DMerciful:
Low voltage

On point!

Refa:
Thanks to you all. I really feel at home here. I started with a 2000W 24V cotek inverter, a 30A Stecca PWM CC, 4X410AH (6V) battery, and 1400W mix solar panels. I need only lights and a few fans at the time for the place since I was living there less than half there only half the year at the time. It worked out well till battery maintenance started giving me issues. I had a few guys I had trained to do the maintenance, but neglected to do as long as they had lights. I sold most of my items to friends and family, used some to batter trade for building materials and when I replaced it with my current system; 8x430AH Crown Batteries, 3xMorningstar 60A MPPt CC, 1 Magnum 4448MPAE, 15x435 solar panels (these are rebranded Sunpower panels). I use the batteries for only Funs, TV, Lights in the night. The AC can be used during the day for about 4 hours and I do washing and ironing only during the day. The Fridge and the Freezer are on timers so they come on at 6:30 in the morning and go of at 7PM. The batteries are always are always between 50.8 and 51.2V in the morning. 2x35w flood lamps are on through the night and 6x35W flood lamps with motion sensors and photocell on all the time. I wired my place 110V since am not on the grid and most if not all my appliances are from the States. The 110V appliances also deters theft in my absence.

How I love the statements in bold. You're my kind of guy.

abunafiu:
Time to review the performance of Trojan batteries. Installed mine in June 2014. I just retired 2 units out of 16.
I now run a 42v system. Had to tweak my cc to effectively work at this level (thanks to Saipro).
My inverter now beeps Low Battery alarm for almost 24hrs.
Considering all I have read about Trojans especially about maintenance, I feel it's too early (abi na recession cause am).
Brothers in d house, let's see how well your Trojans have served or is serving you.

My system is a smaller version of yours. A few months younger too. Deliberately designed so we can have fair comparisons over time and if possible, chart a roadmap for reference - the Ilorin perspective. Incidentally, I run a 42V system too, one of my T105-RE Trojan batteries having given out prematurely (it had defects ab initio). My inverter is the RE version of Abunafiu's own so the high and low alarm points are higher and lower respectively.
Undeterred, map charting continues and we shall soon have a reference guide for running sub-optimal setup (salvaged systems so to speak). Game on!

GeorgeD1:
all,

those rooting for lithium batteries should know they have limitations too.

for instance, they don't handle overcharging very well and you'll have to
install additional voltage and charging current controls that you don't need
when it comes to traditional lead-acid.

bottom line, do your research very well before throwing your money away.
google is your friend!

I have no problem with overcharging as Midnite CC's are quite adept at handling almost anything thrown at them. I've actually run an experimental system before and this is what I can tell you - LiFePO batteries are prone to charge imbalance. If uncorrected soon, the beginning of the end sets in. And no sir, you cannot equalize. I had to invest a little (translated as reasonable sum) to get balancer/charger combos to keep things in order. This much trouble over a single string setup. Imagine if I had parallel strings. Asides that singular shortcoming, they're probably the best thing since pants were invented.

PS: I have a lot of cordless tools using Li batteries and yup, you guessed it, the batteries are the bane of their existence. Next thing you know, they're crazily out of sync despite silly complex boards in the battery packs themselves. Seems those things are good only for shutting them down when one discharges too deep hence killing the whole pack. And to prevent overcharging. The previous NiCd batteries were much less of a hassle (zero maintenance) but required frequent recharges. Heavier too.

Refa:
Hi all,
I came across this and thought it will be an interesting read for the house.
http://blog.evandmore.com/lets-talk-about-the-panasonic-ncr18650b/

These are the same batteries in the Tesla vehicles & power wall, the Volt and the leaf use the LiFePO4 pouch/prismatic cells which is recommended by a few in other forums as it offers more cycle life than the 18650 batteries (Tesla battery). All these batteries have their down sides and advantages; Pb acid batteries won't burn your house down but the the lithium ion batteries have the potential to do that if the right charging parameters are not observed. That being said, if the favorable lithium ion charge/discharge parameters are observed; the cost per kwh in the life of the Li ion battery is cheaper than the Pb acid batteries.

