fikfik:

in addition to the above UNCLE G, how is it not a waste if you already have solar chargers that can charge to float? Even with the magnum and the poor electricity you've mentioned you have in your area, the 3/4 stage charging of the magnum will hardly be utilized, right? And did you ever have to repair your cyberpower in the past? I noticed you didnt use the AVR and small changeover that comes with the cyberpower, or they didnt come with yours? My cyberpower has been running very strong (after proper installation) without any faults and my batteries are always charged to float by my MPPT, so I dont know if its a good investment (at least with my setup, which takes queues from your former installation) to get an expensive inverter to replace my cyberpower.

You may also want to discharge you batteries to 40-50% SOC before checking the volts with a voltmeter, or better still try to get a battery load tester, so you get a good idea of their SOC while offline. I had to change some batteries that read well with a voltmeter, but when I tried with a 150amp battery load tester dropped under load.

fikfik,

just as i said in my reply to bodejohn's post earlier on, i think it depends on how you look at it.

my cyberpower inverter had to be worked on like three good times before i was finally able to enjoy it in its
present condition. the luck i had was that i got it from a dealer who was close by. i just wonder how
i would have fared had i purchased it from a faraway place like lagos. what irked me most was that from the very
first day i bought it, i was told by the dealer that it needed 'special installation' as according to him it was not
'like every other inverter'. well, i soon found out exactly what he meant when i was hit with problem after problem
arising from its operation. and, mind you, i'm not exactly a novice when it comes to inverters, having been in the
business close to 7yrs!
also, i just recieved my sukam inverter from my dealer after having been to the workshop for the better part of a month.
at the end of the day, i had to cough out a whopping 22k for the repairs!
so, when you talk of waste of money i think we all tend to have this general idea of being penny wise. its much like
telling someone who bought a mercedes benz that he could have saved money by going for a cheaper korean car model
instead since both of them do the same job of moving people from one place to the next. we all know that they are not
the same. several years after that korean car would have been long forgotten in the scrap yard, the mercedes benz
would just be starting its useful service life.
the renewable energy option by its very nature attracts droves of people with the promise of low maintenance, low
cost and durability. that is why you see most solar panels with warranty of up to 25yrs, batteries with service life up to
8, 10 and 15 years, charge controllers outliving the very systems they were initially installed to charge. i could go on
but you get the general idea. therefore i get worried when peeps become comfortable with the idea of batteries
which last maximum of two years and are changed out and they see this as normal? inverters which only serve you for a
year or two and after wards send you running to the electronics repair shop. imagine if you have to climb your roof every
other year to change your solar modules? how clumsy would that be? but this is what we do with our batteries. this is
what we do with our inverters. this is what we do with our charge controllers, etc all because we think we are saving
money going for 'low cost' alternatives. put together, all those low quality batteries we changed out over time could
have given us a trojan or hoppecke battery that would have lasted the whole of 15 years! put together, all those low
quality, average inverters changed out over time could have given us a sunnyboy or a xantrex or a magnum, etc that
would have lasted the better part of 10 years! so, how wise do we make out at the end of the day buying lower quality
alternatives that only give us pain in the long run? maybe we should ask the man visiting the mechanic after just two
years of purchasing that korean model car while his mercedes benz counterpart keeps cruising around in his sleek auto
without any care in the world!

donmatin: oga George I av misplaced ur number and ur email I can't find,its me d guy dat stays in warri.are u back now?Abeg inbox me ur number mails4kage@yahoo.co.uk Cus I need ur help

donmatin,

you got mail.

shithapuns,

totalgreen is correct. never mix old and new batteries - especially those as old as two years apart.
they being in parallel does little to mitigate the negative impact of such an arrangement.

bodejohn:

Oga George, congratulations on your new investment...
I want to quickly ask you a followup question on the part of your quote in bold above.
Does it mean you wouldn't have made the investment on the new inverter if you were completely off the grid?
What are the ratings (kVA) of the new inverter?

bodejohn,

most probably i would still have gone ahead with the upgrade only that the reasons would then not be as compelling
and the urgency would have been muted.

true, the tristar was doing a good job charging the battery bank so the negative impact of the cyberpower or sukam not
having smart charging abilities was largely mitigated as evident from the voltage readings i carried out before rotating the
batteries. however, i needed the other features of the magnum which i couldn't get from those other two inverters, including
remote system monitoring. also the inverting efficiency seems quite high at over 95%. i know i have personally measured
85% and above. also another compelling reason for the change to high end is the seemingly short life span of these average
inverters. within the space of 5yrs i have gone through about three inverters!
my calculations tell me that i have to change to a new inverter every two years or so. within this space of time, either something
goes wrong that requires costly maintenance or that cannot be repaired at all. not good for a cost conscious fellow who entered
the renewables journey on the promise of low maintenance and durability. if i add up the cost of purchasing those other three
inverters, i could have comfortably gotten a magnum or xantrex with change to spare! and chances are that i would still be
using the magnum today.

the magnum is a 4300w model (it is rated in kilowatts as with most usa power products).
that will translate into something like 5.4kva assuming a power factor of 0.8

DUNKA: chief George u r really sn inspiration for your insight and knowledge sharing. Please curious to know what u did with your former inverters. Also could u kindly give an itemised breakdown of costs of d upgrade?

dunka,

my former inverters are now in reserve. more like spares ready to be used anytime should in case i need to carry out
maintenance on the magnum in the near future.

as for the cost, i'm careful not to quote any definite prices here as i'm aware these do change over time. what i can
do is give you links to reliable sites where you can get direct dollar quotes. it will then be left to you to make deductions
as to final landing prices.

