pdozie:

Thanks. But from the roof (where the solar panels should be) to ground is already over 7 feet

hello pdozie,
sorry my bad. i was referring to the distance between battery bank and inverter and not solar panels. so let me answer your question correctly:

the correct size cable between solar panels and charge controller/battery bank really depends on

1) the system voltage, i.e whether 12v, 24v or 24v
2) sizing of your array i.e the maximum amount of projected current to be carried by the cables
3) the distance between array and battery bank.

a portion of the morningstar charge controller manual explains this in detail. i have attached excerpts here.
but it will be good if you could take a little time to read and digest the full manual.
its certainly a must for any solar diy enthusiast:

http://www.morningstarcorp.com/en/support/library/ts.iom.operators_manual.04.en.pdf

deeplo: Hello House.
I have been keeping tab on contributions here and am quiet impressed by what i saw. My prayer is that God will bless everyone of us to be able to achieve our aims on this adventure of uninterrupted power supply.
@ George D. am really enjoying my sukam 3.5kva for office and 1.5kva for home. Now am also an installer, can you beat that lol.
To my question,
1........you said, you start your solar panel with 2pcs, how many do you have now?
2........can you post a diagram of how you connect your solar panel vis-a-via gen/phcn? or a picture will do.

The reason for this question is because, like you rightly said, once one begin to use inverter, its no going back. Am following your foot step now. No going back. Am moving straight to solar panel with my 3.5kva sukam.

Thanks for always being there to assist us.

hello deeplo,
yes i started with 2pcs sharp solar panels and presently i have 10 which translates to about 2000w (2kw) at 200w each.

as for the pix of my change over set up, unfortunately i'm not far away from home at the moment.

however, its not really that difficult to figure out. if you understand how a change over switch should work,
all you have to do is to wire it in such a way that it takes input from both phcn and generator.
on the output side you then wire it in such a way that it supplies power to the house irrespective of whether phcn or
gen is running (auto change over). the built-in switching feature in the inverter will do the rest (like sensing
when there is public power for it to change over)

George_D:

hello deeplo,
yes i started with 2pcs sharp solar panels and presently i have 10 which translates to about 200w at 200w each.

as for the pix of my change over set up, unfortunately i'm not far away from home at the moment.

however, its not really that difficult to figure out. if you understand how a change over switch should work,
all you have to do is to wire it in such a way that it takes input from both phcn and generator.
on the output side you then wire it in such a way that it supplies power to the house irrespective of whether phcn or
gen is running (auto change over). the built-in switching feature in the inverter will do the rest (like sensing
when there is public power for it to change over)

thanks a bunch..i now understand the connection. Will update as soon as i began the installation

@deeplo,
have you placed orders yet for your panels? I'm also planning to buy and begin with 2 solar panels. may be we can order together and see if it will reduce our costs? (that is if you haven't placed orders yet)

Kind regards

pdozie: @deeplo,
have you placed orders yet for your panels? I'm also planning to buy and begin with 2 solar panels. may be we can order together and see if it will reduce our costs? (that is if you haven't placed orders yet)

Kind regards

Hello Pdozie, i have not place my order yet..... and i totally agree with your proposal. mail me macjcomm1@gmail.com and we can move from there.
Thanks alot

all,
the upgrade of my entire battery bank will soon begin.

will keep you guys posted on progress.

truly, the sun is the answer!

Hi George D and All,

Please do you know how much smaller watts solar panel go for now. Say 20watts, 50watts and 100watts.

Also the price range of charge controllers.

Your reply will be highly appreciated.

Thanks.

hello obijack,
while it is always advisable to go for higher wattage solar panels especially if you plan to power your household appliances mainly from solar, sometimes a smaller wattage panel may be necessary if all you need is sectional or partial backup power.

a 50w panel starts anything from 20k
a 100w panel may cost you up to 90k depending on the brand.

you can check up this link for more info:

http://www.ngpricehunter.com/solar.1101---list.htm

Hello George,

Thanks a bunch. I know I can always rely on you. I need the 50 watts to charge my 35ah deep cycle given to me FOC by a friend and I mainly want to use it to power all my DC lights,phones and to keep other smaller items always charged up.

Thanks.

PS: In recent weeks I discovered that my daughter's friends will bring their parents phones and other stuff to charge in my house since I heard them discussing that the lights never go off in my house. Sometimes there will be as many as 6 of them in her room with their phones plugged in while busy twitting or facebooking.

I want to isolate my BIG batteries and let them use the 35ah and solar panel. I have not had reason to start up my gen for like 7 weeks now. GREEN is the way to go.

obijack,
that's quite an experience. suddenly you've become 'the man who's lights never goes off'!

since you're using dc lighting, are you sure you still need an inverter?

the sun is the answer!

