no sun? no problem!

all,

another dull day here but a green day nevertheless for my charge controllers.

D.lee:
Hello George_D,
I agree with your explanation but I totally disagree with the above statement. One can boost signal reception by removing the throat cover of some certain lnbf. You may not notice it on a huge size dish but try it on 90cm that it pointing on 7°E (MBC Mauritius), you will definitely see the signal being boosted for not less than 2% and you know what 2% mean in satellite world. One can loose a particular channel if 2% signal drops from a particular trasponder and at the sametime, a particular channel can be stable by gainning 2% signal boost.

@D.lee,
Without meaning to turn this into an endless debate, I can tell you emphatically again that removing the covers of almost all LNBs will bring more pain than gain to you in the long run. As for signal increase on a 90cm dish, I guess that may be where the difference lies. Practically, on my former 3m nilesat dish, using stargold fuji, I have experimented severally with this LNB cover on and off thing in the past and I came back with the same conclusion: there is no signal gain with the cover removed. Same thing goes for my STRONG and SUPERMAXX C band lnbs. No difference when covers are removed.

DUNKA: Please wanted to find out if your Prag servo stabilizer is connected to carry the whole load of yr house or did you remove some heavy loads such as waterheater, cooker etc

hello dunka,

the prag servo does not carry the whole house load. if it did i would not have been able to switch it off like the
way i'm doing right now.

as you rightly guessed, the water heaters and cookers are all connected to public power. that being said, every
other house load is being powered from the inverter, namely the deep freezer, fridge, water pump, tvs, fans, home
theater, lighting, etc.

prag servo, still on holiday!

still counting down the hours, unplugged!

load monitor:

all,

it was a rather dull day today with occasional flashes of sunlight - very much like it has been for
some weeks now. seems we finally entered the thick of the rainy season here.

however, i'm pleasantly surprised to see my charge controllers still able to hit green despite this
unforgiving weather.

fikfik:

Thanks Uncle George and uncle Bode.

Concerning cable length again. should i maintain the same cable length from the battery banks (2 x 48volts) to the combiner? One bank is close to the combiner while the other isnt that close (but not that far too). Should I use lthe longer cable length on the one cose to the combiner too?

I also need advise on location. i live in a small block of 4 flats and have my inverter and one battery bank in the dining section of my living room. I'm want to add the combiner in the rear balcony (same wall as dining section) and another 48V battery bank. What are your thoughts on this. For security purposes too, should i put the combiner outside on the balcony (we live upstairs) or inside?

thanks!

fikfik,

you must maintain the same cable length for all your strings else the purpose of the combiner would be defeated. use the length of the farthest as your standard measurement.

as for the location, i can only advise that you should study your environment and choose what you think is the better option. if security concerns prevent you from locating it outside then i think you better leave it inside the house. remember that the combiner, inverter and battery bank should all be installed in one location as much as practically possible to prevent voltage drop and power loss.

Ebuka44: Thanks for the reply but what do you mean by 90% if there is water inside the lnb cos i didn't get that.

@Ebuka44,

I think you don't need an expert to tell you that water and electronics don't mix. The LNB is an electronic device meant to receive satellite signals. When exposed unnecessarily to water, it won't function effectively and may fail prematurely. The only weather proof part of the LNB is the outer cover which is normally exposed when installed properly. The throat is not meant to receive water but signals. If you look inside the throat, you'll see two delicately protruding tentacles. These are what enables the LNB receive both horizontal and vertical polarized signals. When covered in water they receive next to nothing. There is a reason why ALL LNBs come with a type of cover. This is to protect the delicate parts inside the throat from the elements.

Many people think they can boost signal reception by doing away with the throat cover but experience has proven this myth to be false. If you check my 2.5m comstar motorised 3-in-1 set up, all the lnb covers are in place and this has not affected the signal quality one bit. Same goes for my 4m motorised nilesat dish. On the contrary, when you install your LNBs with the throat cover removed, all may seem to be well for a short while, but eventually, spiders and all sort of creeping things will find a home inside those LNBs thereby leading to signal loss. If you're not the investigative type, all you'll notice is that your signal quality gradually begins to depreciate. You may even go as far as tampering with your dish alignment only to find out at the tail end that a nasty spider inside your LNB throat was responsible for all your stress!

bodejohn,

well, these prices keep dropping everyday so don't be surprised. when i started, almost 5 yrs ago,
i bought a 200w sharp panel for a whopping 190k! can you imagine that?

