bodejohn
How much is the cost for this charger.

jayboskie7: bodejohn
How much is the cost for this charger.

About $300 excluding shipping and bank charges.

bodejohn:

Oga George and all,
I finally received my charge controller from DHL, it came with a serial port to connect to a PC, although my supplier initially told me he was going to send one without pc communication. I will upload the pictures of the setup tomorrow after I have reduced the size.

Oga Geroge, I don join the league of independent power producers like play like play o.

bodejohn,
you're welcome to the solar league - where the possibilities are endless.

what is the brand name of your mppt solar charger?

looks like i'm seeing this for the first time.

George_D:

bodejohn,
you're welcome to the solar league - where the possibilities are endless.

what is the brand name of your mppt solar charger?

looks like i'm seeing this for the first time.

Oga George, I no get money yet for brand o.
Na China I dey befriend so.
On a serious note, the model number is emppt3024z.
It has a serial port for remote monitoring and data downloading although I am still speaking with my supplier to get the needed softwares.

bodejohn,
no sweat. forget about brand names my brother. as long as it's working ok, is all we need.

congrats once again.

Congrat bodejohn. I hope to join the league
of solar panel owners soonest

Congrat bodejohn. I hope to join the league
of solar panel owners soon

@bodejohn,
Nice one. Congrats. We'll definitely liaise with you once we are ready to join the league

Thanks all for the messages...
I was able to harvest 12Ah on day one, 33Ah on second day, 45Ah yesterday and I have already done 50Ah today.
To enjoy the solar panels and the MPPT charger, you have to really load the inverter during the day or really drain the battery at night.
I have been running since 7am till now, I can only imagine how much fuel I would have consumed.
Meanwhile for anyone interested, my 2.7kVA generator is now up for sale...

bodejohn: Thanks all for the messages...
I was able to harvest 12Ah on day one, 33Ah on second day, 45Ah yesterday and I have already done 50Ah today.
To enjoy the solar panels and the MPPT charger, you have to really load the inverter during the day or really drain the battery at night.
I have been running since 7am till now, I can only imagine how much fuel I would
have consumed.

Meanwhile for anyone interested, my 2.7kVA generator is now up for sale...

Congrats man. Yeah you can very well sell the gen . My 5kva gen has been jobless for 2 yrs now.

bodejohn:
Meanwhile for anyone interested, my 2.7kVA generator is now up for sale...

LOL
Thats what the whole project is all about. regards

bodejohn,
you're now firmly in the grips of solar enjoyment.

as for gen sets now being idle, i think alongside akanniade and yourself that makes the three
of us. i sold my yamaha generator over three years ago when i discovered it was being underutilized.
later on i bought a 5vka sumec genset as i reasoned perhaps i may still need a standby black start for
those once in a blue moon occasions when weather becomes severe. but funny enough the reality is that i
seldom have any need to run it to the extent that the provided auto-start battery has now run down.

now i'm wondering whether it may not be a good idea to sell as well!

all,
welcome to 2013! may this year be filled with lots of sunshine and may all our solar panels reap enough
energy to make our homes independent of phcn!

may our inverters work without breaking down and may they be free from power surges.

and, may cloudy weather never force us to become hopelessly dependent on noisy generators!

amen!

Oga George and all, welcome to the new year.
I am celebrating here with the first 24hrs of uninterrupted power supply.
May the new year bring sunshine to our lives and our panels.

all,
a happy new year to you once again.

just to inform the house that starting later this month (january 2013),
i'll be commencing my next phase of systems upgrade. its been on pause
for a while now but everything is now almost ready to proceed.

i will post details (and pix) as usual when the time comes.

stay tuned!!!

bodejohn,
i hope you're still basking in the light of
your first 24hrs uninterrupted power supply?

George_D: bodejohn,
i hope you're still basking in the light of
your first 24hrs uninterrupted power supply?

Very sure, I have only had power like this when I step out of the country. I had to even switch off tv today so I could catch some sleep in the afternoon and my fridge has worked more hours in two days than in the last 3 months.
I am also thinking of the next phase which will be to increase my battery bank and then the solar panels.

bodejohn,
wao! i say welcome to the club once again!

now you can see why i keep doing all these upgrades?

once you go the solar route, you never want to look back!

Was discussing my solar power setup with a colleague in the office who is equally intrested in alternative energy sources, he informed me that that there is a bill already in the national assembly to mandate some incentives for people who have solar panels installed in their homes and those who will be willing to sell to the grid...Good news for all those interested in green energy sources.

@all just bought a 200a zenith battery... According to the manual was ask to charge for 8hours b4 using with a 1kva cyberpower inverter for close to 9 hours now... Battery still not fully charge..... Can i start using it for the first time without fully charged?

bing: @all just bought a 200a zenith battery... According to the manual was ask to charge for 8hours b4 using with a 1kva cyberpower inverter for close to 9 hours now... Battery still not fully charge..... Can i start using it for the first time without fully charged?

Do you know the charging current made available to your battery by the cyberpower inverter?
The time it will take for the battery to be fully charged depends largely on the amount of charging current and some other factors like temperature.
it might take longer than necessary to charge the battery if the charging current is low and will be quite fast if the charging current is high.
Hope this helps.

bodejohn:

Do you know the charging current made available to your battery by the cyberpower inverter?
The time it will take for the battery to be fully charged depends largely on the amount of charging current and some other factors like temperature.
it might take longer than necessary to charge the battery if the charging current is low and will be quite fast if the charging current is high.
Hope this helps.

@bodejohn thanks for your response... Charging current is 10a... Can i start using without fully charged?

bing: @bodejohn thanks for your response... Charging current is 10a... Can i start using without fully charged?

I think you should be able to use it without it being fully charged, however there are some watchouts....
DO not use it if the voltage is less than 12.2V, this is to ensure the DOD of the battery does go below 30 - 40%.
if you can wait for it to fully charge up, i advise you do.

@ all, i am reading up on how DOD of batteries ensure a longer use life, will hit the forum when i have sufficient links and information.

bodejohn:

I think you should be able to use it without it being fully charged, however there are some watchouts....
DO not use it if the voltage is less than 12.2V, this is to ensure the DOD of the battery does go below 30 - 40%.
if you can wait for it to fully charge up, i advise you do.

@ all, i am reading up on how DOD of batteries ensure a longer use life, will hit the forum when i have sufficient links and information.

@bodejohn thanks once again I will take ur advice and wait.

bodejohn:

I think you should be able to use it without it being fully charged, however there are some watchouts....
DO not use it if the voltage is less than 12.2V, this is to ensure the DOD of the battery does go below 30 - 40%.
if you can wait for it to fully charge up, i advise you do.

@ all, i am reading up on how DOD of batteries ensure a longer use life, will hit the forum when i have sufficient links and information.

@ bodejohn thanks

bodejohn:

Do you know the charging current made available to your battery by the cyberpower inverter?
The time it will take for the battery to be fully charged depends largely on the amount of charging current and some other factors like temperature.
it might take longer than necessary to charge the battery if the charging current is low and will be quite fast if the charging current is high.
Hope this helps.

My CyberPower of 3KVA came with default charging current of 20A. I have reduced it 10A, to ease load on my 5KVA Gen (if PHCN prove sturborn for more than 2 days blackout)
With High Charging current, it may charge faster but also deplete faster. I love the charging at 10A, as I look to celebrate 2yrs of usage by Feburay ending.

I'm happy to join you guys here.
Alternative power is a massive cost saving for me. Initial investment might be high, but with a year usage, you will be surprised how much you've saved.

Happy new year all.
@George D,I was just wondering why this thread has not made the front page or better still,be directly under the technology section. Can we request the moderators to do that?

soft-touch:


My CyberPower of 3KVA came with default charging current of 20A. I have reduced it 10A, to ease load on my 5KVA Gen (if PHCN prove sturborn for more than 2 days blackout)
With High Charging current, it may charge faster but also deplete faster. I love the charging at 10A, as I look to celebrate 2yrs of usage by Feburay ending.

Thanks for making this point, I will like to also quickly point out that charging current is not just low or high based on it's number maybe 10A or 20A but on the capacity of the battery expressed in Ah. I can still remember when I was building my first battery charging circuits, there are different charging methods, constant current, constant voltage with a rule that the charging current should not exceed 0.1C, where C is the capacity of the battery.
With microprocessors becoming widely used, charging of batteries too have been revolutionised. Standard battery chargers, the type that I expect to be in cyberpower, now comes with a three or four stage charging...bulk, absorption and float.
During bulk charging, as much as possible current is pushed to the battery till it reaches about 80% of it's full charge. At this point, the battery is charged at a constant current that is less than the bulk charging current till it is fully charged and kept at constant voltage at float charging.

To avoid all these technicalities, just get a good inverter or charger and everything will be done without you worrying about how the charging is done.

bing,
sorry for the late reply but you should always charge your new batteries to full charge
before first use. that is because usually the manufacturers don't complete the charging
process before shipment so they rely on you the end user to give the batteries an effective
full charge that will ensure the batteries attain their full capacity.
using the batteries before they are fully charged on first use may permanently prevent them
from reaching full potential. hence if your using a 200a battery it may end up giving you
150 - 180a from day one and so the decline in performance has already started.

but again, why the hurry? your going to be enjoying power from those batteries for years to
come so why not just take the time to charge them properly so as to bring them up to their
full capacity from day one?

Akanniade: Happy new year all.
@George D,I was just wondering why this thread has not made the front page or better still,be directly under the technology section. Can we request the moderators to do that?

akanniade,
a happy new year to you too. you echoed just my thought too on the front page issue.

i guess i'll have to talk to twinstaiye on the possibilities of pushing out to the
open. solar power is a must for all who want to enjoy technology at its best.

all,
the next phase of my systems upgrade is already in full swing.

details will be posted very soon - as promised.