₦airaland Forum

twinskenny:
Installed yesterday @ ologolo lekki

20kva inverter

45kwh lithium

40 no of 350w panels

Hi,

I hope you are not the one that suggested 40 units of 350w and that the clients did so themselves.

It's very sad that the client cheaped out on the pvs.

HeavenlyBang:
An extra 20k on cables is hardly some groundbreaking extra expense.

Fact is the vast majority of families in Nigeria would be fully satisfied with the setup I listed up there, since it barely costs 1.1m.

Show me a 24v setup with that budget that can outperform it, without buying used hardware.

I just don't like when people throw up random info as fact.

You are wrong that vast majority of families (plural), will be okay with that setup.

That your set up in the north can generate max of 5kwh daily, and in the south just average of 2kwh daily. So what do you mean by families (husband wife and kid/kids) will be satisfied with that set up.

Now for facts, the average home consumes 10kwh daily and the figure has been climbing for years as global warming increases the climate temperature.

I think the issue is that you should stop trying to portray solar as cheap, don't have the mindset that there is a budget for everyone no matter how little.

Solar is expensive and rightly so, because most people will even underestimate their consumption from the get go, so you even need to over size from the get go.

Have you seen a woman's energy consumption? Or that of kid's? As a guy, or spinster you can install something as bare as ur energy needs need, but you see your wife/partner and kids, they will never listen and turn on as much as they need each time they need it, just like they are on nepa.

So don't give false facts or false sense of solar is cheap.

fuckboys:
Please I want to know if there’s anyone here who can harvest the cells from my Haisic 12v 3.6kwh battery and add more batteries for a 280ah 24v configuration using his own box, then tell me how much to pay for it?

Hi,

The sad part about solar people hardly talk about and for the one's that talk about it, people hardly listen.

It is a known fact, that energy consumption increases after solar installation. A simple online search will show many articles on this fact.

This is why it is recommended to, as a bare minimum start with 24v but if its possible just go 48v all out at once.

Solar is more expensive if you start on 12v or 24v and your energy demand increases so much that you may need 48v for efficiency. And then, if total load requires 36kw peak and above, then a higher voltage is even better. That's why most inverters above 20kw are HV inputs.

Solar can be cheap, if you get it right the first time. It can also be costly and take up more space per kwh if you undersized from the get go.

Cheers

JoeSef0:
1m budget for just battery, inverter and accessories
Solar panels would be added later

Hi,

Your friend should just go with the colasolar 3.6kwh and see for himself if its okay with his desired usage.

He should however be sure to discuss warranty terms with the supplier.

Its better for him to sell the all in one colar solar when he wants to upgrade to a proper setup than for him to sell the proposed 1m naira system your are suggesting. 1m is not enough for his base loads of 800w and extra 1hp ac.

So it's best you avoid having future issues with your friend and let him do what he wants. Unless of course he is ready to go all out for a 2m to 2.5m set up.

Pbaelish:
Hello to everyone.pls is it possible and ok to use a 48v lithium battery with a 24v inverter,a friend said his installer said its ok. he was using 24v 400ah tubular before and just got 48v 5kwh lithium so i thought he will need to change inverter but he said the installers said no need. Appreciate your answers for clarification.

Hi,

The installer is right, if the installer thought he is not changing the batteries. 24v 400ah tubular means your friend has 4 units of 12v 200ah tubular batteries connected in para-series.

The installer will simply change the battery configuration to all series which will be 48v 200ah. The total energy and usable energy remains the same.

However, I doubt the installer thinks he wants to use the new 48v lithium on 24v inverter. Perhaps your friend didn't explain to him well enough. I don't want to believe an installer in 2025 can make such a blunder.

Cheers

Hi,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIv7KNvp7h4?si=P8e4NPhdYwN4jKQO

Those claiming LF has better surge than HF inverters and using it as an excuse to buying bulking LF inverters in this 2025.

This video is for you, look at the almighty victron, showing overload already at its rated 5kva and then have a massive voltage drop from 120v all the way to 106v and a spike up to 140v when overloaded.

If victron, a quality dutch made product can behave this way, imagine how poorly those terrible cheap LF Chinese inverters will behave under surge. F and C and the rest brands.

HF is the future, enjoy the video.

It's like we will leave this group for Ba ss do w (lol), sometimes it's good to read the writing on the wall.

You are so unnerving bro, and the worst part is that you sit down and type hundreds of characters.

Some people have setups with over 150kWh storage etc, some also have smaller setups of 8kWh. It all depends on their needs.

But you, you are just here, telling everyone all the time of why you do your frugality and why everyone should do frugality like you or see reasons to applaud you in your frugality.

Its like you are even so comfortable and content in whatever phase of life you have found yourself in and then you are projecting it on others by force.

Do you think your frugal lifestyle is anything to be proud off? Fine, we agree contentment is great gain, covetousness is sin.

But stop glorifying your frugality and stop projecting it on us.

Some spend millions on their setups not even based on their power needs, but because they have the money to. You don't see them here gloating about that either!

Just imagine knowing someone that always gloating about his/her 2001 camry, nobody is saying you should not be content or happy with it, but not to project it like he/she choice and decision is best and better than even the one that splurges on the recent model camry.

It have do please.

Also, it is not written anywhere that marketers are not allowed on this forum, I don't even understand your hatred for markerters. I agree there are dishonest ones, but there are also honest ones.

Its not by being online, some dishonest marketers also have shops in plazas, would you also go to the plazas and pursue them?

Everyone should simply make research before buying anything and simply learn from others.

I complained along with many others about Cworth product being overated yet are under-capacity, but, have you ever seen cworth marketers here? Even with their horrible products, they are not here.

So what's then your peeve with the few that are here? Especially some that have good reviews from their customers?

You can as well purchase from the marketer and do your independent review on such products!

It is well shar. Characters dey for this world.

Hi,

I think the quality of this forum has drastically deteriorated. It has just become a forum of arguments of inflated egos and based on who will be the one to have the last say.

Hardly any new inductee into the RE space on this forum, it's also been a while any one posted a solar setup, criticized critically or praise a brand, shared knowledge regarding findings on the future of RE etc

Just three full pages of banters by many who don't even have nor are currently using a bi-facial panel against. No practical experience, just AI slop and assumptions.

No installer here is even talking about client's feedback especially after installing solar this period of poor yield and is it's affecting the rate at which installation gigs are coming in.

Nothing to learn here in the last 3-5 pages, even tiktok is now serving better RE content and information compared to a forum dedicated to it. Now that's quite a shame!

Hi,

The Chinese and their unscrupulous practices will never seize to amaze me.

It has been established that Cworth batteries are overrated and are actually made with cells of 20 percent lower Ah. They then deceptively claim 80 percent DOD and that the 20 percent is ‘locked’ somewhere by the BMS. This is obviously a lie because the 80 percent the user is getting is at voltages of 42 - 44v, so nothing is obviously left in those cells.

Now, a new discovery. Allegedly, their 500w panels are actually 370w panels, they are just designed to mimic the dimensions and cell counts of 500w but you will never get the Vmp rating of their panels. It’s quite a shame that they sell these panels for the same price as legitimate 500w panels from reputable manufacturers.

I feel victim for this since I used their panels on one of my strings. You can imagine the unnecessary weight(kg) and space this 370w is taking on my roof, space that a 500w panel should take. In other words, I’m getting a horrible Watts per square meter where these panels are mounted.

It such a shame that this kind of practice is very common in China.

Please stick to reputable brands because when you use overrated products, it makes the payback/break-even time of your solar installation to be longer.

Cheers.

Dageek:
Deye Inverter is just too sweet, connected to home assistant

Awesome, next is to create your desired automations based on deye sensors and then you have yourself a completely awesome smart home.

@ mctfopt

Hi,

See the picture of this particular mount, ignore the pv I scribbled out, these 6 visible panels are the JA solar mount facing north.

Edit: For transparency, I’ve included the picture without the scribbled panels to show they are different panels, those are jinkos and part of the south facing string.

I have pv input on other mppt strings facing south (not visible in the picture).

Hi,

Don’t agree to be talked down on buying bi-facial panels for roof mount, especially if you have an angled roof made of aluminium or other reflective material and it is of a light colour shade.

These are 605w rated JA bi-facial solar panels producing a steady (straight 20mins as at time of posting) 651.5w each.

They are giving their full added bi-facial rating 651.5w out of 653w.

These JA bi-facial panels were the same price as similar rated 605w mono facial panels.

Also, note that it seems to be capped by the 70A rating of the victron charge controller, I believe they can do past the 651.5w per panel output that you see in this image.

The arguments here between HF and LF inverters is uninformed on one side.

LF / transformer based inverters are being phased out, victron is one of the few companies that offer majority of their products as transformer based. The rest of the industry have more HF inverters than LF in their products catalogs.

Also, you can consider this forum www.diysolarforum.com and guage trends, nobody there is talking about lead acid or LF inverters in 2025.

@ Damreey

Yeah Max pv on deye is on 9,600W. However, PV2 is usually partially shaded by noon, so I mostly get 12-13kW out of possible 14kW total panels (inclusive of victron charge controller).

Indeed today’s sun seemed like one of the best for solar yield in the past few weeks.

I charged at a steady 9kW (170Amps) for over an hour straight.

Another benefit of 48v systems, 24v system will essentially be 340Amps for same charging speed and battery capacity.

Hi @ preator

This video explains your gospower wifi logger features. In the video he had historic charts.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzAfrmGc1ms?si=gkLDzy_mCjjqtIxn

kristien4:
Why the 1.33 multiplication, u advised to get a 15kw battery when my consumption was 15kw daily, now that my consumption is 20kw, why not just get a 20kw battery like u first advised. Why involve 1.33. So if my current daily usage doubles from 15kw to 30kw, do i still do 15kw × 1.33. Is it not easier to just get a 30kw battery. Make me understand, because u dey sound like my maths teacher then wey dey make things hard....lol

Hi,

Battery is easy just as you have stated, daily load in kW = battery capacity in kWh

You need the division to multiply the pv and the inverter.

Note that you can still get away without upgrading your inverter but its very likely that if your demand increases your peak power also increases.

Hope that clarified things.

Hi,

From my experience, here is the cheat code to the simplest and easiest technique to size a perfect off grid solar ess system.

1. Calculate on average how much energy you use daily eg 15kWh ie 15 units of grid (NEPA) light

2. Get a battery that is equal in capacity to your daily average energy consumption eg 14 - 15kWh

3. Then size with pv that is half or close to half the battery storage capacity eg 7 - 7.5kW panels

4. Then get an inverter that can carry the max total load power during your daily consumption cycle (ie what is the max power you use when all your needed devices are turned on).

So let’s assume with your major appliances turned on you consume a max of 3kW (maybe when microwaving food, boiling water etc). You then get an inverter that is minimum 1.3 x the max power, so in this case a minimum of 1.3 x 3kW power = 3.9kW. So a 4kW and above inverter is good.

Example: following the above, for a 15kW average daily total consumption, you will get a 14-15kWh battery, 7-7.5kW panels and a 4 - 5kW inverter.

If you size your system with this method, you will be 100 percent off grid and will have two (2) days of autonomy i.e if rain falls and there is poor yield, your battery will still last you the night of poor yield (2 nights if you add the night before poor yield day).

What if your load demand then increases?

It’s simple if divide the new average daily load by the former average load and multiply the answer by every part of you off grid system.

Eg, if you now consume average of 20kW daily

20kW (new) / 15kW (old) = 1.33

So 1.33 x 15kWh (former battery capacity) = 20kWh for new total battery capacity

1.33 x 7.5kW panels = 10kW for total pv

1.33 x 4kW inverter = 5.3 so lets say 5.5 - 6kW inverter

So 20kWh total battery, 10kW total pv and 5.5 - 6kW inverter is what you need you system rating to be in order to accommodate the new average daily load of 20kW.

Conclusion:

This is my personal, practical and researched method. Anytime you use it on the field or personally, remember, knowledge shared is the best reward for knowledge that was gained.

favouredbymercy:
Since no single device can output the said current, one wont need such guage of wire since multiple charge devices would be involved, and therefore multiple cables as well.

Hi,

If its one battery the cable connected to the battery will take all the current irrespective of using multiple charge controllers or not.

If its multiple batteries, then the current will be shared from the common busbar.

Machiny:
would you advice the bifacial over the mono with your analysis, since they are same price? Many have talked down on the bifacial

Hi,

Like I said, it depends on the colour and material of your roof, if its aluminium and light coloured ie white to light grey colour range. Then you will most likely get bifacial gains.

The disadvantage is the weight, they are heavier than mono-facial of same rating.

Also, remember, all of this depends on the quality of the mppt controller. You need a good charge controller (stand alone or inbuilt) to lock on to the max power point of these panels in order to benefit from its max yield.

oluwapoju:
Please which cable did you use for the cworth communication. I was only able to connect mine via voltronic lib r485 but the reading is not accurate

Hi,

CAN to USB

The disadvantage of using CAN is that it doesn’t show individual cell voltages or temperature, and it shows all paralleled batteries as one battery.

https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/can_self

Dabss:
go with mono facial. The bi-facial is only 615w when mounted correctly where it can get the reflected sunlight rays. If you mount on the roof you won’t get 615W. Just go with mono facial either ways.

