richmon74,
abunafiu,
juo,
all,

looks like we got to start the year all over again.
fortunately for us, it may not be such a bad idea seeing all the acrimony that took place here of recent.
let's therefore seize this opportunity for a fresh start devoid of brickbats.

so guys, welcome to the new 2014 in june! as the holy book says, let him that stole steal no more. let him
that cursed, curse no more. in the same vein, also, let him that spammed, spam no more, for we be
brethren!

may the sun never set on all our endeavours. amen!

Ahhh! Looks like we're starting the year all over again on NL no thanks to this hack attack!
What a pity! Six months worth of posts gone with the wind!
Not good at all!

Sky-walker:

So you saying Seun has no backup since Jan 9. Lets wait and hear what seun has to say. Something very fishy is going on here

well apparently the last site back up that was done was in january which is why we're starting all over again from 10-01-14.
seems to me someone is not doing their job and seun has to take a critical look at this.

grump! can't believe we're back to january!
we might as well start the year all over on nairaland! how nice!

jman77: pls my people,can anyone help me with the tp of intelsat 20 @ 68 degree east c-band and i like to lnow if its recieveable with 90cm dish.

Use 4064H 19850sr (Aljazeera) to track.

You can also use 4103V 7800sr (India News)

Minimum dish size is 1.8m. You cannot receive with 90cm.

more settings:

the lbco (low battery cut off) setting that saved the day.

in my absence my folks ran the system so low that the voltage dropped to 48v and suddenly power went off.
unknown to them i had set the inverter to cut off at exactly 48v thereby preventing serious damage to the
batteries.

the bmk (battery monitor kit) certainly doing a good job of monitoring the entire system:

so many parameters at the tip of your fingers!

more:

now, to one of the overriding reasons i went for the magnum above other available high end inverters:

control from the comfort of your bedroom!

i must say the meter hub is doing a good job of combining the outputs of the two tristar charge controllers,
so i no longer have any need to do manual additions (thanks again to totalgreen for making this happen)

abunafiu: happy new year my good friends on this thread..

I discovered a significant drop in output of my system so I climbed up to see what's happening.
the problem was dust . all I did was to use a big hand size foam and clean. although not easy but I stretched as far as my arm could reach.
the result was a significant improvement .
I hereby recommend u observe ur panels for dust.
If u reside very close to an untarred road...am sure Ure already a victim.

abunafiu,

this time of year is always a big problem for solar harvest all over the globe. if you check back on last year's post
around this time we talked extensively on this issue so its a recurring subject year on year.

here in the south-south we are not left out as we battle on two fronts. on one part is the cloud cover which ironically
is persistent despite it being a harmattan period. on the other hand we have the issue of dust. both of this combine to
make a huge dent on total solar harvest. peeps would think the opposite should be the case though as theoretically
one would expect to harvest more in the dry season as compared to the rainy season but the reality is more like the
reverse.

below pics of snapshot of peak harvest for yesterday and day before.

what about those of us not in abuja? any hope of tasting your goodies?

hmmm! techno!

true, in business there are no permanent friends or enemies - only permanent interests.

@All,

Happy new year to all good people in the house. May 2014 be filled with more FTA goodies than ever.
May all previously out of reach satellites be dancing on our 90cm dishes. May all hitherto locked
channels become FTA without the breaking of codes or inputting of keys. May it be a year when all
erstwhile gurus lured to the dark side begin creeping back to the light!
May it be a year of reconciliation for all!

all,

happy 2014 to everyone in the house. may all our days be sunny and bright this new year and may we never
walk in the dark, gloomy shadows of years past!

just got back from the village over the weekend and have been offline for a while. that said, its nice to see a lot
of developments on the thread. i'm particularly impressed with salam12 installation. looks like a new solar
convert who has finally decided to take the plunge and he's really done it in a big way. congrats!

roasted almonds! nice!

nothing yet!

