Clivevan Posted April 20, 2022 Posted April 20, 2022 The idea here is to assist 2 of my employees in Mozambique to at least have a sniff at electricity. It is not a matter of merely opting for off-grid. There is NO GRID. These people have nothing so a bit of electricity can go a long way. BUT - the skills or resources to tinker with glitches and set-backs do not exist and the employer is not even in the country and is an idiot. SO, once they have a bit of electricity it must be LONG LASTING, bullet proof, super reliable. Ideally they can save for later additions or improvements. I costed the system with what is currently a good deal out here. So if anybody can please advise what is outstanding and/or questionable - ignorance is a curable disease and I am a willing patient. Please see underlined for issues/questions. Bare Bones system: (12v and USB only; no inverter as yet; low cost PWM charge controller BUT mostly quality components) Solar Panel Enersol 150W R 886.50 PSS Charge Controller – PWM 20A 12/24VDC R 319.00 (is this good enough?) Blue Nova 13V Battery 8Ah = 104Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate R 785.00 (later this can be doubled in parallel?) 4 port USB 12V Multifunctional Car Charger R 337.77 Power Socket 12v with Alligator Clips R 120.00 Cabling etc (what do I need?) ?? Total R 2 447.00 Hopefully this will give meaningful access to a smart phone (currently they cannot even charge a phone) and an increasing host of USB driven applications. Any other useful USB apps I have not mentioned below? Imagine you live in the dark and the kids cannot study at night. And no comms and no music . . . EG OF LIFE TRANSFORMING EQUIPMENT USAGE IN ONE EVENING (all USB or 12v) 1x10w led light 3 hrs (30wh) 1x5w led light 1 hrs (5wh) Reading lamp LED (5w) for 3 hrs (15wh) Use and charge x2 smart phones (x 5w each) 2 hrs (20wh) Play small speaker AUX from phone audio; USB for power 5watts 2hrs (10wh) Small desk fan (2.5w) 4hrs (10wh) Total watthours (90wh) NOTES (are these correct?): Battery and Panel – battery capacity is only 25% of available panel energy. So even on rainy days there will be enough charge.? LiFePo charges almost to the full in 1 ½ hours if suffix charge current. Battery in our eg is rated as charging at 7.2A and Panel can produce 8A. 14v x 7A =98 watt hour?? Later on a cheap laptop or tablet etc could be charged of 12 volt by means of What? can it be done? If you can assist?? Quote
Antonio de Sa Posted April 20, 2022 Posted April 20, 2022 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Clivevan said: The idea here is to assist 2 of my employees in Mozambique to at least have a sniff at electricity. It is not a matter of merely opting for off-grid. There is NO GRID. These people have nothing so a bit of electricity can go a long way. BUT - the skills or resources to tinker with glitches and set-backs do not exist and the employer is not even in the country and is an idiot. SO, once they have a bit of electricity it must be LONG LASTING, bullet proof, super reliable. Ideally they can save for later additions or improvements. I costed the system with what is currently a good deal out here. So if anybody can please advise what is outstanding and/or questionable - ignorance is a curable disease and I am a willing patient. Please see underlined for issues/questions. Bare Bones system: (12v and USB only; no inverter as yet; low cost PWM charge controller BUT mostly quality components) Solar Panel Enersol 150W R 886.50 PSS Charge Controller – PWM 20A 12/24VDC R 319.00 (is this good enough?) Blue Nova 13V Battery 8Ah = 104Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate R 785.00 (later this can be doubled in parallel?) 4 port USB 12V Multifunctional Car Charger R 337.77 Power Socket 12v with Alligator Clips R 120.00 Cabling etc (what do I need?) ?? Total R 2 447.00 Hopefully this will give meaningful access to a smart phone (currently they cannot even charge a phone) and an increasing host of USB driven applications. Any other useful USB apps I have not mentioned below? Imagine you live in the dark and the kids cannot study at night. And no comms and no music . . . EG OF LIFE TRANSFORMING EQUIPMENT USAGE IN ONE EVENING (all USB or 12v) 1x10w led light 3 hrs (30wh) 1x5w led light 1 hrs (5wh) Reading lamp LED (5w) for 3 hrs (15wh) Use and charge x2 smart phones (x 5w each) 2 hrs (20wh) Play small speaker AUX from phone audio; USB for power 5watts 2hrs (10wh) Small desk fan (2.5w) 4hrs (10wh) Total watthours (90wh) NOTES (are these correct?): Battery and Panel – battery capacity is only 25% of available panel energy. So even on rainy days there will be enough charge.? LiFePo charges almost to the full in 1 ½ hours if suffix charge current. Battery in our eg is rated as charging at 7.2A and Panel can produce 8A. 14v x 7A =98 watt hour?? Later on a cheap laptop or tablet etc could be charged of 12 volt by means of What? can it be done? If you can assist?? @Clivevan If I may ask where in Mozambique do you want to install this system? It looks ok for the amount of power required, mind you without a small inverter it will be at 12 V DC Edited April 20, 2022 by Antonio de Sa Quote
Clivevan Posted April 20, 2022 Author Posted April 20, 2022 It is outside Inhambane - punishing hot weather and no amenities. The difference between NO ELECTRICITY (not even pre-charged items - complete darkness and silence) and light with music and internet is ENORMOUS. But the system cannot be short-term - the usual lucky-packet item wont do. Hence we make do with what we can - 12 V DC and USB. Antonio de Sa 1 Quote
Scorp007 Posted April 21, 2022 Posted April 21, 2022 I would just confirm with Bluenova that you can use a PWM that is constantly pulsing the battery to charge. I think a lithium needs a constant V or A for charging. Quote
Clivevan Posted April 22, 2022 Author Posted April 22, 2022 17 hours ago, Scorp007 said: I would just confirm with Bluenova that you can use a PWM that is constantly pulsing the battery to charge. I think a lithium needs a constant V or A for charging. Thank you so much. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I need to know. Quote
iiznh Posted April 22, 2022 Posted April 22, 2022 (edited) On 2022/04/21 at 3:15 PM, Scorp007 said: I would just confirm with Bluenova that you can use a PWM that is constantly pulsing the battery to charge. I think a lithium needs a constant V or A for charging. My dad is running a 50A Ecco 12/24 PWM charge controller on his 24V 5KWh Lithium Battery (LBSA) without issues for 2 years. I am sure it will be fine. Just check that the Panel produces at least 18V as you need a higher voltage for the PWM to work. Edit: Ok I checked for you, seems like it is 18V https://sinetechstore.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Enersol-Solar-Panel-Brochure-October-2019.pdf On 2022/04/20 at 1:46 PM, Clivevan said: ignorance is a curable disease and I am a willing patient Love this! We all learn by making mistakes, some even learn from other's mistakes. I must say I love the idea, ever since Will Prowse built the "milk crate battery" I have been thinking about what is possible with low cost items. You could build a 3s 18650 battery for fairly cheap if you can get hold of old laptop batteries. Edited April 22, 2022 by iiznh Energy-Jason 1 Quote
iiznh Posted April 22, 2022 Posted April 22, 2022 On 2022/04/20 at 1:46 PM, Clivevan said: Later on a cheap laptop or tablet etc could be charged of 12 volt by means of What? can it be done? So for fairly cheap you can buy an old laptop and install puppy linux on it, it becomes very usable with as little as 1GB Ram. Good enough to watch pre-downloaded videos, books, music etc. My old laptop (+- 10 years) runs on about 10-20W in powersave mode.... you can power it directly with a DC-DC converter taking the 12V to 19.5V. The old laptop does not even need a battery. Quote
Clivevan Posted April 23, 2022 Author Posted April 23, 2022 this is extraordianry. Thank you. I am going to do the first bit and then later do the laptop Will send a picture of my set up which I will run in Jhb to iron out glitches. Quote
Clivevan Posted April 23, 2022 Author Posted April 23, 2022 Can I ask you - in Jhb we only need back up - for now but i am pessimistic. Will this back up system work if it is left always on - ie dedicated to the appliance and always on? Mains Charger: Blue-Power IP6512v-10a Battery: Blue Nova 13V - 44Ah -570Wh Battery Inverter: VICTRON PHOENIX 12/375-230V VE. Fishtank heater and pumps (50 to 150 watts draw) 24/7; the heater obviously cycle on and off as the temp varies. IE NO SWITCH OVER involved. I do not believe I am capable to set up that. So the system is always on but only really works during a load shed?? Quote
Clivevan Posted April 23, 2022 Author Posted April 23, 2022 Milk crate Video - I am almost excited I could do that BUT BUT BUT what are the equivalent best priced but QUALITY components that can be sourced here in SA?? Quote
Scorp007 Posted April 23, 2022 Posted April 23, 2022 (edited) 9 hours ago, Clivevan said: Can I ask you - in Jhb we only need back up - for now but i am pessimistic. Will this back up system work if it is left always on - ie dedicated to the appliance and always on? Mains Charger: Blue-Power IP6512v-10a Battery: Blue Nova 13V - 44Ah -570Wh Battery Inverter: VICTRON PHOENIX 12/375-230V VE. Fishtank heater and pumps (50 to 150 watts draw) 24/7; the heater obviously cycle on and off as the temp varies. IE NO SWITCH OVER involved. I do not believe I am capable to set up that. So the system is always on but only really works during a load shed?? No - If you use an average of 100W for 24/7 you discharge the battery by 2400Wh per day. Say due to LS you have power to charge the battery back for 19 hrs (5hrs LS)per day you will only put back 1800Wh. Battery will be discharged in 2 days. This excludes the power used by the inverter - say another 10% is lost all the time. The key here is how many hours out of 24 is the 50-150W load switched on. Knowing this one will know if the 570Wh battery will even last for a 5 hour a day LS. Edited April 23, 2022 by Scorp007 Quote
Clivevan Posted April 25, 2022 Author Posted April 25, 2022 OK understood. So what kind of auto transfer switch can I install? Specs? Price? I have tried to research this but I am afraid I battle. Quote
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