₦airaland Forum

testing time a day later. this is where the real deal is.

the view from below. neatly tucked into and projecting a little bit into the upper part of the roof.
nobody is wiser.

job almost complete. the water heater finally takes its pride of place.

glass tube installation still in progress.

installing the glass tubes was a very delicate process. three men were involved each standing
at strategic points along the tower.

the frame and water heater tank already mounted on its tower besides the main water tank.

evacuated glass tubes ready to be installed.

test-mounting the tank to determine fit on the frame.

all,
as promised a few days back, here are pictures from my recent solar water heater installation.
apologies for the undue delay. i've been quite busy of late and also the system has been undergoing
rigorous stress tests to determine its viability under real world conditions.

so first of all the frame which holds the water heater tank and evacuated glass tubes in place.
we coupled this together before any thing else.

all,
my solar water heater is finally up and running.
pictures to follow soon.

totalgreen01:
My oga, i don show o,

your recommendation is on point "we should be careful not to sacrifice quality on the alter of low cost
alternatives which do disappoint when needed most"

hi guys long time...

totalgreen!
the man who saw tomorrow!!
you're welcome back.
we all miss you.

DMerciful:
Oga I hail o. We are looking for low cost solutions. Kindly share this breaker u talked about

dmerciful,

midnitesolar dc breakers or disconnects are arguably the gold standard in solar pv breakers.
they may be a little expensive but over time you'll get better value for your money.
while there may be other cheaper alternatives which go by different names, its always better
to stick with tested brands which have proven themselves with time.
in renewables, we should be careful not to sacrifice quality on the alter of low cost
alternatives which do disappoint when needed most.

http://www.midnitesolar.com/productPhoto.php?product_ID=183&productCatName=BREAKERS&productCat_ID=16&sortOrder=16

DMerciful:
Make sense. To solve the issues you highlighted, we could add an additional well sized breaker on the PV side on top of the double breaker. The double breaker protects the CC-battery circuit and also disconnect the PV side anytime d battery side trips while d low current breaker added for d PV side protects the PV-CC circuit...shikena

dmerciful,
you could avoid all these layers of complexity by just getting the right tool for the job.
a rightly sized midnite solar dc breaker for your pv and cc will give you peace of mind.
kiss (keep it simple and straightforward) should be our focus when it comes to renewables.
the money you save trying to cut corners could come back to haunt you when you
suddenly lose your precious equipment to fires or voltage spikes and you have to replace
them one after the other.

guys,

just a page from the morningstar mppt 60 manual:

saipro & battleaxe,
you guys could just correct the error without humming and humming.
i'm sure dmerciful doesn't realize his mistake and seems it really is a honest one.
afterall, we all learn everyday.

dunka,
mine would be mounted on a separate tower besides the main water tank.
i consider a 300 litre weight of water too much of a risk to put on my roof.
if my roof were made of concrete like johnkester's probably i wouldn't mind
at all. but for those installing the 200 litre or 100 litre version i'm sure the
weight would be light enough to fit on to an aluminum roof.

reprobate,

i don't know the kind of solar hot water system they have in that hotel in question but remember
that as with every setup of this kind, capacity sizing is very key. the package itself comes with a
hot water tank designed to retain hot water for up to three days in case of bad weather. however
if your capacity sizing is smaller than your house needs you may end up using up all the available
hot water before the sun shines again (just like your battery bank sizing for pv solar).
i won't be surprised if that hotel has just one small tank serving all the rooms.
also, the package comes with an auxiliary electric water heater that can be turned on to heat water
should weather conditions become extreme.
again, in this part of our world, if you size your system adequately, you will never need to use
the auxiliary heater. as a matter of fact, testimonies abound from people who have both systems
installed and they have never needed to turn on their electric heater for years now.

dunka,

cost will depend on the size you want. it varies from 100 liters to 300 liters.
as for plumbing, you will need a little modification to your existing hot water
line only. instead of having all those conventional electric water heaters littered
about your bathrooms (and kitchen?) depending on the number of rooms you have;
now you only have one central water heater feeding the whole house.
you won't be needing all those aristons anymore for a very long time - even during
the cold harmattan season. no more bathing with cold water just because phcn
refused to supply public power to heat up your water.

abunafiu:
king George the first.

Pls let's have a first hand review from you.

prof,

work in progress as we speak. i'll definitely keep the house posted on
my findings. solar water heating is the next frontier in my drive towards
energy independence.

kogistar:
what is the uses of this solar pump?

kogistar,

it's a solar water heater like ripvanwink said and not a solar pump.

gadotor:
I nice to be here once again, how are you doing today. Thank you

@gadotor,
It's been quite a while. How is it going at your end?

coming soon to a rooftop near you!!!

anochuks08,
your set up is very much ok and i don't think you have anything to worry about.
provided your array size is big enough to charge your battery bank to full/floating status
everyday, i think you're all set up for many years of stress-free off-grid living.
enjoy!

saipro,
barezzi,

i'm glad you guys somehow found a little inspiration from my posts.
and i think that is the whole essence of this forum.
if we all can think less about how to make a buck and channel our energies
into helping our fellow man, the world indeed will be a better place for everybody.

sagnetplus:
@GeorgeD1 & all the Gurus in the house, Thanks for your goodwill. I am a rookie that can only install DSTv, MyTv, JoyTv only but wish to further my ability in this venture.
Here's my watsapp no. 08023368389 in case of any help.
May also ask if anyone can educate me about satellite finding meter available & the cost.
Sirs how can you guys be of help. Tx

@sagnetplus,
Exactly what kind of help do you require?

olenyi:


The pleasure is all mine.

Testimonies like this makes it all worthwhile.

MyRegards

@olenyi,
How far? It's been quite a while.

bmdflo:
My oga, one cannot overrule the possibility of having a Nigerian made SMF or flooded battery especially this dwindling economy where Forex is a nightmare, we can turn our weakness into strength.

bmdflo,
actually you're right. I was just joking.
anything is possible. countries like china, taiwan, india, etc who make these products are not better than us.
we only need to have the enabling environment and you'll be amazed at the speed with which we as a country will make
technological progress.
I think we should go beyond this 'white labelling' phenomena which seems to be the norm these days because we are only helping
to build those countries where those factories are located while at the same time creating unemployment and technological
retardation back at home.

break the myth!

Janyves,
a nigerian made battery?
are you kidding me?!!

Chinedu7:
Take it easy big man, I quoted you because you said it was close to impossible but I had it once for few months before I decided to discard it because with it I couldn't get good signal on the west side of a balanced dish. So I know what I am talking about infact I broke the news of the availability of those channels with pictures the very first day they were added to Apstar.
Then I was getting 57 - 58%, I think it cracks at 54% or thereabouts. I mean on 2.4m mesh, you see my brother impossibility is nothing.

@Chinedu7,
Nobody is a big man here. We all learning and trying to help each other here.
The guy asked a simple question. He wanted to know which of the TBN positions he could track easily at the moment and not what was
obtainable several months ago. So how does your post help him?
If I was a newbie standing by my dish and I sent a post to the thread about possible tracking positions, I would expect any member responding to me to give me
information that is current and not one that expired several months ago.

VIVA FTA!!!

ben1daEbiri:
@GeorgeD1 It seems you and Olenyi are back from your hiatus,it's good having you back again...@ManirBK hope you resolved your audio issues on your new box?

@ben1daEbiri,
Yeah you're right. I'm back with a bang.
So many new faces here that I'm not used to. So many off-topic discussions that were alien to us in the good old days.
I'm sure if some of our old founding members should stumble upon this thread now they would be hard put to believe this is
an FTA thread what with the talk of CCAM, autoroll, alphabox, etc.
True FTA seems to have taken a back seat while illegality has finally triumphed.

Chinedu7:
@geman If your dish is motorized, you can actually have Smile of a Child on Apstar as long as you have 2.4m and above. It's a very sensitive channel to have, you could have to sacrifice the signal quality of other channels to have it. It actually falls a little bit off the rest, I mean if you have motorized setup on Apstar with maximum signal quality on other channels, you will have to move your Motor slightly to maximize TBN, that is actually why it's hard on static setup. If you want it back on your setup, you need a Motor.

@chinedu7
You could have still gone ahead to give geman your own views without having to quote me.
By the way what percentage quality are you getting on TBN on Apstar since you claim to receive it?

DMerciful,
keep up the good work.
cheers!