earthrealm:
So had a chance to pop into villa .
The setup up there aint doing too well.
After the last watering ops 3months ago..1 of the cells in my 220ah mecury fla batt did not go down.others went down.its still at max while others are already below halfway...any idea how to sol e this?

2ndly the batt voltage jumps too rapidly.
It was 22.4v by dawn..even tripped off b4 day break..but as soon as sunlight came up as little as 2amps from the cc..it rapidly jumped to 25.7v within 10mins..and less than 2hrs later its already 27v.

Am suspecting the rise in voltage is due to the cc setting.cos boost is at 29.4v..while float is 27.6v

Like someone noted those batteries have been allowed to go below the safe zone over and over again for their own good. I also suspect that they have been left in a cycle of under charging for so long some might have lost the ability to do a full charge. fully agree with the suggestions from NiyiOmoIyunade

I use Kung long , 150AH*2 . I have had it for about 8 months now. My inverter is set to shutdown at 23v (11.5v ), on very rare occasions - maybe about 6 times - has my inverter ever shut down. My load is usually less than 100 Watts and never more than 200 Watts for more than 6 so I am treating the battery quite gently. All in all, it still works.

brightk:
I am looking for a reliable deep cycle battery.. i have full river in mind but dont know its origin if its a US, UK, Indian, China, Tawain battery.. Please recommend base on experience and origin... someone is advertising this kunglong battery.. Has anyone used it?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
The symptoms you describe for voltage look like the classic signs of loss of battery capacity/beginning of battery failure.

First confirm if your batteries have been getting a full charge at the end of everyday ... if so then ......

Do you have access to an hydrometer? - a good one can be bought relatively cheap - let the batteries charge fully then rest for 2 hours and then check the specific gravity of each cell - you should be reading SG between 1.260 and 1.300 for a healthy cell.

Next perform a deep discharge load test on the batteries - if you have access to a load tester good else run your inverter normally or put on extra loads within the inverter limit of course till you start getting the low battery alarm - quickly measure each battery's voltage at this point - most likely you will see one or two batteries with voltage much lower than the others - these are the troublesome ones you need to focus attention on. In any event any battery reading below 10.5v under load is definitely suspicious and should be queried further.

If you identify any batteries with any cell having low SG below 1.260 after full charge or low voltage below 10.5v under load then fill up each cell within the battery with enough distilled water to cover the plates (don't overfill else the water will boil out) then charge fully again and then after a full charge perform equalization at 15.5volts per cell for 2-4 hours - then monitor performance again.

Contrary to conventional wisdom - 29.4v boost i.e. 12.7v per 12v battery may not be sufficient to keep your flooded batteries happy. Higher charge voltages are required especially with solar applications when you may not get sufficient power into the batteries to ensure a full charge daily.

Please perform these checks and revert back with the outcome - if the batteries come back to life then consider raising your boost voltage to 30 to 30.4volts max - better yet set the boost voltage based off your SG readings - the higher your SGs the higher the ideal boost voltage required.

Above all your batteries should be getting a daily full charge and not discharged below 50% DoD to have a healthy and long life - if this is not happening you may need to upsize solar array or CC or get external charger to supplement or reduce the loads you run - basically any adjustments required to get a regular full charge and stay within 50% DoD

Totally agree with all the above except the part in bold. charging a battery with an absorption voltage over that recommended by the manufacturer will wear out the plates quicker. Remember you still have to factor in temperature compensation. I think the best thing is to design your offgrid system to be circled at around 30% depth of discharge. The advantage of doing this is 2 fold. 1 you stress the battery less hence prolong the usable life, 2 its easy to replace what was used from the battery if discharge is 30% of dod. In a place like Nigeria, The size of your battery discharge should closely align with the size of what generate from your panels. Again this is where efficient load comes in. An efficient load allows you discharge your battery at a rate where you can even get more from the battery than specified, and it allows you to do more with less. I have 2 Mercury tubular battery and this powers the whole house 24 hours a day (including raining season) yet the most I have discharged them is 45% dod. usual daily discharge cycle is at between 25-35% dod. This allows my battery to get to float every single day sine I started using them.

My loads include a Deep freezer of 165L, a medium sized fridge all running from a minimum of 9-3 (during raining season) and 7-5 in the dry season. 42 inch led tv, home theater PC, and 1200w sound system, over 10 lighting points and 3 fans, occasional washing machine, blender.

