mikylon:


the initial 6mm cable is dual( both negative and positive in it).
so now he wanted to merger this dual cable together as 1 core for the positive and we buy another similar dual 6mm cable and us for the negative.

You've just explained it better. Its better u split it up as explained earlier by earthrealm, the combined current is high for the 12mm2(25m distance is long).

peaceland:
Good day dear friends,
Please I need your urgent help.
Months back posted an issue about my solar system and got solution here. Thanks.
Today having a similar challenge.
On my epever charge controller the panel is showing BUT there is no arrow sign to show that power is flowing from the panels to the battery.
Unlike before where the panels sign was not showing so now I don't know what the problem could be please. Please advice me
Batteries may be due for change since more than 2 years but want to be sure before changing.

I also need contacts of good technician around Mowe ogun state.
Thanks

Pm Dmerciful, am sure you will smile soon

Oga, your daily consumption must be huge!

dapsyra:
Sweet 27.1kWh harvest on 11/3/2019 from 6.3kW "B grade" array.

See attached images for detail.

Forklifts are typically max 48VDC nominal.

Regardless, if this application is under 100volts or if the battery packs can be split to smaller voltage units, you may reach out to us Sir, we would be happy to be of service.

pranil:
Need a technician with prior experience of working on Electric forklifts ( Toyota)


Somebody just contacted me to start a 3 year stranded brand new Forklifts. They have never been used so I guess the batteries will be dead

Any specialists in the house with prior experience on working high POWer DC applications

I always like the way information that even if paid you may never get is disseminated for free here

pranil:
Need a technician with prior experience of working on Electric forklifts ( Toyota)


Somebody just contacted me to start a 3 year stranded brand new Forklifts. They have never been used so I guess the batteries will be dead

Any specialists in the house with prior experience on working high POWer DC applications

If you decide to sell the bad batteries I am a willing buyer if the price is right

PROMO! PROMO!!!

CANADIAN SOLAR PANELS
270w poly .......N50,000
300w mono .... N55,000
330w poly .......N57,500
340w mono.....N80,000

Quantity attracts "more discount" !

Contact,
Smartcellglobal
081-350-31951
WHATSAPP::: https:///2348170385620

efuro:


Well!. Different stake to different folks.

At least you listened to your customers, a sign that you
Have studied the market and intend to have a lasting impact.
Anyway that is what we want -"good quality products" and value for money
Particularly In RE/AE stuff.

I hope to patronize you soon!

We always listen to our customers because we have their best in mind and most importantly they are the backbone of this business so every single suggestion matters a lot to us in other to serve them better. Thanks a lot and expecting to see you soon Sir.

My answer may be late because am not always on the forum. I hope it still helps.
It may be regarded as a TT installation if PHCN only brings live and neutral wires into a building. The following will address solar PV systems in a TT building. The building will need a TT earthing for protection from fault currents arising within its electrical infrastructure. The building and the solar PV both need earthing for protection from lightning strikes.
TT installations should have a local earthing with sufficiently low electrical resistance to earth to ensure correct operation of the earth fault protection devices. It is not enough to drive an earth electrode into the ground and attach it to the earth bar in the distribution board. It is very important that the TT earthing is correctly designed and installed and combined with RCDs. Its impedance should be tested at least once a year to be less than 100ohms. Professional support with electrical and solar installation, commissioning, inspection and testing, and trouble-shooting is available at ritility.com.
Your ‘electrician’ may be advised to remove the neutral to earth bond at the distribution board if PHCN already does this at the transformer level, and to connect the earth bar to suitable TT earthing of the building. Your solar PV should have its own separate earthing rod. Periodically test TT earthing for sufficient impedance!! An equipotential bond should then be made between the earthing rods, with SPDs, MCBs and AFDDs combined as applicable. A lightning arrester system is also needed.
Finally, if a solar PV hybrid energy system with its own battery storage is to be connected in parallel with PHCN grid, it is good practice to install a safety system that will automattically disconnect the energy system from the grid in even of grid outage. This is to prevent back-feed of power into the grid.
It seems that, in Nigeria, anyone (ati ájá, ati ẹran) can market themselves as installers of electrical, solar electrical, or other dangerous energy systems without the requisite training, tools, experience, or compliance with safety standards. However, just because it works does not mean that it is safe.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I have a question for the electricity buffs in the house.

A friend is constructing an office complex and his electrical contractor wants to install an RCD/RCCB at the service entrance to protect the whole facility (all personnel and devices downstream of the RCD/RCCB)

In order to 'improve the speed at/certainty with which the RCD/RCCB could respond to a fault and disconnect the supply', he has already jumpered/connected the Neutral and Earth bus bars in the DB with a 16MM cable - this installation is here in Lekki - while I know this practice of linking Neutral and Earth is common practice in North America and even mandated by their electrical code, I am yet to see it done here in Nigeria.

