@George: The relay type I was using was 5KVA whilst this one is 10KVA. The PRAG Servo has a digital LED that shows you the Input voltage and the output. The relay type had analog reading. The interesting thing with the PRAg servo LED display is that you see the fluctuations in voltage. For about 3 minutes, I stood watching it, voltage fluctuated between 209V to 218V and for all those times the output was steady at 220v. Very impressive.
Also the PRAG servo is better in looks (good looking

@earthrealm: Here are numbers you can try Mr Henry on - 08033289101, 08025810677, 08191473697; 08061259694

Cheers

pdozie,
that was a good one and quite encouraging too. i'll make haste to get mine
although i don't think we should be carried away with the good appearance of a product.
Rather we should be more concerned with its performance.

also, my 5ka binatone performed very well for almost a year before beginning to misbehave
so i guess its too early to start heaping praises on the prag. just my thoughts.

Hello great people, i greet everybody for the wonderful
work you have been doing here may God bless you all.I
have been a fan of this thread but since i don't have
enough cash to invest in green tech. i decided to lay lo,
learn and enjoy every post here........ now i am ready to
go green too.
A question for MR.George D
please can i connect two(2) 27v 200ah solar panels in series
to a 48v battery bank?
Which is better to use eight( 12v 100ah in series or four (4)
12v 200ah for a 48v battery bank?
Do you know anything about Magniworks? is it real?
Lastly what is the effect of connecting a 54v 200ah panels to a charge
controller of 48v 30ah? Thanks

hello olarevo,
congrats for finally picking up courage to dive into this wonderful world of energy freedom.
i promise you this may be one of the best decisions you have taken in your whole life!

ok, to your questions:

yes, you can use 2pcs of 27v 200w solar panels to power a 48v battery bank. however you'll find
your charge controller may not be able to fully charge the batteries to their full capacity. in the
end, the batteries may end up dying prematurely due to undercharging. if you must use 2 panels in
series for 48v battery bank make sure they're each above 30v (vmp) that will guarantee you a full
charge or better still use 3 panels in series with an mppt solar charge controller.

which is better? 4pcs 200ah or 8pcs 100ah batteries in series? my answer is that both arrangement
will have the same stored energy at different system voltages. what i mean is this: 8pcs of 12v 100ah
in series will give you 96v * 100ah = 9600wh. equally 4pcs 12v 200ah batteries in series will give you
48v * 200ah = 9600wh.depending on what you want to achive i'll advice you stick with the later
configuration of 4pcs 12v 200ah batteries.

the magniworks that you referred to seems to be a scam. perpetual motion machines have been
talked about for a long time with really no proof to substantiate the claims.

you mean a 54v 200w panel? if yes then its the same answer i gave at the beginning. unless you
double that panel and use an mppt charge controller, it won't charge your batteries to their full
capacity.

@George D. Thanks sir

George_D:

no, brother. the main objective is to be less and less dependent on phcn.

going off-grid totally will require more than installing solar panels.

@ George_D. What really does it take to go off grid completely?

blexxonmak:
@ George_D. What really does it take to go off grid completely?

@blexxonmak, one can go off-grid with some of the set-up displayed here. It really depends on your [b]load[b] and the level of autonomy you want. I'd go for hybrid (with wind and/or generator as complimentary sources to solar) if I were you.

@George, please don't consider me rude for answering your question.

@All, thanks for a great thread. I hope to contribute by sharing my own installation.

George_D: welcome to the new:

Hi George please would like to ask some questions on your installation
1- I noticed you set up your batteries in three banks of 48volts each, was the cyber power inverter the sole reason you did this?
2- how much do the 260ah batteries go for?
3- why did you limit the solar panels to 200watts? How much per unit? How much does your supplier sell the one of say 300watts, if it exist
4- I went through the manual on the morning star regulator, I observed it provides a lot of conditioning to the batteries like equalization and the rest, wouldn't this capabilities be reduced by connecting the solar regulator in parallel with the output from the inverter, that probably has its own battery conditioning algorithm ? Did you consider feeding the output of the inverter into the solar regulator? If so, what were your reasons against it?