When you work on making your loads efficient (which is in the long run cheaper than generating elecricity) you will not struggle to charge your battery and solar would be enjoyable.

bigrovar:

In a place like Nigeria, The size of your battery discharge should closely align with the size of what generate from your panels.

I agree with this if you have no daytime loads.
The best design approach is going to be different for everyone.

Some people use more of their loads during the day. Some others, at night.
So the size of the "usable" battery bank and pv array cannot be directly matched.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
In my experience No it cannot - as the high voltage alarm on Su-Kam and other indian inverters is set around 15v for 12v, 30v for 24v & 60v for 48v nominal systems. Since you will be equalizing above 15v per 12v battery the inverter would start beeping and go into overload and shutoff and perhaps get damaged from prolonged exposure.

What you can do is to switch off the battery MCB aka breaker at the back of the inverter and then the inverter will have no clue what is going on and stay happy . Be sure to switch off the battery breaker and not the one for the mains - you can then engage bypass on the inverter to use PHCN/Gen direct during the equalization period.

I hear tell that Microtek (another indian type inverter) can both equalize batteries as well as withstand high voltages - the jury is out on that though as I never tested it.

Again new designs may have overcome this limit but last I checked what I said above is the status.

This is not true. My sukam falcon plus could take an equalization charge of 31v without issues and I used it for over a year before selling it off to get something bigger. The same is with the 3KVA+ inverter models

earthrealm:


thnks for the extensive explanations, guess the batts are undercharged.
the setup is in the villa, miles away from me/anybody who can perform the extensive tests wch can give a truer picture.
guess i wud hv to reduce the load on the system to maybe give the batta fighting chance in this cloudy weather.
its totally offgrid, no phcn.
4 x 12v 220ah mecury fla batt, 1.5kva 24v luminous inverter, 60amp epsolar CC


loads
190w fridge [130w energy name plate, but wattmeter says 190w...lol] runs for 8hrs daily
30w sec flood light runs for 11hrs daily.
about 8 x 18w bulbs......used at night say 6pm to 10pm
70w tv and 70w fan used intermittently, say 8hrs combined total daily [worst case scenario]

1500w panel..max harvest i hv ever recorded is 7.3kwh.
in this rainy season..average btw 3kwh n 4kwh

ahaha...i think i hv seen the problem.. with this bad weather, and the fridge +sec light beeing on timer switch...the batt is being drained below acceptable levels, its a rudimentary system n no tech savvy person around to monitor or effect intelligent load shedding.
need to reduce the fridge run time to 5hrs or4 hrs daily to allow the batts hv some charge, until the weather improves

Bro, your system load is too much your PV. Try trimming down the light bulbs get 5w efficient LED bulbs, you can talk to JUO he has some insanely efficient led bulbs, get rechargeable fans.. it would reduce the 70w to about 15w and you can use 10w efficient light bulbs for the security lights

mank1234:
Hello gurus in the house. I had a discussion with a friend on keeping fridge on timer or not. Here is his opinion.

He said that given adequate battery bank to last night load, that it is better to leave your fridge on 24/7 for the following reasons:
1) normal power consumption when fridge has reached its optimum temperature is lower compared to defrosting input when temperature has gone up.
2) it goes off and on when temperature is maintained and the off period is very long at night since nobody is using it.
3) that he has used watt meter to measure and observed that, especially in this rainy season, his consumption is lower without timer than with timer.

Is this possible?

This is true.. the longer a refrigerator is on the less power it uses. Mine usually starts by using from about 150w and gradually settles to 100w in about an hour of use. The downside is nothing replaces using your fridge and freezers as opportunity loads when your array has enough power to charge your battery and left over would be used to power the hungry appliances like fridge and freezers. That way you power them with "Free energy"

If you do not have that type of setup and also lack a timer, it might be best to leave freezer on at night. It would drain less energy during the day and also because generally house load tend to reduce once its bed time.. .ie TV and all indoor lights would have been off. It would help with the battery rate of discharge which would also be lesser. However I still tend to advise against it because it would still exert more load on your battery than it should handle.