I had raised a similar question previously - what do you think? Should Neutral and Earth ever be linked here in Nigeria (I believe our transformers are star/wye wound and the neutral wire center tapped - dunno if PHCN actually Earths their neutral wire at the transformer)

Does this practice help the performance of an RCD/RCCB in any way?

The office will also have solar power tied in(where I come in ) - I am struggling seriously with wiring the CC Earth terminal to that same Earth bus bar in the DB that already has an AC neutral connected to it.

You cant really predict what the present or future occupants will want to power. Once 24/7 power is available, all bets are off.
Your best bet may be a 'pico-grid' of 2-3 inverters in parallel with a single battery bank, and separate meters installed in a locked location.
Cheap and reliable and durable is not available! You may have to choose cheap and reliable but not durable, or reliable and durable but not cheap.
For support, see http://ritility.com/designquote.html

mktinsight:
Thanks for the info guys.

I have more questions. Lets say you have six rental units. These units have the exact same configuration - 2 fans, 1 tv, LED lights. Occupancy of these units ranges from 25% (quarter full) to 100% during the course of the year. Lets say you want to use an inverter to power these units as a standby with a minimum of 12 hours per day:

1) Would you install 6 Separate inverters and batteries in each unit or 1 big inverter with a battery bank?
2) What battery configuration would you need to supply at least 12 hours of standby power per day?
3) Please explain which setup is more efficient, cheaper, easier to maintain

Thanks

Oshomo12:


Contact solardepot in Ibadan, he has BYD lithium batteries, and very good product too.

check prices of complete battery systems featuring byd http://ritility.com/batterySystems.html

mikylon:
How do i know my charge controller is performing optimally?
I have 12 panels 300watt each, connected 3P4S .
Charge controller is 60A MPPT
3.5kva 4 batteries (200ah each)
But the thing is i hardly get into the absorption stage unless its aided by PHCN power which is not stable.
During peak period i register about 120v for the Panel PV array and a current of 8.5amps going to this battery for charging.
My question is if the current is adequate considering the fact that my CC is rated 60amps

It would appear your controller might be working fine. My spot diagnosis is, your controller is a PWM type. If you have small cable gauges, long distance between CC and panels, CC heating excessively (leading to derating), inappropriate positive grounding or any combination of the above mentioned, you could have problems like what you're currently experiencing.

Next likely culprit is bad panels in the strings.
My recommendations
- first check controller type
- check string currents with a clamp device. If okay, your CC is a PWM regardless of what the sticker states.
Minimize distance between PV panels & CC
- someone posted a chart showing ampacities and cable gauges. There's another for cable gauges with respect to distance and current. Review both.

Easy way out - call an expert. Lots of them here with numbers in their signature

hardywaltz:


There's something wrong with your installation
If u are getting 120v and 8.5amps from ur panels means that at least 2 strings of panels are not connected properly.

3 panels of 300w connected in series will give u about
120v and 8.5amps

3S4P panels should be giving u 120v (8.5x4)amps ië 120v 38amps.
Kindly note these are simplified calculations actual may vary.

My advise is to do a string by string test and u will definitely find out the faulty strings.

Secondly increase the size of Ur cable from Combiner box (Or solar panels) to Charge controller.

6mm2 (AWG 9) wire is grossly inadequate for 25m run.

Use the following link to calculate voltage drop

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/voltage-drop-calculator.html

Exactly!

kiekie1:
PROMO! PROMO!!!

CANADIAN SOLAR PANELS
270w poly .......N50,000
300w mono .... N55,000
330w poly .......N57,500
340w mono.....N80,000

Contact,
Smartcellglobal
081-350-31951
WHATSAPP::: https:///2348170385620

I'm loving this

I can do 48k per unit for the Canadian Solar 270w Poly
52k per unit for the Canadian Solar 300w Mono
58k per unit for the Canadian Solar 330w Poly

Please hurry while stocks last

Saipro:

I'm loving this

NiyiOmoIyunade:
I can do 48k per unit for the Canadian Solar 270w Poly
52k per unit for the Canadian Solar 300w Mono
58k per unit for the Canadian Solar 330w Poly

Please hurry while stocks last

how much for the 340watts?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Yup - they are all right beside each other - side by side on thesame section of roof.

The Flames were even the more neatly arranged of the two arrays - for the Canadian Solar, I mounted a few units from surplus stock and found myself buying more and more as the array performance wowed me

LOOKING AT YOUR ROOF, I WOULD SAY..THE INCLINATion is about 40deg, against 6 - 15 deg as recommended for optimum harvest.
do you think its negatively affecting your harvest to a fair degree??

earthrealm:
Trying to salvage the situation while i save up for a new bank.
The bank circled in yellow is about 3 to 4months older than the bank circled in blue........2 sets of ha02 are conneceted to the bank.

I am considering shuffling the batts n placing batts of similar voltages together.its a 48v 5kva inverter setup .
With my plan batt 1 & 2 will join batt 5&6 to make up 1 string.while batt 3&4 will be married to bank 7&8...ie the purple lines in the picture

A copper bus bar &equal lengths of 25mm cable was introduced into the setup some time ago.so the strings should be at equilibruum
so @house critique my plan and advice me accordingly

nobody wan chook mouth for my matter , no so e easy/complex reach?.
abeg ayam waiting for una comment

Nor be me get house o, na landlord house

I think the roof slope/pitch is about 30 - 35°C and to worsen matters west facing. But a man has to make do with what he has sha.

I am sure I will get better results with a flatter roof and southerly orientation.

My ultimate goal is to attain 10kw installed panel capacity - I am already eyeing 12 units of Canadian Solar 300w Mono Perc to keep for myself out of current inventory on hand.

earthrealm:


LOOKING AT YOUR ROOF, I WOULD SAY..THE INCLINATion is about 40deg, against 6 - 15 deg as recommended for optimum harvest.
do you think its negatively affecting your harvest to a fair degree??

My Oga

Two or more batteries cannot work well together except they be of very similar capacity.

Voltage is a very crude approximation of capacity and can be very misleading.

Do a full charge for each battery standalone, capacity test each battery standalone, only put back together those batteries that come very close to each other in capacity.


Scrap or repurpose the rest of the batteries that cannot hold up under load.

earthrealm:


nobody wan chook mouth for my matter , no so e easy/complex reach?.
abeg ayam waiting for una comment

Hi guys.

Please, can anyone tell me if it's necessary to install a thunder arrestor before installing a solar panel. I was told lightning can easily damage the panels if it's not installed.

Also, can anyone give me an estimate of how much it will cost to install panels and a solar charge controller (I know the price will vary based on location, I want to have a baseline to work with).

Thanks.

Neither myself nor my source have these in stock currently Sir.

But say I were to offer a 340w Tier 1 panel to you at 70k thus severely undercutting the prevailing market price, you are still paying 16k extra for additional 40w when I could sell you a similar Tier 1 300w for 52k.

Except you have a specific use case for a 340w panel, the price premium may not really be worth it.

These current set of 300w Mono Perc are marketed as substantially more efficient than the older technology by Canadian Solar.

DUNKA:
how much for the 340watts?

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Nor be me get house o, na landlord house

I think the roof slope/pitch is about 30 - 35°C and to worsen matters west facing. But a man has to make do with what he has sha.

I am sure I will get better results with a flatter roof and southerly orientation.

My ultimate goal is to attain 10kw installed panel capacity - I am already eyeing 12 units of Canadian Solar 300w Mono Perc to keep for myself out of current inventory on hand.

WOW, THATS a mega station 10kw is super massive, are you offgrid?, or intend to go offgrid.
yeah, the inclination is high, however i think the direction the panels are facing doesnt impact as much as inclination.
did you consider using tiilt legs solar racks to balance out the inclination?, or you feel the additional complexity of the tilt leg racks isnt worth the extra harvest?

for my battery bank, i have charged and load tested all the batts, with a standard 100amp load tester like i explained previously, and they checked out ok...hence my dilenma

The extra 3.6Kw I want to acquire are against future upgrades, I don't see the price of a Tier 1 panel shifting by much in the next two years. My base load is about 1Kw at least - I currently run 2 ACs virtually 24/7 on weekends and plan to add one more AC and run all three from AM to late evening at least. All the 10kw of panels will come in useful on such heavy load days especially if there is plenty of cloud.

Yes I am 90% offgrid. I do not want to go through the trouble of adjustable legs e.t.c in a leased house

For your battery bank, I recall we differed over how to perform a load test - for a fully charged 12v 200Ah battery a, 100amp load applied for less than a minute has a poor chance of showing up a bad battery except the battery has suffered significant degradation! You will need to apply the load for a longer time say at least 30 minutes.

earthrealm:


WOW, THATS a mega station 10kw is super massive, are you offgrid?, or intend to go offgrid.
yeah, the inclination is high, however i think the direction the panels are facing doesnt impact as much as inclination.
did you consider using tiilt legs solar racks to balance out the inclination?, or you feel the additional complexity of the tilt leg racks isnt worth the extra harvest?

for my battery bank, i have charged and load tested all the batts, with a standard 100amp load tester like i explained previously, and they checked out ok...hence my dilenma

@house

does anybody have the vil power inverter software disk that ships with the it. .
and also a copy of the manual ?

Somehow managed to lost mine and i would like to extract information from the aforementioned.

I found some online but they were too "generic"

Thanks;

peaceland:
Good day dear friends,
Please I need your urgent help.
Months back posted an issue about my solar system and got solution here. Thanks.
Today having a similar challenge.
On my epever charge controller the panel is showing BUT there is no arrow sign to show that power is flowing from the panels to the battery.
Unlike before where the panels sign was not showing so now I don't know what the problem could be please. Please advice me
Batteries may be due for change since more than 2 years but want to be sure before changing.

I also need contacts of good technician around Mowe ogun state.
Thanks

Call/whatapp 08117398294 for audit and overhaul

Saipro:

It would appear your controller might be working fine. My spot diagnosis is, your controller is a PWM type. If you have small cable gauges, long distance between CC and panels, CC heating excessively (leading to derating), inappropriate positive grounding or any combination of the above mentioned, you could have problems like what you're currently experiencing.

Next likely culprit is bad panels in the strings.
My recommendations
- first check controller type
- check string currents with a clamp device. If okay, your CC is a PWM regardless of what the sticker states.
Minimize distance between PV panels & CC
- someone posted a chart showing amp
acities and cable gauges. There's another for cable gauges with respect to distance and current. Review both.

Easy way out - call an expert. Lots of them here with numbers in their signature

thanks bro. but its an MPPT CC.
its called esmart3.

mikylon:

thanks bro. but its an MPPT CC.
its called esmart3.

An MPPT might behave as a PWM if the voltage headroom is too small (not so in your case). The voltages you're dealing with are sufficiently high to give dangerous shocks in the daytime. Troubleshooting won't work so well at night either. I think an expert on-site review is your best bet. Pick one you're comfortable with.

earthrealm:


i think you are a lil confused, the installer must have used 6mm for positive, then 6mm for negative
THE chart shows you need 16mm at 3% loss, i would advice you to split your panels into 2 sets of 6 panels each 3s2p, used a 10mm dual armoured cable to run each string, and used a combiner box or properly sized circuit breakers to marry/terminate both strings.
zeestone and kiekie have such cables in stock...
http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html


finally at this stage, it should be obvious to you that your installer doesnt have a clue of what he is doing, get an installer from this forum to go qaqc ur setup and modify it accordingly, zeestone /frankie/ niyi etc are ever ready

Take note ... Cabling for MPPT is not the same sizing as PWM... with MPPT cables are smaller, so check for sizing for MPPT..

totalgreen01:




Take note ... Cabling for MPPT is not the same sizing as PWM... with MPPT cables are smaller, so check for sizing for MPPT..

, hmmmm.lolz..
Even though this ya suggestion is true theoritically..iits common knowledge and in practical terms very elementary/rudimentary

You simply need to know the voltage.the current and the distance from panel to cc .and use apprioprately sized cables as stated in the charts...the issue of your cc being mppt or pwm is irrelevant in that regard

Where these digital voltmeters calibrated before installation to ensure they would read the same if connected to same battery? I know some comes with a micro potentiometer to calibrate them

earthrealm:
Trying to salvage the situation while i save up for a new bank.
The bank circled in yellow is about 3 to 4months older than the bank circled in blue........2 sets of ha02 are conneceted to the bank.

I am considering shuffling the batts n placing batts of similar voltages together.its a 48v 5kva inverter setup .
With my plan batt 1 & 2 will join batt 5&6 to make up 1 string.while batt 3&4 will be married to bank 7&8...ie the purple lines in the picture

A copper bus bar &equal lengths of 25mm cable was introduced into the setup some time ago.so the strings should be at equilibruum
so @house critique my plan and advice me accordingly

Looks pretty much like a disconnection btw panel and cc

peaceland:
Good day dear friends,
Please I need your urgent help.
Months back posted an issue about my solar system and got solution here. Thanks.
Today having a similar challenge.
On my epever charge controller the panel is showing BUT there is no arrow sign to show that power is flowing from the panels to the battery.
Unlike before where the panels sign was not showing so now I don't know what the problem could be please. Please advice me
Batteries may be due for change since more than 2 years but want to be sure before changing.

I also need contacts of good technician around Mowe ogun state.
Thanks