dapsyra:


Nice comprehensive review. Welcome to the family. Thank for sharing.
The Classic 150 can go as high as 4672W at nominal 48V. Mine is running very well on a 4500W array with peak instantaneous harvest of 4460W
The Classic 150 carries a 5years manufacturer warranty. Feedback from customers on their users' forum show that Midnite Solar honours this warranty promptly without trying to shift blames.

That app is the best Android App available to monitor the Classic CC

For windows environment, I recommend this app by Midnite Solar

http://www.midnitesolar.com/firmware.php?firmwareProduct_ID=2

You can also use this app to configure and fine tune the CC in a very easy to use graphical environment

@GeorgeD1, change the MPPT Mode from "Solar" to "Legacy P&O" and watch the Classic dust the Tristar in performance, early wake-up and late shutdown. The solar mode is optimised for clear skies while the Legacy P&O mode is optimised for cloudy skies. It is cloudy all year round in Nigeria especially around the coastal areas because of our tropical climate.

Head for https://mymidnite2.com, register and then configure your Classic 150 to upload logging data to your account. This will give you beautiful graphical presentation of all vital data from your CC.

hello dapsyra,
thanks. i'm still experimenting with the midnite solar. i will try changing to the "legacy P&O" mode and see if it
finally overtakes the tristar in terms of daily harvest.

Barezzi:

Seconded!

I'm sold.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.farrelltonsolar.classic&hl=en

Have you tried the app in the link above?

hello barrezi,
thanks for the link. i will certainly try out the app and let the house know what i think

now, for my vote of thanks:

juo is the man of the moment!

it has really been a very tortuous journey for me. i set out looking for the best and most economical way to replace my
tristar mppt-60 which obviously was undersized for my solar array and i searched in a number of places, contacted
quite a few sources both here and outside the forum and ended up disappointed. i noticed that most sellers still carry prices
of items calculated at an exchange rate of 450 to 550 naira to the dollar. over seven months after dollar has reduced to 365
naira and below, these peeps choose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend not to be aware of the current realities.
in comes juo the life saver! here was i chatting with this unassuming seller on this thread via watsapp and narrating
my ordeal to him and the next thing i knew he was already making arrangements to get me a midnite solar classic 150 at an
incredibly mouth-watering price. initially i thought it was all a joke until i got that much anticipated call from him telling me
that my cc was ready for collection. at the end of the day when i compared what i paid to the amount that a popular online
store is selling their midnite, i just shake my head in disbelief.

not only has juo proven to be a reliable guy to deal with, he has always been consistently delivering quality products at
unbelievably low prices and this successful deal adds another feather to his cap.

all,
so finally here comes the head-to-head comparison between midnite solar classic 150 cc
and the tristar mppt-60.

1) build
the tristar comes solid as a rock made of an upper cast aluminum and a lower steel body. so also the
midnite. it looks rugged enough and its appearance exudes quality. a mere glance gives one the
impression of high quality.
-both charge controllers take this round equally.

2) installation
both charge controllers are easy to install with both shipping with a battery temperature probe as standard.
clearly marked positive and negative battery and solar pv terminals reduces possibility of error.
- this round is also a draw.

3) setup
setting up the tristar is a little tricky as you'd have to fiddle with the notorious 'dip switches'. from system
voltage settings to battery type selection and equalization, you will do well to read your manual over and over
to make sure you don't flick the wrong switch else you might just kiss your precious controller goodbye.
the midnite classic on the other hand is a beauty to set up. the built-in wizard helps guide you through the set up
process and you could be done in minutes without even opening one page of manual to read. it is that easy.
-the midnite solar wins this round without contest

4) programming, fine-tuning, etc
coming closely on the heels of setup is programming and fine tuning the charge controller.
the midnite solar has quite an impressive list of user adjustable settings that you could carry out directly from the
mngp (display unit). you could also use the wizbang jr add-on to achieve this. and this helps to make the unit very
flexible and user friendly.
the tristar on the other hand is not that easy to program. i've mentioned the dip switches already. to adjust the few
settings available you will need to install the optional 'msview' software.
-again the midnite classic wins this round.

