₦airaland Forum

NiyiOmoIyunade:
You must draw us your battery wiring diagram or show clear pictures of your battery setup.

I know you have said before that you have an unorthodox method for your battery configuration.

How deeply do you cycle your batteries?

my configuration is nothing special. just the normal 48v battery setup
connected with equal lengths of cable to a single positive and negative
bus bar. then i carry out yearly turn around maintenance by rotating the
batteries within the same bank.

i seldom cycle my batteries beyond 50% dod. my magnum battery
monitor kit makes sure of that.

DMerciful:
I am beginning to think 24v should be the standard
battery connection. From observation anything above 24v whether series or series- parallel is a problem..... 48v system is esp prone to premature battery failures

none of the batteries in my 48v battery bank setup has failed prematurely - yet
and this is going 5yrs and still counting. my first setup of only 4pcs 200ah batteries
went 7yrs before i changed them out. i have a feeling these ones will surpass that
milestone if their present superb performance is anything to go by.

Obimind1:
Sorry for the loss bro... I was in this mess some months back and sincerely it wasn't funny at all. Infact in my own case i lost both batteries and my charge controller. Honestly I felt like "why must it be me"? Did I do any wrong trying to upgrade to an mppt? Yours is more pathetic cus it failed within some hours of purchase. Mine failed after eight months of usage. It made me fall back to my pwm which I dumped long ago. But honestly I respect my pwm charge controller. Its not doing bad at all. Ever since I reported to this house how my mppt failed me, I will like to testify that I've not turned on my gen set. When they is no light from the national grid, during the day my 1.2kw array conveniently powers my home without any stress. The intelligence displayed by this pwm cc amazes me most times. It never goes above 28.2 no matter the circumstance. And sincerely it has given me some respite for sometime now. Though I still have it in mind to obtain an mppt in no distant time. But seriously if this is how an mppt cc fails I must confess that its not worth venturing into. I'm speaking as someone who was once a victim.

personally i think the advantages of mppt cc over pwm has been severely over-hyped and some of us here
(myself inclusive) are to blame. much as mppt has its place in the scheme of things when it comes to solar charging,
but so also does pwm. my first cc was a tristar pwm 45a and it served me doggedly for over two years without issues.
my batteries were well maintained over this period and i never had any reason to complain. i only set it aside albeit
reluctantly when i wanted to upgrade my array and discovered that cc output fell far short of what my panels would be
pushing out.

so guys, if you still have your pwm cc and it's working well for you please hold on to it. don't give in to the marketing
gimmicks of retailers who are only interested in offloading their wares on unsuspecting solar newbies!

gen2ty:
Hello House,

I have being following this thread for quite a while now. Finally decided to do my solar project. Intend to hit above 6kwh from start. I need a trusted vendor to do this with. After seen a lot of guys here. I intend to pitch with zeestone99 based on your recommendation on his work quality and after sale support.

Can anyone kindly advise on his commitment especially those he has worked for?

gen2ty,
zeestone is your man anytime, anyday. he came all the way from lagos and did a marvelous installation job
at my abode here in warri. i'm happy to recommend him partly for his doggedness and also for his attention
to details. at a certain stage in my upgrade works, we hit a snag which almost got me discouraged but to
my greatest surprise, he and his team came up with a quick solution that moved the job forward in no time.

SweetWJ:
.
I have already done that sir. Check ur inbox. Best regards.

Brother,
I've replied u already. Email me your number let me call you.

SweetWJ:
.
Wow! Great job. Oga George D, i wish to meet u in person as i also reside in Effurun. Pls sir.

SweetWJ,
Be my guest. Just pm me and lets hook up. Cheers!

DMerciful:
Hi All,

Please who know where I can source for 12v 2000AH battery?
Thanks

dmerciful,
you may need a forklift or crane to lift each battery if really you're looking
for 12v 2000ah. besides, it would be a very costly proposition.

Obascoetubi,

i'm using agm batteries. quite rugged, i tell u.

routsz,
True talk. Cost is really a deal breaker when it comes to sat meters. Firststrike HD was
my first real professional sat meter. I bought it from Amazon and it nearly cost an arm and
a leg. The Satlook Emitor Micro G2-HD came later but fortunately I got that fairly new from
a renowned founding member of this forum and as such I only paid a fraction of the original
price. Then there is the Gecen DVB-S2 SF-6500 which doubles as a reciever. Very sharp
and sensitive tuner but quite pricey as well.

olenyi:
Bravo @Oga GeorgeD1. As usual always setting the pace with regards to FTA BUD installs.

Seeing the small TV that @Adewest is using, I am just wondering when we will outgrow this style of Satellite installation.

We are all stuck to this analogue way of signal tracking. Lol.

PS: Anyone seeing the finished installation won't know the man hour/resources that went in to this project.



My warm regards.

olenyi,
Brother, your observation is very correct. I share the same opinion with you about using the traditional
combination of TV and decoder for dish tracking. I think it's an obsolete way of doing things in this modern
era. Funny enough i own a slew of sat meters, from Firststrike HD to Satlook Micro G2 but in his professional
wisdom, Adewest declined to use any of these and opted instead for the old but proven method.
Meanwhile, welcome back from the cold!

Dejsam:
congratulations George D..Finally you installed something to nail all the Europe birds...The dish is a good one..i know it very well...have lots of its installed around in my domain tooo

Dejsam,
Its been a while. Thanks for the compliments.

Nikuchi:
@GeorgeD1,
I must say kudos to you for sparing some time to share with us the recent work on your BUD. Please I would like if you can assist with the dish fabricators contact. I want to get in touch with him.

Nikuchi,
You can get Okey on the following numbers:

08092354782
08039346299
08064693304

Obimind1:
The batteries that went bad were Gel batteries, but presently my batteries are AGM.

good choice. some agm batteries can actually take up to 50c charging current.

Chinedu7:
George, a lot of people will be interested in having such dish, including myself but if you don't mind share the result of this setup with the jack. I am curious.

Chinedu,
Needless to say, the results have been quite impressive. From hispasat to nilesat, hotbird, eurobird 7A, badr, etc
I will take a little time to compile and publish channels receivable along with signal quality.
This will be the subject of another post. Coming soon.

Meanwhile I'm using a 36" Eurostar heavy duty jack.

Freshclean777:
Congratulations for this investment and bravery. So how much did the antenna cost as well as the installation ?. Is the antenna made of solid metal or fiber? Where can we buy the same? Congratulations!

Freshclean777,
The dish itself was bought a couple years back and I only did renovation on it recently, hence the need to re-install. I may not know the current price for now. It is made of metal (pan) with galvanized sheets. The guy's name is Okey in kaduna. I can drop his contacts here if needed. Cheers!

TSHIRT2:
Oga george,is the dish transported this way or was assembled,in case I need one in Ogun state,Abk to be precise.

TSHIRT2,
The dish is segmented. Six petals in all. It was transported all the way from kaduna down to warri and assembled at site.

life707:
To also attest to what you said about Mr Adewest is my discussion with the Dish fabricator, Mr Okechukwu in Kaduna, when I went to discuss a 4.5M fibre Dish deal with him.

Mr Adewest was well praised by him.
I also remember those days on the forum ,he was the only one that can nail nilesat on 1.8M in Lagos.

@George D, discovered you changed the colour of your 4M Dish....is there any particular technical reason?

Though from experience with my 3.5M Dish painted grey, during the setting of the focal length and adjustment of the lnb, the heat concentrated at that point was enormous even when the sun wasn't very bright/ hot (morning hours).

@Life707,
There was no particular reason for the change in paint color. I wanted a high quality oil paint for the job and berger paints was what was available and I ended up choosing black.

spartacus11,
yawwilson,
Dlee,
warboy3,
all,
Thanks for the compliments. Although most of the credit
should really be going to Mr Adewest who took time off his
tight schedule, traveling down all the way from Bauchi to practically
take over the installation. If there was ever a work horse, that guy is one.
In him I saw the passion for signals this thread was once known for.
The dedication to perfection is unmistakable. I was so impressed.
Viva FTA!!!

Barezzi:
At about N24 per kwh, na only N2,400.
Barely enough for a bottle of wine.

How much your upgrade cost you?

barrezi,
cost is only a tiny fraction of what comes into play when going for renewable energy.
let me flip the question the other way round: what is the cost of staying in darkness?
i guess the answer is zero naira? so if cost is our only consideration we might as well
decide to save the huge amount we have invested so far and remain in darkness while
waiting for the elusive phcn to supply us power whenever they deem fit. however, will
that be a good option? no?
so here comes the fuel guzzling, noisy generator to fill in the
gap for those long hours almighty phcn decides to keep us in darkness. and this is where
it gets really interesting: if mr idsolar had been running his generator for this length of
time (august till date) commensurate with the up-time of his charge controller, he
certainly would have spent enough money on fuel to buy his solar system all over again.

Mission accomplished!

Fixing the heavy duty jack

And the inverto red classic finally makes a come back!

More pictures

For this assignment, I had the pleasure of having another
founding member of the thread Mr Adewest who basically did all the work while i was on
hand to lend whatever support needed.

All,
As promised here are pictures of my 4m pan dish install. I'm sorry it took this long.
I've been unavoidably busy.

