I think felicity charge controller are over hyped.

The performance is poor.

4* 250w panel (voc 36v) and I can not get up-to 35A -40A....

Am considering reconfiguring the panel to 2s2p as against 4p.....

Please share your thoughts.

Small fire wan spoil my show today oh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jub7bT3fdyE

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Obnoxious2001:
I think felicity charge controller are over hyped.

The performance is poor.

4* 250w panel (voc 36v) and I can not get up-to 35A -40A....

Am considering reconfiguring the panel to 2s2p as against 4p.....

Please share your thoughts.

How would you even do 4p and expect good performance performance?.
Unless your inverter is 12v....., Which am fairly certain its not.
Blame your poor config and not felicity.
Even so, are your panels tier 1?.
Would be hard to get 35amps from 4 x 250w @

Obnoxious2001:
I think felicity charge controller are over hyped.

The performance is poor.

4* 250w panel (voc 36v) and I can not get up-to 35A -40A....

Am considering reconfiguring the panel to 2s2p as against 4p.....

Please share your thoughts.

Check your installation. Also what is your battery system voltage. It's recommended that when using mppt charge controller, your solar panels input voltage should be at least twice battery voltage and above. So 36v VOC panels should be 2s2p

earthrealm:


How would you even do 4p and expect good performance performance?.
Unless your inverter is 12v....., Which am fairly certain its not.
Blame your poor config and not felicity.
Even so, are your panels tier 1?.
Would be hard to get 35amps from 4 x 250w @

System is a 12v system. With 2*220a tubular battery so I don't think 4p is out of place.

From experiment, felicity charge controller are more effective when fed higher voltage cause tech fine out performed it on 4p configuration.

This is my opinion anyway.
I am probably not the only one that has noticed this

Dishtech:

Check your installation. Also what is your battery system voltage. It's recommended that when using mppt charge controller, your solar panels input voltage should be at least twice battery voltage and above. So 36v VOC panels should be 2s2p

It's performance is okay on 2s2p.

Thanks for your input.
I appreciate

Obnoxious2001:


System is a 12v system. With 2*220a tubular battery so I don't think 4p is out of place.

From experiment, felicity charge controller are more effective when fed higher voltage cause tech fine out performed it on 4p configuration.

This is my opinion anyway.
I am probably not the only one that has noticed this

Ok, its a 12v setup.
Then look at your cabling size and distance.
If its adequate to carry 40amps.

Am not a fan of felicity anything.

earthrealm:


Ok, its a 12v setup.
Then look at your cabling size and distance.
If its adequate to carry 40amps.

Am not a fan of felicity anything.

Wire is 10mm² so the cable size was well considered.

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chris81964:
Small fire wan spoil my show today oh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jub7bT3fdyE

I experienced the very same scenario in my house recently.
Gos was kind that it happened when we were at home.

The AC in breaker melted and caused fire outbreak., my wife was preparing the kids for school and went to the laundry room to fetch school uniforms only to find smoke coming from the inverter room which is next to the laundry room.
She quickly grabbed the extinguisher and put out the fire.
Then came to wake me up to break the news to me.

From the attached pictures you can see the AC-IN breaker completely melted.
The Amperage was 63A so I replaced it with 125A and till now, everything is going well.

Obnoxious2001:


It's performance is okay on 2s2p.

Thanks for your input.
I appreciate

Also check your panel position and tilt angle.
Best position is due south and angel equal to your latitude.

Obnoxious2001:
I think felicity charge controller are over hyped.

The performance is poor.

4* 250w panel (voc 36v) and I can not get up-to 35A -40A....

Am considering reconfiguring the panel to 2s2p as against 4p.....

Please share your thoughts.

24v system?.....sometimes quality of panel, orientation, tilt angle determines pv output

Note that every charge controller has a maximum solar power it can accommodate. Since your charge is 60A at 12v system you will need not more than 750w panels.[/quote]

I have a 12volt lifepo4 with 12v inverter and 6pcs of 250watts panels connected in parallel. I was thinking of changing the connection to 2s3p until I read your comment. The present final output from my panel is around 40v and 35v at my CC which charge my battery to 14.5v. will it spoil my CC if I change the panels configuration ?

bbally:
Note that every charge controller has a maximum solar power it can accommodate. Since your charge is 60A at 12v system you will need not more than 750w panels.

I have a 12volt lifepo4 with 12v inverter and 6pcs of 250watts panels connected in parallel. I was thinking of changing the connection to 2s3p until I read your comment. The present final output from my panel is around 40v and 35v at my CC which charge my battery to 14.5v. will it spoil my CC if I change the panels configuration ?

depends on your type of cc and specs, is your cc pwm or mppt and what is the make?

bbally:
Note that every charge controller has a maximum solar power it can accommodate. Since your charge is 60A at 12v system you will need not more than 750w panels.

I have a 12volt lifepo4 with 12v inverter and 6pcs of 250watts panels connected in parallel. I was thinking of changing the connection to 2s3p until I read your comment. The present final output from my panel is around 40v and 35v at my CC which charge my battery to 14.5v. will it spoil my CC if I change the panels configuration ?

I have used the Powmr you mentioned, if the solar generation is more than the charge controller, the output will be going off and on.
If your installation is not efficient, it can accommodate it. That is;
1. If your panel is not tier1 or new.
2. If your installation position and tilt angle is off angle.
3. If your cable size and distance is wrong.
If the above is not met, you can escape the damage or else you need another 60A charge controller to divide the panels into two.
For you to know what you are generating, let your battery deeply discharge, if your panel is facing south, check and start changing by 11am and see what you are going to be getting between 11am and 12am on the charge controller.
Average tilt angle in our latitude should be between 6°and 15°, with 15° deference in summer and winter.

Penuelseun:
depends on your type of cc and specs, is your cc pwm or mppt and what is the make?

PowMr 60A (12 - 48v) mppt variant.
@dishtech thank you so much for responses, I believe the points you bulletined are the reasons my CC is still accommodating my using the 24v panels out in parallel to charge the 12v battery through the PowMr.
My panels are facing south but a angle around 30⁰, while charging and using the battery to power the house simultaneously the highest av noticed on the CC is 45A at 14v.
Hope this is fair from the whole system?

bbally:


PowMr 60A (12 - 48v) mppt variant.
@dishtech thank you so much for responses, I believe the points you bulletined are the reasons my CC is still accommodating my using the 24v panels out in parallel to charge the 12v battery through the PowMr.
My panels are facing south but a angle around 30⁰, while charging and using the battery to power the house simultaneously the highest av noticed on the CC is 45A at 14v.
Hope this is fair from the whole system?

That means the maximum you generate at peak is around 630watt. If you reduce your tilt angle you will notice an improvement. But be careful not to burn your charge controller. At your present degree it will only favour summer and equinox, but very poor during winter. I.e 30°-8°=22° off. A good installation and all condition conditions being met should have highest generation in March and September when the sun will be almost perpendicular to our centre of head at noon. But with little reduction by June and December.

Dishtech:

That means the maximum you generate at peak is around 630watt. If you reduce your tilt angle you will notice an improvement. But be careful not to burn your charge controller. At your present degree it will only favour summer and equinox, but very poor during winter. I.e 30°-8°=22° off. A good installation and all condition conditions being met should have highest generation in March and September when the sun will be almost perpendicular to our centre of head at noon. But with little reduction by June and December.

