₦airaland Forum

ojeysky:
I have a feeling you really got the batteries at a great deal that is way lower than the 130k

lolz

ojesymsym:
This type of battery connection always confuses me when I see it. Each battery has 6 terminals, how does that work?
Do you have a drawing for it?

i see that essegis already answered you earlier.

in addition, you can always check the product data sheet for the correct battery terminal connection
sequence. where i had issues personally was how to connect both ends of the curve, since i had mine
in a double row fashion. for this i spent countless hours searching youtube videos of different types
of 2v battery connections without success until i eventually figured it out by myself.

essegis:
You have them in your house already so leave the detective work for batman. Congratulations on the upgrade though.

lolz brother, tanx. i guess i was just stomped by the offer price when compared with what the actual market price
was supposed to be. plus the fact that all were brand new (in crates) as opposed to more common
fairly used telecoms batteries sold off as scrap by gsm base stations.

mctfopt:
I see these batteries in industrial application, it is great to see someone use it in a domestic setting. Good job here. These batteries have the right to cost an arm and a leg plus two eyes

A popular marketer was marketing this product last year

https://www.nairaland.com/390522/solar-energy-complement-fta/602#83420592

you're right bro, but i didn't get mine from him. i guess other guys (probably not on this forum) saw the great bargain
and quickly grabbed them. by the time i made contact, they were long gone.

so, yes. those batteries are actually industrial type off-grid lead acid batteries (if you check the specs i posted earlier on).
they are the type you find at telecoms base stations, bank ups rooms, remote sites for weather monitoring equipment, etc
given their size and weight, they are an "install and forget" kind of investment. nobody expects to be changing out such
massive size of batteries every two, three or five years. it's really back-breaking work aside the financial outflow.
how they suddenly became available to the public as "project left over" is still a puzzle i'm yet to resolve...

ceaser:
I believe your long courtship with the Zenith lead batteries boils down to usage. When I was "lead acid", the low discharge cut off for the batteries were 12.1v, but I wasn't impressed with the two years plus I got before I felt they needed replacement, although I admit they were not "high premium" brands.

An AC gate opener (idle consumption of 3 watts+6 watts idle of the 300 watts inverter) I used always ran down the two pieces 12v 12ah batteries by morning if the sun does not come up as early as 8am and within 6 months the batteries usually needed to be replaced. The solution then was to switch off the inverter at night and back on in the morning, which is not always done since I'm away for weeks at a time. But ever since I changed to a DC gate opener on two pieces 12v 7ah batteries 10 months ago, the headache is no more.

Your 12 pieces 260ah lead acid battery bank is massive, so I won't argue if you say you don't go below 12.5v DoD in most cases within the 8 year period. This undoubtedly will earn you more years of beauty from the battery. The popular consensus here is that lead does not forgive too much and too frequent high DoD at all, but lithium gives you more at higher and more frequent DoD. One of my lithium pack has rarely gone below 13.0v by morning in the last 4 months even though the LVD is set at 12.3v. If it continues like that, I see myself getting 12 years use out of it.



Sonnes what?... Sounds like something out of Hitler's Germany I almost bit my tongue pronouncing that. Woah, massive beasts by the way; literarily, "I kill drum for you" (I doff my hat for you). Abeg which of your kidneys did it cost you? Just wondering ni o

With this renewed acquisition and rekindled romance, I don't see Mr GeorgeD1 courting lithium for probably the next 15 years, a time majority of us here as AE enthusiasts might already be using lithium-powered electric cars. The only reason he might be forced to use lithium at that time will be in his own electric car. Lolz.

i tend to agree with the dod bit as part of a wider range of factors that helped prolong the life of my zenith batteries.
right from day one, my battery lvd was set at 48v cut-off. This translates to 12v for each of the 12 batteries in the pack.
and for the almost 8yrs they were in service, i can count on my fingers the number of times inverter tripped due to
low battery voltage (it rarely does).
in my experience, i have come to see lead acid as a "if you do me well, i will pay you back handsomely" kind of battery
chemistry. provided you don't abuse them, they are ready to give their life, their all for you. and the zeniths seem to have
done this in grand style in my own case.

as for lithium, the good news is that i wouldn't be waiting another 15yrs before i jump on the bandwagon. i know the
value of keeping abreast with technology so i intend doing a little experimenting in that space. maybe a little lithium
bank side-by-side the massive lead acids might not be out of place. but first i would need a little time to recover
from this huge dent the sonnenscheins have inflicted on my balance sheet.

mcTrinity:
We all know that Lead-Acid remains the winning team...
Just that the few Lithium users are more or less like Chelsea fans... IfYouKnowYouKnow

I come and go in peace.

