₦airaland Forum

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!!!

kogistar:
really? i no know o

that's the point bro. your man in benue capitalized on people's ignorance to make
profit off them. he ought to be in jail.

johnolusetire97:
Do you mean the normal double data for new sims?

yeah, that's correct.

Barezzi:
Hmmm, just when I decided to patronize him George. Na wa o, why are some Nigerians like this?

yeah, bro. the guy is a big fraud.
found out he latched on to the ongoing airtel new sim pack mega data bonanza where subscribers are given 125% of data when they register a new sim. he then collects money from unsuspecting peeps, buys a new sim on their behalf and subscribes for a data package far less than what they pay him for and pockets the remaining cash.
that's why the mega data usually runs out within 3 months.
anybody can do what he's doing provided you buy a new sim. and its not restricted to airtel. glo and mtn have similar bonanza running.
let's all be guided.

yawwilson,
Its good to see you guys busy keeping the thread active. I will update the house soon on my latest endeavours on FTA.
Together we will keep breaking the myth!

dunka,
he started well and I actually got my money's worth in the first and second transaction hence the reason i decided to endorse the thread but the subsequent transaction didn't meet up to expectation.
I guess it's the typical nigerian syndrome. he probably got greedy over time.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I agree with these broad conclusions but 500 cycles for Quanta would imply end users get less than 2 years life at 50% DoD per day.

To throw in some real life into all these spec sheets;

I have actual field data from at least 100 12v 200Ah batteries I have installed - a good number of them have already passed the 2 year mark and still going strong - this with users who don't even know what DoD means or respect DoD.

I can only conclude that the Quanta manufacturer estimates are overly conservative or the battery capacity is understated.

Oga Dapsyra gave some hard field data for his LTO batteries over a 15month period - I look to similar field data for the BattleBorns instead of just projected lab results.

I do not think it is practical to use a 100% DoD assumption for any battery bank with more than one battery connected in series except the battery capacity was understated.

I would really love a LTO or similar bank to play with but the entry cost is rather steep - sad to say I 'd rather replace my Quanta 3 times over a 10 year period than throw 10 million naira into a Lithium battery bank and hope for a 10 year lifespan without field evidence to back me up.

Nearly 80% of the Lithium reviews I come across tell me people are still trying to gain mastery of this Lithium tech.

well done niyi. I couldn't have said it better.
for a small battery bank of less than 100ah one could take the risk of going lithium but
for peeps like us having an oversized bank, plunking down such a humongous amount of
dough on a technology whose overriding appeal is a promised future performance not yet
proven in real world applications, is a gamble taken too far.

guys please note that I have withdrawn my support for this thread. turns out that the guy in benue state doing the actual mega data thing has turned fraudulent and has started scamming people.
transact with him at your own risk

Im2Busy2Bother:
Thanks a lot. I love the number of solar panels. Thank you for taking out time to list 'em.

the plan to oversize was a deliberate attempt to beat south-south constantly cloudy weather.
thanks to zeestone for helping out with the first half of my array - 24 units solarworld. I was quite impressed with their professionalism.
juo and his team of experts came on board for the second half - 24 units canadian solar which was supplied at wholesale price by gennex early last year.
in all, a great team I was privileged to have crossed path with.

Saipro:
See? Now you've made him declare himself for what he is - a breathing, walking, talking power plant.

lolz bro,
my setup is still small in comparison to some others.
I like to think of it as a work in progress.

Im2Busy2Bother:
Thank you for the reply, as a busy person, can you help list these things for me:

Number of battery and capacity : Eg 20 Nos of 12V 200AH

Your total number of solar panels: Eg 15 Nos of 250W polycrystalline panels.

Your total load: Eg 2kw on average.

Inverter make and capacity: Eg SCHENEIDER 3Kva 24VDC

I'm super impressed with the performance of your battery and I'd love to learn a thing or two from you. Thanks for the anticipated response.

PS: You can just list it without stressing to add more details to it. I'd appreciate all the same. Thank you.

lolz. this is serious work oh. especially on this occasion when I'm at the countryside catching
nature's cool breeze

anyway, I'll attempt to answer some if not all your inquiries. apologies if I'm not detailed
enough.