The ruggedness of the PbSO₄ is its main appeal. The light weight and ability to sit for long without a trickle charge are my own merits for even considering Li batteries. As you've said, they're quite liable to start fires (seen that with smaller ones in laptops and phone/laptop power banks) and have a low tolerance for heat despite the fact that they heat up quite easily.

DMerciful:
Seems flooded battery longevity is overrated . for goodness sake how can you off your inverter when there is no light ? to stay in darkness?In truth we need focus in this area as the cost of going green comparatively threatened by battery replacement. Lithium battery may be the way forward!

Everything has plus and minus. FLA are quite rugged but they require attention and you must be on top of your maintenance with distilled water and equalisation... Also have an hydrometer handy to periodically check that all your cells are equally getting same charge and same GS level (AGM batteries don't require the type of baby sitting)

Further more and most importantly is how you charge and discharge your FLA (or any battery) most people focus on battery depth of discharge but little is done to ensure that the battery is being discharged within recommended limits. Most FLA batteries are rated C20 @25c which means the AH value of the battery is dependent on discharging them within C20 under a relative 25C temperature.

This is where sizing your system is very important. In my case my battery is 220 at C20 meaning my discharge rate should be no more than 11AH (@24v)
Hence at no point in time do I allow my battery to be discharged above 8AH.. in fact most of my discharge stand at 4 to 5ah (about 100w to 125w) only time my system shoots to 8ah discharge rate is when I have freezer on even then battery rarely gets discharged up to the 200w treshold.

If you have a C20 battery and you discharge at a rate higher than C20 not only does the rated AH not apply you are also wearing out the battery faster.

This is where renewable energy users have to pay serious attention to how u optimize and conserve load. It's not enough to just get energy efficient light bulbs. Everything should be efficient. It's cheaper to conserve than to generate and store. The 50k I spent on getting rechargeable fan which use 25% of what my ceiling fan uses allows me to run my batteries at C40 prolonging its life while at the same time enjoying reasonable comfort. My 43 inch led TV + dstv HD and 1200w 5.1 sound Surround system all use less than 60w. No light bulb in my house is above 8w. Security light are provided by solar led outdoor light with motion sensors so about 600w saved

Lastly I have a small battery monitor with a shunt which allows me keep an handle on battery voltage, rate and depth of battery discharge. Since I started measurement my dod has never been more than 45% in fact day on day dod is 35% - 25% of battery capacity and believe me my system often runs 24 hours especially when grid has issues (during the day I sometimes generate enough to use and charge my battery). My battery rest voltage barely drops below 24.8v and because my daily consumption is little it's easier to generate and give back to the system hence my battery gets to float every single day. And no my array are very small just 660w.. but thanks to Abuja sun with optimization in mount system making my panels easy to clean and air cooled I generate an average 2300wh of energy everyday to replace my daily consumption of about 1800wh

Having a handle on my load and consumption completely removed the need for LVD. But as my family gets bigger and less trained and oriented folks show up to pay homepage to our latest member I might need one. My inverter allows me to set LVD to 23v but that's a no-no.
I just ordered victron energy battery monitor. The system is just like the Trimetric but with additional features and cheaper. It keeps a 30 day detailed statistics log charge and of usage (hope to review it here)
Unlike the monitor I use which monitors only rate and depth of discharge, this system monitors both.. I get to see what goes in and comes out of the battery

it also has a relay out which allows me to have a solid state relay to disconnect my inverter when battery ah drops to say 60% state of charge.

The new battery monitor, a new 60/150v "Fangtron" MPPT controller and an additional 250w panel are some of the investment I hope to add to my system first quarter this year. I will definitely share here how it all went.

43 inch led TV, dstv, 2 fan and 4 lighting point all for less than 107w. Battery being discharged at less than C40 (c55 to be exact) less stress on the battery mean they last longer.

Interestingly the 32 inch LCD TV in my room uses 84w (about 80% of above load) and ceiling fan uses about 75w ... Efficiency should never be understated.