Congrats grand patron!!! More grace

tanx my brother. i believe no one battery chemistry is better than the other.
it all depends on application and how much you're ready to pay for quality.

ojeysky:
2100AH of 48v wow! See storage capacity! yes lithium will be a hype in those kind of lead acid you've now installed but when it comes to equivalent in space and weight it will still be lithium. For the zenit batteries however I think luck and doing something right happened there. Let's think about it, there were not so much low quality/fake batteries in 2012.

However Bros I no envy you o, else this one go cost me multiple organs! But with this you should be set-up for another 10 years+ journey

lolz. in terms of space and weight, lithium rules obviously.
but those were the least of my worries when i was considering biting the offer.
for a cost to amp/hour ratio, it was a no-brainer for me because clearly the price
was better than anything on the market at the time.

specs says design life is for between 15 to 18yrs. i guess time will tell but if my zeniths
could last me almost 8yrs, i expect these to exceed that feat.

mcTrinity:
Wow... Very good option. And German brand, if I'm not mistaken!
Kudos patron!!!

u're right bro. it's a german brand
tanx.

adrusa:
Wow! Huge. So, how much battery capacity are we talking about?

48v 2000ah battery bank, although nameplate says 2190ah at c10

tanx brother, i appreciate

in conclusion, while i'm reluctant to change a winning team (obviously lead-acid has served me well),
i'm open to new technology and definitely lithium will have a major part to play going forward as a
next steps towards acquiring even more storage as i continue adding power guzzling creature
comfort equipment to the house.

new batteries, a new bracket

diy copper bus bars. that's how we make them.

for all the hype about lithium on here, be rest assured that the silent majority still sides
with lead acid!

so, goodbye zenith (it was good while it lasted) and welcome sonnenschein!

BetaTechnicians:
To think I was expecting you to end with "So, I want to sell them off and go lithium".

lolz, brother. sorry to disappoint but not everyone is enamored with the lure of
the lithium hype.

however, early in the year i had already started thinking of expanding my battery bank in order to
accommodate comfort cooling which hitherto i have been unwilling to include among my house loads.
so i knew the zenith batteries had to go (reluctantly)

then came the era of 'left-over project batteries' and i got an offer too good to resist. this started a
series of events that eventually led me to installing a new battery bank and doing away with my
beloved zenith batteries.

as promised earlier, i have been on my 260ah 12pcs zenith batteries since 2012. it's been a remarkable
journey no doubt, especially given all the lament on here about lead acid batteries and their poor durability.
7 years and counting and my batteries seemed to just go on and on. at a point i almost became confused
as to why i was having such a nice time with lead acid while the general opinion was anything but pleasant.
maybe i was just plain lucky or maybe i was doing something right afterall...
the jury is still out on this...

BetaTechnicians:
My fear is, solar may become more expensive. Government may try to make it unattractive so that the power companies would have a market.

sorry to disappoint bro but it's already happening.
solar panels have been categorized as 'transformer' (lolz ) in the new duties schedule by customs.
all in a bid to generate more revenue.
it's what you get when you have someone that doesn't know jack about renewables in a position of
authority...
another reason why cost of solar in naija is one of the highest around the world...

lolz bros! this is still small nah compared to the system size of other peeps.
i still be learner where david poz and co dey oh.
i believe system sizing should be on as needed basis and each home have their
own peculiar energy needs different from the others. so for instance, as a single
person living alone, i might get by with as little a system size of 1.5kw but a
guy with large family and having a lot of critical loads to run will struggle with
a system 5 times that size.