You may be right! GeorgeD1 said the same of his Fusion series inverter - I recall the ones I had all beeping alarms above 15v per 12v battery - again this was a long time ago so I could be wrong or there may be differences between them.

With all these said even I may be looking to a Su-Kam type inverter for my replacement as it seems they are capable of withstanding equalization - their perceived inability to handle high voltages was the reason I never considered them for my replacement inverter in the first place.

bigrovar:


This is not true. My sukam falcon plus could take an equalization charge of 31v without issues and I used it for over a year before selling it off to get something bigger. The same is with the 3KVA+ inverter models

NiyiOmoIyunade:
You may be right! GeorgeD1 said the same of his Fusion series inverter - I recall the ones I had all beeping alarms above 15v per 12v battery - again this was a long time ago so I could be wrong or there may be differences between them.

With all these said even I may be looking to a Su-Kam type inverter for my replacement as it seems they are capable of withstanding equalization - their perceived inability to handle high voltages was the reason I never considered them for my replacement inverter in the first place.

Sukam inverters are rock solid. they are a bit unappreciated on this part mostly due to their low charge rate and uninspiring looks. The truth is in terms of durability, ruggedness and support, they put all the chinese inverters to shame. They are more efficient and more reliable. My 1.6kv had an idle load of 26w. They also have features that strikes out some of the premium brands. The only down side is the low charge rate which are often not more than 17A for the top end brand and 14A for the low end brand.

earthrealm:


thnks for the extensive explanations, guess the batts are undercharged.
the setup is in the villa, miles away from me/anybody who can perform the extensive tests wch can give a truer picture.
guess i wud hv to reduce the load on the system to maybe give the batta fighting chance in this cloudy weather.
its totally offgrid, no phcn.
4 x 12v 220ah mecury fla batt, 1.5kva 24v luminous inverter, 60amp epsolar CC


loads
190w fridge [130w energy name plate, but wattmeter says 190w...lol] runs for 8hrs daily
30w sec flood light runs for 11hrs daily.
about 8 x 18w bulbs......used at night say 6pm to 10pm
70w tv and 70w fan used intermittently, say 8hrs combined total daily [worst case scenario]

1500w panel..max harvest i hv ever recorded is 7.3kwh.
in this rainy season..average btw 3kwh n 4kwh

ahaha...i think i hv seen the problem.. with this bad weather, and the fridge +sec light beeing on timer switch...the batt is being drained below acceptable levels, its a rudimentary system n no tech savvy person around to monitor or effect intelligent load shedding.
need to reduce the fridge run time to 5hrs or4 hrs daily to allow the batts hv some charge, until the weather improves

Hello boss, the highlighted was the issue... Seems your battery are dead already..

Your battery bank is about 11Kwh.. but you generate 3-4Kwh..

You may need to increase the PV X 2..

Dam5reey:


Hello boss, the highlighted was the issue... Seems your battery are dead already..

Your battery bank is about 11Kwh.. but you generate 3-4Kwh..

You may need to increase the PV X 2..

&bigrovar, whats the size of ur solar array?..i see u hv only 2 units 12v battery..and your load appears tobe even more than mine

nice point gents.
part of the problem was the fridge, hving a 130w energy nameplate, but clocking in at 190w on a wattmeter, it was while trouble shooting that i made that discovery...the extra 60w x 8.5hrs is over 500w lost daily, i initially tot my consumption was about os less than 2kwh, based on the 130w x 8hrs + the other small loads, thus with my 7kwh daily generation, i hv 5kwh to feed the battery bank.

am considering this option of programming the fridge to run at night, thus hving all the energy produced during the day go towards charging the batts. has anyone tried this unconventional approach,
i have 6 x 250watts 24v panels on a 60amp epsolar CC, i dont thinki can add an additional 500w to the panel bank, as that may exceed the rating of the CC, n upgrading the CC to 80amps isnt a viable option now..based on funds.
will take the fridge offline for 3 - 5days and allow the batterys to be fully charged, may adopt this strategy at 2wk intervals till funds are available to do more/the weather improves.

i also hv a desulphator hooked permanently to the system

earthrealm:
&bigrovar, whats the size of ur solar array?..i see u hv only 2 units 12v battery..and your load appears tobe even more than mine

nice point gents.
part of the problem was the fridge, hving a 130w energy nameplate, but clocking in at 190w on a wattmeter, it was while trouble shooting that i made that discovery...the extra 60w x 8.5hrs is over 500w lost daily, i initially tot my consumption was about os less than 2kwh, based on the 130w x 8hrs + the other small loads, thus with my 7kwh daily generation, i hv 5kwh to feed the battery bank.

