omotech:
Thank you for your response, please can you tell me how much you buy it from eBay don't be offended by my question

omotech:
Thank you for your response, please can you tell me how much you buy it from eBay don't be offended by my question

chris81964:


Why would I be offended. Here is the link.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321761965999?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=510670513501&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

tivta:


Please remember, Nigeria uses 220/240V not 110/120V

bigrovar:
Happy new year all the Pro and DIY gurus in the house. I have been following this thread from the sidelines for a very long time now while I put together my first renewable energy system.

I have very little electrical background coming mostly from IT. The idea is to have a very small offgrid system which will power essential appliances in my house. Basically Home Entertainment system and Lights. I knew for a long time that my future would be renewable and to prepare for this, I gradually installed energy efficient 8w philips bulbs in my house. I also have a 43inch LED tv, a 1100watt 5.1 sound system, a laptop acting as a media center, and a dstv satellite reciever. From my estimate my total load for this system would be Max 600w. I have 90% of the component I require for this project which I intend to DIY with an electrician friend who will assist with grounding and other areas. I would appreciate if all the gurus can looking into my plan and point out areas I can makde improvements etc

Design:

PV
I have 2 240w polycrystalline panels with the following specs
VMP=30.1
IMP=7.78

I intend to have the panels mounted on the ground. Reason for ground mounting are as follow:
* South facing part of my roof is completely shaded by 15:00 till sun set. (This is pretty much the main reason)
* Since it is a rented apartment, not comfortable with tempering with the roof
*Easy access to panels to carry out cleaning (Abuja can be very dusty) and ease of removal in case I leave the premise
* Phobia for height

Wiring, Distance and Losses
The estimated length of wire which would be required to the power from PV to CC should be about 60feet. Hence I intend to connect the panels in series to reduce resistance and allow me use a 6mm cable with estimated loss of 3-5% (depending on the weather, position of the sun etc). I plan to use 10mm between the controllers and the batteries and batteries and inverter.

Charge controller
3215RN Epsolar MPPT rated at 30A

Batteries:
2 200AH SMF Sukam (I know I know - But it is what I could afford) Deep cycle batteries, connected in parallel

Inverter
12v Sukam 1050v falcon plus inverter: would of loved to use something more industry standard but had to keep the setup within my budget. The falcon plus seem to be the best option availble to me (from all the low end inverter models out there) and here is why. It has built in temperature sensor for ATC and a SMPS for power factor correction and does the "6 stage charge" at least according to this review http://upsinverterinfo.com/su-kam-falcon-plus-inverter-unbiased-indepth-review.html It also could work in low current between 90v -240v. Anyway based on my budget it was what I could afford.

Charge current = 14A

Protection and Safety:

I put a 10A Cbi vdc breaker between PV and CC, a 40A Cbi vdc breaker between CC and Battery, and a 63 vdc Cbi Breaker between Inverter and Battery.

I also intend to put a 15A AC breaker between Grid and Inverter and a 20A AC breaker between Inverter and Load.

I also intend to ground all the equipment from the panel frames to the panel, cc and inverter.

Infuture and close to raining season I hope to get a thunder arrestor

I intend to have all the load the inverter would be powering to terminate to a separate DB from the main house DB. This is meant to reduce issues of overloading the Inverter since only the load to be powered by the Inverter will be terminated to the inverter nothing more.

Run time: I intend for the backup time for the system to be 6 hours. My max load is 450w.. lets say less than 500w * 6 = 3000 / 12 = 250ah.
Because I have a battery bank of 400ah. I hope to ensure I don't pass the 62.7 state of discharge.

considering that I will not be running all the loads at the same time. I expect the state of discharge threshold to be close to the 50% mark.

When am out during the day, I might consider running the freezer with a timer based plug and set it to run between 12-14:00 depending on the weather.

What I have:
CC, Breakers, Panels,Inverter, Cables.

