Stats: 3,191,208 members, 7,943,328 topics. Date: Sunday, 08 September 2024 at 12:18 PM |
Nairaland Forum / GeorgeD1's Profile / GeorgeD1's Posts
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fikfik: 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! ![]() 1 Like |
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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. |
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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. |
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bodejohn: 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 |
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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. |
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pheleix: 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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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'? ![]() |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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TotalGreen: My Oga congrats, i am gum smacked, setting a trend for all of us to follow. 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. |
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the beloved 'voltage combiner' now gives way to a more robust e-panel. who says diy must always be crude and untidy? 1 Like
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clean tables - that's how it should be!
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ok, looks like a complete makeover, at last! 1 Like
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magnum advanced remote and tristar remote meter installed inside the room for close system monitoring:
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dc breakers installed:
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testing, testing, testing!
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testing the e-panel:
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installing the battery life saver (bls) and meter hub:
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at last, things are gradually taking shape: 1 Like
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testing the advanced remote (me-arc50)
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tying things together:
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more:
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hanging the inverter:
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the battery monitor kit (me-bmk) already installed within the e-panel:
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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.
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mounting the e-panel
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wiring the e-panel: 1 Share
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giving way to the new:
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the old set up:
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