Thank you and God bless 🙏

Dishtech:

Forget about the 195v written on the Felicity charge controller. Don't give it input voltage more than 125v or else it will bring out fault light at every peak generation.
Since your VOC is 41.30v so I recommend 3s i.e 3x41.3= 123.9v.
Also since your charge controller is 100A,
At 48v the maximum solar panels used should not be more than 4800watts,
At 24v the maximum solar panels used should not be more than 2400watts.
At 12v the maximum solar panels used should not be more than 1200watts.
So if your battery system 48v I will advice you buy one more panel to make it 3s3p, if the system is 24v or12v your panel is more than the capacity of your charge controller if properly installed.

Your maximum solar panel can exceed that, what you should not exceed is rated input Voltage.

chris81964:
Small fire wan spoil my show today oh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jub7bT3fdyE

Wow.. thank goodness it didn't do worse than that. Sir, I will suggest those wooden frames aee replaced with maybe aluminum because of fires.

Bb007:
Good day everyone, please I have a 5kva 48v inverter, with 4 12v 200ah dry cell batteries. I want to connect Panels to it, and I am currently on a budget. Please how many 400 watts panels do I need to charge the batteries full and power a 140w freezer in the daytime? Thank you

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Trippledots:


Your maximum solar panel can exceed that, what you should not exceed is rated input Voltage.

Good point .. #Succinct

chris81964:
Small fire wan spoil my show today oh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jub7bT3fdyE

Having an FM200 fire extinguisher wouldn't be a bad idea

Hello everyone,

I am so moved by the solidarity and camaraderie on this thread. After reading through this ENTIRE thread, I identified common problems and questions. Many people either have questions on system sizing (what size solar system they need) and/ or what/ where they can find good quality, reliable equipment (whether importing directing from China or sourcing locally from Nigeria).

I have noticed that some people share their system sizing and where to find their equipment, but it can be quite intense reading through this entire thread to find an answer (it took me weeks to do so).

So, I will be starting an easy to follow guide that automatically calculates the size of solar system you need (this is called system sizing) and direct people to equipment they can purchase based on their budget and location. Later on, I will allow people who purchased the equipment to give updates/ opinions on the equipment (providing more information to other Nigerians trying to DIY their solar system).

If this is of interest to you, please PM or input your email via the link below! I would love to get people’s feedback on initial drafts or other ideas they have for this guide, so I can continue to improve upon it and it can serve as a great resource to others. It would be great to dispel the notion that building a solar system yourself is too hard or complicated.

As we all know with the right information, anyone can do it.


Input your email here: https://forms.gle/uMGBbJMLTLpRSXRa8


*Edit: Given the interest, I’m getting regarding this guide, I have inserted a link where you can submit your email. That way, once I’ve completed the first draft of the guide, I can send it to you and get your thoughts.*

sathob:
Well, great people of FTA, I think I should start this on behalf of George_D because of the request made by others who have expressed interest in alternate electricity, especially solar energy. Our FTA independence is not complete if we are to suffer frequent power outages and been dependant on the nation’s electricity grid system always. I have read in this house many times, from members “PHCN don go off, so I will track later when they come back”. No one can run away from power outages in the main electricity grid – not even the west, it happens. Hence, we all should have alternate electricity and using renewable energy is, to me, the best. This means one can enjoy their FTA fully by being totally free and not “dom” (dominated).

Look at some advantages
• Lower or no electricity bills
• Compared to generator users, there is no fuel cost and stress of getting it and no fumes.
• People living in the remote locations where power is unavailable or too expensive to hook-up too can have electricity.
Just to mention but a few.

Without going into detail, one can enjoy electricity by means of using solar energy (energy from the sun), wind mill (using energy from the wind). Don’t forget, where there is frequent electricity supply from the utility company, you can store some energy for back up.

You will need the following to complete a solar project or back up.