am considering this option of programming the fridge to run at night, thus hving all the energy produced during the day go towards charging the batts. has anyone tried this unconventional approach,
i have 6 x 250watts 24v panels on a 60amp epsolar CC, i dont thinki can add an additional 500w to the panel bank, as that may exceed the rating of the CC, n upgrading the CC to 80amps isnt a viable option now..based on funds.
will take the fridge offline for 3 - 5days and allow the batterys to be fully charged, may adopt this strategy at 2wk intervals till funds are available to do more/the weather improves.

i also hv a desulphator hooked permanently to the system

Lead acid batteries should not be left in partial discharge for more than 24 hours to ensure long life ( the full charge cycle also included BULK ( full rated current) Absorb and then float if possible. ( Trojan Carbon is exception to this as it can handle partial SOC

If the panels can barely top up the batteries over 6/8 hours then absorb cycle is missed and you will feel the reduced lifetime
Which means for a typical day your batteries should at least exist bulk by 2 pm to remain on absorb for next 2-4 hours ( bulk is at C10 or C20 ) absorb currents are, much lower. Typically absorb is lower currents but at least 2- and max 5 times the bulk duration

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A new charge controller 12/24v 60a for sale. Call/whatsapp 08033735359 now

Thanks for your answers.
Another question. Is there any way to disable battery charging on a Sukam inverter while retaining the automatic changeover switch when grid power is restored?

earthrealm:
&bigrovar, whats the size of ur solar array?..i see u hv only 2 units 12v battery..and your load appears tobe even more than mine

nice point gents.
part of the problem was the fridge, hving a 130w energy nameplate, but clocking in at 190w on a wattmeter, it was while trouble shooting that i made that discovery...the extra 60w x 8.5hrs is over 500w lost daily, i initially tot my consumption was about os less than 2kwh, based on the 130w x 8hrs + the other small loads, thus with my 7kwh daily generation, i hv 5kwh to feed the battery bank.

am considering this option of programming the fridge to run at night, thus hving all the energy produced during the day go towards charging the batts. has anyone tried this unconventional approach,
i have 6 x 250watts 24v panels on a 60amp epsolar CC, i dont thinki can add an additional 500w to the panel bank, as that may exceed the rating of the CC, n upgrading the CC to 80amps isnt a viable option now..based on funds.
will take the fridge offline for 3 - 5days and allow the batterys to be fully charged, may adopt this strategy at 2wk intervals till funds are available to do more/the weather improves.

i also hv a desulphator hooked permanently to the system

I have a 1.83kw array attached to the battery. The array are divided into 2. First array at 960w is facing true south and ground mounted. The second array is 880w and facing West and mounted on the roof. But arrays are connected to separate controllers and paralleled to the two batteries. The second array facing west allows me to at more advantage of the post 1pm sun at which point the south facing panel is no longer at pick. The opportunity loads of freezer and fridge ensures that the battery never gets beyond the limited bulk current of 27A. Rest is used up by the house. With the 2 batteries cycles at 30% did. They get to absorption by 11am even on an overcast day. On a very cloudy day it might be 2pm before hitting absorption.

dsunmade:
Thanks for your answers.
Another question. Is there any way to disable battery charging on a Sukam inverter while retaining the automatic changeover switch when grid power is restored?

Unfortunately you can't disble charging on the sukam. You can however reduce it to a tiny minimum of 2.4A which is what I used during the dry season. This setting is via a dip stick hence u can use it when inverter is off

pranil:


Lead acid batteries should not be left in partial discharge for more than 24 hours to ensure long life ( the full charge cycle also included BULK ( full rated current) Absorb and then float if possible. ( Trojan Carbon is exception to this as it can handle partial SOC

If the panels can barely top up the batteries over 6/8 hours then absorb cycle is missed and you will feel the reduced lifetime
Which means for a typical day your batteries should at least exist bulk by 2 pm to remain on absorb for next 2-4 hours ( bulk is at C10 or C20 ) absorb currents are, much lower. Typically absorb is lower currents but at least 2- and max 5 times the bulk duration

so reducing my bank to 2 batterys....do you think it would be a good move?