5) connectivity, internet, etc
both charge controllers connect to the internet when properly configured but it seems the midnite classic has a more
seamless architecture. configuring the modbus for the tristar has always been a pain in the ass for me.
- midnite classic wins this round

6) performance, solar harvest, ability to optimize yield even in cloudy weather
i rotated both charge controllers from north facing panels to south facing panels over the course of two weeks and
monitored their performance with the different arrays. i discovered the tristar always being first to wake up from night
mode or 'rest' early in the morning and being the last to go to sleep in the evenings. also conversion wise (dc to dc)
the tristar seems to shine. however what the midnite classic lacks in terms of its inability to wake up on time, it tries to
make up for it by its superb solar algorithm - although it finds itself always trying to play catch-up for the rest of
the day.
for most days, production from both charge controllers were almost equally matched with only a little variation.
- this round is a draw with the advantage tilting more towards the tristar.

7) durability, reliability, etc
like i said in my earlier post, it's still early days yet with the midnite classic cc so i may not be in a good position to tell
how durable or reliable it may turn out to be. however, i can vouch for the tristar as a solid and reliable unit able to
withstand almost anything thrown at it. unless you deliberately set out to damage it, this cc is guaranteed to serve you
for many years to come.
- this round is inconclusive

8 ) scalability, ease of expansion, etc
perhaps the biggest selling point and over-aching advantage the midnite has over the tristar is its ability to produce
between 80 to 96 amps of charging current with a maximum solar array size of up to 4,300w at 48v. that means as a
user there is more room for expansion. you can start with a few panels and continue building up your system on an
incremental basis by adding panels after panels without worrying about changing/upgrading the charge controller.
the tristar on the other hand maxes out at 60 amps which translates to 2,300w at 48v. anything above this and the
current limit alarm set in.
- midnite classic is the winner for this round

9) conclusion
as can be seen, each charge controller has its own strong points and not so strong points. also, they seem to match evenly
in quite a few areas. at the end of the day, its much like comparing ronaldo and messi - both are kings in their own rights -
or comparing apple and android. while one is a closed system and difficult to manipulate, the other is flexible and easily
configurable - but they both excel in what they do.

now for the review (and i'll try to make it as short as possible):

out of the box, the midnite solar classic 150 feels solid and well built. it's very much unlike
the numerous cheapo charge controllers flooding the market these days.
installation was a breeze partly falling back on past experience and partly referring to the manual
that came with the cc.
programming the controller was a piece of cake using the built-in wizard that comes with the mngp
(classic display panel).
performance wise the midnite classic didn't disappoint. from day one it didn't waste time before
displaying the stuff it was made of. through the clouds and sunshine, it kept pulling in every bit of
juice it could get.
as for durability and reliability, it remains to be seen how long the controller will keep on putting
up this type of stellar performance without issues. time will tell.

next i will be comparing the midnite solar classic and the tristar. this is where things begin to get
more interesting.

the midnite solar and the tristar side by side:

first strike: powering up the midnite for duty

mounting the cc:

preparing to install:

out of the box, here comes the knight in shinning armor!

all,
as promised last night, i will attempt to do a review of my new midnite solar classic 150 cc.
but first things first. here are the installation pictures.

all,
i spent the past two weeks testing out my new midnite solar classic 150 cc and now
i'm ready to give the lowdown. while i was at it, i also put the midnite head to head
with the morningstar. a few surprises and not a few mehs as you would expect.
watch out for my review.

MooreJozo:




Bro I sell wedding n engagement rings majorly, I only add up few gadgets to sell while importing my stuff , U got issue??

if an intention to patronize can be interpreted as an "issue" then i guess the answer is yes

life707:


In Jos where I stay, even when there is no rain, there will be no sunshine for up to 3days, so for most of us that live off grid, we use two systems with an automatic change over running a 14/10hr shifts.

The rationale is to rest one set and get better charging while the other set manages d little daylight to power the house.
We observed that no matter how many kwatts of PV u have, as long as d system runs for 24hrs, during this period, the battery drains faster because the depth of charge is not sufficient to make the batteries float.

Thus necessitating two system up.

The PV I bought from you were to augment my second system.

