Did a review sometime ago but posted in bits as the autobot was banning me whenever I post for like 3days and even deleted the posts. Anyways, lithium ion phosphate is what they say it is....high longevity,immunned to sulphation and memory effects, high DOD. Expensive in the short term but extremely cheap in the long run

makavele:


You still haven't given us a geek's review of the Lithium config.
it's what has been keeping most of us off it for some time . .; especially me . .
I'd love to see it working 1st hand . . for the cost involved, i need to cross all t's and dots all the i's

What controller do you use?

makavele:


Let me know when you have the bluetooth again ..
i already have a dedicated wifi at home;
using the wifi ebox requires me disconnecting from the home server just to check the stats
and connecting back

too much wahala lol

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I use Flames 300w Mono Panels (21 units) to make up my 6.3kw array - sourced through Zeestone99 on this forum. Flames is a chinese product but I have found it to be good bang for the buck.

But please don't rush to buy more panels yet. What brand of panels are you using currently? You want to be sure to either keep the same exact panel brand and specs (VoC,VmP,Rated Current) or match them very closely. If you mix panels anyhow you may get suboptimal results especially when they are all connected to one CC.

Let us evaluate your loads and battery consumption vs. solar yield. Since you are ground mounted, have you washed off the harmattan dust from your panels? What kind of yield are you getting now? Your yield should be getting better as the year progresses except you have other issues e.g shading/shadows on your panels

If I assume you consume 50% of your 600ah 48v capacity between 6pm and 8am everyday that is 300ah @ 48v or roughly 14.4kwh overnight - this is a lot - do you run ACs off your batteries overnight? Have you put a timer on your freezer/fridge e.t.c. Do you have a meter to measure your overall household consumption per time e.g via the inverter monitoring interface?.

We should tackle this issue holistically because even if you get enough panels now to ensure a daily full charge, 50% DoD will give you a 2 to 3 year battery life and you can easily do better with a few tweaks.

Best advice/insight of 2018!

DMerciful:
What controller do you use?

Isn'it it obvious?
EPever iTracer series

DMerciful:
Did a review sometime ago but posted in bits as the autobot was banning me whenever I post for like 3days and even deleted the posts. Anyways, lithium ion phosphate is what they say it is....high longevity,immunned to sulphation and memory effects, high DOD. Expensive in the short term but extremely cheap in the long run

Thanks so much . .

Lithium , oya activate !!!

makavele:


Yes sir, the test were done at the same time . . .
I had to borrow the same charge controller from a friend, identical to me, in age and specs.
And test was carried out on the same battery bank; same load
Same panel configuration . . and I was monitoring . .
Even if there were to be a disparity; it should be within plus or minus 10% . .
But 55% to about 80% margin was too wide . . .
Trust me, I repeated the tests again some other day; and i got about 55% to 70%
No matter what I did, the Sunshine panels would not output past 55% of its peak power
What a shame !!!

So you do bench test too...

Thought you have a general rule that all panels cannot produce more than 77% of the rated capacity real life, even Canadian panels..

DMerciful:
@Makavele
Was the test done about same time? Cos Sun angle is important as well as SOC of battery. I use sunshine and I get up-to 80% sometimes

Correct
Since November my harvest from sunshine has dropped to 40-55% of installed capacity.
Thank God i over sized my PV to get pass 6hrs absorption stage

Dam5reey:


So you do bench test too...

Thought you have a general rule that all panels cannot produce more than 77% of the rated capacity real life, even Canadian panels..

My nigga; rules can be bent; especially when large sums of "owo" is involved

makavele:


Sunshine not bad
But I got more results from Flames as against sunshine !!
zee; take note

Sunshine gave me just about 55% panel power;
Flames gave me about 80% power . . same installation environment; same weather !!

I ll luk into d matter sir as usual... Solidly on ground 4u

DMerciful:
Go lithium and forget about strict charging and discharging rules, DOD, uncharged state,high current drain etc..just use, lool. Still cheaper even in the medium term

Hmmm oya giv us link, the statement cheaper has gotten my full attention

Good Day Everyone,
I do have a safepower 3.5kva 48v inverter for 2 year+
But I noticed an issue with it,
Before now, while charging;
It's indicates it current bar then continue upwards,
In the sense that, if it was remaining 2 bars before (2/4),
When it starts charging it goes from 2/4, 3/4 4/4 back to 2/4 in that circle till it gain a bar and so on it gets full,
But of recent after getting some new batteries,
For a while now I noticed it doesn't operates in such fashion anymore, now it starts from 0/4 to 4/4 ( even if it was remaining 3/4 bar before) circle till it shows "fully charged" and by then the batteries are literally hissing.

Please is this normal from anyone experience?
Or has the charging algorithm gone bad? If so, is it fixable? Has anyone else had such issue with their inverter and noticed any form of overcharging?

I do appreciate and await a response.

Regards,
EF

battery hissing indicates overcharge n gassing
inverter charging algorith has failed and is now overcharging battery
or somebody tampered with the charge settings or profile or you got a different class of battery
one of these options is the answer

makavele:
battery hissing indicates overcharge n gassing
inverter charging algorith has failed and is now overcharging battery
or somebody tampered with the charge settings or profile or you got a different class of battery
one of these options is the answer

Thank you kind sir for you swift response,
Batteries are AGM and the inverter have it settings to the letter, the current charge has 3 profile, low/medium/high and it is on the medium setting.
Forgive my ignorance,
But has there been known cases of inverter having failed algorithm and fixed?

Regards,
EF

Feshizzy:


Thank you kind sir for you swift response,
Batteries are AGM and the inverter have it settings to the letter, the current charge has 3 profile, low/medium/high and it is on the medium setting.
Forgive my ignorance,
But has there been known cases of inverter having failed algorithm and fixed?

Regards,
EF

Yes, a lot of times !

Just for the hell of it, you say you use AGM batteries, yeah?

What are your absorb and float voltage setpoints?

hello house, please anybody who has fairly used good working either 24 or 12v solar panels at a give away price should be kindly help a brother out...whatsapp me on 0.8.1.8.7.2.9.3.4.1.7 God bless

Hello house, does anyone know how I can get Solarworld XL mono panels?

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32762188627.html?spm=a2g0n.orderList.0.0.62b9aaf4so2ZHL

Seller can be negotiated with.

zeestone99:


Hmmm oya giv us link, the statement cheaper has gotten my full attention

olagunju2000:


Thanks Niyi.

I still have challenges achieving full charge everyday. In most cases, i get past bulk charging to Absorption phase around 4pm everyday except yesterday that i got to floating stage because we had grid supply BY MISTAKE!!!

I try to ensure i don't go below 55% DOD as I am practically living off grid. We only get power supply whenever there is a major fault

A quick question, i am planning to increase my panels so as to cover for my day use and also enough to fully charge the battery for the night. What brand of panel are you using? I am considering 300w Joysolar or may be Sunshine. Is there any other reasonably priced panels i could explore?

Thanks

My advise. Get a panels from a tier 1 solar company. Or a strong tier 2. They are bit more expensive but pay of in the long run and they might actually give u more than some of these black China products like sunshine and joysolar. The first set of products are usually OK and decent.. Once they gain market share.. Subsequent imports end up being crap. Also remember solar PV are suppose to last 25 years. They last longest of all your PV components besides cables so your investment in panel should be over a 20 years at least. Many black China panels are will last tops 10 years if u are lucky. Most degrade even faster. I have seen numerous joysolar installations that have suffered from cell burn out. It's is a common problem with joysolar. Sunshine is just not it for me. Maybe the first set were really good. Present ones in the market I will not recommend. Best PVs are those produced via fully automated production line removing room for human error. With stake naira and PV prices coming down. You can get a good 250w panel at sub 60k price and they would give u rest of mind. Any PV whose name and review you can't find on Google is suspicious. Google the company, read their profile and user review. Also check on YouTube. Jinko, Canadian Solar, Yingli, solar world, etc are some of the names brand you can get and go to sleep. Only time I will go for a tier 3 provider is if am getting it for almost free in which case I have nothing to lose.

Feshizzy:


Thank you kind sir for you swift response,
Batteries are AGM and the inverter have it settings to the letter, the current charge has 3 profile, low/medium/high and it is on the medium setting.
Forgive my ignorance,
But has there been known cases of inverter having failed algorithm and fixed?

Regards,
EF

That battery is being over charged to the point of gassing which is forcing it to lose water (never good for AGM as water lost can't be replaced) get a multi meter and check the battery voltage when it is charging. What is the name of your inverter

makavele:

Yes, a lot of times !
Just for the hell of it, you say you use AGM batteries, yeah?
What are your absorb and float voltage setpoints?

The inverter doesn't have such setpoints The settings regarding batteries are just two mechanically switch setup Charging settings: high(50a),medium(30a),low(10a) Battery selection: tubular,vrla
Regards, EF

bigrovar:

That battery is being over charged to the point of gassing which is forcing it to lose water (never good for AGM as water lost can't be replaced) get a multi meter and check the battery voltage when it is charging. What is the name of your inverter

Its a safepower 3.5kva 48v inverter sir

Feshizzy:
Good Day Everyone,
I do have a safepower 3.5kva 48v inverter for 2 year+
But I noticed an issue with it,
Before now, while charging;
It's indicates it current bar then continue upwards,
In the sense that, if it was remaining 2 bars before (2/4),
When it starts charging it goes from 2/4, 3/4 4/4 back to 2/4 in that circle till it gain a bar and so on it gets full,
But of recent after getting some new batteries,
For a while now I noticed it doesn't operates in such fashion anymore, now it starts from 0/4 to 4/4 ( even if it was remaining 3/4 bar before) circle till it shows "fully charged" and by then the batteries are literally hissing.

Please is this normal from anyone experience?
Or has the charging algorithm gone bad? If so, is it fixable? Has anyone else had such issue with their inverter and noticed any form of overcharging?

I do appreciate and await a response.

Regards,

Here's the issue with my inverter above,
My inverter image is below!
Thank you for your time!

Regards!!

Feshizzy:


Its a safepower 3.5kva 48v inverter sir



Here's the issue with my inverter above,
My inverter image is below!
Thank you for your time!

Regards!!

Hello, kindly use a digital multimeter to read the individual charge voltage of batteries .. I don't really advocate for mixtures of old & new set of batteries in any situation to save you the stress of cumbersome trouble shooting ! Cheer's

kiekie1:


Hello, kindly use a digital multimeter to read the individual charge voltage of batteries .. I don't really advocate mixtures of old & new sets of batteries in any situation to save you the stress of cumbersome trouble shooting ! Cheer's

+1
You are witnessing the effect of mixing batteries (old and new or mixing products) the difference in internal resistance forces the stronger battery to get more than their share of charge and load... the stronger battery gets over charged and over worked.

regarding the effect of mixing batteries. Here is an email I set to battery supplier after one of their batteries failed kobalizing the other batteries in the bank.

I would like to bring to your attention the state of one of the batteries deployed under the Tertiary Institutions Knowledge Center (TIKC). I noticed that the uptime of the Inverter deployed has reduced considerably. I did a voltage test of all the batteries in the bank. (See attached) and noticed one of the batteries attached to Inverter 1 can no longer hold a charge and now displays 11.7v when under charge.

From the attached notes u can see that while the rest of the bank is in float 13.* v, the string that has the shorted battery stuck at 11.7 are all doing 14.* v when there should be at float. This is what causes gasing.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I use Flames 300w Mono Panels (21 units) to make up my 6.3kw array - sourced through Zeestone99 on this forum. Flames is a chinese product but I have found it to be good bang for the buck.

But please don't rush to buy more panels yet. What brand of panels are you using currently?

I am using an unbranded 300w mono panel giving between 48 to 50% yield on a good sunny day. My total yield per day ranges between 11 and 14kwh. Today i got 10.2kwh

You want to be sure to either keep the same exact panel brand and specs (VoC,VmP,Rated Current) or match them very closely. If you mix panels anyhow you may get suboptimal results especially when they are all connected to one CC.

Yes I am conscious of that.


Let us evaluate your loads and battery consumption vs. solar yield. Since you are ground mounted, have you washed off the harmattan dust from your panels?

Yes, the panel is clean.

What kind of yield are you getting now? Your yield should be getting better as the year progresses except you have other issues e.g shading/shadows on your panels

My total yield per day ranges between 11 and 14kwh. Today i got 10.2kwh.

If I assume you consume 50% of your 600ah 48v capacity between 6pm and 8am everyday that is 300ah @ 48v or roughly 14.4kwh overnight - this is a lot - do you run ACs off your batteries overnight?

My total yield in a day is less than 14 4kwh. Besides, i consume about 5kwh out of it during the day, so, what i have left in the battery is not more than 75 to 80% DOD.
I manage what i have left between 5:30pm and 8am the following day. I am practically living off grid.



Have you put a timer on your freezer/fridge e.t.c.

I use my fridge and freezer between 9am and 4pm daily, total combine energy of 5 to 5.5kwh During the day

Do you have a meter to measure your overall household consumption per time e.g via the inverter monitoring interface?.

Yes, i take just about what i put.

We should tackle this issue holistically because even if you get enough panels now to ensure a daily full charge, 50% DoD will give you a 2 to 3 year battery life and you can easily do better with a few tweaks.

The reason for expanding the pvs is so as to generate enough to charge my battery properly and still be able to cover for all my needs during the day. My target is to achieve between 65 to 60% DOD 8am daily. Like i mentioned, i am living practically off the grid

My responses bolded above.

Thank you very much bigrovar, makavele, kiekie1 for you input, I am indeed grateful.

But about the inverter issue?
Is it going to be of great concern?
I noticed when it displays "fully charged" it doesn't send much current to the batteries. I believe this to be the float stage.

But the inverter doesn't count the way it should when it was still new?
Would this new development affect the battery charge performance?
My inverter is a safepower 3.5KVA 48v sine wave inverter that is close to 2 year and also a period of 6 month dormancy after the first year!

Special thanks to bigrovar for being thorough on my battery.

Regards,
EF

My People,

i made this request before and i am making it again.
kindly recommend an air conditioning unit brand that consumes low power such that i can conveniently power with my inverter.

thanks

I currently have a 1.5KVA 24volts inverter
2 200amps batteries.

I want to add solar array.

Please Can someone tell me what I need if I want to add solar.

Thanks.

You need solar charge controller, solar panels, solar panel mounting kit (if necessary), cables, and DC breakers.

jarkbauer:
I currently have a 1.5KVA 24volts inverter
2 200amps batteries.

I want to add solar array.

Please Can someone tell me what I need if I want to add solar.

Thanks.

DMerciful:
My People,

i made this request before and i am making it again.
kindly recommend an air conditioning unit brand that consumes low power such that i can conveniently power with my inverter.

thanks

LG Gencool brand of air conditioners.

ryusufu:
Hello guys
Can anyone recommend an inverter for my 600w load, that will be able to charge my batteries using nepa light ??
I have six 2v 500a batteries, i'm also considering deploying six 130w solar panels in the future. Thanks

NiyiOmoIyunade:
2v 500ah * 6 pieces is 12v 500ah.

A decent battery bank . You need a 12v inverter with high charging amps and also capable of selecting the appropriate charging algorithm for your battery type - I suggest you try the IcellPower series sold by JUO or the MustPower series sold by Zeestone99. They are both sellers on this forum and you can easily find their contact data in their posts and signature.

ur bank being a 12v 500ah, needs an inverter tht can output 50amps charging current at 12v to prevent sulphation and premature battery death, am sure none of the inverters listed by @niyi can output such a high charging current. only american and german inverters are capable of such feats at 12v, magnum, schneider etc....

your best bet is either getting such high end inverters or going solar and slap on a 60amp cc minimum, 70amp even better..and enough panels to generate >50amps.
thats the big heartache that 12v setup brings....its best avoided by going for 48v, 24v etc

jarkbauer:
I currently have a 1.5KVA 24volts inverter
2 200amps batteries.

I want to add solar array.

Please Can someone tell me what I need if I want to add solar.

Thanks.

Assuming you only discharge your batteries to 50% everynight;
you would be consuming just about 2.4KwH
And you need at least 800Watts of panel power to recharge the battery back
in about 4 hours sunlight . . .
I mentioned 800 Watts because it would be downplayed to about 600W x 4 hrs= 2.4kwH . .

Thats just the basics . . if you wish to power some loads during the day; therefore you would need to add more panels;
depending on power requirement.