abunafiu:
So many questions have been asked both online and offline about my 16 units of T105RE Trojan batteries.
Yes I have had some bad days with them. I had to retire 2 units when they were reading as low as 4v each.
I then connected 2 panels in parallel (200w/24v panel) to the batteries for almost 3 weeks. The highest I got was 14.7v.
Remember that I reconfigured my system to 42v which made my inverter cry low voltage all night.
Problem now started afresh when I noticed my Batts were low on distllied water and decided to top it. The whole system just start to misbehave. I almost gave up on them.
I then reunited the 2 units back to the system.
I was depressed by the whorible performance of the whole system. Imagine a battery bank you charge to 59v and absorbs for 2hrs+. Under a load of 1 fan, 1 TV , 1 fridge (less than 200w)...you will discover that by 8pm the battery is reading 49.5v. Before 49v was my battery voltage by 6am following day under same load. By 6am now, my battery reads 48v and most times less. All these events were recorded after topping up the water.
I just took k heart and began to use all I can generate per day.. That was d reason for my increased daily harvest I posted Few days ago.
Out of frustration I then read a post on an online forum where some one wrote that we (flooded users) we're mislead by the battery manufacturers with respect to charging algorithm especially for off grid applications.
The guy recommend higher absorb voltage and time. He never stated what voltage setting to adopt. But in my own case, I adopted 62.5v absorption voltage for 5 hrs( which means it's going to Gas all day).
After 4 days of using this setting I began to observe improvement since yestday that I had the courage of adding a small chest freezer to my load. In short the performance is encouraging.
Note: the 62.5v absorption voltage is a temporary setting which shall be reverted to 59v (Trojan recommended) when I achieve satisfactory performance and then hope to repeat this for 5 days in every 30 days to serve as equalisation.


This long story is to give every other silent Trojan user hope just like sir Chris AWPS always say. He said all you need to do is equalise them. But honestly I have been equalising with no result.

Maybe my new method might work for others too.

Pls remember to share your thoughts on this as well.
Cheers.

NB. When is the best time to top up with water. Trojans are known to drop in performance after topping but in few days (usually less than a week) it gets back to full performance.

I have been a bit busy. Was gonna call you directly but I figure we all reference this forum so I'll post here instead

- our Trojan T105-RE use 62V for equalisation (48V nominal bank). Means you went on a 5-day equalisation crusade. I've tried it before and the results weren't what I expected. A bad cell is really difficult to revive once it's dead. The grim news is, the bad batterie aren't long for this world. The good news is 42V works, if you can beat the annoying alarm buzz. Also run heavy loads during the daytime if possible lest the initial surge trips the low-voltage cut-off. I have a second work around which we could discuss privately. I hope to be in town this weeked so we could hook up.
- I personally use 56.4V to 57.6V as absorb for best results. 56.4V during the rainy season and 57.6V during the hazy harmattan. It took a lot of fraternising with guys who had used the T105 (regular GC2 batteries) for 10+ years to understand a few but vital differences between off-grid and grid-tied (or grid-supported in our case) use.


In addition:
1. The best time to top up the FLA batteries is after a full charge (termination of the absorb charge)
2. The best time to equalise FLA batteries is after a full charge too (termination of the absorb charge). Because of the limited hours of sunshine, I do bulk charge -> equalisation too; it's a necessary trade-off at times. However, it defeats the purpose if you're trying to revive dying cells in a battey bank. Your initial technique of isolating them and bringing them up to speed first, works better
3. Equalisation is hard on batteries so minimise how often you do it lest you drag down the better batteries in a bid to bring up the bad ones

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Trippledots:


Pls where did u get d watt meter and how much?

Sorry I was off the thread for a while. You can either get from the guys selling it here or get from AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/me027-EU-Plug-energy-power-meter-230V-16A-AC-KWH-Consumption-Monitor-Analyzer-watt-meters-FREE/32716424186.html?

