dgr8truth:
For sale three Victron MPPT solar charge controller N120k each, was in service for just one year. interested call/WhatsApp 08060313355.

NB, one sold to Mr Saipro already.

EnigmaticEnigma:




I was watching your system yesterday online, it's so so cool. Have a question though, why is your power generation not gelling with the raw amps and volts your pv arrays are putting out? I thought you were using an MPPT controller?

bigrovar:


I don't know when last you checked. But it does. It shows individual array's watt, amp and volts and also shows combine watts, and watts among other things.

EnigmaticEnigma:


Been following it closely bro, I was up at like 5a.m the other day and was watching your charge controller wake up. Once again, very cool.

What I mean, is that, the watts being reported, does not correspond to the amps and volts reported.

for instance, say you were getting like 10amps at 55v, that should be 550watts reported, but it reports 250 watts instead, which seems like it's multiplying the amps by the battery voltage, instead of converting the amps to a higher value as an mppt should do.

do you understand what i mean?

ayinba1:
Quick question for the house. Is there any advantage to buying the component parts to build from the USA? Or are there brands that are obtainable in Nigeria and have been shown to be efficient?
If I can save on forex, I would love that!

Also, still asking about an estimate total figure for 1.8 to 2.0kVa, not the breakdown. I just want to know if I can dive into it

Thanks everyone

Barezzi:


Visit any local electrical shop in your neighbourhood. I bought some ac relays yesterday for N1k each in my hood.

NairaBaba:
You can get them at Arena market, Oshodi

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Oga Barezzi! Many thanks. You were on point.

I visited the local electrical supplies store in my area and they had large beefy contactors such as I was looking for in stock - to think I go there pretty often and never thought to ask!

So I recently decided to come back on grid and use mains to run house loads and charge my batteries overnight. My battery supplier showed me that it was better to use and pay for mains when available at night vs incur battery cycles - but I ran into a glitch, I have a Sollatek AVS30 between my servo stab and mains input to the inverter - the AVS 30 was running hot and melting wires as it could not bear the simultaneous burden of charging at about 2kw plus house loads about 5kw - moreover the AVS30 comtacts could only take max 4mm wire.

Something Oga Pranil once mentioned came to my head, rather than use the AVS30 to switch the loads directly, use the AC voltage signal on the AVS30 output to energise a 220 to 240v coil on a contactor and this would then actuate a NO contact on the contactor to which the incoming mains live wire was already attached (contactor now carries the battery charging plus house loads). So with about 5k and an hour of rewiring, I have the contactor installed and so far so good things are working smoothly. This was to me a far better deal than paying 25k for a 100a voltage regulator of unknown provenance on Konga.

I got the Scheider Electric TeSys LC1 6511 M7 - a very large and beefy looking device rated 30kw 3-phase and my only regret was the coil voltage was rated 220v while my mains and inverter are between 215v and 235v - the U7 version contactor has a 240v coil although my local shop did not have these in stock

I still have plans for other hacks and tweaks and mini automations now that I have rediscovered the power relays and contactors.

Many thanks again Oga Barezzi and Pranil - this noble NL thread has provided a lot of learning and fresh ideas for me.

efuro:


Kai ! Oyinbo too much.
I will I ever reach this level?

bigrovar:


Oh.. In that case it's depends on the state of charge of the battery. The amount of PV power available for charging depends on load and battery state of charge. If my battery is in bulk on a good day my PV would be on over drive to fill it up.. On such an occasion you would see PV voltage drop to about 48v that is when mppt Is doing its thing. However once the battery gets filed to absorption then the current starts to be reduced and voltage increased at this stage the cc will move to the higher end of the PV IV curve this is when you would see the PV volt at 50 and above.. What is means is that the pv is not being driven to their full potentials.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Lolz. Do I detect a hint of low key 'dissing' in there?

I would say a lot of these tweaks and mods are need driven and of course there is always that passion and desire to push things to the next level.

