suddenly it feels like dry season all over again.
with daily harvests topping 42kwh and instantaneous breaking the 10kw barrier....
indeed, the sun is the answer!

microgiant:


Thanks a lot for the Startimes dish gift.

The Startimes dish is still going strong. But the unfriendly Warri weather damaged my H-H Diseqc motor. I have lost about 3-LNBs to the Dec-Feb rain that comes with storm and lightening.

Now the dish is pointed to Nigcomsat, with an attachment for Intelsat 20 at 68.5°E for madam. Let there be peace

No time to track other sats yet. I plan to attach three more LNBs for Astra 2F at 28.2°E, Eutelsat 16A at 16.0°E and any other.

Second dish is dedicated to Eutelsat 7 West A at 7.3°W for the MBCs. Although I have the MBCs on Nigcomsat, These are stable and always on, plus it has EPG.

Hello Microgiant,
I'm glad to know you're still enjoying that dish.
Please try and reach out sometime let's hookup if you're still down south.
Cheers!

IT4ALL:
Pls house i need oga George D and oga geometric Number...pls very urgent plssss

Brother,
What's going on?
You could have used nairaland's PM function for quick results.

happy new year to everyone in the house.
may this new year bring 20/20 sunshine to our homes and
may our modules continue performing beyond our wildest
expectations.

Saipro:

My 3kWp array doesn't often exceed an average of 8-9kWh/day unless I go beyond my typical DoD of less than 50%. I do twice that on days I deliberately attempt to max out. And I don't even consider that any league. Just regular stuff. Check out GeorgeD1, NiyiOmoIyunade et al for massive arrays and big league harvest.

lolz,
brother, nobody is in the big leagues yet when it comes to solar.
we are all still trying to get there

blexxonmak.
ameboperoo,
spartacus, et al,

Compliments of the season to you all.

My insatiable quest for satellite knowledge coupled with a driving desire to break free from the
clutches of payTV led me to nairaland and eventually I stumbled on the official FTA thread (part 1).
The likes of olofofo, badaru, microgiant, olason, F-marshal, adex70, blexxonmak, Dejsam,
enitan, Evans Ghanney, Gadotor, ikiriye, jujukemist, obnelly, borderline, twinsoris, tox naija,
including adewest who single handedly pulled down nilesat signals (BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, etc) with
a 2.4m pan dish in Lagos at a time when other installers were struggling to make headway even
with 3m. Not forgetting butsoneday, the undisputed king of sat who raised the BUD bar with a 5m
monster installation. Also, twinstaiye, Pidzo, sathob, freshp, jayron, enigma, twinskenny,
ameboperoo, bodejohn, pitodenze, sayso, Maddox, illish, arelukman, pofolo, esuo, odilibe and
others too numerous to mention...
We rode the waves together, through the Official Thread Of Free To Air Satellite Tv (parts 1 - 5) and
when that thread was finally closed we moved on to the Free To Air Satellite Tv General Thread.
It's been an exciting decade of learnings. A time in history never to be forgotten.
And now as we move on into the new year, may our journey take us to places never before explored.
As the old gives way to the new, I hope new members and others yet to join will be proud to have
their names mentioned among the great ones who helped to keep the FTA fire burning.
Break the myth, dispel the belief, YOU KNOW YOU CAN!!!

Merry Christmas to all men (and women) of goodwill in the house.
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, may this season
bring joy, peace and abundant sunshine to all our homes. May the solar system
realign itself to our favour. Amen.

justcallmenuel:

I’m for real sir, you can try it and confirm it yourself. 08168986461

looks like we finally have some much needed competition different from the
'usual suspects'
however like someone already pointed out, this thread is not all about coming to
showcase your products. ensure you also stay put and contribute to topics
as the need arises.
that said, I wish you all the best in your sales and after sales transactions.

earthrealm:


morning star CC!!!
my first love. too badt the chinese have crashed the market, almost 200k for a 60amp morning star CC, will buy me a 3kw hybrid mpp solar inverter & CC combo with inbuilt 60amps mppt cc and 30amps mains charging. ....chaaiii..
i still miss the harvest log capability of the Morning star

brother, while purchasing a good quality cc, sometimes you have to look beyond price.
those chinese cc you're referring to may appear to be cheaper in the short term but you pay
for it in other ways.
and, if durability, ruggedness, peak performance is your thing, i think you'll be hard put to get
a better option presently in the market than morningstar.

ceaser:


I hate ceiling fans. There are not mobile and therefore permanently change the appearance of the room, exept the luxury ceiling fans which beautify and if course does not come in solar LE consumption types.