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abunafiu:
So many questions have been asked both online and offline about my 16 units of T105RE Trojan batteries.
Yes I have had some bad days with them. I had to retire 2 units when they were reading as low as 4v each.
I then connected 2 panels in parallel (200w/24v panel) to the batteries for almost 3 weeks. The highest I got was 14.7v.
Remember that I reconfigured my system to 42v which made my inverter cry low voltage all night.
Problem now started afresh when I noticed my Batts were low on distllied water and decided to top it. The whole system just start to misbehave. I almost gave up on them.
I then reunited the 2 units back to the system.
I was depressed by the whorible performance of the whole system. Imagine a battery bank you charge to 59v and absorbs for 2hrs+. Under a load of 1 fan, 1 TV , 1 fridge (less than 200w)...you will discover that by 8pm the battery is reading 49.5v. Before 49v was my battery voltage by 6am following day under same load. By 6am now, my battery reads 48v and most times less. All these events were recorded after topping up the water.
I just took k heart and began to use all I can generate per day.. That was d reason for my increased daily harvest I posted Few days ago.
Out of frustration I then read a post on an online forum where some one wrote that we (flooded users) we're mislead by the battery manufacturers with respect to charging algorithm especially for off grid applications.
The guy recommend higher absorb voltage and time. He never stated what voltage setting to adopt. But in my own case, I adopted 62.5v absorption voltage for 5 hrs( which means it's going to Gas all day).
After 4 days of using this setting I began to observe improvement since yestday that I had the courage of adding a small chest freezer to my load. In short the performance is encouraging.
Note: the 62.5v absorption voltage is a temporary setting which shall be reverted to 59v (Trojan recommended) when I achieve satisfactory performance and then hope to repeat this for 5 days in every 30 days to serve as equalisation.


This long story is to give every other silent Trojan user hope just like sir Chris AWPS always say. He said all you need to do is equalise them. But honestly I have been equalising with no result.

Maybe my new method might work for others too.

Pls remember to share your thoughts on this as well.
Cheers.

NB. When is the best time to top up with water. Trojans are known to drop in performance after topping but in few days (usually less than a week) it gets back to full performance.

I have been reading about your rigours with your Trojan T105RE for a while. In an attempt not to discourage people from going flooded (as you know I am an advocate of flooded batteries especially Trojan), I'll like to give a specific enlightenment to your situation.

All the methods you have been adopting are always on point that's why you don't see me say anything.

the major reason you are having series of problems is that you were using a wrong battery type for your application

This is what I mean, T105RE was originally designed for gulf cart which uses MAXIMUM of 2 units. Maintaining 2 to 4 units of that battery is not any headache but immediately you increase the qty more than 4 units you are putting yourself in an everlasting maintenance stress. The reason is that the volume of electrolyte in each unit is small so water evaporates quickly and the cells are also small meaning easily prone to damage.

The same situation applies to J185RE (12v 205AH). The primary reason Trojan introduced this product into the market was to enter competition at the lower end where someone can pick up a 24v 1kw inverter and just 2 units J185 batteries. Also in this case if you use more than 4 units you are also in the same situation as that of T105RE. Same applies to all those Mercury and the rest of the 12v 200ah flooded types.

When you are talking about Trojan Flooded the least recommendation for average offgrid/Hybrid installations is L16RE (6v 370AH) because this has a more sizeable volume of electrolyte that does not go down that fast and the cells are bigger and stronger yet still delivering the same 6v. You will notice that people with L16 don't have too many complains. However, the industrial is the way to go if you can afford it.

The simple rule is DO NOT STACK MULTIPLE BATTERIES TO ACHIEVE A BIGGER AMP HOUR WHEN YOU CAN BUY BIGGER CAPACITY UNITS. I am aware that it is cost that makes people stack smaller capacity in order to achieve higher amp hours whites wrong.

All the same, if you must use a setup like yours (16 units of T105), you must be ready to attend to it as if you were attending to a new born baby all your life. If you are faithful to do that following all the acceptable standards your battery will still remain in shape for at least 1500 cycles. We have a client we installed 16pc of Trojan T105RE for since 2012 and he is still using that setup as at now with good performance and he has not seen any need to change the battery even with my pressure because it is still serving him. He virtually lives off-grid cos of bad public power in his area. I posted the pictures here some time ago and below is the picture of that same installation I took last month

richmon74:


I have been reading about your rigours with your Trojan T105RE for a while. In an attempt not to discourage people from going flooded (as you know I am an advocate of flooded batteries especially Trojan), I'll like to give a specific enlightenment to your situation.

All the methods you have been adopting are always on point that's why you don't see me say anything.

the major reason you are having series of problems is that you were using a wrong battery type for your application

This is what I mean, T105RE was originally designed for gulf cart which uses MAXIMUM of 2 units. Maintaining 2 to 4 units of that battery is not any headache but immediately you increase the qty more than 4 units you are putting yourself in an everlasting maintenance stress. The reason is that the volume of electrolyte in each unit is small so water evaporates quickly and the cells are also small meaning easily prone to damage.

