@All,
Finally, my 3m fibre has been replaced with a 4m motorized pan.

All through last week, installation work was ongoing and things are now
at the finishing stages.

I'm getting Hispasat, Hotbird, Nilesat, etc

Details and pictures coming soon.

Viva FTA!!!

TotalGreen:

my oga, u got mail

thanks. i have seen it and already replied.

will be calling you shortly.

hello totalgreen,
kindly shoot me your email and phone number. i want to confirm something.

thanks, expecting.

TotalGreen:

well almost optimal, since its on my water stand, but the sharp products really helps, i noticed one of your pics for morningstar reading, i monitored mine at that same reading and i think i had about 2amps more at the same wattage, but i was not too sure if there were other external forces at yours or mine, let me dig back at the pics and compare, i really would like to know why the difference, just for my knowledge.

if u have any idea's i would love to "absorb"

totalgreen,
yes, you're right. other factors may have played a part in my not getting as much current as yours for the same wattage.
notice that the battery temp. on my end seems to be higher than yours. temperature compensation may be playing a role
here i guess.

and for installation, i think my rooftop inclination could be contributing to my panels not putting out enough juice
for their power rating.

TotalGreen:


two pics just to show when the morningstar starts to do its "current limiting", i have 3300 watts on that controller, 15 x 220 watt sharp.... nice of the controller to use up all the wattage "almost" available.

quite interesting no doubt.

your installation must be very optimal for you to have almost nameplate power available
at your controller.

although i guess the sunny weather these days is a big bonus for all of us solar enthusiasts.

*Kails*:



the best chocolate brand EVER...

though i'm not a chocolate freak, i'm forced to agree on this one.

cadbury's dairy milk blows the competition away!

Ogojohn: CAN I GET NILE SAT WIT 2.4M MESH DISH AT ONITSHA?

the simple answer to your question is: no!

you need a solid dish to get nilesat at your location in onitsha.

groundnut soup + amala!

microgiant,
good advice. i think anybody following the general fta thread should know by now
that inverto red classic is the ultimate in fringe reception going by the series of
experiments we carried out mid last year.

hello bodejohn,
you are very correct. best in class standard for battery bank sizing is to always aim for a maximum dod
of 50 percent. however in majority of cases this is difficult to achieve mainly due to cost implication.

also, if you tell a beginner who is just starting out in the solar business that he has to install a battery
bank with 50 percent dod, the total cost of acquiring those extra batteries may be too much for him and it
may discourage any further interest in renewables.

again, depending on usage, a dod of 80 percent may not be too much of a bad idea if the owner only plans
on using his system on a skeletal basis (no heavy usage) especially for hybrid systems installed in areas of
near constant public power supply with occasional interruptions.

teamman: l run the frezer and fridge for 7hours, tvs for 4hrs, lighting for 4hrs

hello teamman,
i ran your houseload through my solar software and interestingly there is not much difference with the info
i already gave you. the only addition is your expected days of autonomy for each battery bank which is 2 days.
what this means is that each bank can carry you for two full days before being depleted to 80 percent dod.
so for both banks that translates to a total of four days.

however, you will still need to arrange for a minimum of 2700w of solar panels and a charge controller to be
installed for each bank.

are you running your house completely off-grid?

totalgreen,
yes, you're right. the tristar ts-mppt is such a great product. it will not get damaged even with an excess
of array current. you only will not get value for the extra array current being produced above 60a
(for the ts-mmpt-60) or above 45a (for the ts-mppt-45). unlike other charge controllers which are easily
affected by current overload. some can't even handle up to 90 percent of name plate current rating!

teamman: This is the total load in my home:
tv 420watt, 4 ceiling fans, 1 freezer and fridge, 132 watt of lighting. Thsts all. Thanks George D.

teamman,

how many hours on daily average do you run each of these equipment?

teamman,
so skipping your houseload (since we have little information on that), we go straight to your
battery bank size.

you have two battery banks of 500 amphours each at a system voltage of 24v. but you're only allowed to
discharge this up to eighty percent of capacity (80 percent dod for deep cycle). so this becomes 400
amphours available (useful) capacity.

400 amphours at a system voltage of 24v becomes 9600 watt-hours.

given a solar insolation of 5 hrs (which is usually the average for our geographical location), you
will need a total of 1920 watts solar panels.

but, solar modules are not 100 percent efficient, so factor in module efficiency, and this becomes

2688 watts.

therefore you will need about 2700 watts of solar modules to effectively charge each of your battery
banks.

also, consider installing two separate charge controllers, one for each battery bank as it is not
acceptable practice to use one charge controller to charge two separate battery banks.

hope this helps?

hello teamman,
i had tried replying you earlier than now but it seems the spambot didn't like all the mathematical
calculations i made in my post so it deleted it and i was subsequently banned for 24hrs!

not to worry though, this is not the first time this is happening to me on this thread so i'm forced
to conclude that the spambot doesn't like solar power!


ok, seriously, from what i've seen so far, i think earthrealm and totalgreen have done a good job in trying
to put you on the right track.

you have two banks of 500 amphour batteries each at a system voltage of 24v. there is no clear information
about all the equipment you have been running on them and the average daily run hours.

therefore, without an actual equipment list, we can only guess at your total house load.

it is always good practice to size your battery bank according to your house load and days of autonomy
you want to achieve. you then size your solar array to effectively charge your battery bank.

TotalGreen: i wish every day can be like this

totalgreen,
things are really looking up at your end especially with a solar harvest like that.

a word of caution though: you should start thinking seriously about getting a second
charge controller as you're already maxing out the capacity of your tristar.

at 55a you're racking up about 92 percent capacity and any more increase in array current
may not bode well for the controller.

you could try splitting your array into two strings (like i did with mine) and then installing
a second charge controller for added capacity.

just my thoughts.

multi-tv still firing strongly at my end. no red at all!

badaru1: @George D

Please I need recommendation on good battery to buy for inverter,I have been buying batteries but I have been able to get any that last for more 1 and 1/2 years. I need atleast 2 200AH batteries

@oga badaru,

i use zenith batteries and i can confirm they're very good.
my first set of 4pcs 200ah zenith lasted over four years before i
changed them out late last year.

you can contact mr henry on his personal line: 08025810677

he is the sole distributor of zenith batteries in nigeria.

abunafiu:
Oga George, if u dont mind i got my JOY SOLAR panels (120W) for less than 25K, i can give u my contact in lagos.
I also sent easter greetings 2 ur 0807xxxxxxxx50 number but got delivery report failed.
Do av a nice weekend sir.

hello abunafiu,
sorry, that number is an official line and doesn't have the facility to send or receive text messages.

check your mailbox. you got mail!

bodejohn,
actually, i wouldn't need this many panels if my panels were to be installed optimally. but there
you are. we don't live in a perfect world.

the only other option would have been to adopt akanniade's method of installing on a shed where i'd
have the freedom to determine optimum inclination and orientation for the panels without being
limited by roof structure. but then i don't have the luxury of space to do that.

garri!

bodejohn: A word of caution on these cheap panels.

I bought 4 pieces of 100watts panels in lagos sometimes in December 2012, i could barely receive 200watts from them during peak periods. These panels are now resting in peace in my store as i write.

While I am not saying the cheap panels are bad, but the 120watt i got from here in ibadan performs at about 85% efficiency but costs around 360 naira per watt.

bodejohn,
talking about solar panel throughput, lets also remember that installation plays a major role in
deciding overall performance. most of our panels are not installed optimally. especially for those
of us who installed on the roof, it is very difficult to obtain optimal panel orientation mainly
because you must follow the roof inclination and house orientation during installation.

take my case for instance. my house is oriented in the east-west direction. while one part of my roof
faces north, the other one faces south. ideally i should install my panels facing south at 5 degrees
inclination but this i cannot achieve on the roof. at the end, what i did was a sort of compromise.

i divided the solar array into two parts. one part facing north and the other facing south. that way,
the front facing panels (north) catches the sun as it rises in the morning, while the back facing panels
(south) catches the sun as it goes down in the evening. i know the limitations of such an installation
and as such i'm not too bothered if my total harvested power does not reflect the theoretical total
nameplate power of my panels.

also, consider that the name plate power rating of all commercial solar panels are usually given at stc,
i.e 25 degrees celcius. there is usually a sharp difference in actual field values for such panels.
thus, if you buy a 200w sharp panel rated at 25 degrees stc and install it in your house with average
daily ambient rooftop temperatures ranging from anything between 45 to 60 degrees celcius and with a
roof inclined at about 45 degrees to horizontal, there is no way you can hope to achieve an output of
200w from that panel.

just my thoughts.

bodejohn,
being a diy person i may not really be inclined to consulting commercial installers - at least not
the type that tries to befuddle prospective customers with unfounded lies.

anyway the arthur guy lost my business with that unfortunate blunder. too bad for him.

odilibe: @George you are right fta channel won't go scrambled....but they can switch off anytime on/off,unable to maintain service...change frequency ..leave satellite completely ,same thing goes, you will face same embarrassment..when your TV channel goes blank.. no signal, but that is what makes it a hobby...However whether haunting for fta channel or key for $channel etc..there will always be a price to pay....

@odilibe,
DAARSAT was supposed to be a PAYTV bouquet and about two years ago, they spent a lot of resources
touting their package. Many gullible Nigerians fell for them, bought their decoders, paid subscriptions upfront
but suddenly they went off air! No warning, no explanation. They're only just now trying to revive their system
on Amos 5/KU. Infinity is also a PAYTV provider and they initially launched their package on the old Astra 2B.
Today they've moved on to Amos 5/Ku. DSTV used to operate their C band offering on old Intelsat 7/C but
without explanation they closed it down. The list goes on. Even on existing PAYTV bouquets, channels are
changed at will. Some are replaced at no notice at all.

The point of the above is to establish the fickle nature of satellite broadcasts - be it subscription based
or FTA. Recently when I wanted to revive my 3-in-1 motorized COMSTAR dish, almost all the satellites that
used to hold sway had either moved on or been replaced. I had to hook up to Lyngsat which bailed me out.
Therefore, for any serious hobbyist, it pays to move with the trend. The only constant thing in life is change
but we must always strive to change for the better and not for the worse. Most of us know how we started.
We were keen on garnering knowledge to promote CLEAN FTA but along the line a lot of us have fallen by the
wayside, sucked in by the novelty of exploring the darkside. A great many have abandoned innovation, opting
rather for the easy route of unlocking paid channels, forgetting that this should be an exception rather than
the rule. Again, this is not what FTA is all about. This is not why this FORUM was birthed in the first place.

VIVA FTA!!!

Ilish:

Bro George D

I disagree with you. Darkside is not only only unscrambling pay tv but goes beyond that.If ART restricted its besm to North Africa only,buying a 2.4m dish for fringe transponder is itself darkside.The reason their signal is restricted is because of territorial rights ...it's like using binoculars to watch a football match from a hill.

Playing it clean here is not good. Just from those gadgets we all use like Strong ,DM,Technosat etc which have softcam key edit are a sign of Darkside initiation. We should just use ordinary decoders if we want to be free from the grip of cccam, dongle, etc.

Viva real FTA

@Ilish,
If receiving fringe FTA satellites could be termed illegal then maybe we could stretch your argument to include any (unencrypted) broadcast be it radio, tv, etc not originating from your area of residence. Thus, if you buy a binatone antenna to receive FM signals from a station in your neighboring state then maybe you're also doing something illegal. Same goes for watching terrestrial TV not originating from your area. The list goes on. But it would be a rather untenable explanation for why you'd need to unlock PAYTV signals which are meant to be watched on subscription basis.

Again, most features available on high end decoders were not necessarily put there with the intention that they would
be used for illegalities, else those factories would have been closed down a long time ago.

VIVA FTA!!!!

akanniade,
i thought as much. maybe if i was a novice in the solar business i'm sure he could have had a field day with me.

all the same, the project photos on his website (the one that is working) seems to cast him as a serious installer.

i guess he just has his own way of cutting his deals.

ha, ha! what in the world was he thinking?! suntech factory closing down?!

men! i still can't get over that blooper!

Akanniade:
Yes o GeorgeD, the good times are finally here. The guy's name is Arthur 07025803611. Am planning a new solar installation at my old man's place. Will post pix as it progresses.

akanniade,
i called this arthur guy yesterday and i was surprised what he was telling me. first of all, out of his two websites,
one of them is not working. i tried sending him a mail but his email address kept bouncing. when i finally got through
to him on phone and inquired about the suntech panels i was shocked when he told me suntech factory had closed down!
he tried to introduce me to some other name brand panel of which he claimed to be a distributor. at the end of the day
i told him to text me a valid email address so we can continue our conversation but as at this time of writing, i'm
yet to hear from him.

strange i must say. hmmmmm!

odilibe: @George..when you include softcam key...the so called biss key,nagra etc,which is flooded all over internet to open some locked channels..it didn't make much difference from anyone using dongle etc...if you look @ it this way then over 99% of fta hobbyists everywhere else could be guilty of this offence ..hehehe! ..don't get me wrrong.

@odilibe,
Back in the days, it used to be that we were all out hunting for the latest keys to open Showtime, ART packages, etc. In fact I bought my starsat decoder specifically for that purpose. However, it didn't take me long to discover that there was nothing special in all those locked channels we were all killing ourselves to watch. The same excitement you derive from a free MBC2 station is what you get from a locked Granada station. And, once you allow yourself to be sucked into this whirlpool of darkness, it never ends. You always have to be on your toes looking for the latest softcam, the latest dongle, the latest biss, the latest CCW, etc. It becomes a cat and mouse game of scrambled today, unlocked tomorrow and vice versa. This in my opinion is not what FTA should be about. With clean FTA you don't have to worry about your favorite stations been scrambled. You don't have to waste precious time hunting for keys all over the internet. You don't have to face the embarrassment of explaining to that eagle-eyed neighbor of yours why the champions league match he came to watch in your house suddenly went off and with the decoder showing $$$ signs. You don't have to spend so much on internet subscriptions (that you don't need) just for the sake of keeping that little badger updating your CCWs for you. I could go on but I'm sure you get my drift.

multi tv still working loud here.

check your dish or your decoder settings.

@zomzom,

Regardless of what you may want to believe, there are still a few of us good members who remain
committed to CLEAN FTA. We are unrepentantly anti-piracy, anti-descramling, anti-dongle, anti-Cline,
anti-darkness, anti-etc.

Again, the use of aforementioned decoders are not necessarily solely for illegalities. They contain other features
which do excite FTA hobbyists like us and when we purchase them we don't do it for the sake of watching
locked channels.

I'm sorry to disappoint you but that is the truth.