@All,

Those on DSTV should take note of the below info:

With effect from November 1, 2013, Quickteller across all platforms (Quickteller.com, m.quickteller.com, ATM, USSD, IVR, SMS) will be reflecting the new DStv subscription prices as announced by MultiChoice Nigeria. This follows the annual price increase carried out by MultiChoice Nigeria and affects Dual View, XtraView, PVR and HDPVR installations on Compact Plus and Premium Bouquets only.

Please see the new prices and the affected bouquets below:

Should you have any enquiries, kindly contact the DStv customer service via email at DStv@nigeria.multichoice.co.za or call 08039003788, 01-2703232.

Well, if you ask me, I think this is more reason why all should embrace FTA. This continous price increase must stop!

pitodenz:
1m dish is Ku band,I watched all the champion league with jsc

@pitodenz,

Welcome back to the thread. Its been quite a while!

shithapuns: I USE LUMINOUS...AND SOME o fmy pals...we all have good stories about it......you could give it a try

shithapuns,

you're missing the point. we all have good stories to tell about sukam, about cyberpower, etc. going three years now my sukam has
been superb-until recently when this fan issue came up.

the point is, will you still have good stories to tell about your luminous, say two or three years from now? or maybe five?
all things man-made do break down at some point but some are more durable than others.

take the case of cars. we all know that a popular korean made car (names withheld) will not serve you beyond three years at most
before you start replacing parts. even though they appear to be cheap (brand new) but after three years you become customer to the
mechanic. now compare that to toyota or mecerdes when even after 7 years, its as if they're just starting their useful service life. peeps
here buy them used at 8 years and still use them for another 5 years trouble free before thinking of replacing parts. you know of course
that the price comparison however is not the same, new to new, head to head for the german, japanese or korean cars.
as it is with cars and many other products, so it is with inverters- you get what you pay for.

i hope now you get the message?

pheleix:

I was almost paying for Sukam 3.5kva but when the Ogas are begining to complain about Sukam what do we do

@Bodejohn I thought yours was connected to Prag stab.

Vitus is advising I go for Safepower. Ogas what do you say

phelix,

my above post in answer to dunka goes for you too. sukam is still very much ok. you can't go wrong.
cheers!

DUNKA: Please so which is the better inverter due to your experience with Sukam and Cyberpower? Which would you advise a new buyer to go for?

dunka,

as you can see from my post above each of these inverters have their own issues. just a few days ago i was taking stock of
how much i have spent in going back and forth between all these mid-range inverters and i realized that i could have saved myself
a lot of stress (and money) by going for a high-end american or german inverter. they are more pricey but at the end of the day
you get better value for your money. my experience with indian and chinese inverters is that they somehow manage to breakdown at
least after the first two years of installation-sometimes even less than that. its either the fan is not working or the charging circuit
is bad or some other fault. there must always be something to repair or replace after such a short space of time. wouldn't it be nice to
get an inverter that just works where you don't have to worry about replacing any failed part even after serving you for five years
and counting? hmmmm! ok, just my thoughts.

if you're to choose between sukam and cyberpower, i'd say go for sukam anyday. despite having fan issues, i still prefer it to
cyberpower because of its ease of installation, simplicity and power conserving attributes.

bodejohn:

This is what I used in my own case. It has some protection around its two busbars although I had to order it from Europe.
The cables enter from the bottom, one busbar is for +ve and the second for -ve. I very much think it should be available in Lagos.

the voltage combiner was a diy initiative borne out of necessity. and yes i think that legrande busbar is a much better option.
going forward, i plan to replace the voltage combiner with a more compact conduit box to make for a more professional installation.
this will form part of my next upgrade.

bodejohn:
My Sukam too usually misbehaves whenever there is public power supply. It sometimes beep continuously with either "Mains Low Cutout" or "Main Present" error when there is actually no public power supply. Since I cannot easily port to Cyberpower, I had to remove the public power supply cable from the inverter.

bodejohn,

yeah. unfortunately as much as i'm loathe to admit it, sukam seems not to be as rugged as i thought.

and, don't be in too much of a hurry to jump on cyberpower. it has its own issues too, and believe me
they are too numerous to enumerate here.

pdozie:

Hello George,
Just a clarification: Is there power loss when cables are joined directly and tied/covered with masking tapes as against when they are screwed together unto a metal as you depicted?

pdozie,

the short answer is yes. no matter how you try to tie (wrap) cables together, you cannot achieve effective 100 percent contact
on all strands.best practice is to always use cable connectors. but in the absence of that you can make do with direct bolting together
of individual cables.

i'm back to cyberpower as my sukam seems to be having fan issues.

fan has been changed but still new fan not working. i may have to send it to lagos through my dealer
for repairs.

all,

looks like the sunny days are here at last - especially for those in the south-south.

snapshot for yesterday. back-facing panels on float. front facing panels

on equalize mode.

abunafiu,

as requested, i've attached a sketch of the voltage combiner.

it is essentially made of a pure copper belt (usually of the type used for lightning arrestors) cut to required length.

use an m6 drill bit to bore holes at the both ends for where to screw the belt to the block of wood and an m13
drill to bore three (3) holes. one for the charge controller, one for the inverter and the last for the battery.

i hope this helps?

