₦airaland Forum

George_D: fedesire,
most of the questions you're asking have already been answered at different times on this thread. however, i will try and answer them again for your convenience.

1)4pcs of 12v 200ah batteries connected in series will give you a system voltage of 48v with a combined storage of 200ah. this translates to 9600wh (48*200). but you can only use a maximum of 80 percent of the stored energy (d.o.d) so you're left with 7680wh. therefore, assuming you want to charge your depleted battery bank from scratch with a 500w panel, it will take 7680/500 i.e 15.36hrs. but you can only have a maximum 5 or 6 hrs of sunlight in any given day, therefore 15hrs means almost 3 days of continuous solar charging. as you can see, a 500w panel will be grossly undersized for such a system. however, the good news is that you can always add to it as you go along.


2)the hybrid charging thing is by inverter installation and configuration. when you live in an area where you have at least a little public power to use and you also have some solar panels which can provide you with power during the day, your inverter will be installed and configured in such a way as to take advantage of both or either one power source when they are present.

3)when your batteries are fully charged, your inverter powers your house directly with the power coming from the sun. the battery power only gets used occasionally when there is momentary cloud cover and as soon as the sun is up again, the charge controller replenishes your batteries and the inverter resumes using the sun to power your house load.

4)if you plan to use about 700w for 8 or 12hrs and 200w afterwards, just take your average consumption over a 24hr period. this helps you know what your average use will be for the period and it also determines how much your batteries will be depleted which also will affect the charging time for the batteries.

5)yes, the voltage on the solar panels must match the battery system voltage. for example, your average 200w sharp solar panel is about 38v. you must combine 2 of them to give you 76v which is higher than 48v and this is good because you want the charging source (solar panels) to be higher than the source being charged (batteries). anything outside that and current will flow in the reverse direction and damage the panels. the inverter input voltage too must match that of the batteries. there are inverters built for systems of 12v, 24v, 48v, 96v, etc. same thing for charge controllers. however, there are inverters and charge controllers with adjustable input switches which do work across multiple voltage ranges.

i hope i have been able to help somewhat?

THANKS A WHOLE LOT George!!! ((((((VERY BIGGGG HUG)))))) I am going for 1000W panels, 3.5kva inverter, and a 60 amp charge controller.

George_D: hello!
for most peeps here who have a standing fridge double door, you'll notice that the fridge section tends to underperform when compared to the freezer compartment - especially when your always opening and closing the fridge to remove or put things. so i was thinking of buying a small deep freezer and regulating the temperature upwards to that of a normal fridge. this way i know i can get better performance from the fridge (converted freezer) while retaining another freezer solely for storage.

what do you guys think? is this practicable from experience?

Yes you can definitely do that, you will need an external temperature controller. I will be going this route to use with my inverters since they use less watts than the regular refrigerators.

@ Mr George, hello. If I were getting a 3.5kva inverter, 2/4 deep cycle batteries (12v 200ah), 500 watts solar panels, MPPT charge controller (60AMP-60V). Could you please tell me how long it would take my batteries to charge on solar?

Also, is the hybrid charging thing inbuilt, or is that something I have to acquire separately if I want both solar and Nepa charging?

When the batteries are fully charged, can you now use solar without borrowing from the battery juices or you always have to borrow even with full sunlight and then just charge/replenish as you use?

In addition, I plan to use about 700watts for about 8/12hrs then drop to 200 thereabout. Does this factor into the charging of the batteries or is this only concerned with the inverter.

Lastly, the voltage shown with the solar panel, must it match the voltage on the batteries or inverter? So, (2) 250 watt, 48 volt = 500w, 96v means I have to get 96volt total in battery and same for inverter

Great info provided here! Brilliant job everyone!