Alright, many thanks.

Maybe try attaching a screen capture of it - it will need to be re-sized first.

I just bought an external charger from Jumia. Picture attached - I just hope it will serve as expected.

ceaser:


• Yes, three stage charging. It is a "smart charger" and marketed as such.
• Yes. I have mine permanently connected to the terminals on the battery and even with the mains to which it is plugged to always in the "on" position for times that the mains power comes on (although it is also plugged into the mains via a TV guard to protect it from electrical surges)

I would have posted the konga link for the item, but I always get banned by the spam it everyone I post links. I'm in fact currently serving a ban on one of the solar threads.

Hello Ceaser,

Does this external charger go through the three stages (bulk, absorb and float) required to correctly and adequately charge deep cycle batteries?
Can one leave it connected to deep cycle batteries unattended to, to automatically charge the batteries, hence support the charge function of an inverter?

ceaser:


I will advice you get yourself a good external charger. A 20 amp or 30 amp 12volt/24volt selectable external charger will suffice. Those chargers are good in that they have a wide range of working voltage (90VAC to 250VAC) therefore their performance are minimally affected by fluctuations in NEPA voltage. Plus some also have settings to help you achieve good equalization and even recover some dead batteries.

The prag inverter have un built voltage stabilizer that auto switches off the charging if and when NEPA current fluctuates, giving only power line straight to power the appliances. This lack of sustained charging is not sufficient to charge batteries.

I have one BTS stabilizer-inverter-charger combo built exactly like the prag series and it only charges the batteries conveniently only when plugged to generator because of the sustained voltage and current from the generator. It performs poorly with NEPA half current. But I now use a 20amp digital charger and have completely jettisoned the charging function of the inveter.

Hi gurus in the house,

Please, someone help do analysis for me on the much talked about lithium phosphate ion battery against lead acid battery (AGM).


I have plans for a 600AH lead acid battery at 24V (cost = 640k).
So, using these factors (especially cost) to get equivalent for lithium phosphate battery, analyse to help me make an informed decision.

Thanks in advance

Good-day house,

Am in need of 5kva 48V inverter with low idle power consumption (preferably hybrid inverter at a good price point). Kindly point me in the right direction.

My Prag 24V 4kva inverter draws roughly 135w on idle, about 170w with moderate load (<500w) and draws roughly 200w when load on it is above 500w.

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?

I may be needing it. Want to confirm with the end-user if he is okay with the idle power consumption.
Can you send me your whatsapp mobile? to my email clennyng@gmail.com

it

sinistrian:

Oh, I didn't see the email. Yes it's still available.

Hi Sinistrian, I emailed you bout this inverter. Is it still available?

sinistrian:


I have a 1 month old 24V 3kva inverter sitting around that I could sell for a giveaway price, if you're interested:
https://cloudenergy.com.ng/products/3kw-home-inverter I took it out and replaced with a 48V Hybrid, and it's been sitting in a box since

Hello Pranil, a question please,

With your multiple inverters, do you have a COMMON NEUTRAL output AC wiring for all the loads connected to them? or does each inverter have its separate live and neutral wiring for their loads?

pranil:


It is perfectly safe for the inverter DC input to be abruptly cut off. It just stops working. May take few milliseconds to discharge capacitors but the AC supply dies instnatly. if you notice most of the inverters have a fixed input voltage unlike charge controllers which can handle multiple voltages 12/24/48 etc.,

This happens in my case regularly
1. I have a pure inverter 48 V 350 VA which supplies only critical loads like server /modem etc - (kind of UPS with Giant Battery). I Just switch off the DC input to shut it down ( the switch on inverter is tiny and I cannot remember which side to push for power saving and which side for off)

2. The other scenario almost happens daily with my microinverter - these inverters are connected directly to solar panel DC and not battery that means they switch off and switch on every day with sunset/sunrise and see wide fluctuations in voltage


if your inverter has Hardwired ON off siwtch ( like sukam or Prag) you might want to considering wiring a DC low volatge relay conact in parallel so that on Low volatge the inverter just switches off like pressing the off button

Hello House,

I have a little question.

I set my cc to equalise my FLA batteries at 31V and i have 1.5kva 24V luminous inverter connected to the batteries. From my observation, the inverter has float charge voltage of 27.5V

My question is - if am equalising the batteries at 31V using cc and the inverter is powered at the same time (hence it sees the 31V); will this voltage cause any harm to my inverter?

Thanks Earthrealm.

Am already doing my rough calculations and i see to get about 10 degrees will require a hind leg of about 2.9 ft but obviously that will introduce instability. So, am thinking of using 1.5 ft (18inches) and then ensure sufficient number of legs (securely bolted) under the panels to bring stability and rule out wind factor. Current production from the array at the moment (11:10am) is roughly 820w (bright sky, cc in bulk mode, battery OCV at 06:30am was 25.1V). Total production for 11:10am is 2kwh.

Appliances On at the moment are 240w HT freezer, 40w TV, 24w Decode, one 65w Fan

earthrealm:


ooh, i didnt get that part -- so his panels are flat on the roof?..
if so thats a bad idea like the poster above stated, get a local welder to fabricate a short rack for you, using angle iron, if you have a fair bit of trignometry, you can calculate the height of the legs to help you achieve an angle closer to 10/15 deg inclination,---- ie make the front or hind legs of the rack shorter or longer as the case may be, the legs shudnt exceed 12inchies to avoid instability and wind factors

nene2016:
HeartofGod,

Were you able to give the bolded a shot?

Hi Nene. I plan on doing that tomorrow.

Cheers

Oshomo12:


Hello, ur panels have no air flow under them, hope u know that they get very hot? Once the temp is that high, there is a large drop in the efficiency (silicon prefer cold temp). In ur case, the heat generated at the back of the panels have very little space to escape, so it goes back up to heatup the panels. That's one of the reasons u re getting about 50% of ur total panel wattage. Again ur tilt angle at about 30 is a little high, around 14-10 is ok. 10mm for 35ft is ok for a voltage higher than 80 v. Do this corrections and don't forget to send me a cake!

Thanks Oshomo for the suggestion. I will do just that. And will also carry out load test on the panels as gurus in the house did suggest.
NB: the cake is currently baking

Thanks mcci for your suggestion.

The freezer is on timer (9am - 17pm), and TV with decode (about 64w), Binatone fans (65w each, atleast 2 stays ON) and LED lights all come ON from about 2:30pm till 9pm. More LED and energy saver lights come ON as dusk approaches. Reducing the panel tilt to about 15degrees is strongly on my mind but don't if that improve my harvest.

mcci:


How many hours during the day is your Freezer, TVs and Fans on?
If freezer is on all day, I'll recommend you get a timer switch and control when it comes on and off, say between 1pm and 5pm.

When children go to school is anyone else at home?
If not then on a sunny day it is possible you hit float by 1pm or absorb atleast before children are back from school by 1pm or 2pm

Thanks DMerciful,

I can do that but getting required length of 16mm copper cable to reconfigure the setup can bore a serious hole in my pocket.

I was considering building a rack to elevate the panels to have a tilt of about 10 - 15 degrees. With this, i may get better harvest and also there will be free flow of air around the panels, thus keeping them cool. What do you think? Wind force on panels during torrential rain is my only fear.

DMerciful:
Power pressing iron with ur inverter on a sunny day and confirm the current going into d battery from the cc. If high ur installation is OK. If low, then do the following.
change ur panel configuration to 2*3 so that ur PV voltage is 50v-70v max. Unlike Epsolar, Fangpusun works best when PV input voltage to cc is twice battery voltage.
-if changing to 2*3, use 16mm and above flexible cable.

Thanks Earthrealm,

My batteries are still performing fine and they are 220ah mercury tubular FLA (15.8kwh battery size). The distance from pv to cc is about 35ft completed with 10mm copper cable. Also, cc is connected to the battery busbar with 2 metre long 25mm fine stranded copper cable.

earthrealm:


pls state the type and model of cc you have.
also confirm the distance from ur panels to cc
confirm the distance of cc to batt bank, and type of cable used, how many mm
what is the size of your batt bank?,, are your batteries healthy?

the batt bank affects harvest from panels, as if your load is small or your panels are weak, then it will not be able to draw maximum harvest from your panels

Thanks bigrovar.

The cc is Fangpusun 70a mppt with an external display. I have my HT freezer (240w name plate, though my prag inverter displays 1.8a as current draw for the frezzer) connected to it and runs during the day. fans and TVs stay on once my children come back from school.

On the cc, the bulk indicator light stays on all day while the solar is charging and never goes into absorb or float mode at all. my location is PH.

Extra info i can provide is the battery OC voltage stays around 25.0V (6 units of mercury 220ah FLA connected in series-parralel) after night use. I plan on adding washing machine to the inverter but not having the batteries go into absorb/float is posing as a show stopper for me

(

bigrovar:


did you do a load test? also what type of controller are you using? If it is any of the known mppt brand (Tracer,Fangpusun,Midnight, outback etc) then try doing a load test. a well installed pv - cc would only give as much as is needed. If your batteries are always in float and your consumption is not up to 912w, you will never be able to drive your system to pick production. Ever since increasing my array to 1.4kw my PMAX has never been above 1.1kw and that is even rare due to the fact that my load is capped at 700w.

Hello gurus in the house.

I have a problem that needs your professional advice. I have a PV array (total wattage = 1800w ), mounted flat on my roof facing south. Since it was mounted, the max production I have ever seen (on a bright sunny day and the batteries still in bulk mode) is 912w and high kwh ever recorded per day is 5kwh. Today, I was able to get on the roof to check the connections myself and all seems fine. I also measured the tilt of the panels with a protractor and it gave 30degrees tilt. The cable size from PV to cc (70a mppt) is 10mm and the panels are connected in 3 * 2string (6 units of 300w mono). No shading around the panels.

Please guys, what could be the problem issue with my power production??

Please, help figure out what the problem could be.