Thanks in anticipation of your response

ile naira,
thanks for helping me out. the solar field is not an exclusive one and so everyone is free to participate and share knowledge.

blexxonmak,
going off-grid with solar panels alone? the answer is no. but yes, you can live off-grid on the sun alone! but then you have to incorporate things like solar hot water systems, solar stoves, etc.

let me explain:
just like ile naira said above, going off-grid depends on so many factors including your size/type of equipment, lifestyle, what degree of autonomy you desire, etc. therefore there is no one single formula that fits all. the best approach is to take things on an individual basis. take my own case for instance; besides my fridges, refrigerators, lighting, Tvs, etc i have water heaters and hotplates. i run virtually all the loads apart from the hotplates and water heater on solar and can go several days without plugging to phcn but if i want to go totally off-grid, it won't be cost-effective for me running my hotplate and water heaters on my solar panels because then i'll have to fill every space on my roof with panels just to be able to sustain the load (heating elements draw an obscene amount of power, i tell you!) rather, i'll have to look into installing a solar hot water system (which is more cost effective and even cheaper than solar panels). then for the hot plate i'll have to think of using solar hot stoves, propane gas, etc.

so for small homes who don't need the luxury of hot water, hot plates, etc, you can argue that given my size of system they can live off-grid comfortably for years but for bigger homes like mine, it'll take additional power installations to achieve that dream. i could even decide to include wind or hydro depending on my location. however the good news is that with every small step you take, as you install a backup system, as you add one panel on another, you are irrevocably placing yourself in the right path to eventual energy freedom

hello dalover,
your questions are rather a curios one but i'll try and see how i can navigate through them:

1) the cyberpower was not the sole reason for this mode of installation. i happen to have stumbled upon a better way of stringing parallel battery banks so they can receive the same amount of charge current at all times, hence the reason for the setup.

2) i'm not one to broadcast prices of renewables on the internet as i realize these prices change with time. what i can do rather is to refer you to my supply sources so you can discuss with them first hand. i neither sell nor stock these items.

3) the 200w panels were the ones available at the time hence i had to do with what i have. there's nothing stopping me from adding higher wattage panels up to 300w provided they're of the same specs as the ones already installed.

4) the charge controller and inverter charging systems work hand in hand so there can be no conflict. for a hybrid system which is what my installation is, the two will always complement each other.

all,
over the weekend, i achieved a milestone by going off-grid (on critical installations) for over 87hrs! below are snapshots of my system during the tests:

more:

during this 4-day period, my fridge, freezer, tvs, water pump, etc were working regularly. it was just a stress test to confirm my ability to go totally off-grid should the need arise.

Man you are really reaping the sun! . We thank God for his sun that shines for us everyday.

thanks my brother. how is your system performing?

Akanniade: Man you are really reaping the sun! . We thank God for his sun that shines for us everyday.

And this is the rainy season with cloudy weather and all that. One can only imagine what will happen when the dry season comes with the attendant incessant sun hammering down. Oga George_D system will go on ''over-floatation'', if their's any word like dat.

@George_D. Big up Bro. We can only look up to you for now with green envy. Cheers.

George_D: thanks my brother. how is your system performing?

A year and 3 months running, my batteries still as 'stiff' as ever.

Pls, I need somebody to tell the advantages of GXQ 0.8kva inverter over sulkam inverter.

@George_D. please is there any disadvantage in using 8 6v 200ah to get 48v 200ah?

George_D: hello dalover,
your questions are rather a curios one but i'll try and see how i can navigate through them:

1) the cyberpower was not the sole reason for this mode of installation. i happen to have stumbled upon a better way of stringing parallel battery banks so they can ahve the same amount of charge current at all times, hence the reason for the setup.

2) i'm not one to broadcast prices of renewables on the internet as i realize these prices change with time. what i can do rather is to refer you to my supply sources so you can discuss with them first hand. i neither sell nor stock these items.

3) the 200w panels were the ones available at the time hence i had to do with what i have. there's nothing stopping me from adding higher wattage panels up to 300w provided they're of the specs as the ones already installed.

4) the charge controller and inverter charging systems work hand in hand so there can be no conflict. for a hybrid system which is what my installation is, the two will always complement each other.

Thanks for the response George and the good works so far and sorry the questions sounded strange, I really want to implement a hybrid system by this end month so I am gathering as much info as I can. I am looking at a 16 batteries of 190ah each, a 5 kva inverter and 8 panels of 300watt each, hence the questions.