For me, if I need anything like fan, standing fan does it or at worst orbit fan which is also small enough to be partially mobile and less conspicuous than those ceiling fans.

well, what can I say? I guess to each, his own

flip the table around and I guess there are peeps here that won't touch a standing fan with a long pole.
so, at the end of the day it boils down to personal preference.
but if one is really serious about aesthetics I think split unit inverter acs would be the cooling medium
of choice.

olaolu11:


Oga George you still dey? I think say you don waka from this loop. Long time o. Thanks.

@ Juo.
Pls show colour a beg

lolz. yes oh. I full ground remain, my brother.

and I can guarantee you that most other peeps you mentioned earlier are also around.
the fact that we don't post regularly does not mean we have gone away.
besides, apart from the marketers who make a living selling renewables, most other members
here have day jobs which keeps them occupied.

olaolu11:


One or two hours is no deal to me; I need the fan to run overnight if need be. That's why I'm thinking of connecting directly to my battery bank or ac socket port so it won't go off in the middle of the night.

brother,
why don't you contact juo and get yourself a low consumption dc/ac ceiling fan?
at full speed it's just about 25w and first or second speed would set you back only 5w.
I think it would serve you better than this standing fan you're trying to purchase.
best of all, you can obviously hook it up to your inverter system without stress.

Spy360:

Is George D back?
You and Odilibe.
God fathers of fta nairaland.
Please where is Olenyi? My first tutor.

Lolz. I guess saipro already answered that question.
We always have been around, watching from the sidelines while
the new kids on the block run the show.

davodyguy:

Hello Microgrant.

Do you by any chance remember that site we do visit back then around 2008/2009 to check footprint and dish size for some satellites?

Can't remember any more

Brother,
You're talking about footprints by dish size website. Unfortunately that site is now archived.
The good news though, a handful of other websites have stepped in to fill the void.
These include those already mentioned by microgiant and odilibe, .i.e flysat, satbeams.
Besides these you also have sadoun, satelliteguys.us, appsattv, satsig, etc

Topmost11:


I saw this post of George_D from 2010. Is the generator now available?

brother,
i guess that invention is still a work in progress - like so many other promising ones yet to see the light of day.
who knows what the future might hold?

microgiant:
Hello GeorgeD long time. I am trying to go into a kind of mini solar.

@dishtech

I got the PWM CC 12V/24V 60A. see pictures attached. My questions are

1. How do I connect the wires (a) parallel to the PWM CC, or (b) series? Note: batteries are LiFePo4.
2. Can I use a 1500VA MGE UPS?

brother,
long time indeed. it's been a while.
so talking about this setup of yours, is there any particular reason you're choosing to go this route of used battery and
new battery combo? also the pwm option seems rather strange especially for a lifepo4 charging regimen.
personally i believe anything worth doing at all is worth doing well. i would rather advise a serious rethink on your part
and possibly (if it's not too late) plan to purchase new batteries of similar specs and a proper mppt cc that will give you
rest of mind.

funken:
Gurus, I have a Fangpusun 150/70 with a 48v 200ah Ritar AGM battery bank (8 batteries), 9 250w solar panels in 3s3p configuration and I am experiencing it going into float prematurely - hence it does not fully charge the batteries. If I am lucky it charges it up to 53.7v I have read online that this is a problem with the algorithm as it senses the voltage at sun up and uses it to calculate how long absorption time will be.
Absorption voltage currently set to 56v and float is 55.4v.