Interesting writeup.....good points you mentioned. Expecting those reviews

bigrovar:


Everything has plus and minus. FLA are quite rugged but they require attention and you must be on top of your maintenance with distilled water and equalisation... Also have an hydrometer handy to periodically check that all your cells are equally getting same charge and same GS level (AGM batteries don't require the type of baby sitting)

Further more and most importantly is how you charge and discharge your FLA (or any battery) most people focus on battery depth of discharge but little is done to ensure that the battery is being discharged within recommended limits. Most FLA batteries are rated C20 @25c which means the AH value of the battery is dependent on discharging them within C20 under a relative 25C temperature.

This is where sizing your system is very important. In my case my battery is 220 at C20 meaning my discharge rate should be no more than 11AH (@24v)
Hence at no point in time do I allow my battery to be discharged above 8AH.. in fact most of my discharge stand at 4 to 5ah (about 100w to 125w) only time my system shoots to 8ah discharge rate is when I have freezer on even then battery rarely gets discharged up to the 200w treshold.

If you have a C20 battery and you discharge at a rate higher than C20 not only does the rated AH not apply you are also wearing out the battery faster.

This is where renewable energy users have to pay serious attention to how u optimize and conserve load. It's not enough to just get energy efficient light bulbs. Everything should be efficient. It's cheaper to conserve than to generate and store. The 50k I spent on getting rechargeable fan which use 25% of what my ceiling fan uses allows me to run my batteries at C40 prolonging its life while at the same time enjoying reasonable comfort. My 43 inch led TV + dstv HD and 1200w 5.1 sound Surround system all use less than 60w. No light bulb in my house is above 8w. Security light are provided by solar led outdoor light with motion sensors so about 600w saved

Lastly I have a small battery monitor with a shunt which allows me keep an handle on battery voltage, rate and depth of battery discharge. Since I started measurement my dod has never been more than 45% in fact day on day dod is 35% - 25% of battery capacity and believe me my system often runs 24 hours especially when grid has issues (during the day I sometimes generate enough to use and charge my battery). My battery rest voltage barely drops below 24.8v and because my daily consumption is little it's easier to generate and give back to the system hence my battery gets to float every single day. And no my array are very small just 660w.. but thanks to Abuja sun with optimization in mount system making my panels easy to clean and air cooled I generate an average 2300wh of energy everyday to replace my daily consumption of about 1800wh

Having a handle on my load and consumption completely removed the need for LVD. But as my family gets bigger and less trained and oriented folks show up to pay homepage to our latest member I might need one. My inverter allows me to set LVD to 23v but that's a no-no.
I just ordered victron energy battery monitor. The system is just like the Trimetric but with additional features and cheaper. It keeps a 30 day detailed statistics log charge and of usage (hope to review it here)
Unlike the monitor I use which monitors only rate and depth of discharge, this system monitors both.. I get to see what goes in and comes out of the battery

it also has a relay out which allows me to have a solid state relay to disconnect my inverter when battery ah drops to say 60% state of charge.

The new battery monitor, a new 60/150v "Fangtron" MPPT controller and an additional 250w panel are some of the investment I hope to add to my system first quarter this year. I will definitely share here how it all went.

abunafiu:
Installed 8 units of J185 Trojans in August 2014, yesterday had to retire 4 of them. 3 were reading below 10v on on load. Despite regular maintenance and equalisation.
How is it on the other side?.
This flooded whaala Don dey pass my power Oo.

Abu wow really surprised at this. The all powerful Trojans which have become industry standard are known to take various forms of Abuse and still work fine.

If there is no known factory defect for the failure of your Trojans I think you should look at the inverter you are using. When I was using my Axpert inverter my batteries were not being fully charged and I could not retain charge cycle use of my 8 mercury tubular flooded batteries but since I moved to the Outback inverter I am yet to get a Low Battery cut off trigger.

Unfortunately most of the inverters that are not pro, out there do not go through a true 3/4 stage charging process thereby killing off batteries in a short while.

To change out batteries are very expensive so try using a desulphator to see if they can be revived before you change them out Chris81964 has done some videos on his company site of reviving dead batteries using a desulphator so you can check this out to see if it helps.

You can also take a look at this article below http://usbattery.com/us-battery-products-continue-working-after-nearly-ten-years/ if you decide to change out your batteries. I believe you have commented befit on us batteries before.