DUNKA: I got a quote of 70, 000.00 per panel from Mr. VITUS when i called him on d phone. gurus kindly advise if dt is a good price or can I get a better deal.

dunca,

i think that's about the best bargain you can get for suntech 280w right now.

some peeps even sell for 120k and above. except maybe you want to go for joy solar?

feasy1: @ everyone, can anyone please confirm if this TPs are active on Nilest and advice the LNB used
12264 H 27500 (HD1- HD5)
11958 H 27500 (JSC +6 - JSC +10)

I use a 3m fiber dish in dish, location is Lagos.

ok, i tried again on my 4m motorised and was able to get 12265h 27500 (HD1- HD5)

signal quality was up to 51 percent but not stable. however all the HD packages came
out after scan.

fikfik:

Yes, thanks Uncle G. but I also remeber a pix from akiannade (or someone's) installation where he used breakers on both the +ve and -ve lines from battery bank to charge controller. youe cut outs are only on the +ve lines and you tied -ve directly. Whats best practice on this (without being wasteful)?

@all
Concerning the combiner (for hybrid charging systems), what are the things to note here. I see Uncel g's and compare it with the recent one from feasy1's but it seems he just connected everything to inverter wihtout really using a combiner (pls correct me if wrong) which seems neater but is it the right thing to do. Please advise me on rules for cable length in this whole multi-charging system too.

Thanks!

fikfik,

wiring dc circuits is a little bit different from ac. while in alternating current circuits (ac) the current changes direction every half a second, in direct current circuits (dc) the current travels in only one direction, i.e from positive to negative. therefore, when installing circuit breakers or cut-out fuses as the case may be, you generally install only on the positive side of the circuit for dc. there is really no need to install breakers on the negative side since current travels only from positive to negative. on ac circuits however, you must install at both ends since the current reverses directions every split second.

hope this clarifies?

about my wiring method, i must admit its not the neatest you can find around but that being the case it really shows how a hybrid circuit should be wired. remember though that this is a diy initiative as compared to others who enlist the services of professionals to do their job.

ok, the combiner was introduced to tie in all charging currents coming from either the inverter and charge controller such that each string of batteries receive their own fair share of charge. that way, you eliminate the common failings of parallel battery banks which happens when some batteries don't get enough charge or are discharged more deeply compared to others. in such cases, premature battery death is usually the result.

going forward, it is my intention to re-arrange my wiring and give it a more professional look. this will be addressed in my next upgrade.

for cable lengths, the rule of thumb is to always install your inverter and charge controller as close to the battery bank as practically possible. the longer the distance, the more likelihood for voltage drop and power lose. two feet or less for inverter and battery is what you should remember.

abunafiu,
totalgreen,

i would differ slightly on the issue of charging current mentioned above.

before the advent of agms and gel cells, it used to be that lead-acid batteries were limited
greatly by the amount of charge each cell could receive. the major draw back was heat generated
during the reverse chemical reaction process inside the cells. the greater the amount of current flowing
into the cells, the greater the heat generated. if this exceeds a particular threshold the cells risk being
damaged. that is why in early days, you see charging specifications in the range of 5c, i.e 5 percent
of battery capacity (measured at the 20hr rate). thus if you're charging a battery of 200ah, the maximum
charging current you're allowed to use is just 4 amps!

then came the agms and gell cells with their modern battery architecture and advanced charging regimes.
these batteries are specially built to withstand heavy charging currents in some cases up to 50 percent
capacity! thus, depending on the manufacturer and brand, it may not be strange to see charging specs of
up to 50c and above. what this means is that if you were to charge the same 200ah battery which is agm,
you could increase your charging current to about 100 amps without damaging the battery!

as a matter of fact, modern agms thrive on heavy charging current and not the other way round. research
actually suggests that charging modern agms with very little charge currents does more harm than good to
the batteries in the long run.

so, except your batteries are ordinary sealed lead acid batteries, you may look at increasing your charge
current to reduce your battery charge times without fear of damaging them. again, original agms or gell
cells have no problem with heavy charging currents.

fikfik,

exactly. akanniade is right.

besides, this is a very poor installation as in time to come the panels will tend to gather a lot of
dust/debris in the v - shaped spot. not good for optimal solar harvest at all.

olenyi:

@GeorgE_D.

Was looking around and saw this ur invention from 2009.

I was like WHAT!!! . Was speechless. I duff my hat once more for you. Mehn this is it. Just learnt an invaluable trick there.

My warm regards.

@olenyi,

My brother, those were the days of great beginnings. It was a trick I learnt from an installer friend of mine.
Very useful especially for big dishes where it is difficult to reach out and tweak the LNB in-situ.