Truly d sun is d answer to our power challenges. though many people hv not come to term wt this due to d initial cost, but they soon realize it.

pls i really do not understand that two change-over stuff. Can anyone help wit a simple diagram or picture of the connections. Presently, am using one change-over switch and no solar panel. Nepa and gen but intend to add solar panel. The gen cable is connected to inverter and manually change over to supply the whole hse since the inverter can't power all the home appliances-iron and co- in case of auto switch from the inverter.

all,
i'm still putting things together for a major upgrade to my solar power installation.
details coming soon!

Oga GEORGE, Pls I really need ur counsel. I need a solar set up that will carry abt five decoders and five tvs for more than six hours. Thanks

Again, a set up that wont cost much. Pls put me through.

andymola,
give me the wattage (power rating) of your tv sets and decoders.
you can check the name plate at the back of the equipment for this.

George
Oka, I'll do that later cos I'm currently not at home. But it's just one 21 inches Tv and three 14 inches. Then normal strong decoders. I think u can get what u need to know thru this. Thank u.

hello andymola,
without specific nameplate power ratings to work with i'm left with making a few assumptions
about your overall power requirement:

1pc twenty-one inch color tv will draw approximately 120w
3pcs fourteen inches color tvs will draw approximately 240w (80w x 3)
5pcs strong decoders will draw approximately 125w (25w x 5)

therefore total power consumption will be 485w
divided by 0.7 power efficiency this translates to 485w/0.7 which is 693w.
in 6 hours you will be drawing about 693 x 6 = 4,158 watt hours
so, you will need a battery bank that can output this amount of power within the stated time.

this is same as 4,158ah
but p=iv, therefore for a 48v system that will be 4158/48 = 86.625 or 87amp/hr (approx)

or for a 24v system, it will be 4158/24 = 173.25 or 173ah (aprox)

so for your answer, you need 4pcs of 12v 100ah batteries wired in series (48v) or 2pcs of 12v 200ah
batteries wired in series (24v).
you also need at least 800w of solar panels. if you're buying 200w sharp panels that will
translate into 4pcs for your needs.

Oga George, that was very detailed. I've been out and very busy. So from ur calculations what amount are we looking at?

andymola,
1 pc 200ah deepcycle battery costs anything from 45 to 65k depending on brand and location.
1 pc 200w solar panel costs between 65 to 95k also depending on brand.

i'll leave you to do the maths.

Hi George,
Pls what could have happened to my batteries:
I came back from work yesterday and noticed acidic smells coming from my inverter room. I asked my wife but she wasn't sure and being so weak and went to bed. later at night when I woke up the smell was so strong so went to look further and discovered that all the 4 batteries are swollen up and bubbling out gases!!! This is about my 3-4yr of using the inverter and havent experienced such. The room where the inverter is has enough ventilation so I am at a loss what went wrong.
I can only sense that the inverter was charging the batteries without regulation anymore. Could it be true? What could have caused that all of a sudden? 4 x 200aH battery gone overnight!!!!!!! That is a serious setback to my solar dreams.

I just want to be sure what the cause of this problem is so I dont have to buy new batteries and have them damaged again.

@everyone, your input/advice is required

Cheers

hello pdozie,
it's quite unfortunate but your batteries seem to have gone as a result of overcharging.
as you rightly guessed, your inverter charging system may have malfunctioned (for whatever reason)
and started overcharging your batteries thereby resulting in this situation you found yourself.

please do not rush to buy new batteries until you might have found out the reason for your inverter
malfunction. take the inverter to a repairer and let him look at it and rectify the charging problem.
if you don't put the inverter in order, it will most likely destroy any other batteries you buy
as a replacement.

by the way, what brand of inverter are you using?

Thanks George. I use Sukam 3.5
Anyone in this forum know a good technician for Su-kam inverter in Lagos?

pdozie,
i use sukam 3.5kva too and have never experienced such. are you using solar panels/charge controller
along with your setup? also do you often use generator to charge your battery bank?

once again sorry about your loss. i just felt i should drill down to the root cause of the problem.

Good day George,
No - I havent incoporated solar solution to my setup. I charge the batteries with public power (PHCN) and generator. The day it happened, gen was not used at all as we had PHCN power for over 8 hours.

A school of thought reasoned that it was possible the inverter charging unit was not regulating properly but it was not visible because of poor power supply in the past, meaning that the batteries were never fully charged to their max. There was a substantial improvement in PHCN in the last few weeks. May be, the batteries now only got to the maximum charged point at which point the inverter charge controller should begin its work but failed.
It sounds logical. The highest reading I've got from the batteries is 52-53V. But then, its hard to believe that over 3 years the batteries never got fully charged. may be the cutoff point for voltage regulation on the inverter is low. (Just guessing)

Current status: Yesternight there was no PHCN power. The Inverter actually supplied power from the batteries. Three batteries swell up (each of them still read between 12.2 - 13.1V). The remaining battery that wasnt swollen read 6.1V. Total output 47V. The inverter didnt go off till I left this morning.
I've got someone that will only be chanced by weekend to have a look at the inverter. The plan now is to use the batteries as is now
- Leave them to charge with PHCN or gen power with close monitoring.
- Switch inverter to Bypass if the batteries seems to start bubbling (fully charged may be)
- Never leave inverter to charge battery overnight (put to bypass)

pdozie,
i guess in the absence of any other alternative you have to use the batteries in their present condition
provided they're still able to carry your load. however they may not be able to serve you much longer than a
couple more months. you may do well to use the time to source for replacement batteries. that is the bitter
truth.

