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cinzo,
what is the wattage of your fans and light bulbs?

2legit2qt:

Oga George, Waow!

I can c dat d Steam is really ON. I tot u're thru wit d solar installations but guess wat am dead wrong. U neva seize 2 amaze me, if only fellow naijas can av such zeal, belief and commitment 2 day-2-day things, dis naija go don beta o. I SALUTE YOUR COURAGE. As much as i like d solar project d cost 4 me is jst 4 much bt wit people like u going thru it, IT WILL SERVE AS AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME THAT IT CAN BE DONE.. So far so good Oga George. WELLDONE.

what can man do? i'm just trying to my best to use nature's gift in escaping the stranglehold of phcn and generator sellers. as for the pricing, the good news is that they keep falling everyday so hopefully very soon everyone (with a little awareness) should be able to afford solar in his house.

pecorns:

Thanks I got your email.

Here is a link for pricing on Solar panels. I look forward to your respond to my email.

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

pecorns,
check your mail.

We have a consignment of deep cycle AGM/VRLA batteries available for sale in quantity at attractive price.

They are manufactured to US specifications. Good for inverter and solar
use. 200AH capacity- weighs 66kg.

Minimum quantity -10 units

Contact for specification and pricing

hisenjos (at) aol.com
0818-324-4618
0805-506-7408

hisenjos,
give me a quote on zenith 200ah and 260ah deep cycle batteries and lets see if we can deal.
thanks.

George_D:

more testing pics.

over 10,000 amphere hours produced since installation and still counting! 

George, I admire your passion. Can you organize a workshop/seminar for for folks to have hands-on experience?

@George_D
With what u have posted so far, i believe ur solar panels deserve superior batt technology than zenith IF UR INTENTION IS TO INCREASE YOUR BATT BANK. I will post what i mean, then we start from there. Honestly i thought i was comfortable with my solar array but urs made mine look like a piece of cake. Respect bro!

life707,
thanks for the kind words. i'll be looking forward to the pictures.
actually i was looking at getting trojan 350ah deep cycle batteries
but unfortunately when i contacted their sole distributor in nigeria
he couldn't deliver.

ufofex,
i wish i could do that. unfortunately i'm a busy man and don't have time to organise such.
but lets see maybe in the nearest future i may be able to squeeze out time to do that.

New Trojan batts are diff to get but fairly used ones are occasionally brought out as scraps from telecom companies.

1000Ah/2volt batts are available for sale: pix below. Contact:-life707@rocketmail.com

These are pure AGM batts made in Germany. 200Ah(HAGEN, HOPPECKE), 650Ah(HOPPECKE), 1000Ah(SONNENSCHEIN).

life707,
thanks for the offer but i'm not keen on buying used deepcycle batteries reason being that your never sure of their reliability. rememeber a battery is only as good as how it's being maintained. most second hand batteries are generally abused and they end up being dead on arrival.

if you have offers for genuine deepcycle batteries that are still new let me know.

btw: i've been using my zenith batteries for close to 4 yrs now and they still perform like i bought them yesterday -so i know they're good.

I was talking of fairly used trojans but the 1000Ah sonnenschein batteries are brand new in their packs with accessories.

life707,
how much are you selling the new 1000Ah sonnenschein batteries?

pls lets chat via email.kindly drop urs, i will reach across to u. Am also working on the new trojans but no positive feed back so far.

life707,
you got mail. check your mailbox.

harvested power so far now 675kwh! still counting.

pictures to follow-as earlier promised!

@GEORGE D, pls I would like to have ur number and email address cos I would like to install this solar stuff. Andymola4all@yahoo.com

andymola,
you got mail!

over 14,000aht and still counting!

powered both deep freezer, fridge, tv and two ceiling fans yesterday while the pumping machine
was on!

ampere harvest locked at 24.8amps for most of the time!

pictures coming soon!