2009! You really dug far into the archives this time. Ah, the joys of technology!

feasy1,

11958h 27500 very much stable at my end. as for 12264h looks like its red.

bodejohn:

When the men are talking...did i hear 530Amps @ 96Volts?

Oga George, salutations and congratulations on your latest upgrade.
I am planning to add 1Kw solar array to my system later in the year, i will surely holla you for your Suntech source.
I remember when i was silently comparing my 24V charging current to your setup but my understanding got corrected after i switched to the 48V battery system.

bodejohn,

thanks. i'm always ready whenever you are.

fikfik: anyone using saturn batteries? They any good.? want to buy some for 47,000 each

Uncle George, i see you cut -outs are the type used for AC installations. I remeber a post somewhere that states there may be arching if you use AC type cutouts/fuses. Is it true?

Thanks

fikfik,

those cutout fuses can be used both for ac and dc currents without any problems.

if you go back and check the posts you're referring to, i was talking about circuit
breakers (cb) which are different from cut out fuses. under no condition should you use
circuit breakers meant for ac on a dc circuit like an inverter for instance. always use
dc certified types so as to avoid problem of arching and fire out break.

hope this clarifies?

BUTONEDAY: George_D,

I am crawling slowly to where we want to be. My GEL battery bank is now @ 530 amps/ 96 volts, while my alternate AGM bank is 400amps/48 volts. I am looking forward to increasing the number of panels very soon.

bros,

a combined total of 930ah is not bad at all. what you need do next is to contact vitus.

he's been offering me some sweet suntech deals lately which i find hard to refuse as evident from

my seemingly frequent upgrades.

TotalGreen:

Replied

ok. seen it.

totalgreen,

you got mail. kindly reply asap.
thanks!

BUTONEDAY: George_D,

I can see that you are lighting up the house. Good work. Keep it up

butoneday,

bros, no be small thing ooooo!

i'm sure you'll be thinking seriously about upgrading by now too.

the endlessly cloudy weather in wafi seems to suggest this may
be a step in the right direction.

pdozie,

check your battery input toggle switch at the back of the inverter. I've been experiencing such too but only when i power down completely by switching off the battery input at the back. when you lift it up to power the inverter it will fail a couple of times before becoming stable. i suspect sukam didn't use a rugged switch for their 3.5kva series. what i may do eventually is to look for a replacement toggle switch which i think may not be too difficult to find.

juo,

seen it now. and have replied.

cheers!

JUO: gurus is there no way you can do this connection without the battery assisting the panels? feasy1 is using 10X100w=3000w this can carry any normal house load without any battery assistance. can't it be done in a way that the battery can only work when the sun is down/set or cloudy? am asking this because i want to learn

juo,

i sent you a mail but up till now no reply from your end.

anyways, as per your question, there is no way you can do without batteries in a hybrid set up such as this.

the batteries are always necessary to act as a buffer between the panels and inverter.

however, if you have a grid tie system then batteries are not needed but that is a different topic altogether.

Akanniade:
Bro, phcn will soon sue you to court o .

akanniade,

brother,

wetin man go do? when phcn refuse to do what they are paid to do then smart peeps have to look for
better ways of helping themselves and thereby rendering them irrelevant.

p.s: how is the weather treating your set up? are you still able to stay above board without plugging in
(for critical loads) ?

idsolar: Oga George congrats. kai my head don skata for north. iam impressed. this one na real IPP. guys my house don bcome chargn point o

idsolar,

if i were in the north, by now phcn would be history for me.

abunafiu:
hmmm, oga george.....oga george.....oga george..... How many times i call you!. New members need not to buy panels nor controllers....they'll simply tap from you online as u seem to generate more more and more than enough..
Wow....you're simply doing it and hitting the 1MVA in a grand style. Keep it up. More power 2 ur elbows.

abunafiu,

my brother, this your 1mva target no be small thing to achieve ooooo! anyhow i think my main motive for the recent upgrade
is to stay ahead of the cloudy weather. thanks for all the kind words.

p.s: i hope you never show your madam this one again?

TotalGreen: congrats again
very pure harvest

have u considered "Morningstar HUB-1 MeterHub"

totalgreen,

thanks for the kind words. yes, the meter hub has crossed my mind severally and it will form
part of my next upgrade. i didn't really need it before now since i was back to a single tristar
but now that i'm forced to go back to two charge controllers, it has become a must have.

power cut time: 29 hrs snap shot. went on for about a week un-plugged.