All the best

DMerciful:
Seems flooded battery longevity is overrated . for goodness sake how can you off your inverter when there is no light ? to stay in darkness?In truth we need focus in this area as the cost of going green is comparatively being threatened by battery replacement. Lithium battery LiFeO4 may be the way forward!

True talk
No amount of pampering
Batteries don't outlive their span particularly
ones available locally.
I fear for the quality of Li-fePo when it becomes locally available.

DUNKA:
Abu wow really surprised at this. The all powerful Trojans which have become industry standard are known to take various forms of Abuse and still work fine.

If there is no known factory defect for the failure of your Trojans I think you should look at the inverter you are using. When I was using my Axpert inverter my batteries were not being fully charged and I could not retain charge cycle use of my 8 mercury tubular flooded batteries but since I moved to the Outback inverter I am yet to get a Low Battery cut off trigger.

Unfortunately most of the inverters that are not pro, out there do not go through a true 3/4 stage charging process thereby killing off batteries in a short while.

To change out batteries are very expensive so try using a desulphator to see if they can be revived before you change them out Chris81964 has done some videos on his company site of reviving dead batteries using a desulphator so you can check this out to see if it helps.

You can also take a look at this article below http://usbattery.com/us-battery-products-continue-working-after-nearly-ten-years/ if you decide to change out your batteries. I believe you have commented befit on us batteries before.

All the best

Very true about axpert inverters. Anyone using them as sole source for charging FLA is asking for trouble. They can't do more than 28.8v charge making them ideal for AGM batteries .. they can't even equalise your FLA. For me I use sukam and tracer. Sukam does bulk charge when power is available Tracer MPPT complete the absorption state of charge at 29.2v and equalisation once a month at 32v

bigrovar:


Very true about axpert inverters. Anyone using them as sole source for charging FLA is asking for trouble. They can't do more than 28.8v charge making them ideal for AGM batteries .. they can't even equalise your FLA. For me I use sukam and tracer. Sukam does bulk charge when power is available Tracer MPPT complete the absorption state of charge at 29.2v and equalisation once a month at 32v

Please change your misconception about the Axpert. The newer models have 31V as the max and for the US battery inverter it is more than adequate. I have programmed absorbption to maximum time on the Axpert to allow me to compensate

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bigrovar:
43 inch led TV, dstv, 2 fan and 4 lighting point all for less than 107w. Battery being discharged at less than C40 (c55 to be exact) less stress on the battery mean they last longer.

Interestingly the 32 inch LCD TV in my room uses 84w (about 80% of above load) and ceiling fan uses about 75w ... Efficiency should never be understated.

hahahah
I think my bros Abu killed his batteries with load.
Check mine out, 1 led tv 32", 1 decoder, 2 energy efficient ceiling fan. 2 led bulb

2017 must not be a year of darkness in your homes. Move ahead of the national epileptic power supply and enjoy uninterrupted power supply in your homes and offices. Talk to us at sototek energy ltd. and make the best out of this season.
Mobile: 07032687954
Email us: info@sototekng.com
You can also order for our inverter products on konga(just search sototek on konga).

Hello house. Please recommend a good energy meter that I can use to estimate my power usage and build an appropriately sized system

bigrovar:


Very true about axpert inverters. Anyone using them as sole source for charging FLA is asking for trouble. They can't do more than 28.8v charge making them ideal for AGM batteries .. they can't even equalise your FLA. For me I use sukam and tracer. Sukam does bulk charge when power is available Tracer MPPT complete the absorption state of charge at 29.2v and equalisation once a month at 32v

Good day sir, our new improved Axpert inverter has battery equalizaion feature and can charge up to 60v Thank you sir

We are officially a distributor and installer of Outback Power Inverters, Controller and Accessories. Inventory will be available in a few weeks.

Please enjoy the job we did last week in Port Harcourt. The customer has three phase into the house to power his Central AC systems and a single phase to power pumps, hot water heaters etc. The house has no tank, water is produced on demand by a pump. He need to have power 24/7.
He had spent two million Naira on Deka batteries and we did not think he should feed his Sukham these batteries for them to get destroyed.

So the first phase was to handle all the loads that were on a single phase using a Victron Quattro. A peak of 4000 watts. Use the gen as back up for when PHCN was absent or batteries fell below a programmed threshold.

The result is a happy customer.
Phase 2 is solar
Phase 3 is three phase

Enjoy the finished job

chris81964:
We are officially a distributor and installer of Outback Power Inverters, Controller and Accessories. Inventory will be available in a few weeks.

Good job.
I always know you
Don't compromise on quality.
Keep it up.

chris81964:
We are officially a distributor and installer of Outback Power Inverters, Controller and Accessories. Inventory will be available in a few weeks.

Please enjoy the job we did last week in Port Harcourt. The customer has three phase into the house to power his Central AC systems and a single phase to power pumps, hot water heaters etc. The house has no tank, water is produced on demand by a pump. He need to have power 24/7.
He had spent two million Naira on Deka batteries and we did not think he should feed his Sukham these batteries for them to get destroyed.

So the first phase was to handle all the loads that were on a single phase using a Victron Quattro. A peak of 4000 watts. Use the gen as back up for when PHCN was absent or batteries fell below a programmed threshold.

The result is a happy customer.
Phase 2 is solar
Phase 3 is three phase

Enjoy the finished job

excellent job

DUNKA:
excellent job

Thank you bro. Excited about the Outback opportunity we are hoping for a large scale deployment this quarter and a high visibility client

efuro:


Good job.
I always know you Don't compromise on quality.
Keep it up.

Thanks bro. Quality is our name and game. I appreciate you

Solid! Great job

chris81964:
We are officially a distributor and installer of Outback Power Inverters, Controller and Accessories. Inventory will be available in a few weeks.

Please enjoy the job we did last week in Port Harcourt. The customer has three phase into the house to power his Central AC systems and a single phase to power pumps, hot water heaters etc. The house has no tank, water is produced on demand by a pump. He need to have power 24/7.
He had spent two million Naira on Deka batteries and we did not think he should feed his Sukham these batteries for them to get destroyed.

So the first phase was to handle all the loads that were on a single phase using a Victron Quattro. A peak of 4000 watts. Use the gen as back up for when PHCN was absent or batteries fell below a programmed threshold.

The result is a happy customer.
Phase 2 is solar
Phase 3 is three phase

Enjoy the finished job

just an update . thnks to u guys generally. i have replaced the faulty battery on sunday. and i am still cruising at 100% soc by 9.15pm. with 2 tvs on and a fan. maybe battery still dey vex becos hin new....

DMerciful:
Solid! Great job

Thank you. We have a great team led by Ktech. The most meticulous young man you can find. Prince Azeco was right by his side. The installation was a breeze, the programming threw us a curve. Happy customer happy us.

Hi guyz. Pls i would like to know it wl cost to acquire a solar system that can power the ffl all at once @present day:
4 energybulbs
2 Lcd tvs+a decoder
a desktop pc
2laptops
3 rechargable fans+1 ceiling
***minimum 8 of 24hours will do***

samnaija:
just an update . thnks to u guys generally. i have replaced the faulty battery on sunday. and i am still cruising at 100% soc by 9.15pm. with 2 tvs on and a fan. maybe battery still dey vex becos hin new....

Good news! I understand pains of loosing a battery at this period of recession, also know the joy of having system back to normal spending less than what was anticipated because I was there few months ago.

My brother, please get a desulfator ASAP preferably Battery life saver (BLS). Desulfator MAY prevent future battery premature failure.

Which inverer are you using? Hope your inverter does not over discharge your batteries?

Professional inverter is the way if one can afford it.

@Ath thnks alot for all the advice my brother. am using an indian inverter kevin. discharge is is very minimal. i always monitor that. the bls any idea on the cost. again thnks for sharing from your experience it as helped alot.

@Samnaija
Check

Solardepotng.com
Konga.com

tundebabzy:
Hello house. Please recommend a good energy meter that I can use to estimate my power usage and build an appropriately sized system

Bump

tundebabzy:
Hello house. Please recommend a good energy meter that I can use to estimate my power usage and build an appropriately sized system

You can get a killawatt meter which would allow u check the wattage of each of your appliances it's not that expensive and very easy to use. I think Mr Frank once use to sell them. You can also find them on Konga