pranil:


Lead acid batteries should not be left in partial discharge for more than 24 hours to ensure long life ( the full charge cycle also included BULK ( full rated current) Absorb and then float if possible. ( Trojan Carbon is exception to this as it can handle partial SOC

If the panels can barely top up the batteries over 6/8 hours then absorb cycle is missed and you will feel the reduced lifetime
Which means for a typical day your batteries should at least exist bulk by 2 pm to remain on absorb for next 2-4 hours ( bulk is at C10 or C20 ) absorb currents are, much lower. Typically absorb is lower currents but at least 2- and max 5 times the bulk duration

so thanks, am considering 3 options.or a combination of any 2

1. reduce batt bank to 2 units.
2. set timer to power fridge only at night [note, its usually the fridge 190w and 1 laptop+chargers totalling additional 100w that may be on during the day when fridge is on too].
3. reduce fridge runtime to 5hrs daily in the 9am to 2pm time band

wch would you advice i implement, or beta still recommend additional options, that doesnt require more expenditure of funds

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earthrealm:
&bigrovar, whats the size of ur solar array?..i see u hv only 2 units 12v battery..and your load appears tobe even more than mine

nice point gents.
part of the problem was the fridge, hving a 130w energy nameplate, but clocking in at 190w on a wattmeter, it was while trouble shooting that i made that discovery...the extra 60w x 8.5hrs is over 500w lost daily, i initially tot my consumption was about os less than 2kwh, based on the 130w x 8hrs + the other small loads, thus with my 7kwh daily generation, i hv 5kwh to feed the battery bank.

am considering this option of programming the fridge to run at night, thus hving all the energy produced during the day go towards charging the batts. has anyone tried this unconventional approach,
i have 6 x 250watts 24v panels on a 60amp epsolar CC, i dont thinki can add an additional 500w to the panel bank, as that may exceed the rating of the CC, n upgrading the CC to 80amps isnt a viable option now..based on funds.
will take the fridge offline for 3 - 5days and allow the batterys to be fully charged, may adopt this strategy at 2wk intervals till funds are available to do more/the weather improves.

i also hv a desulphator hooked permanently to the system

you can add 500w to it and it will work fine. In case you add 500w and it got burnt contact me for replacement but if nothing happens to the cc after one month you will give me 100k

earthrealm:


so thanks, am considering 3 options.or a combination of any 2

1. reduce batt bank to 2 units.
2. set timer to power fridge only at night [note, its usually the fridge 190w and 1 laptop+chargers totalling additional 100w that may be on during the day when fridge is on too].
3. reduce fridge runtime to 5hrs daily in the 9am to 2pm time band

wch would you advice i implement, or beta still recommend additional options, that doesnt require more expenditure of funds

none of these options are good for you. You must avoid powering your fridge with batteries by all means. Your best option is to add 500w solar and run your fridge from 8am-5pm. Thank me after 2 years

JUO:
you can add 500w to it and it will work fine. In case you add 500w and it got burnt contact me for replacement but if nothing happens to the cc after one month you will give me 100k

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!, in this buhari era, kai..this man no like me,
though you have a point, max instantenous harvest i hv seen is 1290w and abt 41amps , so its likely the additional 2 x 250w panels will generate additional 10 to 13amps....since my placement isnt optimal. total 50 to 54amps, wch is still below the 60amps rating of the CC.

would be very glad if i can revive these batteries, am hopeful i would.
think most of the damage was done this present rainy season/bad weather, since in good weather i generate 7kwh, and use abt 2.5kwh daily, so within 3days, the excess 4.5kwh x 3 would try to keep the batt bank happy

earthrealm:


HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!, in this buhari era, kai..this man no like me,
though you have a point, max instantenous harvest i hv seen is 1290w and abt 41amps , so its likely the additional 2 x 250w panels will generate additional 10 to 13amps....since my placement isnt optimal.

would be very glad if i can revive these batteries, am hopeful i would.
think most of the damage was done this present rainy season/bad weather, since in good weather i generate 7kwh, and use abt 2.5kwh daily, so within 3days, the excess 4.5kwh x 3 would try to keep the batt bank happy

