? Do you live in the artic? What's the efficiency of your panels?
I am novice on this but it doesn't add up. I hope you will enlighten me.

Also interested in his setup. Something is wrong

Tip: to minimize energy lose, work with the highest safe voltage from pv to controller eg. It is better you have 100+ volts from pv to controller in a 48v setup that 56volts. A mppt controller will take care of the conversion. With this you have less energy loses due to resistivity in cables.
Also use flex cables. The thicker the more efficient, the shorter the pv distance the more efficient. Online cable sizing calculators available

steppin:
The silly Vivian is a complete buffoon. She's using her sister's death to gain cheap popularity.
If she's really in pains, would she have the time to post the crap?

A big one at that

tgmservice:
RIP. But if this happens to meI will try my best not to let anyone take photos of my sista lying on the ground. But this vivian girl all in the name of fame and blogging willingly took photos of her dead sista to update her blog and nairaland. I still can't believe dis "HW FAR PEOPLE CAN GO because OF BLOGGING"

Very silly woman.
She seems to be more interested in promoting her blog than mourning her sister.
Her post does not seem like that of a grieving sister.

butterflex:
i have a 3 bedroom bungallow with 3 split aircondition and 3 televisions, only one tv to be put on at a time, phones need to be charged andone fridge and a freezer to be constantly left on. how much will it cost me to install a solar power system in my house bearing in mind that we need the fan and one a/c to sleep with at night.

i await your reply and please copy goodness.obayangbon@outlook.com and please confirm if you can come to benin to install thesame.

On site right now would get back to you asap sir.
Always on the road working in benin not a problem.

geesampower:
1st thing you need to know is that the true available current is about 50-60% of rated current Time (Ampere Hour). If you are using a 200AH battery, you only have about 100AH to 120AH available for use and also needed in recharge. This means if you have 4 200w panels generating 8000W in 10hrs (this is not possible 5000W is more realistic because the sun is never always maximum),
1. Know the voltage of the batteries and the current
For 12V 200ah, what you have is 2400Wh (12V X 200ah)
2. 60% is what you need to charge, 60% of 2400wh= 1440wh
3. You have 10hrs of charge time so 1440wh/10
= 144 w per hour
4. Panels available supply 800w per hour so 800/144 = that gives you 5.55
You can't use 5 batteries in your configuration so 4 batteries is more practical

Answer is 4 batteries if the batteries are 12v and 200ah or 8 batteries if it is 12v 100ah or 4 batteries of 6v 410ah or 8 of 2v 1200ah

NOTE it is better to use more panels than your actual need, because getting optimum sunlight is not guaranteed for your expected 10hrs a day

Geesam

FabioPeter:
How do you calculate the optimal battery bank(AH) required to store say 8000wh generated by 4, 200w solar panels over 10 hours of sunlight ?
Thanks for the enlightenment so far.

1st thing you need to know is that the true available current is about 50-60% of rated current Time (Ampere Hour). If you are using a 200AH battery, you only have about 100AH to 120AH available for use and also needed in recharge. This means if you have 4 200w panels generating 8000W in 10hrs (this is not possible 5000W is more realistic because the sun is never always maximum),
1. Know the voltage of the batteries and the current
For 12V 200ah, what you have is 2400Wh (12V X 200ah)
2. 60% is what you need to charge, 60% of 2400wh= 1440wh
3. You have 10hrs of charge time so 1440wh/10
= 144 w per hour
4. Panels available supply 800w per hour so 800/144 = that gives you 5.55
You can't use 5 batteries in your configuration so 4 batteries is more practical

Answer is 4 batteries if the batteries are 12v and 200ah or 8 batteries if it is 12v 100ah or 4 batteries of 6v 410ah or 8 of 2v 1200ah

NOTE it is better to use more panels than your actual need, because getting optimum sunlight is not guaranteed for your expected 10hrs a day