sweet groundnuts!

richmon74,

our discussion over the phone was quite refreshing. i'm glad for once we have someone in
the house ready to share some of his vast knowledge on installations which a lot of us never
had before.

about cyberpower, i think all you said is very true. before ever deciding to go for that inverter
in the first place, i took my time to read almost everything available including reviews from
outside our shores. all seemed very appealing and for over two years running, it was my dream
inverter. you can then imagine my disappointment when i eventually made the move only to end
up with a defective product! that first experience really pissed me off but i wouldn't have bothered
much but for the last flaw you mentioned which is the constant running fans even when no load
was being powered.coming from sukam which had temperature and load controlled fans, i could not
understand why an inverter which was supposed to be better than the rest of the competition
could not have a simple variable speed fan that was temperature controlled. i did complain
about this to one of our forum members at the time and i guess it was at that point i began
considering the possibility of going for a true high-end inverter.

as for ruggedness though, cyberpower is not bad at all and the lack of smart charging abilities can
always be compensated for by other means.

richmon74,

looks like we have a deal then.
drop ur email or gsm let's talk outside of here.
thanks!

dsunmade,

i doubt if there is any 'self-styled inverter expert' here on this thread - at least not any that we are
aware of. all of us are here to share knowledge as nobody knows it all. necessity as they say is the mother
of invention. you stumbled upon the manual battery combiner switch because you had a problem which
you were determined to solve despite advise to the contrary. that is the way to learn and we all have
been there at one point or the other. the next step for you to have taken is to share your experience with
the house so we can all learn from you - including the person that told you to throw away your batteries.

richmon74,

if it can be used on 48v battery banks then i think i may need one too.

yeah, looks like they're all gone down now.

i wonder why nobody is coming out to clear the air on this?

adedayo101: @ GEORGE_D
Pls drop me a mail on adedayo303@yahoo.com or send me a message on my mobile 08173684350
I need your attention urgently sir.thanks

You got mail, bro!

richmon74,

your experience with renewables is quite invaluable.

it is exactly the kind of turnaround we need on the thread.


ok, as for the prag stabiliser, unfortunately, it seems to be a case of who makes the loudest noise.
peeps don't even know that there are better alternatives in the market just because the other
competitors choose not to cover everywhere with adverts.


and, the battery selector switch seems to be quite innovative. can it be used on 48v battery banks
too?

how true is this info?

richmon74,

it's quite refreshing to know we have an installer in our midst who has been following the thread so
diligently. the pictures really say a lot about your solar prowess. thanks for your input.

as for the prag stabilizer, i too have noticed exactly what you discovered about the output voltage and i'm very
disappointed. first it was with sukam. the inverter has its own input voltage display separate from the stabilizer.
every time i checked, the two never seemed to match. initially i thought it was due to different calibration of the
meters. then i used a stand alone meter to check and discovered that the stabilzer was the culprit. the stand alone
meter gave a reading much lower than the displayed voltage of 220v. at a different time, it was with cyberpower.
somehow, it began to dawn on me that the excitement about prag servo stabilizers out performing other brands may
have been misplaced. depending on the input voltage, the prag will only maintain an output of 220v beyond a point
after which the voltage drops significantly. a few weeks ago, we had a case of low voltage in our area and the
cyberpower could not charge the battery bank despite being on stabiliser. we almost concluded that the inverter
charging circuit was bad until we now tried again at another time when there was stable public power and it was
charging normally.

this definitely is the height of deceit from prag. and personally i do take such things seriously as it bothers
on integrity.

ayibatonye: Pls does anyone one know if I can get this stuff here in 9ja. Triax 5*24 multi switch

@ayibatonye,

I don't know about the Triax but I know similar multi switches are almost everywhere within the country.

They are commonly used by hotels and guest houses and as such are always available in most satellite shops.

shithapuns,

i am for trojans anytime, any day. cut me in when ready!