I need a solar panel n inverter that would power two tvs 75w each, 2 strong decoders , 1 wall mount fan and 2 bulbs. Wd like the costing too, am in uyo. Thanx.

Hi George,
You are very right on the 'bitter truth'. I couldnt think of another way. It is well.

pdozie: Good day George,
No - I havent incoporated solar solution to my setup. I charge the batteries with public power (PHCN) and generator. The day it happened, gen was not used at all as we had PHCN power for over 8 hours.

A school of thought reasoned that it was possible the inverter charging unit was not regulating properly but it was not visible because of poor power supply in the past, meaning that the batteries were never fully charged to their max. There was a substantial improvement in PHCN in the last few weeks. May be, the batteries now only got to the maximum charged point at which point the inverter charge controller should begin its work but failed.
It sounds logical. The highest reading I've got from the batteries is 52-53V. But then, its hard to believe that over 3 years the batteries never got fully charged. may be the cutoff point for voltage regulation on the inverter is low. (Just guessing)

Current status: Yesternight there was no PHCN power. The Inverter actually supplied power from the batteries. Three batteries swell up (each of them still read between 12.2 - 13.1V). The remaining battery that wasnt swollen read 6.1V. Total output 47V. The inverter didnt go off till I left this morning.
I've got someone that will only be chanced by weekend to have a look at the inverter. The plan now is to use the batteries as is now
- Leave them to charge with PHCN or gen power with close monitoring.
- Switch inverter to Bypass if the batteries seems to start bubbling (fully charged may be)
- Never leave inverter to charge battery overnight (put to bypass)

pdozie: Good day George,
No - I havent incoporated solar solution to my setup. I charge the batteries with public power (PHCN) and generator. The day it happened, gen was not used at all as we had PHCN power for over 8 hours.

A school of thought reasoned that it was possible the inverter charging unit was not regulating properly but it was not visible because of poor power supply in the past, meaning that the batteries were never fully charged to their max. There was a substantial improvement in PHCN in the last few weeks. May be, the batteries now only got to the maximum charged point at which point the inverter charge controller should begin its work but failed.
It sounds logical. The highest reading I've got from the batteries is 52-53V. But then, its hard to believe that over 3 years the batteries never got fully charged. may be the cutoff point for voltage regulation on the inverter is low. (Just guessing)

Current status: Yesternight there was no PHCN power. The Inverter actually supplied power from the batteries. Three batteries swell up (each of them still read between 12.2 - 13.1V). The remaining battery that wasnt swollen read 6.1V. Total output 47V. The inverter didnt go off till I left this morning.
I've got someone that will only be chanced by weekend to have a look at the inverter. The plan now is to use the batteries as is now
- Leave them to charge with PHCN or gen power with close monitoring.
- Switch inverter to Bypass if the batteries seems to start bubbling (fully charged may be)
- Never leave inverter to charge battery overnight (put to bypass)

pdozie: Good day George,
No - I havent incoporated solar solution to my setup. I charge the batteries with public power (PHCN) and generator. The day it happened, gen was not used at all as we had PHCN power for over 8 hours.

A school of thought reasoned that it was possible the inverter charging unit was not regulating properly but it was not visible because of poor power supply in the past, meaning that the batteries were never fully charged to their max. There was a substantial improvement in PHCN in the last few weeks. May be, the batteries now only got to the maximum charged point at which point the inverter charge controller should begin its work but failed.
It sounds logical. The highest reading I've got from the batteries is 52-53V. But then, its hard to believe that over 3 years the batteries never got fully charged. may be the cutoff point for voltage regulation on the inverter is low. (Just guessing)

Current status: Yesternight there was no PHCN power. The Inverter actually supplied power from the batteries. Three batteries swell up (each of them still read between 12.2 - 13.1V). The remaining battery that wasnt swollen read 6.1V. Total output 47V. The inverter didnt go off till I left this morning.
I've got someone that will only be chanced by weekend to have a look at the inverter. The plan now is to use the batteries as is now
- Leave them to charge with PHCN or gen power with close monitoring.
- Switch inverter to Bypass if the batteries seems to start bubbling (fully charged may be)
- Never leave inverter to charge battery overnight (put to bypass)

It would seem like the 6.1v battery is cooked. Remove it from the array before it drags tge others down (it's deadweight)

Kai this is a direct hit. sorry. d lowest in volt will drag d others to quick grave. discard. check inverter charging system. all d best

all,
the much awaited upgrade to my solar installation finally kicked off over the weekend.

battery bank has been totally overhauled.

pictures coming soon as earlier promised