With ur 7kw system, a split into 4.5kw and 2.5kw will be helpful.
U will be surprise what the 2.5kw system can do at night when it has all the time to charge all day with little sunlight and settle before coming on to take over from the 4.5kw system that charges and work at the same time during the day.

Just thought to share my experience.

there was a time i gave serious thought to such a setup but later decided against it for
various reasons. my experience these past few weeks may force me to give it a re-think.

Oshomo12:


Ilorin is a good place for solar even around this period. Anybody complaining should come to Akure and see worse! I am thinking of small wind turbine for this period (around 400W). The ones I ve seen so far on aliexpress, the feedback not good (imagine 400w not producing even 100w).

oshomo,
wind turbines would be an attractive proposition down here in the south-south
especially for the period between july-august. if i can lay hands on an efficient and
reliable one with a cut-in speed suitable for the prevailing wind characteristics, what
a boon that would be.

bigrovar:


won't be as efficient as diversifying to something like wind. over sizing should have it's limits especially considering the really tough months are July-August. if you overtly oversize your PV beyond your load, your system would be under utilised for the most part of the year

hello bigrovar,
you're very much on point. the july-august rain belt is proving to be an especially hard one to swallow most especially
with the weather pattern this year. some days even with my over 7kw solar array i'm barely able to generate 5kwhr
total production. i'm only now beginning to realize that i actually need more panels to tide me through the dark days.
but again, like you said, oversizing has its limits.
i was talking to someone early this afternoon and i said putting out more panels on a dark cloudy day with zero sun is
akin to lining up empty plastic buckets to fetch rain water. even if you have 1000 buckets lined up, if there is no drop of
rain you realize nothing at the end of the day. same thing goes with solar. a million panels stretched out on your roof
with zero sunshine will yield zero kilowatt-hours!

DMerciful:
Hi my People,

I missed this forum.....been quite busy...work nor let me see road

Kudos Guys

dmerciful,
welcome back. hope you bring something for us?

Nkdave:


Good day Sir George, and all the trustworthy pioneers of this futuristic thread. I've been following for a while now, and I must say I'm impressed, although I had started using AE some while before I found this thread, I intend to go and grow forward with help from here.

Sorry, enough rambling, two questions please.

1. I have just a 1.2kva Mercury modified sine wave Inverter, + one 170ah trailer battery (due to monetary constraints at the time, and being experiential too), this gives me back up for between 4 to 7hrs depending on hours of charge it gets from Nepa, and ofcos my usage.
Now I want advice on wattage of solar panel I should add to the existing setup, that would provide better additional back up as recently we only see NEPA for a total of 6hrs in a day, sometimes even less.

nkdave,
welcome on board. even though its not really advisable using trailer batteries
for inverters, since you say its a temporary solution, no problem.
to incorporate solar power for your setup, here is what you need:

170ah multiplied by 1.2 (to account for system losses) will give you: 204ah
this gives a total power output of 2448w (assuming you are draining down to
a dod of 80 to 100 percent - which may not be practical.
for a 5 hour average daily insolation, you can get by with a solar panel array
of between 400w to 600w depending on cloud cover.

as for your brother, you need to get back to us with actual nameplate power
ratings for all the equipment mentioned in your list if you want proper system
sizing advice and cost.

prof,
sorry for the loss. like dunka, i will advice you go for a steel tower this time.
if you insist on erecting another concrete tower and you really want to do a
good job, you will discover that the cost would be almost the same as setting
up a steel structure when you quantify the iron rods and cement involved.

khanka,
your budget should be able to get you a high end 24v inverter which incorporates all the mention
features and much more. also, most inverter manufacturers now have local support within the
country in one form or the other. for instance when i had issue with my magnum inverter, even
though its an american product, i was still able to fix it through support from their local rep in
port harcourt.

MooreJozo:
Order with us now wedding and engagement rings, deliver within Lagos only, and it's pay on delivery, make your order via WhatsApp: 08067381326


Bbb

brother,
what exactly are you selling? is it wedding rings or door alarm systems?

prof,
you have said it all. all the same, welcome back.
I hope you remember to incorporate the solar water heater as part of your new house design.

abunafiu:
still doing good.
It's been 3 years now..

Wow. I can't believe I could be away from this thread for over 2 months. I checked this placed since May this year.

prof,
i was almost afraid that u now value your facebook community more than this thread.
Anyway, welcome back.
And I hope we get to see a few of those installation pics too?

babaegun:


@GeorgeD1

How about your upgrade from Tristar to Midnight Classic 150?

babaegun,
thanks for asking. that question couldn't have come at a better time as i just received my long awaited
midnite classic. installation was done yesterday and monitoring in progress.
pictures, observations and vote of thanks coming soon...

suretx:



Please does anyone have a practical approach on how to achieve the 6-10 degrees inclination on a roof that has a higher inclination? I'm planning on setting up panels and I want to get it right from the start...

suretx,
use adjustable legs for your solar rails and confirm angle of inclination using an inclinometer.
you can't go wrong with these two combo...

dicksonadams:


Boss can I get someone to help me do this also? The engineer that install mine had charge me twice.... E. G change wire, new cc but to no avail

dicksonadams,
ordinarily this is something you can do for yourself but if you're afraid of heights i'm sure there are
good installers here who will be more than glad to help you do the rooftop inspection.
just check their signatures and give them a call.
cheers!

dicksonadams:
Hey guys please I have a solar set upl that I have wasted a lot of money on . Out of 420watt only harvest 100watt if I am lucky.


Please can anyone come help me do a audit or check on my set up. I am l ready to pay

i had a similar experience like johnkester with my newly installed solar panels.
after installation, i noticed one array was producing roughly half the power output
of the second array and so i set out to troubleshoot. in the process i climbed to the roof
only to discover that the mc4 connectors of two array strings were not properly
closed. what that meant was that out of twelve panels, only six were producing thereby
explaining why the output was half. i quickly reconnected them properly, climbed down
from the roof, switched on the array breakers and voila! more amps than i could imagine
started pumping into my cc. it was really a remarkable experience for me.

johnkester,
that was spot on. i couldn't have said it better.
welldone!

earthrealm:


following bumper to bumper.

also in this rainy season where we r having 3 to 5 days of rainfall....how is it holding up?

earthrealm,
like i said in the previous page:

https://www.nairaland.com/390522/solar-energy-complement-fta/274#58735529

my system is holding up well.

here in the south-south, we are in the thick of the rainy season - what some peeps call
"7 days rain" and no surprise, we are still bathing with hot water despite the continuous
rainfall.

DUNKA:
Goodmorning all for the solar water heater pictured below if one is installing on an aluminum roof how is it secured?

dunka,
my candid opinion is to get an independent tower to install your water heater.
however, if you insist on installing it on your aluminium roof, make sure you
consult your carpenter for proper reinforcement of your roof polines and beams.
i had similar thoughts like yours when i was going to acquire my own 300l but
after it arrived and i had it assembled, i was like "wow!" "there is no way i'm
going to place that massive frame filled with water on my roof!"
so, i instantly began discussions with my welder for a separate water tower.

earthrealm:
@all... do we think the solar water heater wud fare well in a rented apartment?............am thinking of incorporating it in my build..........
2ndly perchance one wants to switch back to electric heaters, am thinking it should be easy enough to replace it with an external 50ltr ariston type...
cc: georged1, johnkester @all

earthrealm,
like i said earlier in the year, anybody can install a solar hot water system, be it a landlord or
tenant.for the tenant, the major challenge is where to put your water tower in case you want a gravity
feed system. however, that can be overcome by installing a pressurized system. with such a system,
the unit can be installed anywhere on the ground facing the sun. all you need is a pump to supply
the hot water on as needed basis.
its really amazing what the human mind can achieve when you set it to work.

pranil,
i don't know what's happening but any time i quote your post i get banned for twenty four hours.
anyway, i'm sure you already seen testimonials from johnkester who happens to be using a similar brand
as mine from the same supplier.
as for temperatures, recall that earlier in the year i did a comparison between the conventional (ariston)
electric water heater and its solar counterpart. these days, depending on the degree of cloud cover, my
water temperature still gets above 40c which definitely is more than what i need to take a hot bath on
a cold day.
believe me when i say that solar water heating is the next best thing to sliced bread - and if this coming
from a guy who is not trying to sell you anything, it should speak volumes.