1) Please i would really like to know about the optimal parallel connections for the 4 banks you have, previously I was leaning towards more serial connections of 2 banks of 8 battries, because of higher voltage/less current draw and the fact that banks with less internal resistance act as load for other banks during discharge. I also discovered that the cyberpower inverter claims a charging current of 45Amps @ 48volts as against sukam's claim of 20Amps @ 48 to 96volts

2) & 3) please kindly help me with your suppliers contacts, cos |I am being offered =N=450 per watt for the 300watts panel, and I think its quite high

4) Ok, on the hand in hand working of the charge controller and the inverter...I just was hoping that this would be explicily stated in any of the two products

@ George_D. Thanks for the insight.

Akanniade:
A year and 3 months running, my batteries still as 'stiff' as ever.

that's good to hear. it shows your charging system is really up to snuff.

personally, i'm hoping to exceed the 5yrs i maxed out of my old 200ah zenith batteries
with my present setup. so many missteps and abuses i subjected them to i'm trying to
correct with the new 260ah bank as i arm myself with better knowledge. i tell you the
world of renewables keeps evolving!

Akerekoroabijawara: Pls, I need somebody to tell the advantages of GXQ 0.8kva inverter over sulkam inverter.

hello akerekoroabijawara,
unfortunately there is no real advantage of the gaoxing 0.8kva inverter over the sukam. apart from its cheaper price, the gxq 0.8 inverter is a way inferior product and you may end up with prematurely dead batteries should you insist on using that product for a long time. i'll advise you get a proper inverter like the sukam, genus, nexus, cyberpower, etc if you rwally want to start right in your match to energy freedom.

DaLover:

Thanks for the response George and the good works so far and sorry the questions sounded strange, I really want to implement a hybrid system by this end month so I am gathering as much info as I can. I am looking at a 16 batteries of 190ah each, a 5 kva inverter and 8 panels of 300watt each, hence the questions.

1) Please i would really like to know about the optimal parallel connections for the 4 banks you have, previously I was leaning towards more serial connections of 2 banks of 8 battries, because of higher voltage/less current draw and the fact that banks with less internal resistance act as load for other banks during discharge. I also discovered that the cyberpower inverter claims a charging current of 45Amps @ 48volts as against sukam's claim of 20Amps @ 48 to 96volts

2) & 3) please kindly help me with your suppliers contacts, cos |I am being offered =N=450 per watt for the 300watts panel, and I think its quite high

4) Ok, on the hand in hand working of the charge controller and the inverter...I just was hoping that this would be explicily stated in any of the two products

hello dalover,
first of all a quick correction: what i have is a single battery bank with three strings. each of those stands that you see in the picture is called a string. in my setup i have 3 strings with a system voltage of 48v not three or four banks as you're referring to. by the way, the old 200ah 48v setup in the corner has been taken out of service and is no longer part of my system. i hope you understand?

1) series connection is the best any day and if you've been following my earlier posts you'll discover i've always favored series battery installations over parallel ones. however, there are times such as this that you can't just get the size of battery bank you want unless you combine several strings in parallel. i struggled with this decision for a long time before finally settling for what i have now. personally i would have loved to have 24pcs 2v batteries say of 1000ah each and connect them in series but they're neither easily available in this part of our world and if you happen to find them the costs would be so prohibitive to make them economically non-viable.

2) 450 naira per watt is really on the high side. the prices of solar panels have since dropped drastically and you can get a 300w panel for less than half of that amount. call vitus on 08039644115 and discuss with him. i'm not sure he has 300w panels in stock for now but you can always give him a try.

