The Alternative Energy Thread - Generators, Solar, UPS, Wind

[mansor]

The best panels out there are Canadian Solar (Cost and quality wise), Then Yingli is good too but original Yingli is hard to find in Pakistan, mostly lot or defected pieces are imported here of Yingli.
Then there is renesola and Jetion Solar which are chinese but work fine.

For inverter I'd suggest you go for 1 KVA AXPERT KS. Dont go for APC because it is not a Solar inverter, wont reap the results you require.

Regards,

Waqas Khan

waqas thanks for quick reply
agar hybrid inverter na leyna ho to , phir konsa inverter acha hei ?

[cursedd]

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First of all pls clear urself....
Never use the 100% of battery, as u calculated 150ah x 12v = 1800w

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So for the first system u are actually utilizing 400-500 watts in the whole night while actually u have total of 1800watts (150amp x 12V) which seems yes the load can be increased keeping in mind the discharge rate.

for the control of losses:
i used 16mm pure copper cable (shop person told me.. its battery cable) 13-yard from panels to charge controller... (the MC4 connectors were soldered on this cable without any cable-cutting)
and for inner side/load wiring i again used a good quality copper wire i forgotten its mm (shop person told me.. its heavy speaker/WOOFER cable)

Thanks for the detailed reply, and yes i am just talking about the total power the battery can supply obviously i wont drain that much power within an hour or two.
Its just i wanted to know the Max discharge rate the battery can handle? Likewise as we know that batteries has a certain charging rate.
Also can u tell me that which distance should be kept minimum, the solar panels to the charge controller or charge controller to the junction box(where the power is further distributed via breakers)? Keeping in mind same cable quality and size is being used

Regards

[ghani007]

can u tell me that which distance should be kept minimum, the solar panels to the charge controller or charge controller to the junction box(where the power is further distributed via breakers)? Keeping in mind same cable quality and size is being used

Regards

The distance between Charge Controller and Load/Junction box must be minimized. otherwise you will face problem such as... volts drops, even volts seems ok to you but the load will not working properly due to low Current/Amps.

The distance between Panels and Charge Controller (for line lose) can be recovered with the help of heavy cable or by the usage of MPPT controller on same cable (ie; use panels in an array/series upto the VOC of MPPT-Controller, e.g. u are generating 72Volts from your panels and later mppt is converting it into 12volts-battery in this setup line losses will be minimized from panels to controller segment).

Always check breakers before you buy...
AC Breakers & DC Breakers.
Otherwise for a low-Volt system, use AUTO-Fuse as per requirments.

[pantera]

waqas thanks for quick reply
agar hybrid inverter na leyna ho to , phir konsa inverter acha hei ?

I would recommend you to go for hybrid inverter only since it will deliver the optimum results. Otherwise you can go for AXPERT MKS depending on what capacity you require.

[pantera]

Why u want to connect them in straight? '' cascaded connection '' in electronic terms

Your messages are full so i am replying here.
Narada is not as sturdy as Trojan as Narada has 700 cycles at 50% DOD while Trojan has 1600 cycles at 50% DOD which is quite a significant difference.
And yes if your load at night will be fans and lights then the system seems feasible. But dont forget the battery replacement cost.

[whiteangel]

What's the difference in cost between Narada and Trojan battery if both are of similar AH capacity?

[cursedd]

The distance between Charge Controller and Load/Junction box must be minimized. otherwise you will face problem such as... volts drops, even volts seems ok to you but the load will not working properly due to low Current/Amps.

The distance between Panels and Charge Controller (for line lose) can be recovered with the help of heavy cable or by the usage of MPPT controller on same cable (ie; use panels in an array/series upto the VOC of MPPT-Controller, e.g. u are generating 72Volts from your panels and later mppt is converting it into 12volts-battery in this setup line losses will be minimized from panels to controller segment).

Always check breakers before you buy...
AC Breakers & DC Breakers.
Otherwise for a low-Volt system, use AUTO-Fuse as per requirments.

Thanks for the reply
So let me clear myself to you,
the distance between panels and charge controller can be covered via panels voltage upto Voc. but the distance between charge controllers and junction box (breaker terminal)should be less but what about junction box to load on each floor, like we have 2 floors and wanted to run the lights and fan on DC. is it feasible to run on DC?

Ac Breakers & Dc breakers... heard it first time that they both are different.

[pantera]

What's the difference in cost between Narada and Trojan battery if both are of similar AH capacity?

Both are not same. one is 200ah while trojan is 225ah. It has better electrolytes discharging capacity and better cycles. As I mentioned above, Trojan has 1600 cycles at 50% DOD while narada has 700. If we discharge the battery once everyday, Narada will last almost 2 years while Trojan will last 4.5 years. The difference in life offsets the price difference vastly.

[ghani007]

Thanks for the reply
So let me clear myself to you,
the distance between panels and charge controller can be covered via panels voltage upto Voc. but the distance between charge controllers and junction box (breaker terminal)should be less but what about junction box to load on each floor, like we have 2 floors and wanted to run the lights and fan on DC. is it feasible to run on DC?

Ac Breakers & Dc breakers... heard it first time that they both are different.

i am not a qualified-electric-person but saying as per my personal experience;
if you are trying to work for a distance of about 20/30 feet maximum from Battery to Load/Fan/Light it may work with some degradation of volts (assuming 12-volts system with good quality copper cable), but if u r trying to work in meters then i am sure you will face a lot of problems due to voltage/Current Loss. (i face that problem in 12-volts system once, so my solution was one Drill in a Wall and change the route of cable and minimized cable's length.. )

one other way to do that, i didnt try myself so experts may clarify it, if its feasible or not; if we use 24-volts instead of 12-volts and at the end just before installing our load or at the room level, convert 24-volt into 12-volts with some electronic device and then connect our load. Something like same way as we save our panel-to-controller cable by using VOC feature.

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Once again experts may clarify it;

There is a difference between AC & DC...
u may google that for a simple clarification...
we are talking about 220Volts AC and a 12Volts DC. wave structure of both are different. and power of both are different.

[cursedd]

one other way to do that, i didnt try myself so experts may clarify it, if its feasible or not; if we use 24-volts instead of 12-volts and at the end just before installing our load or at the room level, convert 24-volt into 12-volts with some electronic device and then connect our load. Something like same way as we save our panel-to-controller cable by using VOC feature.

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Yes the same thing is being told by one of the installation guy. I believe we can get dc solution via this procedure to a greater extent

[cursedd]

Your messages are full so i am replying here.
Narada is not as sturdy as Trojan as Narada has 700 cycles at 50% DOD while Trojan has 1600 cycles at 50% DOD which is quite a significant difference.
And yes if your load at night will be fans and lights then the system seems feasible. But dont forget the battery replacement cost.

Thanks, the reason I am discussing it in detail is that will it last for a hefty 4-5 years or not.
While what's your opinion in installing a battery bank or make a bank using multiple cells? As cells are expensive and comes refurbished also

[zameerasar]

I installed 2 excide 165 batteries in march 2014 in parallel with 12v ups. They lasted 15 months. Now what to buy next?

[HellsGuardian]

I recommend phoenix ugs series

[Vaqas1]

Phoenix UGS series are good or try the Tubular batteries introduced by Volta/Osaka they are good for deep cycle usage.

[realscientist4u]

Salam //Mod Edit: Offensive term removed//..
Here r some Tech advices for all..
1) Always use UPS double powered than the ur demanding load. For example if ur load demand is 500 watts the u should require 1000 watts UPS.
2) Here is biggest problem common person doesn?t aware to watt, voltage and AMPs Calculations game. For Example LOCAL UPS 1 batteried 12V and output with 1000 watts.. it will take current AMPs aprx 12A on battery against the UPS output 230/ 200 watts? now same UPS 24v 2 batteried will carry 50% less Apms 6amp at 230/ 200 watts.. ..
Best recommendations for UPS 500watts load ?.. 1000 Watts with 2 batteries 24 V.. and above till 3000 watts 4 batterired 48V.. ..
You can use smaller battery than the single huge battery..
For Further Q& A
Tubuler Battery is ever best for UPS..

[nasirjavaid]

I think this will be a revolutionary thing in coming future. I am waiting for it

Tesla Powerwall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[dms664]

Salam //Mod Edit: Offensive term removed//..
Here r some Tech advices for all..
1) Always use UPS double powered than the ur demanding load. For example if ur load demand is 500 watts the u should require 1000 watts UPS.
2) Here is biggest problem common person doesn?t aware to watt, voltage and AMPs Calculations game. For Example LOCAL UPS 1 batteried 12V and output with 1000 watts.. it will take current AMPs aprx 12A on battery against the UPS output 230/ 200 watts? now same UPS 24v 2 batteried will carry 50% less Apms 6amp at 230/ 200 watts.. ..
Best recommendations for UPS 500watts load ?.. 1000 Watts with 2 batteries 24 V.. and above till 3000 watts 4 batterired 48V.. ..
You can use smaller battery than the single huge battery..
For Further Q& A
Tubuler Battery is ever best for UPS..

Difference bw tubular n normal battery?

Y it is best for UPS?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[pantera]

Thanks, the reason I am discussing it in detail is that will it last for a hefty 4-5 years or not.
While what's your opinion in installing a battery bank or make a bank using multiple cells? As cells are expensive and comes refurbished also

Cells are way too expensive and are best for bigger system. So go for batteries.

[pantera]

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Call @0322 2136263 for details!

[crossfirex]

Crossfirex what's the feedback on tubular battery performance please?

In two days faced load shedding and I can say that once fully charged single TR-200 gave us around 2hrs 45 min actually cannot give exact figures because load shedding occurred for 1hr30 min in morning in which the ups was switched on for 45min didn't switched on ups initially then in the night it again occurred for more than three hours in which battery completely got discharged in 2hrs10 min or so but we put huge load on it initially u can say for around 1hr40 min we were using 4 fans and 03 tube lights on it