What am expecting:

Ordered 10 mc4 connectors from Aliexpress, a Killawatt meter, an MC4 Crimping tool and MC4 disconnect wrench.

I hope to start the setup and installation once the tools arrive.

There is pretty much my solar plan. I would appreciate if all the gurus look through and point out mistakes and suggestions.

I have attached a schematics of the project.

abunafiu:


A brilliant analysis. I personally appreciate the way you explained every bit in ur post. You have done nothing wrong sir. You have just demonstrated that one can start a solar power sytem even with a relatively small budget. I humbly request you come back with results so that many other sideline readers can equally benefit.
Being in a rented apartment is not a barrier at all.
waiting for ur results sir. Meanwhile, permit me to share ur story on my facebook page.

Saipro:


A motivating story too. Abunafiu here is aware I ran a modified sine-wave inverter for about 13 years until I switched to LED lights (which don't do well on anything but pure sine-wave power).

My initial package was a 12V QVC (Chinese product) inverter with two truck batteries. Nifty product with surprisingly robust performance. Made my fans hum like crazy though. Over the years, I swapped out many of these 200Ah 1V truck batteries only to realise both the type of battery and charging current were wrong. My bad. I had to work within both my budget and knowledge. And "available resources" (who had ever seen an RE battery then?)

Then came in this Mercury inverter. 24V with a lot of promise. Didn't take long for me to trash it and return to the QVC. Moved on to a 24V Sukam Falcon. Beautiful inverter with excellent performance. If only the charge current could be higher, I'd have stuck with it. All these were done with max expenditure of N150,000 at any point in time. Somewhere along the line, I discovered LiFePO4 batteries. I kid you not when I say they are the best there is. Four of these babies would power my house nonstop for 60 hours. Best of all, they can be discharged up 80% (20% SoC) with insignificant degradation in performance. Mine even had automatic cutoff at 90% discharge. They also cost a fortune so I wouldn't recommend them unless you have a need for them.

Then I met Abunafiu. I had never seen anyone use 16 RE batteries for anything other than commercial purposes before then. I found motivation and, with his urging, I tossed out my batteries and inverter and went for broke. Equipment supplied by Frankie. 8 RE batteries and a 3kW PowerStar inverter later, I was smiling to the heavens. Heck, the inverter even had variable charging current adjustment. Didn't come cheap but certainly affordable.

Two months later, I acquired 240W PV panels × 6 and an iTracer IT6415ND CC. Double-shielded 10mm telecom cables link the panels to the CC. CC, inverter and interconnects are linked via 35mm cables. Batteries linked via 50mm cables. Courtesy of extensive research and Abunafiu's urging that I should get the best I could afford. A month later, I added 3 more solar panels.

While writing this article, power supply has been muck in my neighbourhood and this is my 7th day off-grid with uninterrupted power supply. My record is 10 days (not because I had to switch but because grid power was restored).

Boil water in electric kettles in the morning (1kw and 1.2kW ratings), fridge and freezer come on by 9am - 10am, pump water around midday and I power the washing machine whenever I desire). Routine devices are powered at will. Even when there's grid supply, I routinely switch to backup power at night because at some variable point during the night, the power would go off and I can't be bothered to get up and switch over.

CF bulbs are important and I spent about N45,000 five years ago to change all my bulbs to A-grade types. Two months ago, I spent much more than that to swap them out for LED bulbs and lamps. No regrets. Interestingly, most of my original CF bulbs (now five years old) are very alive. Changed about 10% in five years. Had to give them all out.

My point? It's true going green is capital intensive but you really can start not only small but equip yourself in stages. With the mounting global energy crises, we all should give renewable energy more than just a thought (wind and micro-hydro are viable alternatives I've seen in action).

Saipro:



Boil water in electric kettles in the morning (1kw and 1.2kW ratings), fridge and freezer come on by 9am - 10am,

Saipro:


Somewhere along the line, I discovered LiFePO4 batteries. I kid you not when I say they are the best there is. Four of these babies would power my house nonstop for 60 hours. Best of all, they can be discharged up 80% (20% SoC) with insignificant degradation in performance. Mine even had automatic cutoff at 90% discharge. They also cost a fortune so I wouldn't recommend them unless you have a need for them.

AkoEja:
Dear gurus in the forum. Can anyone recommend the best battery to me? I am in need of a bank of four 200ah batteries urgently (next 24 hour's or so.) I am in ibadan but could travel to lagos to buy.
I basically want the most reliable maintenance free battery that will last longer than the usual Indian/Chinese batteries like Sukam, Zenith and Nexus ones

jazzman2:


Compliments of the season Saipro, please can you shed more light on the LiFePo4 batteries you used: specifications, vendor and price (if you allow)? Thanks

Expertt:
Happy new year Gurus in the house. I stumbled upon this solar inverter (MUST PV18-4K/5K) and I would like to know if any body has used it. and according to the manufacturer Mustpower http://www.mustpower.com/pv1800-5kva-off-grid-solar-inverter-application/ you can parallel up to 4 units. I want to power a load of up to 3kilowatts 24/7 so that's why I am considering this unit. Money is actually a constraint so I am thinking of expanding by adding additional units over time. Is there any disadvantage in parallel inverter?. What is the estimate of batteries and panels that will power this 3kilowatt load, note the load includes heaters, water pumps, freezers. lights etc.

Saipro:


A motivating story too. Abunafiu here is aware I ran a modified sine-wave inverter for about 13 years until I switched to LED lights (which don't do well on anything but pure sine-wave power).

My initial package was a 12V QVC (Chinese product) inverter with two truck batteries. Nifty product with surprisingly robust performance. Made my fans hum like crazy though. Over the years, I swapped out many of these 200Ah 1V truck batteries only to realise both the type of battery and charging current were wrong. My bad. I had to work within both my budget and knowledge. And "available resources" (who had ever seen an RE battery then?)

Then came in this Mercury inverter. 24V with a lot of promise. Didn't take long for me to trash it and return to the QVC. Moved on to a 24V Sukam Falcon. Beautiful inverter with excellent performance. If only the charge current could be higher, I'd have stuck with it. All these were done with max expenditure of N150,000 at any point in time. Somewhere along the line, I discovered LiFePO4 batteries. I kid you not when I say they are the best there is. Four of these babies would power my house nonstop for 60 hours. Best of all, they can be discharged up 80% (20% SoC) with insignificant degradation in performance. Mine even had automatic cutoff at 90% discharge. They also cost a fortune so I wouldn't recommend them unless you have a need for them.

Then I met Abunafiu. I had never seen anyone use 16 RE batteries for anything other than commercial purposes before then. I found motivation and, with his urging, I tossed out my batteries and inverter and went for broke. Equipment supplied by Frankie. 8 RE batteries and a 3kW PowerStar inverter later, I was smiling to the heavens. Heck, the inverter even had variable charging current adjustment. Didn't come cheap but certainly affordable.

Two months later, I acquired 240W PV panels × 6 and an iTracer IT6415ND CC. Double-shielded 10mm telecom cables link the panels to the CC. CC, inverter and interconnects are linked via 35mm cables. Batteries linked via 50mm cables. Courtesy of extensive research and Abunafiu's urging that I should get the best I could afford. A month later, I added 3 more solar panels.

While writing this article, power supply has been muck in my neighbourhood and this is my 7th day off-grid with uninterrupted power supply. My record is 10 days (not because I had to switch but because grid power was restored).

Boil water in electric kettles in the morning (1kw and 1.2kW ratings), fridge and freezer come on by 9am - 10am, pump water around midday and I power the washing machine whenever I desire). Routine devices are powered at will. Even when there's grid supply, I routinely switch to backup power at night because at some variable point during the night, the power would go off and I can't be bothered to get up and switch over.

CF bulbs are important and I spent about N45,000 five years ago to change all my bulbs to A-grade types. Two months ago, I spent much more than that to swap them out for LED bulbs and lamps. No regrets. Interestingly, most of my original CF bulbs (now five years old) are very alive. Changed about 10% in five years. Had to give them all out.

My point? It's true going green is capital intensive but you really can start not only small but equip yourself in stages. With the mounting global energy crises, we all should give renewable energy more than just a thought (wind and micro-hydro are viable alternatives I've seen in action).

Liveair:
Guys I need a Good 160Amp, 24volt Charge Controller.
I have a 3.2kw solar array and its a 24v system.

JUO:
[
JUO:
Hello friends.
I hereby introduce this piece of a gadget to you.
I have been testing this small but mighty machine for over 3 weeks now.
The results turns out to be impressive.
I have a few number of them for sale to anyone interested.

It is 30 and 40amps mppt controller with additional features of equalization of flooded batteries 28 days and inbuilt display .

New Epsolar Tracer A series available. For small setup 12-24v. . Max pv input voltage 100v. 30a only 25k for the first buyer
Features:
• Advanced MPPT technology
• High tracking efficiency no less than 99.5%
• Peak conversion efficiency of 98%
• Ultra-fast tracking speed
• Accurately recognizing and tracking of multiple power point
• Multi-function LCD displays system information intuitively
• User programmable for battery types, load control etc.
• 3-Stage charge with PWM output
• Common positive grounding design
• RS485 port with industrial standard MODBUS open architecture
• Fully programmable function via PC software or remote meter

Electronic protections:
• PV reverse polarity protection
• PV short circuit protection
• PV over current alarm protection
• Battery overcharge protection
• Battery over discharge protection
• Battery reverse polarity protection
• Load short circuit protection
• Load overload protection
• Overheating protection

N.B Remote not included
o8o-987-33709

][/quote
Super device, you need to see this little machine in action

JUO:
Since your solar is 3.2kw and your system is 24v. Why not use 3*40a? I have 40a epsolar that can max out 1000w on 24v. You can even start with one or two and upgrade as time goes on. Good luck

Liveair:


Hi JUO,
I desist from using several units of Charge Controllers together on same batt bank to avoid Cut-Out interactions.

When one Controller sees voltage from another (instead of batt voltage) as High Enough Voltage and then cuts charging.
This is similar to what you get connecting a batt charger to Solar setup.

AkoEja:
Dear gurus in the forum. Can anyone recommend the best battery to me? I am in need of a bank of four 200ah batteries urgently (next 24 hour's or so.) I am in ibadan but could travel to lagos to buy.
I basically want the most reliable maintenance free battery that will last longer than the usual Indian/Chinese batteries like Sukam, Zenith and Nexus ones

AkoEja:

I really need batteries I can buy in Nigeria now. I believe there are people here using maintenance free batteries and van recommend the best ones

bisiriyuahmed6:
I will be happy if U help me out
anybody with full address of BUYRIGHT BIZ should help me out?

am living in Agege Lagos

so I will be able to locate the place easily

I wanted to no if I can get this size of inverter battery (120ah, 150ah, 180ah) from buyrightbiz?

Product to go for?

bigrovar:
Solar inverters was one of the things I considered when planning my project. In fact it was what first draw me to starting the project. I wanted something simple easy and off the shelve. I considered Su-kam Brainy, MPP And Voltronic. The latter two are Chinese brand and bear a close resemblance to the must power posted. In the end I decided to go with the traditional offgrid setup. The most impressive of the hybrid inverters was the su-kam brainy 1100 which is not available in the Nigerian market. That shit had some smart features like ability to run your house completely off solar if you are producing enough energy and other smart priority settings. But my issue with them all is they all come with PWM CC which limits the type of panels you can use with them. For a simple setup they are very ideal. Although u have to be careful.. Most of this Chinese brand are known to fail after 6 month. The only product which seem to be very popular is Voltronic and their Axpert series which is hugely popular in south africa. And also sold in Nigeria as Ipowerplus by zinox computers.

Expertt:


Thanks.
The solar inverter is actually MPPT, but the failure rate is what I really need to know before investing on it.

kiekie1:


Hello, yes you are right but it solely depends on your budget ... We have German hoppecke 12v 150a sealed batteries and 12v Indian exide batteries in Index NXT"1yr warranty" & Index XHD"3yrs warranty" models . contact me if interested ! Thanks

tivta:

So you use your fridge and freezer for just an hour every day?

jazzman2:

Compliments of the season Saipro, please can you shed more light on the LiFePo4 batteries you used: specifications, vendor and price (if you allow)? Thanks

Saipro:


Thanks for asking rather than assuming.

No, when home, I power them on between 9am and 10am. They are powered down between 3pm and 5pm (mostly around 3pm for the freezer and around 4pm for the fridge). Earlier in the year, they could be powered an hour longer as my panels don't get shadowed till 5pm. On bad weather days, they could be on for as little as 2 hours.

When away, they're powered by timer switches.



Very valid question. I deliberately kept it short.
1. They're generic batteries hence "unbranded".
2. I got them off a friend who got them off the black market.
3. They appear to no longer be in the Nigerian market and the cost of importing them prove prohibitive.
4. They came in 12V 480Wh units but pack a punch! You wouldn't believe the stuff these batteries are capable of. I often doubt their power capacity (I suspect they're higher than rated; much higher).
5. I had to string quite a number together in series-parallel combinations because of their lower capacities. Multiple strings are a strongly discouraged practice in RE and should not be emulated. I was hedged into a corner hence had no choice.

On the plus:
1. Though expensive, they're long lasting and ultimately more convenient than lead acid batteries. I'm speaking of design life.
2. They typically have longer cycle life too (they had better do, not at that price)
3. They are incredibly lightweight. You will doubt their capability when lifting them
4. No mess, no spills
5. If you bottom-balance (as I did), you might not have to worry about "equalling" their charge state
6. Did I mention they're odourless too?
7. Smaller space requirements and no need for extensive aeration like their lead brothers. They're just as sensitive to temperature though.
8. Working with partial state of charge? 50% of the time, mine were never fully charged. Indeed, they like being not fully charged. No noticeable degradation in performance with partial SoC.
9. By the way, they can sit on the shelf forever with low self-discharge rates. This is different from design life and cycle life. Good riddance to hard sulphation!
10. ....... and the list goes on.

Honestly, if not for their price, lead-acid batteries would be redundant by now. Well, lead-acid wins when it comes to heavy current draw applications. LiFePO4 (like AGM and VRLA) however are intolerant of long spells of overcharging. Another win for FLA. And FLA are cheap (probably the most important point, if you don't abuse them; no battery is built for abuse).

I have a new interest though.
I'm currently following Tesla technology and I have my eye on it. Been following it awhile and will continue to.

AkoEja:
Teslas battery tech is based on lithium ion battery tech- the type used in laptop. I am surprised there are not many manufacturers of similar large batteries. Tesla is like the iPhone of renewable energy packaging an old technology in a sexy form and hyping it's capability and price beyond what it is. The 10kwh battery is priced at $3500 in America which is rather steep for a relatively small battery by renewable energy standards

Saipro:


Exactly. The main reason I have my eye on it. New technology is often expensive on account of recouping research and development costs (not as if the technology in this case is really "new". Watching keenly for when the market breaks and the price crashes.

By the way, I made slight modifications to my post while you were posting yours

AkoEja:
Teslas battery tech is based on lithium ion battery tech- the type used in laptop. I am surprised there are not many manufacturers of similar large batteries. Tesla is like the iPhone of renewable energy packaging an old technology in a sexy form and hyping it's capability and price beyond what it is. The 10kwh battery is priced at $3500 in America which is rather steep for a relatively small battery by renewable energy standards