Mcleo007: Shame MTN has locked us out again. Shame! And btw, @Mickyjeff, your customer service is pretty poor. Been calling your line for days now with you not picking up. Sent you msgs as well which you failed to acknowledge.

it is called 'going under'. seriuosly, what did you expect him to do after this pet scheme of his was surmmarily nipped in the bud
by empty-hen?

@obnelly,

Looks like you're upping the game once again.

Keep up the good job.

ezioyi,

go to buyright and get a cyberpower inverter.
they are in port harcourt at the below address.
you can also call their number or write them an
email for inquiries:

BuyRight (Port Harcourt)
The Atrium, 28 Stadium Road, Port Harcourt
Location Rivers click to see map
email sales@buyright.biz
Phone: 07035492994, 07037104214

see, i told you so! ok, congrats once again.

take your time and study the manual that came with it.

it'll save you a lot of unnecessary stress in the long run.

abunafiu,
congrats! this is the more reason why we have to constantly monitor our systems to ensure they are performing
as expected. 1150w out of 1200w nameplate is not bad at all.

as for the sukam, you got to relax your nerves. i'm sure it will be delivered before the day runs out.

busybee001: can it go for 5k. i am in abuja

francis247: Yes. Call me.

hello francis247,
i'll like to try one if your selling for 5k.

ezo4fta: Daarsat packgage on amos 5 is on and off. I watched it dis morning and now dey ar off but I guess dey will come back on air soon.

@ezo4fta,

Daarsat epileptic signals should not surprise you. Everybody should know by now that those
fellows have never been serious - right from day one!

all,
i saw this article about failing solar panels and decided to share it with the house.
and for those of us so quick to embrace those cheap solar panels presently being peddled around, the question then is:

what will they be worth in another two or three years? well, maybe not more than pieces of shiny glass on your roof!

Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels

LOS ANGELES — The solar panels covering a vast warehouse roof in the sun-soaked Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles were only two years into their expected 25-year life span when they began to fail.

Coatings that protect the panels disintegrated while other defects caused two fires that took the system offline for two years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues.

It was not an isolated incident. Worldwide, testing labs, developers, financiers and insurers are reporting similar problems and say the $77 billion solar industry is facing a quality crisis just as solar panels are on the verge of widespread adoption.

No one is sure how pervasive the problem is. There are no industrywide figures about defective solar panels. And when defects are discovered, confidentiality agreements often keep the manufacturer’s identity secret, making accountability in the industry all the more difficult.

But at stake are billions of dollars that have financed solar installations, from desert power plants to suburban rooftops, on the premise that solar panels will more than pay for themselves over a quarter century.

The quality concerns have emerged just after a surge in solar construction. In the United States, the Solar Energy Industries Association said that solar panel generating capacity exploded from 83 megawatts in 2003 to 7,266 megawatts in 2012, enough to power more than 1.2 million homes. Nearly half that capacity was installed in 2012 alone, meaning any significant problems may not become apparent for years.

read more here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/business/energy-environment/solar-powers-dark-side.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

bodejohn,

congrats on your accomplishment. with this set up, you should be home and dry when the rains finally recede, i.e in the next coming
months when the sun will be up almost daily.

cheers!

banana - good for sound sleep.

chiboyo: @idsolar; Charging via solar does not usually give a steady -48V and for WIMAX BTS that has very low tolerance to fluctuating voltage, this can affect there equipment. We use Solar on a lot of sites and our WIMAX/LTE guys are always complaining, especially once we run on batteries(when the DC DG is on maintenance)

chiboyo,

you may need to do a proper systems sizing if you want to get the full benefits of your solar set up. charging via solar does not have to be unsteady. if you size your load properly you should get steady charging current during peak sun hours. the batteries will usually
kick in to supply needed power during cloudy conditions or in the evening when the sun goes down. with a good quality inverter, your wimax
bts does not need to know whether you're running on generator or solar.

only coffee!

smashall20:

Calling mtn for what if I may ask? That ur bis is not working on ur android fone or pc? Mtcheeew!!! Pple are funny sha!

yeah, i said it the other time and someone here laughed it off. same mistake the magic sim user made and which has resulted in
its demise. i wonder when peeps will ever learn?

uzoo:

hey! me too , but without the beans though. ( Jollof rice with dodo )

ok, a little beans on the side wouldn't hurt though.



topic,

sweet ogbono + semovita!

fikfik, earthrealm, all,

inverters come in different forms, shape and configurations. for whatever reason, cyberpower decided to include a beep sound
as part of their inverter model's features. i think this in no way detracts from the functionality or otherwise of the product.

interestingly, this beep feature was well explained in their oem user manual with clear directions on how to turn it off. a little
time invested in reading this manual could have gone a long way in providing necessary guidance in that regard.

so sad. y'all should realize that there are empty-hen spies all around (some may even be posting on this thread).

that said, it's even a surprise this baby managed to last this long.

hey dreamsinbc!

is there any october 1st special for the house?

i'm thinking of having a repeat treat like that of last year!

rice + beans + dodo!

fikfik:

Lol, of course.... I don dey old ooooo

Anyway to disable the beeping?

Thanks @earthrealm

fikfik,

it is easy to disable the beep on your cyberpower inverter. just depress the round display button
at the front for about four seconds (the one you use to toggle between different modes) and you're
done.

and blackberry sells out - while we're all here busy at each other's throats....

bodejohn: ...my first 24hrs power autonomy!!!

bodejohn,

congratulations on your new upgrade.

welcome to the world of 24/7 independent power!