Hi,

The rating of bi-facial is the expected STC rating, just like monofacials.

So if a monofacial panel is rated 615w its bi-facial counterpart is also rated 615w.

Bi-facials then have a ‘potential’ power gain on the rating.

For example, I have 6 x JA 605w bifacial panels, they are rated to give me the 605w each, but I can get extra power of up to 653w each from bi-facial gains.

Here is my experience, I mounted it on a roof (regular angled roof), my max expected power at STC before bi-facial gains should be 6 x 605w =3,630 W. Then I can potentially get higher due to potential gain.

I actually get up to 3897w with them, so 649.5w each for 605w rated. That means I constantly get the bi-facial gain while mounted on roof.

The main thing is that your roof should be refective (etc aluminium) and from a white colour to like a light shade of gray etc, those are the roof colours that’s can reflect sunlight on the back of the panels. Black roofs might not work because black and darker colours absorb light and do not easily reflect.

See the attached picture, the first bar on the chart, notice the Pmax 3897w.

fuckboys:
he could physically check the remaining battery capacity without a phone app.

Infact the junctek would be the more reliable of all when the comes to battery monitoring.

Hi,

You are spot on with the first statement.

However, the victron smartshunt is more reliable when compared to the junktek, here are some reasons why:

The junktek drifts by 5Ah when you go through multiple cycles without a full charge, and sometimes even when discharging from a single full charge cycle.

The junktek also lacks communication ie VE.Direct, rs485, CAN and even rs232.

The junktek version that has a history chart (called trends in the victron app), always crashes when using the history chart.

The worst disadvantage is, when its fully disconnected from the battery terminals and reconnected (lets say you are adding a battery or modifying a connection), the junktek resets and loose all the Ah accumulative calculations.

The junkek is better in some aspects however:

Firstly it shows time to charge to full charge (victron only shows time to full discharge)

Secondly, it’s way cheaper and if gotten to be simply a battery shunt with no other smart features, it does 99 percent of what the victron does.

It comes with a screen that has a lovely GUI.

EPOMA:
You are confusing me small. so why the Junktek shunt. very impressive

Hi,

Junktek comes with a display, so everyone in the house at a glance can see the battery percentage without needing to log into the home assistant app or remote log in.

The victron smartshunt 300 didn’t come with a display, it’s the bmv verson that has a display, but the ui is lacking compared to junktek. Both victron smartshunts support VE.Direct which is what’s crucial for communication.

mctfopt:
Why do you have two raspberry pi running solar assistant?

Hi,

The deyri has jk bms, and the cworth has a different bms. So the first RPi with solar assistant is communicating with the JKbms of the deriy, the inverter and the victron smart shunt.

The second Orange Pi running SA is communicating with the cworth battery via CAN2.0, I couldn’t get cworth to communicate via rs485, it seems they use different communication protocols via rs485, but the CAN uses standard protocol.

Also in the image I uploaded earlier showing the custom HA gui, you might notice that 3,780w coming from panels but only 2,480w going to load and battery is full. So you might think the inverter is grossly inefficient.

It was a bug in my coding but it has been corrected. The deye is over 95 percent efficient.

See the corrected code bug in the image below, over 95 percent efficiency.

Final Setup

6kw Deye Offgrid
14kW Panels (3x605w JA Solar, 12x440w Jinko, 10x500w Cworth)
Victron 150/70 Charge controller
26.5kw Deriy Lithium and Cworth Lithium in Parallel with Busbar
Victron Smart shunt 300A
Junktek 100A shunt
Raspberry Pi 5 (running Solar Assistant)
Orange Pi 3 (running Solar Assistant)
Windows NUC (running Home Assistant)
Starlink for home internet
GLi.net router

Programmed Home Assistant using YAML for various automation, and created sensors from mqtt stream from SA. Influxdb for database. It also shows live individual power consumption of each devices in the house through smart plugs HA integration and custom auto-entites.

Since we going all in on renewable energy, gas hobs were replaced with ‘real’ induction cooker (max 3000w on highest settings with all 4 burners on, enamel cast iron pots).

Average daily load 30kW (Home Assistant programmed to do load management automatically, with pv forecast, so 3 AC, Induction hob, water heater, microwave , airfryer etc, every device is connected and will never exceed the 6000W rating of the inverter)

100 percent off grid, ie Island mode, no physical connection to grid. The wife is happy, I’m happy.

If you need any guidance on home assistant coding for your set up, you can private message me.

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