1. Solar panels
2. Power Inverter
3. Charge controller
4. Batteries to store energy
5. wires and cables
6. Monitors/meters

The solar panel consists of cells called photo voltaic cells and these, covert the energy received from the sun to electricity in simple terms (this electricity is a direct current
d.c). The panels can last up to 20 years plus. The panels can be fixed, adjustable or of the tracking type. You can decide to go for a complete panel from manufacturers (already made) or build panels by yourself using solar cells- the latter is for the hobbyist. The panels are rated in watts eg 80w solar panel supplying 12v continuous at a given time

The inverter
Power Inverters are available in 3 basic designs, two of which I remember very well now – the one that out sinusoidal waves and those that are modified sign wave type (meaning not pure sine waves and do have limits when it comes to its application) . The power inverter converts your storage battery power into the 240 volts AC that runs your appliances. It is the heart of your solar energy system. Unless you only run 12 volt DC appliances you will need a power inverter to supply your AC. This is just the basics.

The Charge Controller
A Charge Controller is necessary to protect the batteries from over charging and supply them with the proper amount of energy to promote long battery life.

Batteries
Without Storage Batteries to store energy you would only have power when the sun was shining. There is a lot more to batteries than just the ordinary car battery. Yo may need to change batteries over the years.

Wires and Cables
Without the right size of cables, you are likely to experience inefficient transfer of power (greater losses) and overheating.

Meters
This is required to monitor the performance of your solar system.

Firstly, it is very necessary to know what gadgets you will be using (eg.tv, sat. receiver) and how long you will use how long you would have them on the solar power and how much energy your battery can store and which solar panel (rating in power) will supply the required energy.

A lot goes into calculating the cost of setting up a solar system. First one has to consider the period of usable sunlight available at their location to do this calculation. For us here close to the equator, we get about 7 to 8 hours or more of sunlight during dry season, just a rough estimate.

How do I know I need 100w or 80w or 300 watts solar panel for my project?

The power consumption of appliances is given in Watts. To calculate the energy you will use over time, just multiply the power consumption by the hours of use.

Eg. If I have 90W tv set which I want to use for 6hrs, 25W satellite receiver for the same period, and a 50W fan for 3 hours. What will be the energy required from the solar panels for the period?

1. the energy for each appliance is Watts x time (hours) = Wh

So, the watt hours for the tv = 90 x 6 = 540 Wh (watt hours)

Watt hours for sat. receiver = 25 x 6 = 150 Wh

Watt hours for fan will be = 50 x 3 = 150 Wh

2. sum the watt hours for the individual appliances ie. 540 + 150 + 150 = 840 Wh (watt hours)

This means that the solar panel will need to supply 840 watt hours of energy to the battery each day to cover the total power required by these appliances.

3. since there are bound to be losses in the system However, to account for natural losses, we multiply the result by 1.2 (this factor allows for natural system losses, assuming 85% efficiency). Therefore, we will assume the panels will actually need to be able to supply a total of
840 x 1.2 = 1008Wh

4. so, to supply 1008Wh of energy the panel we assume to receive 7 hours of sunlight will be rated at 1008 Wh / 7 h = 144W
So, I will need 144W solar panel to supply energy to my appliances above at the given time.

Regarding point 3, it also means, if I have a solar panel rated at 100W receiving sunlight for 7 hours a day, the total energy supplied considering 85% efficiency will be 100x7x0.85= 595Wh and not 700Wh

5. Your battery should be able to store 1008Wh of energy. Since batteries capacities are rated in Ah (Ampere Hours) you need to multiply Ah by the Volt rating to know the Watt Hour. Power(W) = Voltage (V) x Current (I) ; Watt hour = VxIxHour

Therefore Ah (which is I x h) = Wh / V = 1008 / 12 (the number 12 represents a 12v battery)
= 84 Ah

So it means you will need not less than a 84Ah, 12V battery (deep-cycle batteries, not ordinary car batteries) to do the job.

NB. Another way of calculating battery capacity is explained in this example. Should my battery be rated at 84Ah, 12V the watt hour (energy) will be 84Ah x 12 V = 1008Ah

It implies that the battery can supply a 150watt appliance for 1008/70 = 14hours

Pls don’t just play around with batteries they are dangerous.