I have a flat modified sine wave inverter, it is same size with Video cassette Recorder.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
Capacity - 1000va 12v
Charger - 10amp +/- 1amp
Efficiency - AC-AC 95% DC-DC 80%

(1) If I should connect 200ah x 4 batteries to it. How long can it take the inverter to charge total of 800ah batteries?

(2) How long could it take 200w solar panel to charge 800ah battery?

Thanks

ejike,
you are using a 1kva/12v inverter which is designed to charge a single 100 or 200ah battery depending on the spec.if you are to charge 4 batteries (800ah) then you need to multiply the charging time of one battery by 4.

using a 200w solar panel you are interested in both the amps produced and the average sun hours for your location.if you are using a typical sharp 200w panel then the amps produced will be usually around 7amps and since your living in abuja we can take average daily sun hours to be around 6hrs.

your single 200w panel will take an average of 15days to totally charge the 4pcs 200ah batteries connected in parallel-assuming a depth of discharge of 80%

George_D:

ejike,
you are using a 1kva/12v inverter which is designed to charge a single 100 or 200ah battery depending on the spec.if you are to charge 4 batteries (800ah) then you need to multiply the charging time of one battery by 4.

using a 200w solar panel you are interested in both the amps produced and the average sun hours for your location.if you are using a typical sharp 200w panel then the amps produced will be usually around 7amps and since your living in abuja we can take average daily sun hours to be around 6hrs.

your single 200w panel will take an average of 15days to totally charge the 4pcs 200ah batteries connected in parallel-assuming a depth of discharge of 80%

Thanks a lot. To be sincere, this solar thing is not a pieces of cake ooo. With determination we'll get there one day.
Thanks for the encouragement, this is how I got initiated into FTA.

@George
Thanks for your response. I quoted ur reply and was banned. I think there is problem with the anti-spam program.

ejike,
same thing with me here too. looks like the spambot does not like solar power! anyway i saw the reply before it was yanked off and also if you go to my profile you will see the post i made which you replied to.


anyway, the solar alternative requires you to take it one step at a time. using my own case as an example, i started out with a simple back up system of four batteries. for many years i used phcn as my main charging source and it worked great. having enjoyed the benefits i was encouraged to progress into solar panels. first i bought four hundred watts solar panels (two pieces of two hundred watts each). although it hardly made any dent on the charging of my battery bank, still i was impressed with its performance. this moved me to add two more and another two and on and on until right now i have 2000w (2kw) of panels sitting on my roof.

these days my deep freezer is always frozen, i watch tv any time i want while the ceiling fan blows cool air over my head; the water tank is always filled with water. now phcn is like a distant memory.when  i see it i use.when i don't see it i forget about it. all these i'm able to achieve with just a little help from the sun!

I know it isnt going to be easy, GeorgeD, Kindly make available all the pics as promised. And if itinerary permits, kindly do an itemised step by step of how to go about this Solar Energy. There are some of us who wanted to go into it, but do not even know where to start.

oga twins,
i will soon upload my pics, pls bear with me for the delay.


starting solar power in your home is not a big deal. i have said it here before and i will repeat it. all you need is the courage to make the move and once you have taken the first step i assure you there will be no turning back.

one of the major drawbacks is the relatively huge capital needed to start. compared with the usual petrol or diesel generator, it may appear expensive but that is where most people get it wrong. when you compare the cost of running your gen for a given period and what it will cost you to install solar power, the higher start up cost of solar begins to make better sense.

all you need to kick off is an inverter and battery bank. the inverter and battery can be suited to your power needs. after using the inverter for some time and seeing the advantages, you will be encouraged to add solar panels to it and that is about all there is to solar.

@all,
solar power now on turbo mode!

over the weekend i changed out my old pwm morningstar charge controller with a 60a mppt charge controller also from morningstar. thanks to pecorns in canada, the solar game has just begun!

testing is in progress and so far my meter tells me that i've harvested more than twice the capacity of my system in just three (3) days!

the three day statistics:

14kwh (with off and on clouds)!

297ah (average almost 100ah/day)!

installation pictures below.

first, removing the old pwm:

installing the new:

testing in progress: