pato405:
Interesting!. I'm an enthusiast. What I particularly want to see you do here is to create awareness and understanding of basic calculations that must be grasped for an efficient instalation. e.g the wattage of solar panels required to work with the right amperage of charge controller versus accurate battery size and maximum current that can be delivered over 5-7hrs of sunlight (based on Nigeria's geographic location) to a battery and time to get it fully charged based on what battery size etc - the mathematical considerations so to speak.

Lionmarshal:
Hello... I would love to buy some components from you if you are close to Lagos ... and can I possibly use a 30amps charge controller for a 100watts panel and 100ahms battery? I need an urgent response as we need to buy those items this week.
I think of a higher controller should incase I decided to add more panels so that the same controller can still carry on with those panels ... so I need your advice

SolnergyPower:
Yes you can. Though judging from your question, you may need more clarification to set up your system if you are the one installation. May I know your intended configuration?

Lionmarshal:


I decided to start with a lower solar system to enable me power my 2 fan and 1 laptop ,a led tv, and like 3 bulbs max.... so from tutorial I watched
100watts panel
100ahms deep cycle battery
1000watts inverter
Charge controller size wasn't given in the tutorial ... so according to my plan, I want to use this a a start then later I might add like more panels that's is 100watts x3
And I wish to use a bigger controller at start so that later when adding the panels that same controller can still go on with the installation not required to replace..
So I need your urgent guidelines for me to set this up.. I also learned the solar system 8yrs back but didn't put into practice so I have almost forgotten everything.. need to set up this week to next week

SolnergyPower:
Batteries Charge Current
The charge current of a battery is determined by the size of the battery.

For the sake of this tutorial, we shall use a 200Ah battery.

There has been conflicting advise on the percentage of the amperage(Ah) of the battery that should be the charge current of the battery.

The charging current of a battery should be in-between 7% and 30% of the battery Ah.

An ampere hour(Ah) is the amount of energy charge in a battery that will allow one ampere of current to flow for one hour.

For this tutorial, we shall take 10% as our charge current.

So the charging current of a 200Ah battery is

200Ah x (10/100) = 20A.

Battery Charging Time
The simple formula to determine the charge time of a battery goes thus

Charging time of Battery = Battery Ah/Charging Current

ie

T=Ah/A.

The charging current of our 200Ah battery we calculated then was 20A. But due to losses, we can take 22A to 24A. So let's take 23A.

Therefore, the charging time of our battery will be

T=Ah/A

T=200Ah/23A

T= 8.9h (This an ideal situation)

Practically, it's noted that there is about 40% loss while batteries are charging. If we factor in this loss, we shall have...

200Ah x (40/100) = 80Ah,

Therefore the total Ah of our 200Ah battery now becomes

200Ah + 80Ah (losses) = 280Ah.

So the practical charging current of our 200Ah is

Charging time of Battery = Battery Ah/Charging Current

T=Ah/A.

T= 280/23

T=12.18h.

Note: This charge time is based on the fact that the battery was totally drained.

SolnergyPower:
Cables

What you need here is a type of cable called DC cable. Distinctively, it has multiple strands as shown in the image below. If you can't afford that, you can buy *flex* cable.

I'll recommend at least a 6mm cable, with higher loads set up (you want to use your inverter to power heavy loads like water pumping machine, AC etc) and want to draw current from the panels during sunny period, please use at least 10mm cable.

AKINSULU:
Good Evening. I want to mount a 300w solar panel over a distance of 30m from the controller. How many mm of cable do I use?

SolnergyPower:
10mm should do but preferably 16mm.

easybussiness:
3 in `1 hybrid inverter solar inverter charger 35,000 with display

SolnergyPower:
Please post its pictures.

Thank you.