YoungBrain:
Uncle George long time no see/hear

What is your battery/panels setup like now.

So that people like us can grow up to be like you one day

brother,
really its been a while. though i may appear to be absent from the thread at times, my spirit, my soul still
breathes solar.
i tactically stopped making reference to my system size long ago in order not to appear to gloat. some here
might even misinterpret it as showboating. even the solar harvests that i post from time to time is just a way
of encouraging a few of us here who still look at solar with hidden doubt, not too sure of its possibilities. it's
my own way of saying, "hey, it's possible. solar is real".
that said, i have a very robust system comprising 48 solar panels total nominal capacity about 15kw. batteries
used to be 12pcs 260ah zenith lead acid totaling 780ah until earlier this year when i did an upgrade.
i will be posting details of this in the next few days along with pictures.

after two straight days of relentless rainfall, the sun came out in full force yesterday.
it was happy days at last as modules greedily pumped out juice after juice topping
almost 60kwh harvest as at sundown....
...the sun truly is the answer!

yes you can. but its only the mbc channels and a few other insignificant ones

have replied you too

Dishtech:
@GeorgeD1 and the house, where can I get Inverto black ultra lnb to improve my weak signal reception.

I'm not aware of any satellite outlet selling that LNB for now except you want to order it direct
from Ebay. However, you can consider using technomate 4-way lnb (TM4) as someone already
suggested. Stargold 4 way lnb is also good.

click on the person's moniker to access his or her profile and scroll down.
you will see a link to send him or her email.
that's the dm feature.

lolz ok. you can dm me using nairaland's dm feature.
then we take it from there.

obinna37:
please some one answer this.

Both are same bro

grafikii:
Thank you very much, I will try later today.

Also I would like to find out how important focal length is to performance of a dish. Using the formula below I got focal length of 160cm but my dish focal length actually measures at 142 cm which is about 18cm short. Is this responsible for the poor performance of the the dish?

Here is the formula I used
Focal Length = f.

Depth = c = 40cm

Diameter = D = 320cm

f = ( D * D ) / ( 16 * c)

f = (320 *320) / (16 * 40)

f = 102,400 ÷ 640

f = 160cm

I want to know if I should go ahead an construct longer lnb arms or the focal length isn't really important. Looking forward to your response.

Cc dlee1 GeorgeD1 Ameboperoo odilibe blexxonmak

Hello grafikii,
The focal length of a dish is very important if you want to get optimum performance from your dish.
In fact, with a wrong focal length you will not get any signal on your lnb and you will end spending countless hours
in the sun for nothing.
That said, if your dish diameter is 320cm and depth is 40cm then your calculation is correct. Your theoretical focal point
should be 160cm. Notice the emphasis on theoretical because in reality, it may not be exactly 160cm spot on.
You will have to do a little adjustment and finetuning in order to arrive at the actual focal point on the dish but I doubt if
it will be as low as 142cm.

grafikii:
Hello guys, when tracking ku sat on a big dish (3m and above) should the lnb point to the center of the the dish or should it tilt slightly to the sides.
Cc GeorgeD1 odilibe blexxonmak and all

I'm tracking 9e on a 3m dish, when I point the lnb directly at the center of the dish, i am not able to hit signal unless I point the lnb slightly to side, i hit green but with poor results as a 1.8m dish would.

emmaniche lamtam IT4ALL Dlee1

Hello grafikii,
You might need to check that dish to ensure it is not warped.
Take a straight plank (preferably 2 by 2 wood) and stretch it across the diameter of the dish.
Make sure you are measuring from the center. To get to the center, take another short straight wood
and locate the deepest part of the dish. From that point, align both the 2 by 2 wood that you stretched
across the diameter and the shorter wood that you have placed inside the dish. Both of them must be exactly
perpendicular (90 degrees). Since your dish is 3m, you should get exactly 3m or with some fractions across
two or more opposite ends of the dish. If not then your dish is warped (or bent on one side).

You can do this while the dish is hanging on the pole but you have to ensure it is facing sideways and not up.
But if you can drop the dish to the ground, the better for you. It will make your measurements easier.