₦airaland Forum

For those hoping to go the path of lithium batteries, an independent testing lab in Australia have been conducting series of test cycles on lithium batteries and the results published periodically.
http://batterytestcentre.com.au/
Interesting how Chinese brands of lithium are coming out strong giving the premium brands like Tesla and LG a run for their money.
Pylontech batteries reporting a State of Health (SOH) 86% after 1,470 cycles
Latest report for September 2019 can be read here http://batterytestcentre.com.au/reports/

Lithium batteries sweet o!
Me I know get headache again for battery balancer and equalization

ojeysky:
You can check their documentation at their website below. A few differences:
GK: Batteryless, and high Voc, 3KVA has 80amps charge controller, support 4000W panel
MK: Parallel support, zero switching delay, low VOC, 3kva has 60amps charge controller, support 1500w panel

https://www.mppsolar.com/v3/pip-mk-series/

Regards

Does the GK series mix grid and solar power together? the MK series does this flawlessly.
Simply put, if grid line (PHCN) is present and the solar panels are active during the day, the MK series inverter will draw power from both sources thereby reducing your PHCN bills
For most other inverters, and CC, they cut-off the PV to 0W production when the batteries are fully charged and grid line is present.
Imagine your batteries fully charged at 11am in the morning with grid line present and the sun is still hitting hard , all that goes to waste.

ojeysky:
If you are using the PIP series inverters; Voltronic Axpert, Mppsolar PIP, Voltacon, Effekta, and if you can get your hands dirty on techie stuff then you can procure a raspberry Pi and try the solpiplog:

https://github.com/njfaria/SolPipLog

Get yourself ICC software if you have the change and have rest of mind
It does have a better interface and gets the job done (my personal preference after trying out other softwares).
Looking forward to pairing 5048MK, ICC and Pylontech Batteries hopefully next weekend.

What's happening to Treasury bills lately?
11.18% for 364days? This is turning out to a joke

Do you have ABS sensor drivers side for Toyota Highlander 2008 complete?

Do you have Xbox one x? How much?

More than 9000wh generated from my 6 330w Canadian solar panels. It was generally sunny in most parts of Lagos today though.

For a 48v 200ah setup my felicity inverter draws about 120w/2.5A on idle.
Pretty high if you ask me

earthrealm:
does it have adjustable charging current knob as well?
anybody knows the idle consumption of this felicity?..abi its same range as its brother -- mustpower?

In January 2017 I applied for treasury bills at 18% rate Those where the times when treasury bills were juicy
Anyways I'm returning back to the scene after a short heist.
Should be submitting my applicating to GTB today hoping all goes well for this week's bid.

Thanks to all who are contributing to this tread to impact knowledege to the best of their understanding

Please I need an unlocked mifi modem
Whoever has one for sale should contact me ASAP
My swift modem just went under the bus

Met him 2 weeks ago in Enugu in an hotel lobby descending from the elevator as I was about entering it.
I was shocked that a former governor of a Nigerian state was staying in the same 3 star hotel with me

Mrpm:
This thread has been quite inspiring. I’ve been on solar energy in the past 4 weeks until recently when grid was installed. My experience so far has been great. Except I’m having problems installing Venus OS on my Raspberry Pi 3 B+.

Images are below, and kindly point out if I’ve done something wrong.

Don’t think Venus OS works on Pi 3 B+ yet. Read through this post
https://groups.google.com/forum/m/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!msg/victron-dev-venus/nZuRN96PJHQ/netetOnJCAAJ

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Boost!

8 units left...

Abeg remember to reserve one for me
will probably pick it up early next week
Thanks

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Danke schon!

Imagine a 5kWH battery bank fully charged and you have mains available for 5 hours then mains withdrawn after 5 hours.

With the Felicity attached to the battery bank and charging disabled, if you run a 500w load for those 5 hours and then mains fails, there will be no impact on your battery as they will still be fully charged since the Felicity will power loads directly from mains and not drain the battery at all.