I think I am just getting started though - now that I have managed to bypass the AVS30 so that it carries zero house loads but rather just sends a signal to the contactor to connect the loads when AC line voltage is within my preferred limits (208v to 235vAC), I am thinking of adding on a timer switch after the AVS30, the timer will allow the voltage signal to pass through only between 10PM and 4AM should it happen that mains supply from PHCN is available.

As you know I really don't need PHCN power for anything but my battery supplier showed me analysis that convinced me to use our cheap priced mains supply when available after sundown - if my expected battery life at 30% DoD was 5 years, I could ostensibly get an additional 2 or 3 years by not running off battery whenever battery can be substituted by mains supply. So, instead of being entirely offgrid as I was, now, during the day I will run off solar power and from evening I run off mains if available vs batteries hence shallower battery cycles and better longevity - we have mains supply 60% of the time where I live.

Another option I am thinking about is to use the 'solar priority mode' on my 6kw inverter vs 'utility priority' - in this mode, mains if available would run the house loads but not charge my batteries unless they are really low. In my usage scenario, the lowest voltage I have ever recorded is 49.0vDC and I was actually capacity testing my 48v 800Ah battery bank to get to that voltage. Really though, I am not yet ready to pull the plug on that 'solar priority' option except perhaps I divert the relay functions on my battery monitor to trigger mains charging to start once battery voltage drops below 49.9vDC

These are just some of the many tweaks I have been contemplating apart from trying to invent a battery low voltage disconnect device similar to Oga Sinistrian's except that this would be entirely independent of any battery monitor relay to work and thus save the end user some cash. If I can build a reliable battery LVD that can detect SoC and trigger a disconnect independently of any battery monitor, a lot of people would no longer need to buy a Fangpusun or Victron or other expensive battery monitor.

Saipro:


My collection of inverters, chargers, MPPT & PWM CC keeps growing as a hobbyist (amongst other toys); wondering whether I should be worried ...

EnigmaticEnigma:


yeah, i get all that, it's just the reporting that's still confusing.

Look at the screen shot below

2.80amps * 56.83v should give you 159watts
.
yet you are reporting 77watts, which is about 2.80amps * battery voltage about 25.5v.

earthrealm:


LOL, COLLECTION KE?..YOU MEAN YOU JUST BUY THEM TO KEEP THEM..AND PERHAPS ONCE OR TWICE A DAY..GO AND STARE AT THEM IN AWE. smile and go back to your business of the day?

earthrealm:


LOL, COLLECTION KE?..YOU MEAN YOU JUST BUY THEM TO KEEP THEM..AND PERHAPS ONCE OR TWICE A DAY..GO AND STARE AT THEM IN AWE. smile and go back to your business of the day?

lexi28:
mr Niyi, concerning the earth test, you're okay. this link may explain better:

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/19304/how-to-find-out-if-electrical-outlet-ground-is-working

same applies it your test case here.

Very nice you raised the issue. most clients are not even sure if they have functioning earthing at all.

my regards.

ebocoms:
Good all,

Please I need help in connecting VAC1100A DC 120V 100A LCD Voltmeter device (picture attached) to my present setup to read what is going in and out of my batteries. I want to replace the present watts meter in the picture. The wiring look different. I want to know where to attached the CC cable and the battery cable.
My present setup is attached. Thank you.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I guess the second picture with inverter and batteries in it is your current setup.

Two challenges I see - your current RC 150 meter has an internal shunt (by design this will probably carry no more than 20amps of current safely - at a stretch perhaps 50amps) - you dedicated this RC meter to measuring just your solar power generation but not battery consumption per the diagram.

The new meter has an external shunt hopefully rated for higher amps and hopefully capable of bidirectional readings if you want to measure both amps into the battery and amps out of the battery - I have learnt from hard experience that a meter such as this new one you have rated for 100A should be derated to 50A max when placed in service.

How To Proceed in General... .

Switch off PV input breakers then inverter input breaker

1) Identify the battery and load side of the shunt - in your picture the battery side is the leftmost side with the small black wire connected to the large terminal that has a bolt and nut on it - the load side is the one with the small red wire attached.