3) it is difficult to see any product manual explaining the complementary work of inverters/solar charge controllers. rather this is a field practical knowledge. most inverters (except for a very few) will charge your batteries up to 85% of their capacities and leave it at that. the charge controller will then take the batteries through the remainder 15% and charge them to the brim. personally i noticed that when my sukam inverter status says 'battery charged' and i check my charge controller, the battery voltage will be around 53v. on a good sunny day, the charge controller will have to spend another couple of hours bringing up that voltage to about 57.6v (adsorption stage) before finally entering float. this is what i refer to as the remainder 15% of battery capacity. if you're using a sukam inverter and don't have a charge controller you'll never get this extra capacity.
again, assuming you used your inverter all through the night and there was power outage. if in the morning public power was restored the inverter begins to charge your batteries. also when the sun rises say at 9am the solar charge controller begins to charge the batteries. assuming the inverter is outputting 20 amps and the charge controller is supplying 30 amps, total charging amps into the battery will be 50 amps. when the battery voltage rises to 53v the sukam cuts off while the solar charge controller continues and takes the batteries the rest of the way.
this in a nutshell is how my hybrid system works. other installations having different brand inverters may vary slightly in terms of what voltage the inverter charger tapers off but you get the general idea.
lastly, there are a few exceptions where the inverter charger takes the batteries all the way to full capacity similar to the charge controller. that will be a topic for another day.

olarevo: @George_D. please is there any disadvantage in using 8 6v 200ah to get 48v 200ah?

yes there is a big advantage. pls if you have 6v 200ah use them instead of 12v. reason being that they will have less internal resistance.

all,
details of my one day harvest for yesterday 16/10/12
@18:20 hrs.

total kw/h ytd = 1608kwh
previous day kw/h = 1596 kwh
therefore one day harvest = 12kwh/d

total amp hours = 2558.2ah
previous day amp hours = 2343.9ah
therefore one day amp hour harvest = 214.3ah/d

monitoring still in progress. pix will follow later.

@George, slightly off-topic but,........... with your previous group order of panels/batteries (I've forgotten which it was), what was involved at the port in Lagos? Did you have any import tax or other payments or any other wahala? Is the tax based on the value of the goods (or arbitary )

I'm about to agree a price for a batch of batteries and panels but I've no experience of Lagos ports. Any suggestions?

Thanks

George_D:

hello akerekoroabijawara,
unfortunately there is no real advantage of the gaoxing 0.8kva inverter over the sukam. apart from its cheaper price, the gxq 0.8 inverter is a way inferior product and you may end up with prematurely dead batteries should you insist on using that product for a long time. i'll advise you get a proper inverter like the sukam, genus, nexus, cyberpower, etc if you rwally want to start right in your match to energy freedom.

Thanks for your advice. my 6months old 200ah mikachi battery is dead. I have abandon the gaoxing inverter for luminous inverter. Hope luminous inverter is ok too?

George D good work. i de swallow saliva for d main time sha. pls to enable me take a better decision between sukam and cyberpower which one will u go for?

ile naira: @George, slightly off-topic but,........... with your previous group order of panels/batteries (I've forgotten which it was), what was involved at the port in Lagos? Did you have any import tax or other payments or any other wahala? Is the tax based on the value of the goods (or arbitary )

I'm about to agree a price for a batch of batteries and panels but I've no experience of Lagos ports. Any suggestions?

Thanks

hello ile naira,
unfortunately the group order was put off due to lack of interest by members. however had it taken off, one of the conditions for the transaction was that my contact in canada would have been solely responsible for transportation and clearing of the goods (including import charges, offloading, etc) all we needed to have done is to go and inspect the goods after they arrive his store in nigeria and pay whatever balance of the pre-order amount involved. no doubt it was such a good opportunity we missed and it still pains me till date.

Akerekoroabijawara: Thanks for your advice. my 6months old 200ah mikachi battery is dead. I have abandon the gaoxing inverter for luminous inverter. Hope luminous inverter is ok too?

akerekoroabijawara,
luminous is a good product. it's of the same family as sukam, genus, nexus, etc
you will enjoy it. best of all you will no longer be having dead batteries of your hands every 6 months!

idsolar: George D good work. i de swallow saliva for d main time sha. pls to enable me take a better decision between sukam and cyberpower which one will u go for?

idsolar,
to be honest with you, i'd go for sukam any day. don't get me wrong though. depending on your circumstances, both of them are good products. for inverter sizes of 3.5kva and below go for sukam but for sizes of 5kva and above, go for cyberpower.

the only drawback of sukam is it's low charging rate (15 - 20amps) as against cyberpower's 45amps. so if you have a large battery bank such as mine and don't have an alternative charging source like solar panels pls consider cyberpower but if your battery bank is the normal 4pcs 200amp batteries (48v) then sukam is ok for you.