With the VilPowerStar attached to the battery bank in Solar Priority mode, and you run thesame load for 5 hours your battery would be discharged ~50% - if mains fails after 5 hours you would be left with a deeply discharged bank and in need of a power source to charge so the batteries don't suffer damage if depleted too low

The two scenarios above show a significant difference between disabling charging and using the line/mains directly with the Felicity vs. running in Solar Priority mode with the VilPower.

There is a battery type selection setting #9 on the VilPower which may behave similar to the Felicity but I have not yet tried or tested it - luckily I have both the Felicity and VilPower in my house but the Felicity clearly wins this round with the elegance of its features.

Brother,
My thoughts exactly
Why would I want to discharge my battery when the inverter is also connected to mains and there is power?
Perhaps if you are on prepaid metering and want to be cautious of bills then I can understand how it can come handy

makavele:
We arent talking about discharge so we dont care, we are talking about disabling charging
thats why i said one is more direct and one is indirect
but the same aim is achieved,
i rather choose the must version because its the best definition of being offgrid

I do care
But I practically understand now how the two scenarios can serve different purposes
Cheers

makavele:
It is almost the same thing, almoooost . . .

I can confirm that in battery priority, the inverter will continue working with batteries even in the presence of grid power (mains or gen)
hence, inverter will not charge batteries. It will totally ignore the grid presence until the batteries are getting low;
if DOD is calculated well, the batteries will not reach 11.5 (for a 12V) before sun wakes up the next day.

Meanwhile on the felicity, the inverter will acknowledge the presence of grid and bypass your loads to grid, but will not charge the battery

So they are both the same thing; just that the felicity offers a more direct approach; while the must offers a cunning approach,

Peace !!

cc: kiekie1

Hi Makavele
I think you have painted two different scenarios
One inverter is discharging the battery even when there is grid/gen power while the other one is NOT DISCHARGING the battery when there is grid/gen power.
Don’t see how that is “almooost” the same thing abi?

makavele:
Full sun and clear skies?
It's been raining back to back here for days;
and when it's not raining, its cloudy, dark and hazy
and i have been burning diesel like no man's business
3kw producing just 500w at end of day

Are you in Lagos? that has been the situation in the past 2 weeks. if not that PHCN has decided to be loyal to augment the shortfall.....
The spike in maximum watts was actually observed just about midday when it stopped raining and the sun came out blasting in full force briefly.
That would tally with one of the variable deduced by oga Saipro

Saipro:
In cold weather, yes.
In cloud edge glare, yes.
When panels are underrated (to oust the competition), yes.
When charge controllers overstate their performance or data, yes.

Could these variables be stacked? Yes.

Thanks for the explanations.
Just wondering why manufacturers of charge controllers would want to overstate data. That’s suicidal and they can easily be rattled out
Samsung comes to mind.......

Is it possible to generate maximum watts more than on the rated nameplate of a solar panel?
I have 6 330w Canadian solar panels which is about 1980W combined. I’m surprised to see PVmax output for today as 2029W
Screenshot.....

Unfortunately this is the gospel truth.
Those in the know are already mounting solar panels on their roof top

Barezzi:
My guy, even at gun point, I can never use an outback flexmax cc I fear I've been scarred from that nasty experience.

Lol. To each and their own
Their was a white paper Morningstar put out some years ago comparing their charge controller to the outbacks flexmax.
http://support.morningstarcorp.com/search/?document_section=&search_product=96

Outback didn't even bother to counteract the comparisons . Its like coca cola giving you 20 reasons why you shouldn't drink Pepsi and pepsi quietly retrieved backwards with their tail between their legs.
As it has been rightly said, just go for products with good reviews, affordability and customer satisfaction. comparing a Lamborghini to a Toyota wouldn't cut it as long as both take you to your destination while delivering a satisfactory experience .

makavele:
The eagle has landed . .

#Courtesy OnePunchMan amazon shipping & delivery

Nice one

Time to order for the battery balancer. The usefulness and need to have one connected to a battery bank have been overflooged just in the last two pages alone

OnePunchMan:
we handle the purchase of your solar installation accessories from the USA at 310 naira per US dollar and have them in Lagos in 10 days.. contact me via my number in my profile..

Confirmed shipper
and yes the items in the picture are mine which I ordered through him, you can also get good bargain on the Naira if you are placing bulk order
dear all, Christmas came early and my solar panels went live late yesterday evening and already pumping some juice early this morning before i left home. about 2000w (1980w to be precise) 6 nos 330w Canadian solar panels to manage for now ( If someone else reported using less Kw and powering his entire appliances, why can't I )
Thanks to zeestone99 and crew for a wonderful job well done

bigrovar, I'm coming for you next. i think i have some pi3 lying around. solar monitoring mode to be activated next
Cheers

Have you tried connecting them to a PC and type in “ipconfig”in the command prompt ?
Look for the gateway address or something like that

NiyiOmoIyunade:
MY SUPER WONDERFUL CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE WITH MORNINGSTAR CORPORATION

I have two MorningStar 60a MPPT CCs which regulate the DC electricity that runs my entire house - the older of the two CCs intermittently throws a fault <DIP SWITCH CHANGED> due to some software error apparently but otherwise functions well and enters absorb and float normally.

Two years after I purchased this CC from an Amazon seller, I raised a support ticket with MorningStar Corp directly about the error I regularly saw logged on the CC - we worked through troubleshooting steps together and without any push or threat or force on my part, MorningStar already sent me a brand new MorningStar MPPT 60a as replacement CC entirely free of charge - bear in mind I did not purchase the CC directly from them o! They did not ask me for proof of purchase, they did not imply that I had somehow caused the fault, they simply determined that there was an issue with a product under their global 5 year warrantly and immediately shipped a replacement out to me once I provided them the serial number of the product for their records

I was so humbled and grateful I told them to ship to my US address so that they would not have to bear the costs to ship to Nigeria - they were actually willing to ship it to me here.

This sets the standard for what a customer should expect from sellers and manufacturers when he buys from them and that way the customer can buy with confidence. MorningStar have made a customer for life with me.

See below juicy titbits from my engagement with MorningStar support.

This is a wonderful news to hear.
I purchased a morningstar tristar mppt 60A via amazon too last week. It should be arriving Nigeria this weekend or early nextweek. Im glad to hear that they have a global/worldwide customer service experience. item was pricey but then again, i had to stomach the premium cost for the CC as against the chinese cheaper ones to avoid "had i known stories"

chidi
still enjoying the Benq HT3050 I bought last year
You really want to leave?

Thanks Niyi once again for always putting out well detailed explanations to problems

Im not usually at home but i have family members that are. left to them they dont mind draining the batteries to 0v .
felicity inverters according to their manual have low battery alarm at 42v ( for a 48v system). This is very very poor
I just need a device (cheapest i can get) that will triger a continous alarm at a preset voltage value of 48.8v (50% DOD)
If you know of any other cheap device that can do this task, I'm all ears.
NB im not a techie guy when it comes to electricals so i cant rig or hold a screwdriver close to any electrical devices even if my life depend on it

Barezzi:
Thank me later Victron Battery Monitor
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dT8A1WY0L.jpg

Thanks Barezzi for this.

Good morning House
I recently aquired 4 sets of Monbat Batteries with a new Felicity 5KVa 48v inverter. Will likely go Solar in the next couple of months.
In order to maitain a 50% DOD regularly on the batteries, is their any battery monitor i can attach that would triger and alarm/shutdown when the batteries discharges to a certain value?
Recently saw this on aliexpress, dont know how useful it will help out towards what i intend to achieve.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/High-quality-Display-DP50V5A-Constant-Voltage-current-Step-down-Programmable-DC-Power-module-buck-converter-voltmeter/32656651549.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.262.ZlXUgO

If you have followed the comic books you would have known that they were all bound to die in the hands of thanos
Watch out for captain marvel as someone rightfully pointed out. At the end of the credit scene Nick fury was actually paging someone thought to be captain marvel before he disappeared himself just as as the others did

Captain Marvel in theaters March 2019 and Avengers Infinity War 2 May 2019