The same situation applies to J185RE (12v 205AH). The primary reason Trojan introduced this product into the market was to enter competition at the lower end where someone can pick up a 24v 1kw inverter and just 2 units J185 batteries. Also in this case if you use more than 4 units you are also in the same situation as that of T105RE. Same applies to all those Mercury and the rest of the 12v 200ah flooded types.

When you are talking about Trojan Flooded the least recommendation for average offgrid/Hybrid installations is L16RE (6v 370AH) because this has a more sizeable volume of electrolyte that does not go down that fast and the cells are bigger and stronger yet still delivering the same 6v. You will notice that people with L16 don't have too many complains. However, the industrial is the way to go if you can afford it.

The simple rule is DO NOT STACK MULTIPLE BATTERIES TO ACHIEVE A BIGGER AMP HOUR WHEN YOU CAN BUY BIGGER CAPACITY UNITS. I am aware that it is cost that makes people stack smaller capacity in order to achieve higher amp hours whites wrong.

All the same, if you must use a setup like yours (16 units of T105), you must be ready to attend to it as if you were attending to a new born baby all your life. If you are faithful to do that following all the acceptable standards your battery will still remain in shape for at least 1500 cycles. We have a client we installed 16pc of Trojan T105RE for since 2012 and he is still using that setup as at now with good performance and he has not seen any need to change the battery even with my pressure because it is still serving him. He virtually lives off-grid cos of bad public power in his area. I posted the pictures here some time ago and below is the picture of that same installation I took last month

Beautiful, precise review. Information is really power. This is the reason why these companies recommend 1.2v - 6v batteries for off grid use, just like iron Edison using 1.2v batteries for their battery range. I just wonder how simpliphi got around this obstacle with their 48v battery that has 53.6amps,perhaps it's the low amp age that allows it to be stacked up to Mwh.

Oga Richmon74, your long absence here is not favourable at all sir.
Yes no doubt we give it to you. You're an advocate of flooded batteries. Most of us using flooded followed your golden foot step.
I agree with all the points you raised in your last post and as you rightly said, cash constraint is a major deciding factor.
I am happy you contributed to the discussion.
I would love you to kindly lecture us on how your client have been enjoying his 16 units since 2012. I am sure I will learn something new personally bcoz I have the original installation pictures of the unit (cyber power days) and every upgrade you have done to the system.
I would have asked you privately but for many others who I know will live to learn too.

Thanks for your kind words as you said all my methods are always on point but I believe there's room for improvement. I want to improve on those methods. 2012 is no joke. Gotta learn from the master.

Thanks sir.

EDIT. my younger brother whom I installed 8 units for at 2 or 3 months interval gas never complained too. He used 24v450ah but no solar. He eqauallises regularly as well.

Does the use of lower voltage batteries for off grid applications also apply to maintenance free batteries?

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richmon74:


I have been reading about your rigours with your Trojan T105RE for a while. In an attempt not to discourage people from going flooded (as you know I am an advocate of flooded batteries especially Trojan), I'll like to give a specific enlightenment to your situation.

All the methods you have been adopting are always on point that's why you don't see me say anything.

the major reason you are having series of problems is that you were using a wrong battery type for your application

This is what I mean, T105RE was originally designed for gulf cart which uses MAXIMUM of 2 units. Maintaining 2 to 4 units of that battery is not any headache but immediately you increase the qty more than 4 units you are putting yourself in an everlasting maintenance stress. The reason is that the volume of electrolyte in each unit is small so water evaporates quickly and the cells are also small meaning easily prone to damage.

The same situation applies to J185RE (12v 205AH). The primary reason Trojan introduced this product into the market was to enter competition at the lower end where someone can pick up a 24v 1kw inverter and just 2 units J185 batteries. Also in this case if you use more than 4 units you are also in the same situation as that of T105RE. Same applies to all those Mercury and the rest of the 12v 200ah flooded types.

When you are talking about Trojan Flooded the least recommendation for average offgrid/Hybrid installations is L16RE (6v 370AH) because this has a more sizeable volume of electrolyte that does not go down that fast and the cells are bigger and stronger yet still delivering the same 6v. You will notice that people with L16 don't have too many complains. However, the industrial is the way to go if you can afford it.

The simple rule is DO NOT STACK MULTIPLE BATTERIES TO ACHIEVE A BIGGER AMP HOUR WHEN YOU CAN BUY BIGGER CAPACITY UNITS. I am aware that it is cost that makes people stack smaller capacity in order to achieve higher amp hours whites wrong.

All the same, if you must use a setup like yours (16 units of T105), you must be ready to attend to it as if you were attending to a new born baby all your life. If you are faithful to do that following all the acceptable standards your battery will still remain in shape for at least 1500 cycles. We have a client we installed 16pc of Trojan T105RE for since 2012 and he is still using that setup as at now with good performance and he has not seen any need to change the battery even with my pressure because it is still serving him. He virtually lives off-grid cos of bad public power in his area. I posted the pictures here some time ago and below is the picture of that same installation I took last month

but its ok to stack up cells to achieve needed voltage? like seriesing six 2v 200ah to get 12v 200ah?

Two days ago, my harvest jumped to 19.7kwh.
The rains are here again.

I want to stress the importance of washing our panels.

During the hamarttan, I saw someone wash his panels but his hands couldn't reach most part of the panels. Even after it had rained here for about 4 times, you can still clearly see the unwashed part of the panels.

Before most of us used to assume only rain can do the washing. But I just observed washing requires more than rain.

My Trojan batteries are improving performance by the day.

Good morning.

Facing same thing now after topping last week. Imagine waking up and seeing your battery at 24.8v sad, it was 25.3v before the top up. Any little load you will see your battery draining like a flat tire. I have decided not to top once a year but twice. Once the water drops a little I will top it. I have experienced it before so it won't be an issue this time and I will not bother to equalize this time cos when I did before there was no immediate improvement. I know it will pick up after few weeks. The question is why must Trojan battery (T105) loose efficiency after topping? Great battery though

all,
i recently had the need to relocate my battery bank and do a fresh installation of the inverter.
in the process i thought it was a good opportunity to carry out a load test on the batteries.
batteries were left to settle for about three days undisturbed (without load and without charge).
the first set of readings show the individual battery voltages straight from rest while the second
set of readings were taken after a ten second capacity load test using a standard battery capacity
tester.

for a battery bank which was first installed in September 2012 and used continuously 24hrs a
day, i think the results are quite impressive. zenith has really blown my mind!

pictures coming soon.

also see attachment for those who want to download a copy of the results.

before load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.79
S1 – 2 = 12.80
S1 – 3 = 12.80
S1 – 4 = 12.80
---------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
----------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

after 10s load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.78
S1 – 2 = 12.79
S1 – 3 = 12.79
S1 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

cumulative for each string = 51.3v

GeorgeD1:
zenith has really blown my mind!

...cumulative for each string = 51.3v

after years of use and babysitting batteries

the load test is very IMPRESSIVE !

A teacher must not fail exam!

Nice one Oga George D1

Super impressive! I need to research more and probably revise my stand on series parallel configuration. Are the batteries in series parallel? Or you have a battery bank switch?

GeorgeD1:
all,
i recently had the need to relocate my battery bank and do a fresh installation of the inverter.
in the process i thought it was a good opportunity to carry out a load test on the batteries.
batteries were left to settle for about three days undisturbed (without load and without charge).
the first set of readings show the individual battery voltages straight from rest while the second
set of readings were taken after a ten second capacity load test using a standard battery capacity
tester.

for a battery bank which was first installed in September 2012 and used continuously 24hrs a
day, i think the results are quite impressive. zenith has really blown my mind!

pictures coming soon.

also see attachment for those who want to download a copy of the results.

before load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.79
S1 – 2 = 12.80
S1 – 3 = 12.80
S1 – 4 = 12.80
---------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
----------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

after 10s load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.78
S1 – 2 = 12.79
S1 – 3 = 12.79
S1 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

cumulative for each string = 51.3v

GeorgeD1:
all,
i recently had the need to relocate my battery bank and do a fresh installation of the inverter.
in the process i thought it was a good opportunity to carry out a load test on the batteries.
batteries were left to settle for about three days undisturbed (without load and without charge).
the first set of readings show the individual battery voltages straight from rest while the second
set of readings were taken after a ten second capacity load test using a standard battery capacity
tester.

for a battery bank which was first installed in September 2012 and used continuously 24hrs a
day, i think the results are quite impressive. zenith has really blown my mind!

pictures coming soon.

also see attachment for those who want to download a copy of the results.

before load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.79
S1 – 2 = 12.80
S1 – 3 = 12.80
S1 – 4 = 12.80
---------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
----------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

after 10s load test[i]

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.78
S1 – 2 = 12.79
S1 – 3 = 12.79
S1 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

cumulative for each string = 51.3v

Are my eyes deceiving me!!! Guy, this is more than impressive by all standards

DMerciful:
Super impressive! I need to research more and probably revise my stand on series parallel configuration. Are the batteries in series parallel? Or you have a battery bank switch?

dmerciful,
the batteries are in series parallel but with a little variation. it is
not your traditional series-parallel battery bank connection.

four batteries in series to make up 48v nominal system voltage and
three strings connected with roughly equal length of positive and
negative cables to the inverter. by so doing, each string receives
about the same amount of charging current either from the inverter
or from the cc.
in effect, it is three independent battery banks working together as
one.

efuro:


after years of use and babysitting batteries

the load test is very IMPRESSIVE !

A teacher must not fail exam!

Nice one Oga George D1

well, when i decided to jettison the more traditional method of
series-parallel battery connection, i knew i was making a huge
gamble but apparently my innovation has seemingly paid off over
time seeing as there are no wild variation in voltages between
strings and between individual batteries as the test results show
after almost 5yrs of use.

p.s: the zenith batteries are agm batteries not flooded. they don't
need babysitting.

GeorgeD1:
all,


after 10s load test

string 1
S1 – 1 = 12.78
S1 – 2 = 12.79
S1 – 3 = 12.79
S1 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 2
S2 – 1 = 12.81
S2 – 2 = 12.81
S2 – 3 = 12.79
S2 – 4 = 12.78
-------------------------
string 3
S3 – 1 = 12.77
S3 – 2 = 12.82
S3 – 3 = 12.81
S3 – 4 = 12.79

cumulative for each string = 51.3v

If you need to conduct a load test, 10seconds will not give you what you really seek to know

If I may ask, how much load did you subject the batteries to and how?

[i]i have once done a 5mins load test and all passed but client complained more and did more longer test an saw the culprit, replaced just that battery and all was fine

if you noticed, the variation pre and post aint much

they may be just healthy but 10 seconds wont do it for me.

My humble opinion

Konnektions146:


If you need to conduct a load test, 10seconds will not give you what you really seek to know

If I may ask, how much load did you subject the batteries to and how?

i have once done a 5mins load test and all passed but client complained more and did more longer test an saw the culprit, replaced just that battery and all was fine

if you noticed, the variation pre and post aint much

they may be just healthy but 10 seconds wont do it for me.

My humble opinion

the instrument used is the standard battery capacity tester.
it won't allow you go beyond 10s to prevent battery cell
damage.

dmerciful, the batteries are in series parallel but with a little variation. it is not your traditional series-parallel battery bank connection.
four batteries in series to make up 48v nominal system voltage and three strings connected with roughly equal length of positive and negative cables to the inverter. by so doing, each string receives about the same amount of charging current either from the inverter or from the cc. in effect, it is three independent battery banks working together as one. [/quote] I hope you have learnt that series /parallel connections are doable?

GeorgeD1:



well, when i decided to jettison the more traditional method of
series-parallel battery connection, i knew i was making a huge
gamble but apparently my innovation has seemingly paid off over
time seeing as there are no wild variation in voltages between
strings and between individual batteries as the test results show
after almost 5yrs of use.

p.s: the zenith batteries are agm batteries not flooded. they don't
need babysitting.

Good thinking.... but my fear for this method is that should you have any faulty battery in any string within the whole system, boy...... that could lead to serious loss of investment as it will drag other units down with time.
my 2cents sha...

GeorgeD1:


the instrument used is the standard battery capacity tester.
it won't allow you go beyond 10s to prevent battery cell
damage.

Oga GeorgeD, pls if you have a battery that you are not using again, please give it to me as there is no money for a new 1. Thanks my Oga

Hi all,

I want to share my setup with the house so as to serve as a source of motivation to new DIYers that would come across this thread because it's the same way i got the needed info to do mine. I have read, watched and studied so much in the past years as regards to solar and renewable energy that I was able to design, procure and deploy my setup all by myself and with help of a couple of friends. I did make use of some carpenter guy to help mount the panels on the roof following my instructions through, and also got my electrician to run load separation cables for me. However, there are members of this forum who have been immensely helpful to me by answering my plenty questions and worries, I am very grateful to Mr. Chris of AWPS Renewable Energy, your love n passion for the job is unquestionable!, Dunka, your motivation is next to none, Frankie the able supplier and a brother, George_D da boss!, thanks for the emails! and all the contributing members here, y'all are the best. it has been a very wonderful experience and I thank God for the opportunity.