I pray u get those batteries back up and running.
That's y most of my calculations I use maximum of 3hrs of insolation(when budget is tight), ordinarily, I use 2hrs. The reason is just for this period. The sun is not smiling this time.
Add d 500w as pointed out by JUO. It will save u around this period next year, good luck.

earthrealm:


HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!, in this buhari era, kai..this man no like me,
though you have a point, max instantaneous harvest i hv seen is 1290w and abt 41amps , so its likely the additional 2 x 250w panels will generate additional 10 to 13amps....since my placement isnt optimal. total 50 to 54amps, wch is still below the 60amps rating of the CC.

would be very glad if i can revive these batteries, am hopeful i would.
think most of the damage was done this present rainy season/bad weather, since in good weather i generate 7kwh, and use abt 2.5kwh daily, so within 3days, the excess 4.5kwh x 3 would try to keep the batt bank happy

I second the addition of panels and not running fridge on batteries -

The CC will never get cooked with the addition of Panels - the recent trend is to add between 1.1 to 1.5 times the rated current to cater for cloudy days In case additional harvest is generated the CC limits it's current to max rated - Only draw back is on really sunny days you are wasting the harvest
Also if you run CC on the limit all the time you might shorten the life but I guess 5 years from Now you will have much bigger panels and CC based on the trend in the solar industry What is you might observe is also called clipping which is additional ripple but not serious issue unless you are using one of the sensitive european brands

In my own House, I am using a Victron 150/45 amps on a solar bank of ( 2440 w- 305 x without any temperature warning


Beware though except midnight classic if you exceed the VoC ( more panels in series) it is short cut to white smoke from CC ( the caps blow almost immediately )

I agree with JUO and Pranil - your current array is 6*250W = 1500W. You have an EP Solar 60A CC and the label sticker on it indicates 1600W (24v) per the below;

[img] https://www.dropbox.com/s/n219mp4yoq40mex/IMG-20160717-WA0003.jpg?dl=0 [/img]

However, you can safely oversize your array up to something like LBatt * VmP [LBatt is Max Battery Charge Current the Controller can put out and VmP is the Voltage at Max Power Point under ideal conditions] - in your case you use a 24v system I think, so with your 60a EP Solar CC you can safely size up to a 60amps * 60volts = 3.6kw (assuming 2 24v nominal panels in series with 30v worst case voltage per panel under load - in reality VmP should be higher for a good panel) PV array -- a common sense limit is to stay at 2.4kw PV array for 24v -- I ran a 4.5kw array (48v setup) for at least one year on my EP solar without issues and even a little over 6kw for a while - the 500w you plan to add is within safe limits - if your CC breaks, I will give you a spare I have on hand for free but if it works you will owe me a round of drinks in addition to the 100k you already owe JUO

The limit you must never cross is the PV voltage limit like Pranil said - crossing that you will definitely brick the CC.

NB: CC fault tolerance with oversized arrays is naturally poorer e.g. normally you could reverse polarity within the controller rated PV array size without damage but if you were using more than rated PV array size anything more than 1.5times the rated PV wattage would destroy the CC under reverse polarity conditions. In any case a PV size over 3 times rated controller max wattage would very likely overwhelm the controller and release the magic smoke. So where the rated wattage was 1600w at 24v and max was around 3.6 to 4.3kw, I adviced a safe limit of 2.4kw .

All these caveats are apart from the power loss/wasted power with unnecessarily oversized arrays.

pranil:


I second the addition of panels and not running fridge on batteries -

The CC will never get cooked with the addition of Panels - the recent trend is to add between 1.1 to 1.5 times the rated current to cater for cloudy days In case additional harvest is generated the CC limits it's current to max rated - Only draw back is on really sunny days you are wasting the harvest
Also if you run CC on the limit all the time you might shorten the life but I guess 5 years from Now you will have much bigger panels and CC based on the trend in the solar industry What is you might observe is also called clipping which is additional ripple but not serious issue unless you are using one of the sensitive european brands

In my own House, I am using a Victron 150/45 amps on a solar bank of ( 2440 w- 305 x without any temperature warning


Beware though except midnight classic if you exceed the VoC ( more panels in series) it is short cut to white smoke from CC ( the caps blow almost immediately )

pranil:


I second the addition of panels and not running fridge on batteries -

The CC will never get cooked with the addition of Panels - the recent trend is to add between 1.1 to 1.5 times the rated current to cater for cloudy days In case additional harvest is generated the CC limits it's current to max rated - Only draw back is on really sunny days you are wasting the harvest
Also if you run CC on the limit all the time you might shorten the life but I guess 5 years from Now you will have much bigger panels and CC based on the trend in the solar industry What is you might observe is also called clipping which is additional ripple but not serious issue unless you are using one of the sensitive european brands

In my own House, I am using a Victron 150/45 amps on a solar bank of ( 2440 w- 305 x without any temperature warning


Beware though except midnight classic if you exceed the VoC ( more panels in series) it is short cut to white smoke from CC ( the caps blow almost immediately )

You are very much on point ! My set up is similar to yours as my pv system is oversized without any issue .. Thanks for the other day .. Am very grateful Sir !

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I agree with JUO and Pranil - your current array is 6*250W = 1500W. You have an EP Solar 60A CC and the label sticker on it indicates 1600W (24v) per the below;

[img] https://www.dropbox.com/s/n219mp4yoq40mex/IMG-20160717-WA0003.jpg [/img]

However, you can safely oversize your array up to something like LBatt * VmP [will update this once I lay hands on the manual] - in your case you use a 24v system I think, so you can safely size up to a 2,400w PV array ---- I ran a 4.5kw array (48v setup) for at least one year on my EP solar without issues and even a little over 6kw for a while - the 500w you plan to add is within safe limits - if your CC breaks, I will give you a spare I have on hand for free but if it works you will owe me a round of drinks in addition to the 100k you already owe JUO

The limit you must never cross is the PV voltage limit like Pranil said - crossing that you will definitely brick the CC - I assume you have 24v panels with 2 sets of panels connected in series and then each set of 2 series panels bundled into 3 parallel strings - just add two more 250w panels connected in series and then add them on in parallel to your existing array and you should be good.

Egbon, drop the mppt for me if you don't need it again , I will pick up when am around your hood .. Hope you are really enjoying your L16 USA flooded batteries et al

kiekie1:


You are very much on point ! My set up is similar to yours as my pv system is oversized without any issue .. Thanks for the other day .. Am very grateful Sir !

you are welcome. That was my first solar device 4 years back from 45 amps I now have 4 Charge controllers which can handel together 225 AMPS

225amps mhen!!!! Oga Pranil. Most definitely you are the real McCoy.

Twale Sir!!!

pranil:


you are welcome. That was my first solar device 4 years back from 45 amps I now have 4 Charge controllers which can handel together 225 AMPS

Yes boss! The batteries are firing away very vigorously. We can always count on you for solid products and superfast delivery so long as 'alert don sound' for your account first.

As for the CC, I already promised our man here, if he does not redeem it then we'll see...

kiekie1:


Egbon, drop the mppt for me if you don't need it again , I will pick up when am around your hood .. Hope you are really enjoying your L16 USA flooded batteries et al

@BigRovar. Yourself and GeorgeD1 have stoutly defended the reputation of your Su-Kams - in my own experience I rank them as 'okay' inverters - they don't excel in charging amps capacity and they lack ability to select different voltage algorithms for different battery types, I wouldn't confidently load them over 70% their rated capacity and everyone I know has visited service center at least once in a 5 year period.

What is the final verdict? Are there some techniques or practices you follow to derive such good value from your Su-Kam inverters? Do you have some extra protections or limits set on your systems or add-on devices to supplement the base performance?

bigrovar:


Sukam inverters are rock solid. they are a bit unappreciated on this part mostly due to their low charge rate and uninspiring looks. The truth is in terms of durability, ruggedness and support, they put all the chinese inverters to shame. They are more efficient and more reliable. My 1.6kv had an idle load of 26w. They also have features that strikes out some of the premium brands. The only down side is the low charge rate which are often not more than 17A for the top end brand and 14A for the low end brand.

brightk:
I am looking for a reliable deep cycle battery.. i have full river in mind but dont know its origin if its a US, UK, Indian, China, Tawain battery.. Please recommend base on experience and origin... someone is advertising this kunglong battery.. Has anyone used it?

I have used the Kunglong batteries for a client. They have been performing ok. I can tell you that they are good batteries