2) The way the meter works is to measure the voltage drop across the battery and the load side of the shunt - there is a calibrated piece of metal with known resistance between the two big nuts/screws that have a tiny black and red wire attached to their bases. Those tiny black and red wires are measuring voltage drop between battery and load and given a known resistance (in the shunt) you can calculate the AMPs and or watts flowing from battery to load or from power source (load) into battery.

3) You will need to make a small jumper cable to connect from battery negative terminal to the battery side of the shunt else you bolt the battery side of the shunt directly to the battery negative terminal post if you can. This jumper cable should be as thick as possible and properly crimped

Key to note, the shunt is always connected to the negative cable/side of CC, batteries, inverter

4) Any thing you want to measure through the meter e.g CC amps into battery or inverter amps into battery you place of the load side of the shunt (right side of shunt with small red wire in your picture) - you first switch off the PV and inverter and then trip of DC breakers - disconnect negative terminal of inverter and CC from the battery and attach it to the load side of the shunt (side with small red wire) simply unscrew the nut from the shunt (load side) , connect the lug side of your inverter and CC negative cable through the bolt on the shunt (load side) and replace the nut and tighten.

It will be really long to type all the steps so if you can excuse my abysmal writing and drawing skills, I have attached a diagram that may help you - follow the big red +s for positive cable connections and the big black --s for negative cable connections. Please reach out freely in case of any questions

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Oga Barezzi! Many thanks. You were on point.

I visited the local electrical supplies store in my area and they had large beefy contactors such as I was looking for in stock - to think I go there pretty often and never thought to ask!

So I recently decided to come back on grid and use mains to run house loads and charge my batteries overnight. My battery supplier showed me that it was better to use and pay for mains when available at night vs incur battery cycles - but I ran into a glitch, I have a Sollatek AVS30 between my servo stab and mains input to the inverter - the AVS 30 was running hot and melting wires as it could not bear the simultaneous burden of charging at about 2kw plus house loads about 5kw - moreover the AVS30 comtacts could only take max 4mm wire.

Something Oga Pranil once mentioned came to my head, rather than use the AVS30 to switch the loads directly, use the AC voltage signal on the AVS30 output to energise a 220 to 240v coil on a contactor and this would then actuate a NO contact on the contactor to which the incoming mains live wire was already attached (contactor now carries the battery charging plus house loads). So with about 5k and an hour of rewiring, I have the contactor installed and so far so good things are working smoothly. This was to me a far better deal than paying 25k for a 100a voltage regulator of unknown provenance on Konga.

I got the Scheider Electric TeSys LC1 6511 M7 - a very large and beefy looking device rated 30kw 3-phase and my only regret was the coil voltage was rated 220v while my mains and inverter are between 215v and 235v - the U7 version contactor has a 240v coil although my local shop did not have these in stock

I still have plans for other hacks and tweaks and mini automations now that I have rediscovered the power relays and contactors.

Many thanks again Oga Barezzi and Pranil - this noble NL thread has provided a lot of learning and fresh ideas for me.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Lolz my Oga!

It's just natural to collect the things you fancy same way some folks collect watches or cars or jewellery e.t.c

Hobbyists, electronics enthusiasts and hard core DIYers collect various odds and ends of interest to them e.g.

.... acquiring all these stuff just comes naturally to the enthusiast...

kiekie1:
HURRY ! TESTED & VERY OK !! CALL TO BOOK YOURS NOW!!!

Ritar 12v 105a telecom batteries ... #27,000
Limited stock "fairly used" at affordable price

Contact:
Smartcell global services
081-350-31951

DUNKA:
Not at all though the rains this year have been very destructive no issue with hail damage

ebocoms:
Good day all,

Please I need help in connecting VAC1100A DC 120V 100A LCD Voltmeter device (picture attached) to my present setup to read what is going in and out of my batteries. I want to replace the present watts meter in the picture. The wiring look different. I want to know where to attached the CC cable and the battery cable.
My present setup is attached. Thank you.