My rig consists of:

15 X 300W yahSun Mono Panels (4,500W)
8 X USL16EXC2 6V L16 360AH USA Flooded Batteries
1 X Midnight Solar Classic 150 96A MPPT Charge Controller
1 X Magnum Magnasine 4300W Pure sinewave Inverter
1 X Magnum MERC Advanced Remote
1 X Trimetric 2030A + 500 Mv Shunt
1 X 48V BLS Desulphator
1 X 6Ft Earthing Rod
2 X Midnightsolar MNSPD Surge protector (1 for AC side, 1 for DC side)
1 X 10KVA Servo Stabilizer ( Pre-owned for about 4 years now)
4 x Complete galvanized aluminium Roof Mount
Various quality Breakers, Fuses and Accessories.

EXTRAS:

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2 X TP-Link Smart Plug w/ Energy Monitoring, No Hub Required, Wi-Fi, Works with Alexa, Control your Devices from Anywhere (HS110)
1 X TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch, No Hub Required, Single Pole, Control Your Fixtures From Anywhere, Works with Amazon Alexa (HS200)
1 X Amazon Echo dot 2nd gen.
.....More on those later.

It is important to state that these items were acquired over a long period of time, infact, it took me one year plus of self disciplined money management, savings and forfeiting so much to make this happen maybe because of my taste in quality but from experience, i have learnt to go hard and go once! at a point i was sending money monthly to Frankie so as to secure a price point on the panels when the dollar was climbing like crazy. The most expensive item to get were the batteries as you had to buy them once. My candid advice to anyone is to start small, make a checklist of needed items and bit by bit, you will be striking off the ones you get as time goes on.

Panels were run in series/parallel strings of 3X5 to a combiner box with 5 breakers. All panels, inverter, CC and Combiner box were Grounded. 6MM ammoured cables from panels to combiner box, 10MM from combiner box to CC. Battery interconnect cables, CC to battery bank, Inverter to battery bank all 50MM Extra fine stranded Welding cable. Although a little more expensive, these cables handle any load comfortably and have never felt a tad warm to the touch at all and trust me, i have pushed them to the max all in the name of testing.

Seeking to achieve an 'almost' off grid setup, I went for that much number in panels and the result of having an array sized to cover the worst time of year, is that you get quite a bit of spare power at peak sun times. Therefore it makes sense to divide your loads up into base loads and opportunity loads. My base loads are 1 large Refrigerator (on a timer running 7AM-5PM daily), 1 always-on 24/7 Freezer, water pumps, computer gear, chargers of all sorts, lighting, security lights consisting of 8 X 15W energy saving bulbs (looking to change them to LEDs of less than 10W if i find them), an always-on Apple MacMini I use as my media server running a PLEX server serving movies to all TVs and smart devices like Roku box, Amazon fire Tv stick, and one Xiami Mi Android TV in the house, 2 standing fans, as well as sundry occasional appliances,power tools and other usual stuff; washing machine, iron, juicer, blender, microwave and hair blowers.

Most mornings, I wake up to a battery bank that is between 68-75% except on days i play the PS4 pro or xbox1 all night, i have seen 66% in the mornings, still under 50% DOD so not too bad and I know that my batteries have not yet been broken into very well. By 1-2PM batteries are already in float so the excess power are dumped into opportunity loads like running ACs, boiling water and cooking using the Induction cooker running at max power till like 4PM. I have seen max PV output of 3600W+ and my area in Abuja is very dusty, so many untarred road around my hood, panels were covered in dust from the next day after installation! and we have not seen any rains yet so i believe there is tendency for better output when the rains come.On average i harvest around 14-18Kwh daily. I have been running the system TOTALLY off-grid since the 10th of March.

I used the Wifi extender to extend my WAN and use the Ethernet jack to plug in the Midnight Classic CC to my home network, so i can monitor from PC and phone w/out having to run a long lan cable to my router inside. Got for less than $20 on amazon and works like a charm.