pheleix:
That's nice.
Have you monitored the individual voltages while charging.
I have one string of 48v. While charging with inverter one day I took note of the voltages, two out of four were clocking 14v ,the 3rd was at 13.8v and the 4th was cranking 15.7v. The 3rd was taking its time to rise. I had to use panel to charge three of the batteries individually. Now no more shooting to 15going to 16

pheleix,

no, i haven't taken time to do that but i doubt there'll be any significant difference between the individual voltages.
the tristar charge controller coupled with the voltage combiner seems to have been doing a splendid job keeping the
batteries in excellent state of charge.

feasy,
thanks for the compliments. sorry i've been busy at work this few days.
i will call you back if you drop your line in my mailbox.

all,
in line with my post above in reply to dunka,

as part of my pre-upgrade preparations, i carried out battery rotation on my battery bank.
since i was already using a voltage combiner, it meant the rotation only needed to be done
within individual strings and not across the whole bank.

before this rotation, i had earlier checked individual battery voltages to determine their various
state of health. the results were as fascinating as they were instructive. over a year after
installation, battery voltages were almost similar across board and not only that, there was no
sign of early failure whatsoever, thereby giving credence to the effectiveness of the simple
voltage combiner - now rested.

below are voltage results of individual batteries arranged in strings:

s1-1 = 12.59v
s1-2 = 12.56v
s1-3 = 12.56v
s1-4 = 12.55v

-----------------------

s2-1 = 12.57v
s2-2 = 12.52v
s2-3 = 12.59v
s2-4 = 12.58v

-----------------------

s3-1 = 12.57v
s3-2 = 12.59v
s3-3 = 12.52v
s3-4 = 12.56v

----------------------

where s1 stands for string 1, s2 for string 2 and s3 for string 3

idsolar: CONGRATULATIONS george d. this is a beauty. na my bros said na to de sell shares for this ipp remain. truly encouragn

idsolar,

i hail ooooo! lol! did you say 'shares'?

tivta,

i can see that pheleix and earthrealm have already done justice to your question. they are very correct. system voltage
does not affect battery capacity in any way. whether 12v, 24v, 36v, 48v or even 96v what changes is the effective
current and not the capacity.

Akanniade: Big Bros. Congrats. You are a source of inspiration from the day I joined this thread.

akanniade,

my brother,

thanks for the kind words. we just have to continue pushing the boundaries - as much as we can.

DUNKA: Congrsts on the upgrade. Please did you also upgrade your battery bank? Also what is your view on the tantalizing promises being made by the new owners of PHCN promising stable light shortly viz a viz the expense of an upgraded system like yours? Did d thot cross your mind whether 2 continue with your old system since it was already serving its purpose?

dunka,

thanks for the kind words. no, the batteries were not included in this upgrade. i had earlier done that late last year
so they're still quite new.
what i did this time around is simply to rotate them within the same strings. battery rotation is recommended for
battery banks at least once a year as part of routine battery maintenance.

as for the tantalizing promises from the new owners of phcn, we have learnt from past experience not to take such
promises too seriously. as much as we are all hoping and praying for steady power supply within the country, we must
at the same time continue striving to put ourselves in a such a position as to be less affected by epileptic power
supply should in case such promises fail to materialize at the end of the day.
however, should we eventually achieve the much anticipated steady power supply, there is no time renewables can
be phased out completely as you can see even in the advanced countries with their 24/7 power supply, they still have
need for such. that is why you see companies like magnum energy, outback, morningstar, xantrex, tripplite, etc all
thriving happily over there.

yes, the old system seemed to be serving its purpose but that alone did not make it right. there were a lot of things
i did in the name of diy that were plain crude and inherently unsafe. i probably got by all this while without experiencing
any major system upset and/or safety incidents through sheer providence. however, for anyone wise enough to
appreciate the dangers inherent in this type of installations, he would know that you can only stretch your luck this
far before you eventually have an incident on your hands. therefore, the need to move towards a more code compliant
and professional installation was very urgent given the circumstances.

if i had continued with the old system, probably i would have gotten away with such crude setup for years but i would
all the time be playing a game of chance and trust me, dc current is not worth playing russian roulette on!

and for the inverter change out, i saw my need for a high end inverter over a year ago when i realized that almost all
the available, common brands that we have around are without exception bulk chargers. be it sukam, cyberpower,
luminous, nexus, mopower, etc. the lack of a smart charging ability means that these inverters invariably will gradually
kill whatever brand of batteries thrown at them in the long run. besides, as i eventually began to experience lately, these
average inverters though relatively cheap at face value, do not last as long as expected without frequent costly repairs.

TotalGreen: My Oga congrats, i am gum smacked, setting a trend for all of us to follow.
but only one more upgrade remains..... PLEASE paint that room, magnum na yanky o.

great upgrade, really worth the cash.

keep us informed on the workings of Battery Saver.

totalgreen,

you're right. one more upgrade remains - but not the painting of the room, please!
i would rather save up enough to get those items we already discussed about. code!

ok, the battery life saver is a wonderful piece of equipment which i'm still studying myself.
definitely will keep the house posted on performance.

the beloved 'voltage combiner' now gives way to a more robust e-panel.

who says diy must always be crude and untidy?

clean tables - that's how it should be!

ok, looks like a complete makeover, at last!

magnum advanced remote and tristar remote meter installed inside the room
for close system monitoring:

dc breakers installed:

testing, testing, testing!

testing the e-panel:

installing the battery life saver (bls) and meter hub:

at last, things are gradually taking shape:

testing the advanced remote (me-arc50)

tying things together:

more:

hanging the inverter:

the battery monitor kit (me-bmk) already installed within the e-panel:

the heart of the inverter system: the magnum e-panel!

it was a steep learning curve wiring the e-panel but at the end of the day, it was worth it.

mounting the e-panel

wiring the e-panel:

giving way to the new:

the old set up: