groundnuts!

@odilibe,
You should know the Chinese by now. They have their way with these things.
Alibaba looks like an all comers site for both junk and genuine products
originating from China.

yeah, that's bill gates way of making a killing. huh!

Kosemanik: which way pls more explanation

@Kosemanik,
I was congratulating kingphemy for using the info he gleaned from this forum to his advantage.
Now he can watch AIT and other channels comfortably in his room without running after so-called
installers who only come to extort money from gullible persons while not even knowing jack about
what they are doing.
I think you too can achieve so much if only you can take the time to read all that is contained
in this thread.

Cheers!

all,
testing pics from the new kid on the block:

hello pdozie,
your questions are very much in order. remember that there are no stupid questions only dumb answers!

1) yes, you are very correct. the output from the solar panels goes into the mppt charge controllers which
outputs into the battery bank. you need a means of interrupting current flowing from the panels to the charge
controller for those occasions where you want to carry out maintenance works on either the solar panels,
charge controllers or battery bank. for instance it would be very unsafe working on your solar panels without
isolating them first. same goes for your battery bank or charge controller. imagine trying to tie in additional
solar panels to a live system in the full glare of the sun at midday! also you are changing out your inverter
but the modules keep feeding in current to the battery bank through the charge controller. or you are
configuring your charge controller while it is still live on voltage. how wise is that?

2) yes, there is a cut-out fuse between the batteries and charge controller for the very same reason already
explained above.

3) the mc4 connection is a type of connection for solar panels and is an improvement over the mc3 which is an
older design.

for more on this you can check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC4_connector

4) yes, the cut-out fuses i used are similar to the type used for phcn connections. as far as cut-out fuses
are concerned, there is no difference between ac and dc current. where the problem of arcing comes up is with
circuit breakers and with that you need to be careful to avoid using normal ac circuit breakers on dc
installations to avoid risk of smoldering/fire.

5) my suggestion of a minimum of 4 solar panels is just a rough estimate of what you'll need to get going. it
could be more and it could be less. sometimes, depending on availability of public power in your area you may
not even need any solar panels at all. i ran my inverter solely on public power for over two years before i
began adding solar panels.

permie,
1) your solar panels are way too undersized for your system and they're not able to bring up your
batteries to full charge.

2) your load usage is rather heavy for that size of battery bank hence you end up over-discharging the
batteries way beyond their safe dod.


solution,

use the system sizing sheet bodejohn attached in his post and do a proper sizing for all your loads.
you may have to consider increasing your battery bank size and also your solar panels. on the
alternative think of the possibility of augmenting with public power for charging the batteries when
available.

hello bodejohn,
let me try and answer your questions as concise as possible:

1) the 10kva prag stabilizer in the picture is the servo type. i'm stabilizing the phcn input power supply
from the mains into the cyberpower inverter for charging the batteries and re-supply to the house (when needed).

2) it is very unlikely that i'll be selling my sukam inverter anytime soon. presently i'm still test running the
cyberpower and i've realised that the 3.5kva sukam is able to carry all the loads that the 5kva cyberpower is
carrying. hence, on the contrary i'm thinking there is a chance i might be tempted to put up the cyberpower for
sale after the testing period is over. most likely.
the sukam operates on 48v same as the cyberpower inverter.

3) yes, i fed the outputs from both mppt charge controllers directly to the voltage combiner (which is a kind of
distribution board for the batteries charging input as you can see from the pictures). irrespective of individual
charging current, the charge controllers output separately into the battery bank, working in series to increase
overall charging current - provided output voltage for both controllers are the same at 48v each, so no conflict
at all.

4) the earlier panels i installed only had mc3 connectors on them but the latest suntech panels in the picture came
with mc4 connectors but other than direct string connections, i'm not using them as of now. in subsequent upgrades,
i plan to purchase various lengths of mc4 and mc3 extensions so as to make for a more professional installation.

5) yes, technically you should always rate your fuses to be at least 125% of the current carrying capacity of your
cable. i didn't really follow that to the letter in this installation.
i opted for cut-out fuses instead of circuit breakers because i couldn't lay my hands on dc circuit breakers which
is the type recommended for such an installation. all the circuit breakers you find around in these parts are for
alternating current (ac) which is dangerous to use on high voltage/high current dc installations as these.

warning: never use a normal ac circuit breaker on a dc circuit. the high dc voltages and current involved will
cause arcing at the tips of the cb which may cause a fire!

there are special dc circuit breakers recommended for safe installation of dc circuits. a popular brand is made
by midnight solar and this will form part of my future upgrades in the very near future, the good lord willing.

@kingphemy,
Congrats my brother. That's the way to go. Enjoy!

hello virtuoso,
do you have the 2trb hard drives in stock now?

rodgers,
although bodejohn is exactly right, you should not let the cost discourage you. while it is always good to
have a clear idea of cost implications, the emphasis should not be on cost alone.

now to your question, depending on the set up of your system, a 2kw system could be anything from 300k to 600k.

you need:

1) a minimum 48v battery bank (4pcs 12v 200ah batteries)
2) a 2kw inverter
3) a change over switch
4) a minimum 4pcs 200w solar panels.
5) half a roll or a full roll of 10mm multi-core copper wires (black and red)

however, i'll advice that you forget about adding solar panels for now and just go for the battery and inverter.
that brings your cost down to a little below 300k. with time you can always add solar panels as you go along.

freshp, akanniade,

thanks guys for the compliments. i appreciate.

BUTONEDAY: George_D,

Better moni kill sweet soup. Beautiful installation. We shall see by the weekend.

bros butoneday,
no be small thing o! i just felt i needed to improve on what i got already to maximize performance.

badaru1: Nilesat 101 is gradually going. For some time now phela package is no longer stable with even 4.5m dish in Lagos. Though hotbird is still firing better with 3m and above.

Recently a friend from the north tried to experiment a version of fuji 4 ways lnb married with stargold fauji one way brass,the result was fantasic. I tried it in lagos here and compared it with my stargold fuji,I got a difference of between 4 to 8% depending on the TP. Obnelly tried it also the result was more than ok. The fuji lnb has Arabic writing on it. If u could not get contact me for further info

@badaru,
It's good to see you here. Nilesat 101 seems the only remaining bird out of the old big three that have not retired and I
think it's days are getting increasingly numbered.

Recently we carried out a series of tests for out -of -footprint LNBs and we discovered that the inverto red classic is able to
perform better than stargold fuji and many other LNBs we have long taken to be the standard for nilesat and hotbird.

I will have an opportunity to get real world results here at my end very soon. Will keep you and the house updated when the
time comes.

swordswifter:

@George_D,
What is the size of your dish?

Basically the reason i am inquiring is that a have a three in one combination on a 90cm dish which includes Intelsat Newdawn,Eutelsat 36B and Astra 2B/2F. Now my signal for all the multi-tv channels were good up until a few weeks back when it started to fluctuate. Now if it is a shift in the dish, then all the other satellites including Eutelsat 36B and Intelsat Newdawn should also be experiencing signal drops or similar fluctuations but this is not the case. Moreover there are other users who are also complaining of the same issue. That is the main reason why i shudder to think it's as a result of a shift in dish position and hence my asking which dish size you are using.

If maybe you experienced a similar thing and had solved it by re-aligning your dish, then it might only go to prove that at most the Satellite carrier or SES Astra has re-aligned their bird by a couple of degrees. In that case we all get the understanding and start heading to our roofs. Thanks and Awaiting your input.

@swordswifter,
My dish is a normal 90cm dish and I.ve not adjusted it for a long time now. Signal strength has been at its highest - especially
since they changed to the new bird.

samojie,
transporting petal metal dishes (pan) is not really much of a problem.

peeps have been doing that for ages. the strong 2.4m pan dish is meant to be transported
easily from place to place. it usually comes in cartons when new. same goes for mesh.

sweet coffee + honey!

aye, i guess!

overview of the new set up:

the sukam now gratefully at rest, ready to spring into service at any slight opportunity!

also commissioned the 5kva cyberpower inverter in place of the 3.5kva sukam:

re-designed the voltage combiner for a more rugged and better performance.

also breaker now firmly in place:

the old and new now working together:

be sure of the name: suntech!

changed string configuration for back facing panels to take advantage of mppt capability of charge controller.

(instead of two by twos, strings are now wired in threes - rear panels only for now)

installed extra 2pcs 200w suntech solar panels to boost charging current.

now total array power has finally crossed into the 4,000w (4kw) category!

replaced my faulty binatone stab with a prag 10kva stab. no story!

also installed a 60a breaker to take care of temporary electrical isolation
for maintenance activity.

more:

installing the controller:

added an additional morningstar mppt charge controller and ran an extra length of cable to reduce
current loading on the first set. front facing modules and back facing modules now have their separate
controllers:

all,
i finally completed the latest round of my systems upgrade over the weekend.

details as promised:

deeplo,
welcome back. i'm sure that after your installation, you will finally begin to enjoy what some of us have been
enjoying for a while now. congrats in advance!