kiekie1:


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, BODEJOHN, BODE4REAL, RICHMOND, CHRIS AWPS, KONNEKTION and so many others on this wonderful platform my humble appreciation all this years .. Remain blessed, Amen !

The Chief marketer what would we do with out you

Oga GeorgeD1, na only u Waka come?
I am jealous oooo.
I think your choice of battery type and amperage paid off Afterall.
My fear is getting the same quality now.
Honestly, using any type of flooded batteries requires babysitting.
Congratulations sir on your wise choice of batteries.

@ Chuckdee

Congrat. You've done well. Your setup meets YouTube standard, be proud of it as we are, in the face of dollar scarcity you pulled a feat. In my usual words "enjoy ur sweat" let's tell Nigerians solar has come to stay.

Finally, I love those USA batteries. Men you've got quality we preach.

kiekie1:


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 !

We are with you my man. You've always been there for us even on Sundays or ur rest times.
The beauty is that you're creating a bridge across 36 states of Nigeria

Good morning gurus in the house. I need some clarifications please,

1) I have a 12number 400AH/2v battery setup and I want to know the size of cable to use as connectors for the batteries. Also, is there a way I can attach the cable lugs myself without the use of a crimping tool?

2) I also have 2number 24v solar panels and I would like to know the size of cable to buy for the solar panel to inverter connection.

Thanks

efuro:


We are with you my man. You've always been there for us even on Sundays or ur rest times.
The beauty is that you're creating a bridge across 36 states of Nigeria

Good morning bro , thanks for the kind words !

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.

(Truncated)

chukdee!
i couldn't help nodding my head in silent amazement while going through your
extensive list of equipment. by this, you have indeed proved to the house that knowledge
gained over time can be converted into concrete infrastructure.
your set-up has raised the bar several steps further by incorporating various wifi solutions
rivaled only by best-in-class first world installations.
i'm sure most of here have a thing or two to learn from your experience.
keep the flag flying!
you know you can!!

abunafiu:
Oga GeorgeD1, na only u Waka come?
I am jealous oooo.
I think your choice of battery type and amperage paid off Afterall.
My fear is getting the same quality now.
Honestly, using any type of flooded batteries requires babysitting.
Congratulations sir on your wise choice of batteries.

prof,
indeed i never believed the zenith batteries could put out this kind
of excellent performance.

unfortunately it seems Mr Henry the sole distributor no longer stocks
them. i referred a colleague to him sometime in March this year and
he was told they are no longer in stock.

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..

To say I'm amazed or impressed is an understatement.

Welldone Bros, I hope to learn from your experience.

I wish you more success and enjoyment of the fruits of your labour.

Solar is indeed a viable option for Nigeria to free herself from the "demons of darkness", we need to decentralize power production and embrace the "Angels of Light" that smile on us everyday without fail.

[quote author=Chuckdee post=55235649]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.

This is magnificent Bro. Enviable and quite inspiring. Good job n May God bless ur hustle.
Diligence, planning and preparation. Enjoy Bro.

Chuckdee! Very inspiring setup... when i grow up, i wanna be like thee

kiekie1:


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 !

kiekie,
the ever unrelenting businessman!
i remember we had cause to clash on a few occasions way back when all you did
was spam the thread with price lists and jingles. but over time i see that you have
transformed into an active contributor to the thread while still doing your primary
business. this is what i have always advocated.
be expecting that phone call from me anytime soon. you have proved your value
to the group and thus you deserve our patronage.
more grease to your elbow! more naira to your bank account!!

GeorgeD1:


kiekie,
the ever unrelenting businessman!
i remember we had cause to clash on a few occasions way back when all you did
was spam the thread with price lists and jingles. but over time i see that you have
transformed into an active contributor to the thread while still doing your primary
business. this is what i have always advocated.
be expecting that phone call from me anytime soon. you have proved your value
to the group and thus you deserve our patronage.
more grease to your elbow! more naira to your bank account!!

Thanks a lot.. Am definitely expecting your call... Cheers !

This is inspiring! I nor fit shout! kudos(hmmm, making our system look like child's play,looool)

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..

Empiree:
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

Hi Empiree, Well, this forum actually is a DIY but there are also alot of professional installers here who you can contact and they can work out something for your needs since you can't dabble.

kiekie1:


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 !

Thanks man... Just keep up the good work. Blessings brother.

DUNKA:
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

Thanks again Dunka, it wasn't easy at all but we finally triumphed. I hope your setup is firing good on all cylinders as well?

efuro:
@ Chuckdee

Congrat. You've done well. Your setup meets YouTube standard, be proud of it as we are, in the face of dollar scarcity you pulled a feat. In my usual words "enjoy ur sweat" let's tell Nigerians solar has come to stay.

Finally, I love those USA batteries. Men you've got quality we preach.

Thanks for the kind words Efuro, we are all enjoying the sweat o. Infact this is one project that the wifey supported 110% from the time she heard the freezer was gonna be on 24/7 LOL!
Solar is the way forward, it has come to stay, even the most developed parts of the world with all the nuclear power plants they can run have realized this and going forward, we will keep seeing huge revolutions and drops in price.

GeorgeD1:


chukdee!
i couldn't help nodding my head in silent amazement while going through your
extensive list of equipment. by this, you have indeed proved to the house that knowledge
gained over time can be converted into concrete infrastructure.
your set-up has raised the bar several steps further by incorporating various wifi solutions
rivaled only by best-in-class first world installations.
i'm sure most of here have a thing or two to learn from your experience.
keep the flag flying!
you know you can!!

Thanks Chief for the encouraging words! I thank you more for being the initial person to fan the flames of this drive to energy freedom ab initio!
Your selfless service on this forum has been wonderful... God bless you BIG.

WE ARE READY TO SHIP

Moving Forward With Solar Energy.

LG.... Life is Good

LEARN MORE >>>>>> http://www.lg.com/us/business/solar-panel

oneshowguy:
WE ARE READY TO SHIP

Moving Forward With Solar Energy.

LG.... Life is Good

LEARN MORE >>>>>> http://www.lg.com/us/business/solar-panel

Good

DMerciful, even though i didn't get to meet you in person, I saw your work today, good job sire.

Chuckdee, when I grow up, I hope to be like you. Amazing setup.

Thanks madam for the patronage and the confidence to choose me...much appreciated

obiageIi:
DMerciful, even though i didn't get to meet you in person, I saw your work today, good job sire.

Chuckdee, when I grow up, I hope to be like you. Amazing setup.

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..

congratulation bro. chai see beta soup

kiekie1:


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 !

all d best. we go talk soon

chris81964:

Way to go baby brother. It is a wonderful feeling. Enjoy the world you have created

Thanks again Mr.Chris, couldn't have been easier w/out you.

mcci:


To say I'm amazed or impressed is an understatement.

Welldone Bros, I hope to learn from your experience.

I wish you more success and enjoyment of the fruits of your labour.

Solar is indeed a viable option for Nigeria to free herself from the "demons of darkness", we need to decentralize power production and embrace the "Angels of Light" that smile on us everyday without fail.

Thanks bro.. I am really enjoying the full power independence Solar Power is offering me.

Javid4me:

This is magnificent Bro. Enviable and quite inspiring. Good job n May God bless ur hustle.
Diligence, planning and preparation. Enjoy Bro.

Thank you and Amen to your prayers sir. I am just following your able footsteps Blessings.

Barezzi:
Chuckdee! Very inspiring setup... when i grow up, i wanna be like thee

Boss... I have already been following your wonderful full steps tee tee o! You are a great inspiration here sir.

DMerciful:
This is inspiring! I nor fit shout! kudos(hmmm, making our system look like child's play,looool)

@ DMerciful, Thank you sir. Your contributions here are highly appreciated and helped in the realization of this project. Gracias.

obiageIi:


Chuckdee, when I grow up, I hope to be like you. Amazing setup.

@obiageLi, Thanks lol, of course you can do better and I see you are on the right path already... kudos.

WOW.... AND TO THINK I KNW SOMEONE WHO JUST PURCHASED A JEEP FOR #30M+ BUT STILL GROPES WITH GENERATORS. SOME GET CAP NO HEAD. OTHERS HEAD NO CAP

ITS WELL

CHUCKDEE WELDONE

Trippledots:
WOW.... AND TO THINK I KNW SOMEONE WHO JUST PURCHASED A JEEP FOR #30M+ BUT STILL GROPES WITH GENERATORS. SOME GET CAP NO HEAD. OTHERS HEAD NO CAP

ITS WELL

CHUCKDEE WELDONE

If he is a land lord then he messed up, unfortunately most lagosians believe in packaging than investing. N30million will give him a very good solar setup for at least 25 years

30 million for solar setup even for 120yrs? 3million will give you solar setup for 30yrs. Contact me for guaranteed installation

tivta:


If he is a land lord then he messed up, unfortunately most lagosians believe in packaging than investing. N30million will give him a very good solar setup for at least 25 years

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..

this is nice congratulations. Will definitely contact you for that TV maybe is something I can afford

Hello house,
Does anyone have an idea how to get a carport made for solar?

Thanks in advance.