bassdow:

These should do. Guess the pumping machine is between 0.5, 0.75 and 1HP. Probably run the heavier items during the day

Thanks again, appreciated.

I will still be grateful for further input especially on this issue: " I am confused whether 2 x 200ah Lifepo4 will be enough or whether a single 7.5kwh Lifepo4 battery is necessary ...."

rhosymedre:


Thanks again, appreciated.

I will still be grateful for further input especially on this issue: " I am confused whether 2 x 200ah Lifepo4 will be enough or whether a single 7.5kwh Lifepo4 battery is necessary ...."

Lifepo4 batteries are built for different voltages, unlike tubular that's only in 12v. You have to be more specific than "2x200ah".

A 12v 200aH Lifepo4 battery is 2.56kwh
A 24v 200aH is 5.12kwh
A 48v 200aH is 10.24kwh

Sako always available for your power backup needs. Call/Whatsapp: 08033213577

rhosymedre:
Hello everyone, both expert contributors and all others.

I have been quietly reading here for some time to learn more. I would be grateful for your help on one or two things.

1. What really is the capacity of a 200ah Lifepo4 battery? We are planning a system, excluding air conditioners, with four 580w Jinko panels and a 7.5kva Inverter; I am confused whether 2 x 200ah Lifepo4 will be enough or whether a single 7.5kwh Lifepo4 battery is necessary as someone has suggested to me.

2. Please advise on whether the Felicity Lifepo4 batteries are reliable.

3. Please advise on whether the Felicity 7.5kva transformer based inverter is reliable.

Many many thanks in advance.

Hello,

When sizing your system an energy consumption audit is one of the most crucial steps. I can see that you also listed the electrical loads you intend on carrying in a latter post. Although this is different from a comprehensive energy consumption audit, I will work with that figure.

Firstly, you must understand there is always a strong tendency to improve on a solar system after it has been installed so a lot of folks just go big from the get go if they are able to afford it.

A crucial question is: are you sure you really do not ever want to run that air conditioner? I’m asking because it seems like you really want it included, but the truth is, if you want it down the line, you will have to upgrade your system. Now, the ability to upgrade your system down the line is also a major advantage of residential ess, it means you can do what you can afford now and with time get to were you want it to be.

Answering your questions:

I will assumes you are comparing 48v batteries because using a 7.5kw inverter with anything less than 48v batteries system is poor design choice.

Battery size : Two paralleled 200ah battery is 51.2v x 400ah = 20kwh. That is over double the capacity of a single 7.5kwh battery. Both of these can power your air conditioner and other systems mentioned during the day with your 7.5kw inverter. However, at night, if you use the air conditioner with the 7.5kwh battery, you will quickly run out of stored energy. But the 20kwh battery will be more than enough to run your ‘inverter’ air conditioners over night.

By now I’m sure you are understanding the concept? Bigger batteries mean more energy stored for when there is no sunlight, it means longer run time of electrical load and means an extra day or two of autonomy.

Days of Autonomy : this is also a major factor when designing systems. In Nigeria right now we are at the raining season and this means poor solar yield. You therefore need to design a system that can go through at least a day of poor solar yield i.e. a full raining day where your batteries would just add 10 percent charge.

The larger 20kwh battery will enable you to plan 12kwh for the night, and the balance 8kwh for the next night incase there is poor solar yield due to rainfall.

The 7.5kwh battery means you will have to plan 4.5kwh for the night and 3kwh for the next night incase of poor solar yield.

Now, it all depends on energy consumption. Someone might be very okay on 7.5kwh inclusive of days of autonomy, while another will be okay with 20kwh, some have up to 90kwh as home ess.

Solar generation : I see you listed 4 units of 580w solar panels. This is 4 x 580w =2,320 W. Now, you must understand that you will hardly get a sustained 2,320w of solar yield. Always aim for 90 percent solar yield which is 0.9 x 2320w =2,088 W. Now you must consider inefficiencies when converting current and voltage to charge the batteries. Expensive inverters and solar charge controllers like those made by victron offer way higher conversion efficiency. But, most cheaper inverters we use offer poor efficiency. So let’s go with 85 percent conversion efficiency. We have 0.85 x 2088w=1,774.8 W. Since you battery is 51.2v, it will charge at average of 53v so we have, 1,774.8w / 53v = 33.4 amps.

Take note of the figure 33.4 amps. If you go with the 7.5kwh battery which is 150ah. It will take up to 150ah / 33.4amps = 4.5hrs sunlight to charge. Now notice if you go with the 20kwh battery which is 400ah it will take up to 400ah / 33.4amps = 12hrs sunlight to charge

This above is only accurate if you are not running a single day time load. Once you are running a load during the day eg your freezer is turned on. Then, your 1,774.8w from solar panel will need to power those loads first, before sending the balance to the battery, meaning you will be looking at 27amps or even just 25amps charging current.

Now, not all sunlight is equal. Just because it’s daytime doesn’t mean you will be generating such high sustained figures. For a fact, you can only expect such sustained performance all day only during the dry season in the south, except you are living up north in Nigeria.

We can therefore conclude that your solar panel is completely underpowered.

How to size your solar panels : I will give you my personal calculation that works for me always. If you are resident in the south of Nigeria, size your panels to fully charge your batteries with just 1.8hrs of sunlight i.e 1hr 48mins of sustained peak solar pv should charge your battery to full. If you are in the North use 2.5hrs of sunlight for your calculation.

This means that, to size your panels divide your total battery capacity by 1.8 if you live in the south and 2.5 if you live in the north. So 20kwh battery / 1.8 = 11,000w total panels and 7.5kwh battery / 1.8 = 4,160w total panels.

I can assure you, if you size your panels this way and factor in days of autonomy for battery size. Come rain come sun, out of 365 days a year, you will always get full charge for a minimum of 340 days. The remaining less than 25days which translates to 4 times a month in the rainy season, you can expect minimum of 50 percent charge.

Regarding questions 2 and 3. Do not buy from some alaba marketers, to be safe just go straight to their official distributors and buy from them. I have seen situations where they print new stickers with higher capacity and paste on their batteries to deceive unsuspecting customers. Do you research and ensure you purchase from the right source or you will not get value for your money. For the inverter part, you can maybe google search the name of the inverter and add words like ‘repair’ , ‘fault’ , ‘common issues’, ‘problems’ and see if you can find any known issues documented online. This is a neat trick for researching any electrical device you intend to buy.

*sorry for any typos, I didn’t proofread this.

rhosymedre:


Many thanks for reply.

For now we have decided to exclude air conditioners; so, something like

* 1 medium/large TV e.g. 40 inches and 4 small TVs of 24 inches each
* 1 standard fridge (nothing big) and one small deep freezer
* 1 water pumping machine
* About 8 standing fans (will go for low power consuming fans)
* All electric bulbs in a 5 bedroom house

Thanks again.

Mentioning appliances such as Fridge or Freezer, or even Pumping machine, without mentioning their capacities means we either make guesses or give information that could end up being wrong.

We don't even know if your pumping machine is surface or submersible, let alone knowing it's capacity.

Even TV's power rating needs be stated as I have seen TVs that consume power like community cinema.

At end of the day, a larger battery bank would always server better than a smaller one irrespective of the number of units. In other words, 2pcs of 12v 200AH battery would always out perform 1pcs of 200AH battery all things being equal.

Now you probably are comparing 2 types of batteries => Lithium and Tubular/GEL/AGM batteries. Just understand that quality Lithium batteries gives much more power than Tubular/GEL/AGM of comparable capacity.

Note: I didn't just say Lithium battery is superior BUT I said Quality Lithium  battery

Major advantage Lithium technology has over Tubular/GEL/AGM is, you could run Lithium batteries lower (though help if you don't) BUT for the likes of Tubular/GEL/AGM batteries, you need ensure you don't run beyond 50% of it's stated capacity else it wouldn't be there to serve you for long.

NB: A lot of us want to quickly respond to comments and get on our way. Abeg no give us reason to stress our brain unnecessarily.
Consuming information such as "2pcs of 12v 200AH battery" is much quicker than saying "4.8kwh" BECAUSE we have to mentally do things such as convert 12-volts 200AH to kWh i.e; 200AH x 12v = 2,400 watts ÷ 1000 = 2.4 kWh

Anyway sha, the 2pcs of 200Ah batteries is much smaller and wouldn't last long in terms of years.. You would have better luck going with the 7.5kwh battery so long it ain't over-rated or low quality.

Once again, the above information could be wrong as capacity of the appliances especially the Fridge , Freezer , and Pumping machine weren't mentioned. Didn't even ask how long you intends powering them daily sef.

GloryJoyeux:


Hello,

When sizing your system an energy consumption audit is one of the most crucial steps. I can see that you also listed the electrical loads you intend on carrying in a latter post. Although this is different from a comprehensive energy consumption audit, I will work with that figure.

Firstly, you must understand there is always a strong tendency to improve on a solar system after it has been installed so a lot of folks just go big from the get go if they are able to afford it.

A crucial question is: are you sure you really do not ever want to run that air conditioner? I’m asking because it seems like you really want it included, but the truth is, if you want it down the line, you will have to upgrade your system. Now, the ability to upgrade your system down the line is also a major advantage of residential ess, it means you can do what you can afford now and with time get to were you want it to be.

Answering your questions:

Battery size : Two paralleled 200ah battery is 51.2v x 400ah = 20kwh. That is over double the capacity of a single 7.5kwh battery. Both of these can power your air conditioner and other systems mentioned during the day with your 7.5kw inverter. However, at night, if you use the air conditioner with the 7.5kwh battery, you will quickly run out of stored energy. But the 20kwh battery will be more than enough to run your ‘inverter’ air conditioners over night.

By now I’m sure you are understanding the concept? Bigger batteries mean more energy stored for when there is no sunlight, it means longer run time of electrical load and means an extra day or two of autonomy.

Days of Autonomy : this is also a major factor when designing systems. In Nigeria right now we are at the raining season and this means poor solar yield. You therefore need to design a system that can go through at least a day of poor solar yield i.e. a full raining day where your batteries would just add 10 percent charge.

The larger 20kwh battery will enable you to plan 12kwh for the night, and the balance 8kwh for the next night incase there is poor solar yield due to rainfall.

The 7.5kwh battery means you will have to plan 4.5kwh for the night and 3kwh for the next night incase of poor solar yield.

Now, it all depends on energy consumption. Someone might be very okay on 7.5kwh inclusive of days of autonomy, while another will be okay with 20kwh, some have up to 90kwh as home ess.

Solar generation : I see you listed 4 units of 580w solar panels. This is 4 x 580w =2,320 W. Now, you must understand that you will hardly get a sustained 2,320w of solar yield. Always aim for 90 percent solar yield which is 0.9 x 2320w =2,088 W. Now you must consider inefficiencies when converting current and voltage to charge the batteries. Expensive inverters and solar charge controllers like make by victron offer way higher conversion efficiency. But, most cheaper inverters we use offer poor efficiency. So let’s go with 85 percent conversion efficiency. We have 0.85 x 2088w=1,774.8 W. Since you battery is 51.2v, it will charge at average of 53v so we have, 1,774.8w / 53v = 33.4 amps.

Take note of the figure 33.4 amps. If you go with the 7.5kwh battery which is 150ah. It will take up 150ah / 33.4amps = 4.5hrs sunlight to charge. Now notice if you go with the 20kwh battery which is 400ah it will take up to 400ah / 33.4amps = 12hrs sunlight to charge

This above is only accurate if you are not running a single day time load. Once you are running a load during the day eg your freezer is turned on. Then, your 1,774.8w from solar panel will need to power those loads first, before sending the balance to the battery, meaning you will be looking at 27amps or even just 25amps charging current.

Now, not all sunlight is equal. Just because it’s daytime doesn’t mean you will be generating such high sustained figures. For a fact, you can only expect such sustained performance all day only during the dry season in the south, except you are living up north in Nigeria.

We can therefore conclude that your solar panel is completely underpowered.

How to size your solar panels : I will give you my personal calculation that works for me always. If you are resident in the south of Nigeria, size your panels to fully charge your batteries with just 1.8hrs of sunlight i.e 1hr 48mins of sustained peak solar pv should charge your battery to full. If you are in the North use 2.5hrs of sunlight for your calculation.

This means that, to size your panels divide your total battery capacity by 1.8 if you live in the south and 2.5 if you live in the north. So 20kwh battery / 1.8 = 11,000w total panels and 7.5kwh battery / 1.8 = 4,160w total panels.

I can assure you, if you size your panels this way and factor in days of autonomy for battery size. Come rain come sun, out of 365 days a year, you will always get full charge for a minimum of 340 days. The remaining less than 25days which translates to 4 times a month in the rainy season, you can expect minimum of 50 percent charge.

Regarding questions 2 and 3. Do not buy from some alaba marketers, to be safe just go straight to their official distributors and buy from them. I have seen situations where they print new stickers with higher capacity and paste on their batteries to deceive unsuspecting customers. Do you research and ensure you purchase from the right source or you will not get value for your money. For the inverter part, you can maybe google search the name of the inverter and add words like ‘repair’ , ‘fault’ , ‘common issues’, ‘problems’ and see if you can find any known issues documented online. This is a neat trick for researching any electrical device you intend to buy.

*sorry for any typos, I didn’t proofread this.

Have done things such as this which was even more straight to point. Issue is most ain't ready to read though all pages. Most don't have such patience. You posting this, would mostly generate a couple of LIKEs and SHAREs and that's it. Either way, we appreciate your time.

As for your suggestion of Not buying from some Alaba marketers, abeg expand to inform them Alaba marketers are everywhere even inAbuja. Make dem no go dey think say na only for Alaba market. Most (or some) sha prefer to Fall first, before listening

bassdow:


Have done things such as this which was even more straight to point. Issue is most ain't ready to read though all pages. Most don't have such patience. You posting this, would mostly generate a couple of LIKEs and SHAREs and that's it. Either way, we appreciate your time.

As for your suggestion of Not buying from some Alaba marketers, abeg expand to inform them Alaba marketers are everywhere even inAbuja. Make dem no go dey think say na only for Alaba market. Most (or some) sha prefer to Fall first, before listening

“If any one wants to learn, he/she must be willing to read.”

If anyone finds an article, book, story etc too long to read it simply means they aren’t fully interested in that particular thing.

The long write up is for those interested and thus willing to read. What is of importance is that the information there in is accurate.

GloryJoyeux:


Hello,

When sizing your system an energy consumption audit is one of the most crucial steps. I can see that you also listed the electrical loads you intend on carrying in a latter post. Although this is different from a comprehensive energy consumption audit, I will work with that figure.

Firstly, you must understand there is always a strong tendency to improve on a solar system after it has been installed so a lot of folks just go big from the get go if they are able to afford it.

A crucial question is: are you sure you really do not ever want to run that air conditioner? I’m asking because it seems like you really want it included, but the truth is, if you want it down the line, you will have to upgrade your system. Now, the ability to upgrade your system down the line is also a major advantage of residential ess, it means you can do what you can afford now and with time get to were you want it to be.

Answering your questions:

I will assumes you are comparing 48v batteries because using a 7.5kw inverter with anything less than 48v batteries system is poor design choice.

Battery size : Two paralleled 200ah battery is 51.2v x 400ah = 20kwh. That is over double the capacity of a single 7.5kwh battery. Both of these can power your air conditioner and other systems mentioned during the day with your 7.5kw inverter. However, at night, if you use the air conditioner with the 7.5kwh battery, you will quickly run out of stored energy. But the 20kwh battery will be more than enough to run your ‘inverter’ air conditioners over night.

By now I’m sure you are understanding the concept? Bigger batteries mean more energy stored for when there is no sunlight, it means longer run time of electrical load and means an extra day or two of autonomy.

Days of Autonomy : this is also a major factor when designing systems. In Nigeria right now we are at the raining season and this means poor solar yield. You therefore need to design a system that can go through at least a day of poor solar yield i.e. a full raining day where your batteries would just add 10 percent charge.

The larger 20kwh battery will enable you to plan 12kwh for the night, and the balance 8kwh for the next night incase there is poor solar yield due to rainfall.

The 7.5kwh battery means you will have to plan 4.5kwh for the night and 3kwh for the next night incase of poor solar yield.

Now, it all depends on energy consumption. Someone might be very okay on 7.5kwh inclusive of days of autonomy, while another will be okay with 20kwh, some have up to 90kwh as home ess.

Solar generation : I see you listed 4 units of 580w solar panels. This is 4 x 580w =2,320 W. Now, you must understand that you will hardly get a sustained 2,320w of solar yield. Always aim for 90 percent solar yield which is 0.9 x 2320w =2,088 W. Now you must consider inefficiencies when converting current and voltage to charge the batteries. Expensive inverters and solar charge controllers like those made by victron offer way higher conversion efficiency. But, most cheaper inverters we use offer poor efficiency. So let’s go with 85 percent conversion efficiency. We have 0.85 x 2088w=1,774.8 W. Since you battery is 51.2v, it will charge at average of 53v so we have, 1,774.8w / 53v = 33.4 amps.

Take note of the figure 33.4 amps. If you go with the 7.5kwh battery which is 150ah. It will take up to 150ah / 33.4amps = 4.5hrs sunlight to charge. Now notice if you go with the 20kwh battery which is 400ah it will take up to 400ah / 33.4amps = 12hrs sunlight to charge

This above is only accurate if you are not running a single day time load. Once you are running a load during the day eg your freezer is turned on. Then, your 1,774.8w from solar panel will need to power those loads first, before sending the balance to the battery, meaning you will be looking at 27amps or even just 25amps charging current.

Now, not all sunlight is equal. Just because it’s daytime doesn’t mean you will be generating such high sustained figures. For a fact, you can only expect such sustained performance all day only during the dry season in the south, except you are living up north in Nigeria.

We can therefore conclude that your solar panel is completely underpowered.

How to size your solar panels : I will give you my personal calculation that works for me always. If you are resident in the south of Nigeria, size your panels to fully charge your batteries with just 1.8hrs of sunlight i.e 1hr 48mins of sustained peak solar pv should charge your battery to full. If you are in the North use 2.5hrs of sunlight for your calculation.

This means that, to size your panels divide your total battery capacity by 1.8 if you live in the south and 2.5 if you live in the north. So 20kwh battery / 1.8 = 11,000w total panels and 7.5kwh battery / 1.8 = 4,160w total panels.

I can assure you, if you size your panels this way and factor in days of autonomy for battery size. Come rain come sun, out of 365 days a year, you will always get full charge for a minimum of 340 days. The remaining less than 25days which translates to 4 times a month in the rainy season, you can expect minimum of 50 percent charge.

Regarding questions 2 and 3. Do not buy from some alaba marketers, to be safe just go straight to their official distributors and buy from them. I have seen situations where they print new stickers with higher capacity and paste on their batteries to deceive unsuspecting customers. Do you research and ensure you purchase from the right source or you will not get value for your money. For the inverter part, you can maybe google search the name of the inverter and add words like ‘repair’ , ‘fault’ , ‘common issues’, ‘problems’ and see if you can find any known issues documented online. This is a neat trick for researching any electrical device you intend to buy.

*sorry for any typos, I didn’t proofread this.

The advantage of my properly sized ess. It has been raining since morning, however the rain has just stopped for an hour but you can see that in that 1 hour of less than ideal solar irradiation, the inverter has been able to store 100ah into the battery. Now, surely the rain will continue in the next hour or two, but between now and that time, I would have a full charge. This is despite 5 days straight of daily rainfall, I still get 100 percent charge within the very few windows of sunshine when the rain stops then continues.

The other thing is to make sure you always use quality panels, you can see my jinko PV1 is producing 5,156w out of a rated 5,280w. PV2 is also producing similar and all these is with the heavy loads in the house turned on.

justcallmenuel:
220Ah 12v super speed tubular battery available, #250,000. Call/whatsapp me on 08168986461

Do you offer warranty?

Dam5reey1:
Ibadan

DIY Build

Are the 2 batteries connected or u retiring the sako?

Ithream:


I was discouraged by the prices. Moreover there is light in my area to an extent. Instead I add on top the money go buy land in one area of Ogun state. I’m now a landlord instead of a solarlord.

Omo

Solar lord

Ithream:


I was discouraged by the prices. Moreover there is light in my area to an extent. Instead I add on top the money go buy land in one area of Ogun state. I’m now a landlord instead of a solarlord.

I support your mind set. Landed property to me is better investment. if you still single, and not a family man, you could get away with spending much less or focus on other more important things.

At least you reason go that side. Not everyone does

Drgreatone:

Are the 2 batteries connected or u retiring the sako?

Both in parallel.