Is there a workaround that one can adopt? I see they have resolved this in the Victron v1.42 firmware but as we are stuck with the v1.16 what can one do?

cc @earthrealm
@GeorgeD1
@SolnergyPower
@NiyiOmoIyunade
@bigrovar
@ zeestone99
@pranil

funken,
your experience is by no means an isolated case as i think we have discussed something similar
here on the thread having to do with fangpusun ccs.
unfortunately however, i don't own a fangpusun cc so may not be able to offer useful hands-on solution
to this. all my charge controllers are morningstars even though i did try out midnite solar at one time
but i quickly reversed course when i realized how much invested i already was in morningstar.
hopefully juo or niyi might be able to point you in the right direction.

Saipro:

... and I'm still buying some things ... twice!

harizonal123:

I love my TV so much and I don't want any fault. Let me go to AliExpress to search for cheap pure sine wave. I nor fit shout.
This solar journey has not been easy so far. Just making mistakes and buying everything twice

brother,
the bolded is something almost every solar enthusiast here can relate to.
the reason being that solar power as an aspect of renewable energy is an ever evolving industry.
there is no single template or blueprint to guide newbies as they try to grasp the different challenges
thrown at them during their start up years.
we all made mistakes along the way and we ended up buying most solar items we own today twice.
myself started with a locally made modified sine wave inverter which nearly set fire to my house,
before buying a chinese made inverter, which was also modified sine wave, and then another inverter
before finally deciding to get a high end inverter.
every enthusiast has their own story and we learn along the way.
most importantly however, you must be ready to read extensively whatever info you can find,
whether on the internet or other places. and, of course ask, ask and ask if not sure. this will will help
you avoid making mistakes some of which may be both costly and life-threatening.

sintolord:
Good day Oga George, kindly share the pictorial diagram of your battery connection. I am amazed you don't use battery balancer.

here's a rough depiction of what i have on ground. please never mind the hand drawing.
replicate that in 3 places to represent each of the three strings and connect each string
to a single bus bar. so i have 3 positive cables and three negative cables connected to
my inverter through the bus bar. and very importantly, each cable having equal length
regardless of distance from battery bank. so essentially, it's three independent banks
operating as one. same charge current, same discharge current from each string.
hope this helps?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Yes Sir!

This is the very site I stumbled upon years ago that helped me understand what was going on for the very first time.

Same principles I believe founding fathers like Oga GeorgeD deduced from hard experience and used to wire up their battery banks.

Method 3 can be further simplified by using busbars.

A slightly modified Method 4 is the way we keep multiple parallel battery banks balanced using only one battery balancer.

All in all, once you are paralleling multiple battery banks, using busbars will help you reduce the number of hops/jumps current has to pass through.

niyi,
you're very much on point.
in the early days of my renewables journey, i did some extensive research on various methods of battery
connections in a bank and the method i finally adopted was ranked among the best.
that, along with my oversized solar array has ensured that my batteries remain in top shape these many
years, beating even the most enthusiastic predictions.
and, it's also the reason why i don't use a balancer despite having three parallel strings in my bank.

olaolu11:

hi. I stumbled upon this thread and have read to 80 and is following from 540. You were prominent then but silent in the recent times so I thought you've upgraded to become an IPP. Glad to know you are very much around

lolz! learning is a continuum so it never stops even when you think you have 'arrived'.
the so-called IPPs you're talking about still do regular consultations in order to get fresh
ideas and renew strategies.
this forum was originally conceived as a 'diy' forum and still has a lot to offer for a lot of us.
so even if i have a 100kw system today, it won't be enough to make me complacent.

olaolu11:
Is george-D still on this thread? I am reading from 1 and is on 57 presently. He was very prominent with some other notable names but I have not seen any post from him.

hello olaolu,
i'm still very much around. i've been on hiatus from the thread while attending to other
pressing issues although i do pop in every once in a while to see how things are going.
apart from a few here who make a living selling solar products, most others do have day
jobs that require their time and as such may not always be on hand to make inputs to
trending discussions.
all the same, you can always send me a pm in case you need anything urgently.
cheers!

primefaith1:
The price of Quanta battery 200AH is 117k from the Indian importer.What is the justification of selling 130k?

primefaith,
since no one has volunteered an answer, i will.

long answer cut short: greed.

it's the same reason why we haven't made progress as a nation.

imagine the price difference: 117k - 130k! i'm sure even the manufacturer doesn't make that much profit
on a single unit of production after discounting cost of raw materials and overheads.

ojeysky:


I have read that doing that won't help much based on my roof position (the stuff is currently facing the East)

Regards

ojeysky,
the bolded explains why you initially got a high output on your panels in the morning and it later declined as the
day went by. the sun rises in the east and sets in the west (every solar enthusiast should know this).
by midday, the sun is directly overhead and after that it moves away heading west. if you have your panels facing
east, you are more likely to experience reduced output anytime after midday.
for my own installation, i have my third array facing east but it was a deliberate choice. firstly, my south facing roof space
was maxed out and secondly, i wanted to take advantage of the early morning sun whenever possible. besides, i use
stand alone charge controllers on all my strings so that voltage drop on one string doesn't affect the others...

ojeysky,
seems from your picture, panel orientation could be contributing to your issues.
maybe it's just me, but i think your panels are installed backing the sun.
try and use a compass to get your true south direction and re-install your panels
accordingly.

sammu:

Go to crosat thru this link . Download the recovery file. Follow the instruction
http://crosat.us/upload/index.php?directory=Strong%20Receivers/Strong%20WIZKID%20Files/Strong%204%20Middle%20East

hello sammu, nice to see that you still visit here once in a while

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I think the issue may be comparing these batteries based on their burst load handling capabilities.

Let us consider a more typical scenario where the loads are average for typical home use.

48v 400Ah is about 19.2kwh stored - the C20 discharge rate for this is about 960w. Say I run an average 800w load on this battery bank,. I can do so happily for about 12 hours before reaching 50% DoD. In this scenario a good AGM battery will last well over 2 years before it conks. Key to note an AGM will easily handle burst loads up to 25% of capacity for short periods.

Now for a 48v 50Ah Lithium bank, I have 2.4kwh stored - 90% (to use your numbers) is about 2.16kwh - so I can run my 800w load for about 3 hours before exhausting the useable energy in the battery.

12hours backup with AGM looks more like a typical usage scenario vs 3hours with Lithium and to put this on an equivalent footing I would need at least 48v 200Ah to 230Ah of Lithium batteries to give thesame backup time.

Cycle life for a good quality AGM is anywhere from 600 to 1,750 cycles (easily 2 to 5 years) if used within the recommended design range.

If I take Quanta as representative of a good AGM and BYD as representative of a good Lithium based battery, I am looking at a 3:1 cost ratio for Lithium vs AGM.

The average guy on the street would struggle to pay 3 times the regular price to acquire Lithium batteries to secure him thesame capacity but with longer service life. This is the struggle I am in currently trying to upgrade my 48v 800Ah battery bank to Lithium - I am looking at 48v 500Ah of Lithium to give me thesame useable capacity with a slight buffer built in and it is clear to me that I am extremely unwilling to afford that much for a battery or pay that much for Lithium.

niyi,
i agree with you totally.
my experience with new technology is its tendency to being 'souped up' to serve the needs of whoever is
peddling it. at the initial time lithium broke into the scene, we were told it could be drained down to 0% dod
without any issues at all, and thus we would need exactly half the capacity of lead-acid batteries as replacement
for our battery banks. over this short span of time however, i've seen changing dod figures. from 90% to 85% as
the sweet spot where maximum number of cycles would be best guaranteed. this for me is a red flag and it simply
tells me that all is not settled yet as far as this nascent technology is concerned. so, if I have a lead-acid bank that
i'm maintaining at 50% dod, and i have lithium which is 3 or 4 times the cost of lead-acid and I can only go 85%
for best results, what difference does that make to me?
most of the hype of lithium revolves around its superlative number of cycles and its ability to charge faster while
needing lesser number of solar panels to do so. maybe that would strike a chord with someone looking to go solar
for the first time but for an enthusiast like yours truly already heavily invested in an oversized array and running an
agm bank pushing nearly 7 years, it would take a little more convincing that lithium is actually worth the effort -
and cost.

gustav25:


How do I get to to activate it ?

you activate it like normal new airtel sim card and load whatever credit you
want to sub. they will give you 125% data. it's as simple as that.

totalgreen01:
Enjoying my li-ion DIY
will update soon

whoa! totalgreen! you finally did it bro!
congrats and well done for keeping the dream alive.
cheers!!!