DMerciful:
Oga GeorgeD1,

Battery replacement has been the biggest cost in offgrid systems for most people but somehow you have managed to draw appreciable longevity from your batteries. kindly educate us how you do this as well as telling us the configuration, brand, and maintenance strategy for these batteries.
I know you use Zenith but fake zenith abound now and i also know your previous batteries lasted long before replacement with 260AH zenith.
We need to learn as i got frustrated from premature failures and went lithium.

hello dmerciful,
the secret to battery longevity is spread over a range of factors. it has everything to do with the battery type, charge
controller type, inverter type and usage habits. like i said in my last post, having a high end inverter which incorporates
a battery monitor system (bms) certainly has helped preserve my batteries by ensuring they never get depleted beyond
a preset value - and this works regardless of whether i'm home or not. with my previous inverter, i had to leave specific
instructions for my folks to follow whenever i'm going out of town. and this was always subject to abuse.
besides the bms and high end inverter, my wiring configuration also plays a huge role. i have four batteries wired in series
to make up 48v and three of these joined together with equal length of cable to make 12 batteries. in effect its like having
3 separate battery banks operating independently. this configuration ensures each bank receives an equal amount of
charging current from the cc while charging and also gives out equal amount of load current while discharging.
as for cc, i guess the saying that you get what you pay for is true especially for solar. in my experience, a large number of
the so-called cheap and pocket friendly controllers flooding the market these days are nothing but battery killers. they
either consistently undercharge or overcharge your batteries leading to premature failure. i have been using the tristar for
over seven years now and over this period i'm happy to see best in class performance in terms of charging algorithm. until
recently of course when i was forced to incorporate the midnite classic due to my solar array upgrade exigency.
lastly, i carry out yearly turn around maintenance on my battery bank. by this i mean battery rotation. i load test them to
confirm each battery's condition of health.

Barezzi:
Yes, you do. You never know when one of your neighbours will plug in a "boiling ring" since you always have "light". lol!
I use mine for auxiliary load control.

I set it to disconnect at 52v and reconnect at 57v.

barrezi,
high end inverters like magnum come with a battery monitor system (bms) as an add-on. this carries out the lvd function among others thereby protecting your system.
i can't count the number of times the bms has intervened to protect my batteries so far and in hind sight, maybe its another reason my batteries have gone nearly five years and still performing as new.

hello pranil,
for those with protek solar water heater products like myself,
it comes with an assistant tank which does exactly the same job
so really no need to buy additional accessories to control water supply
pressure.

notice the assistant tank on top of the system in the first picture.

life707:
And if u want to deny what I am saying the I will prove my point by posting all my WhatsApp discussion with u and the account the monies were paid into and for the various cccam accounts they were meant for.

I won't now but if u say I am lying, I will to show how long I have been patient with u.

This and many more reasons is why it's better to go pure FTA.
The money we think we are saving by going darkside ends up in the hands of
shady vendors who are smiling to the banks at the expense of original content providers.
Let us be wise.
Viva FTA!!!

opeoluwat:
Hi All,

This is to introduce to you Gorilla Ceiling Fans a very efficient ceiling fan that consume 28 watts at full power.
It works very well with Inverters and Solar Power system allows for longer battery backup time. It comes with a remote control and doesn't use regulator.
It has consistent performance even at low Voltages. Operating input Voltages 140V-285V.
The size available is the 48inches span. it matches any similar sized fan.

It costs #30,000
Please contact Ope on 08188723705 to get yours.

opeoluwat,
what happens when the remote gets lost or damaged? don't you think a regulator would
have been more handy as a back up?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
@BigRovar. Yourself and GeorgeD1 have stoutly defended the reputation of your Su-Kams - in my own experience I rank them as 'okay' inverters - they don't excel in charging amps capacity and they lack ability to select different voltage algorithms for different battery types, I wouldn't confidently load them over 70% their rated capacity and everyone I know has visited service center at least once in a 5 year period.

What is the final verdict? Are there some techniques or practices you follow to derive such good value from your Su-Kam inverters? Do you have some extra protections or limits set on your systems or add-on devices to supplement the base performance?

brother,
in the hierarchy of inverters sukam can be classified as mid-range and not to be
confused with high-end models like schneider (formerly xantrex), magnum, outback, sunny boy, etc.
however what stands it out is it's surprisingly low idle power consumption and the quality of its
sine wave output as well as its ruggedness. if visiting service centers within 5yrs of use is to
be used as a valid rating criteria then I think almost all inverters would score low on that point.
take my magnum for instance, the fans failed within two yrs of use and I had to send it for
repairs - which was done free of charge by the way. does that make magnum any less rugged?
I think the answer is no.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Oga GeorgeD1 - I always thought you had maintenance free/AGM type batteries and not flooded? - most likely you may not be 'equalizing' them above 15v per 12v battery - I distinctly remember setting off the high voltage alarm on my APC clone, Su-Kam & Sinergy inverters at voltages above 15v - again this was ages ago and my memory may be foggy

Again, people don't really equalize maintenance free batteries because most manufacturers say its unnecessary and also no easy way to replace the lost water if the battery starts to boil dry - I kind of just assumed the OP was using flooded batteries and would be equalizing around 15.5v. My bad

bro,
you're very much on point but there is an 'equalize' setting that seems to work for agm/sealed maintenance-free
batteries suggested by morningstar. its a little bit lower than the real equalize voltages for flooded lead acid. i use
that to keep my zenith batteries happy.