I use The smart plug to plug in my fridge and set it on a timer so it automatically comes on @ 7am and shuts off by 5PM daily. I also use it to monitor energy consumption in real time or over a period of time, very helpful to calculate all your energy consumption.

The smart switch i use to automatically turn on the whole security lights @ 7pm and turn of @ 6:15 am daily. and just like the smart plug, they both can be controlled from anywhere in the world from the app as long as u have internet and i have tested this, it works perfectly.

I am a geeky kinda guy so I love me some home automation and i have had some Phillips Hue lighting in the house, all devices in my Home theater setup are controlled using just a single remote-- The Logitec Harmony elite and all these devices can be controlled via voice with Alexa on amazon echo dot, pretty neat and works for the TP link switch and smart plugs too. I hv 10 Terabytes of Movies, TV series and Anime all in HD and running perfectly on the media server 24/7 with the beautiful interface of PLEX (guys u need to check it out, its simply your own NETFLIX @ home) For internet i use the NTEL unlimited package so everything is always ONLINE... I share my home wifi for my neighbors and they can watch movies on their phones and tablets as the media server can comfortably handle multiple media streams at once without issues. All these are possible because the sun gives me free Energy!

I cannot state how lovely it is to have uninterrupted power supply, something people in other countries take for granted. I think going solar is the best way forward for us here.

Ok!Sorry guys for the long read , however, Your comments, criticism, corrections and questions are welcome..

More pics...

..

Chuckdee:
Hi all,

..

Good job bro. Honestly, i cant do this by myself. Too complex for my schedule to work with. From installation from the pix shows they are 15 solar panels. How much is each locally (Nigeria)?. How do we determine quantity needed to facilitate my needs or AS DESIRES?.

Thanks

Chuckdee:
Hi all,

I want to share my setup with the house so as to serve as a source of motivation to new DIYers that would come across this thread because it's the same way i got the needed info to do mine. I have read, watched and studied so much in the past years as regards to solar and renewable energy that I was able to design, procure and deploy my setup all by myself and with help of a couple of friends. I did make use of some carpenter guy to help mount the panels on the roof following my instructions through, and also got my electrician to run load separation cables for me. However, there are members of this forum who have been immensely helpful to me by answering my plenty questions and worries, I am very grateful to Mr. Chris of AWPS Renewable Energy, your love n passion for the job is unquestionable!, Dunka, your motivation is next to none, Frankie the able supplier and a brother, George_D da boss!, thanks for the emails! and all the contributing members here, y'all are the best. it has been a very wonderful experience and I thank God for the opportunity.

My rig consists of:

15 X 300W yahSun Mono Panels (4,500W)
8 X USL16EXC2 6V L16 360AH USA Flooded Batteries
1 X Midnight Solar Classic 150 96A MPPT Charge Controller
1 X Magnum Magnasine 4300W Pure sinewave Inverter
1 X Magnum MERC Advanced Remote
1 X Trimetric 2030A + 500 Mv Shunt
1 X 48V BLS Desulphator
1 X 6Ft Earthing Rod
2 X Midnightsolar MNSPD Surge protector (1 for AC side, 1 for DC side)
1 X 10KVA Servo Stabilizer ( Pre-owned for about 4 years now)
4 x Complete galvanized aluminium Roof Mount
Various quality Breakers, Fuses and Accessories.

EXTRAS:

1 X TP-Link AC750 Dual Band WiFi Range Extender, Extends WiFi to Smart Home & Alexa Devices (RE200)
2 X TP-Link Smart Plug w/ Energy Monitoring, No Hub Required, Wi-Fi, Works with Alexa, Control your Devices from Anywhere (HS110)
1 X TP-Link Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch, No Hub Required, Single Pole, Control Your Fixtures From Anywhere, Works with Amazon Alexa (HS200)
1 X Amazon Echo dot 2nd gen.
.....More on those later.

It is important to state that these items were acquired over a long period of time, infact, it took me one year plus of self disciplined money management, savings and forfeiting so much to make this happen maybe because of my taste in quality but from experience, i have learnt to go hard and go once! at a point i was sending money monthly to Frankie so as to secure a price point on the panels when the dollar was climbing like crazy. The most expensive item to get were the batteries as you had to buy them once. My candid advice to anyone is to start small, make a checklist of needed items and bit by bit, you will be striking off the ones you get as time goes on.

Panels were run in series/parallel strings of 3X5 to a combiner box with 5 breakers. All panels, inverter, CC and Combiner box were Grounded. 6MM ammoured cables from panels to combiner box, 10MM from combiner box to CC. Battery interconnect cables, CC to battery bank, Inverter to battery bank all 50MM Extra fine stranded Welding cable. Although a little more expensive, these cables handle any load comfortably and have never felt a tad warm to the touch at all and trust me, i have pushed them to the max all in the name of testing.

Seeking to achieve an 'almost' off grid setup, I went for that much number in panels and the result of having an array sized to cover the worst time of year, is that you get quite a bit of spare power at peak sun times. Therefore it makes sense to divide your loads up into base loads and opportunity loads. My base loads are 1 large Refrigerator (on a timer running 7AM-5PM daily), 1 always-on 24/7 Freezer, water pumps, computer gear, chargers of all sorts, lighting, security lights consisting of 8 X 15W energy saving bulbs (looking to change them to LEDs of less than 10W if i find them), an always-on Apple MacMini I use as my media server running a PLEX server serving movies to all TVs and smart devices like Roku box, Amazon fire Tv stick, and one Xiami Mi Android TV in the house, 2 standing fans, as well as sundry occasional appliances,power tools and other usual stuff; washing machine, iron, juicer, blender, microwave and hair blowers.

Most mornings, I wake up to a battery bank that is between 68-75% except on days i play the PS4 pro or xbox1 all night, i have seen 66% in the mornings, still under 50% DOD so not too bad and I know that my batteries have not yet been broken into very well. By 1-2PM batteries are already in float so the excess power are dumped into opportunity loads like running ACs, boiling water and cooking using the Induction cooker running at max power till like 4PM. I have seen max PV output of 3600W+ and my area in Abuja is very dusty, so many untarred road around my hood, panels were covered in dust from the next day after installation! and we have not seen any rains yet so i believe there is tendency for better output when the rains come.On average i harvest around 14-18Kwh daily. I have been running the system TOTALLY off-grid since the 10th of March.

I used the Wifi extender to extend my WAN and use the Ethernet jack to plug in the Midnight Classic CC to my home network, so i can monitor from PC and phone w/out having to run a long lan cable to my router inside. Got for less than $20 on amazon and works like a charm.

I use The smart plug to plug in my fridge and set it on a timer so it automatically comes on @ 7am and shuts off by 5PM daily. I also use it to monitor energy consumption in real time or over a period of time, very helpful to calculate all your energy consumption.

The smart switch i use to automatically turn on the whole security lights @ 7pm and turn of @ 6:15 am daily. and just like the smart plug, they both can be controlled from anywhere in the world from the app as long as u have internet and i have tested this, it works perfectly.

I am a geeky kinda guy so I love me some home automation and i have had some Phillips Hue lighting in the house, all devices in my Home theater setup are controlled using just a single remote-- The Logitec Harmony elite and all these devices can be controlled via voice with Alexa on amazon echo dot, pretty neat and works for the TP link switch and smart plugs too. I hv 10 Terabytes of Movies, TV series and Anime all in HD and running perfectly on the media server 24/7 with the beautiful interface of PLEX (guys u need to check it out, its simply your own NETFLIX @ home) For internet i use the NTEL unlimited package so everything is always ONLINE... I share my home wifi for my neighbors and they can watch movies on their phones and tablets as the media server can comfortably handle multiple media streams at once without issues. All these are possible because the sun gives me free Energy!

I cannot state how lovely it is to have uninterrupted power supply, something people in other countries take for granted. I think going solar is the best way forward for us here.

Ok!Sorry guys for the long read , however, Your comments, criticism, corrections and questions are welcome..

Its not been easy I must say BT WELCOME ON BOARD my man .. You wer indeed lucky to have contacted me earlier for the supplies of Magnum 4348,300w×15 pv array,USB L16 premium flooded batteries, pro solar roof mounts,improvised pv combiner box as i tweaked for Dunka too etc , all before the hyper inflation tho.. I admire your courage kk... I also want to use this medium to thank DUNKA , ID SOLAR, ABUNAFIU, SAIPRO, DURODEE, GEORGE D, BODEJOHN, EFURO, BODE4REAL, RICHMOND, CHRIS AWPS, KONNEKTION and so many others on this wonderful platform my humble appreciation all this years .. Remain blessed, Amen !

Chuckdee:
More pics...

Excellent set up So proud you finally made it despite the dollar hike. I know it was not easy. More grease to your elbow. Congratulations