1. number of batteries: 12 nos, 12v, 260ah, totaling 780ah
2. total nos of panels: 48 nos (24units 315w solarworld, 24units 330w canadian solar)
3. total load: this is a bit tricky but I'll try. btw 2500w to 3500w
4. inverter make and capacity: magnum ms4348pe, 4,300w capacity @48v

NoMoreTrolling:
Wow, 6 years on an AGM battery? That is uber impressive!!

Honestly, with batteries in Naija, solar can sometimes feel like Rocket Science, lol.

The last batteries we got (from JiJi) were babied and put through a C0.1 discharge, but still couldn't get past about a 100 cycles before they began massive degradation. All this while not going past the so called 50% limit on lead acids and fully going through a complete three stage charging regimen every time they were recharged.

So what is your secret with your AGMs? Is your discharge lower than C0.1? Did you oversize your bank? Are you sure that you still have the same capacity you did as day one? or have they degraded, but still possess enough capacity for your needs?

btw, how is your solar system doing? Last time I read your posts, you were generating upwards of 25kwh per day which just blows my f**king mind.

brother, there's no other secret to my agms longevity besides doing the basic things.
coming into renewables over 10yrs ago as a green horn, I had a steep learning curve. using
4 units of 200ah batteries, I went quickly from a locally made inverter that nearly set fire to
the house I was living in, to a chinese made inverter that died on me suddenly one cool
morning, to another chinese inverter before finally deciding that enough is enough.
in all it didn't take me long to realise that the backbone of any solar system is the batteries.
when you size your battery bank properly, give it enough charge to keep it happy everyday,
it will last for a very long time - and that's what I did.
all the learnings I gathered from my first set of batteries, I put them into good use when I
was preparing my replacement battery bank.
proper load audit, a battery bank size to match my expected load and the right solar array
size to give enough juice to make my battery bank happy.
and it has paid off for me several years down the road.

viazi:
@George D, one of my good friend on Lexus group based in Warri is seriously of the opinion that Solar energy batteries are designed to last for only 2yrs. That he actually changes batteries every 2 yrs. After alot of argument, I told him I will beg u for a meeting. Pls he is a responsible citizen. I will like him to call u but yr no. that I have is not available. Kindly find time to lecture him.

hello viazi,
sorry I'm just seeing your post. I've been unavoidably busy.
my zenith agm batteries are 6yrs already and still counting and from their
current stellar performance they would easily cross the magical 7yr mark come
september. like I said in an earlier post, solar power isn't rocket science:
know the basics and apply the principles and you'll keep smiling while others continue battling with self-inflicted issues born out of ignorance.
that said, I'll be happy to meet with your friend one on one and discuss.
send me a pm through nl and i'll avail you my contact details.

coolagent,
i already gave update on this. kindly check link below.
cheers!

https://www.nairaland.com/390522/solar-energy-complement-fta/400#67644483

BENARI:
Oga George still hoping to hear from you o >:

have replied you bro.
check your mailbox

BENARI:
Hello @GeorgeD1

Much respect for your hard work and intelligible post here on NL. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading them; very informative.

I have some urgent concerns to share on the Solar Water Heater matter, but will like to share them privately in order to get your frank advice.

I've sent you a pm.

Waiting for your reply Sir.

hello benari,
i saw your pm and i already replied you. kindly check your mailbox and let's take it from there.
also you could consider a watsapp chat for a more interactive discussion.

samnaija:
u came out of hibernation just for them. that water heater show u no be small.

samnaija,

not exactly, bro
i'm still using the protek brand till date but that doesn't mean i wouldn't speak out to warn
other prospective buyers of their shylock tendencies.

as for being in hibernation, that also is not exactly correct. if you check my profile, i've always
been around but what's the point posting repeated answers to questions already made good
by able members like niyi, chris, bigrovar, saipro, zeestone, pranil, et al?

adrusa:
But, why? Any problem that I should be aware of?

adrusa,

apparently you haven't been following posts here on this thread.
the protek water heater is not exactly what it is advertised to be.
besides being easily susceptible to leaks, there's supposed to be a
3 year warranty on the product which the vendors never have the
intention of honoring.
and, did i mention that it is a white label....?

DUNKA:
whatever you decide do not buy Protek brand

correct! i second that advice!!

this post has been withdrawn. deal with this guy at your own risk