Mark_almelo
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2022
- Messages
- 5
Hello,
my name is mark and I’m in the beginning of planning and building a house in west-Africa. I’m by no means a-technical and experience in a lot of things but when it comes to electricity I’m only experienced in 12v systems and your ordinary household 230v system (but not so far as installing a complete fusebox)
my head is spinning of the loads of information I get on internet and also “experts” over here (but it’s a country we’re they will tell and do anything to make a sale, so it’s questionable)
at this point I’m not yet really interested how many panels I need or how many batteries. But it’s got more to do with the inverter and how to set everything up and connect it. I heard that a lot of batteries only have a lifespan over here of about 3 years, and that it got mostly to do because people discharge the batteries completely and that the lifespan will expand drastically when you don’t let it get under 50%. Is that true or is it just the poor quality that they sell over here? (I have the possibility to buy it in Europe and ship it over)
so I was thinking and trying to search because I thought I couldn’t possibly be the only one with these problems, is there something like a smart inverter or an “add-on” that automatically monitors the batteries and will shut the power of when it gets below 50%? or even more smart dat it can even shut of certain circuits of the house at a certain percantage (60% for example) so only the essentials are left like lights and the fans)
there is a national grid system, but it’s really unreliable. Is it possible to wire it in to the inverter? For example in the rainy season that the inverter can detect that todays weather (information collected by internet forecast for example) and sun is not good enough to charge the batteries by solar and if there is power on the grid it will fill up the batteries from there? (During the day I mean so I’ll have power in the evening and night if the grid is off)
like I said im completley new to this and maybe I’m being stupid but these are questions that pop in my mind. Surely considering how smart appliances are becoming. In europe my Honeywell thermostat even knows what expected time I’m coming home or leaving home and adjust the temp for it, it’s not that impossible to think a solar system can be that smart right?
its probably not going to be a massive system, here are some appliances on the top of my head that will be needed. It’s going to be livingroom/2 bedrooms/2bathrooms/pantry/porch
- 2 fridges
- 1 freezer
- led lighting spots for the house and garden
- 2 TV’s
- washingmachine / dryer (but I’m okay with wiring that into the national grid and not on solar)
- boiler (but may also go the route of solar heating)
- small items like charging your phone / ipad / router etc.
- pump for the borehole
- pump for the swimmingpool (but also okay with wiring into national grid)
- fans for livingroom, bedrooms and porch
- in rare occasions kitchen appliances like a waterheater / toaster ect
- eventually if possible 2 AC’s
i get there are still a lot of it’s and but‘s but i will have to start somewhere right?
my name is mark and I’m in the beginning of planning and building a house in west-Africa. I’m by no means a-technical and experience in a lot of things but when it comes to electricity I’m only experienced in 12v systems and your ordinary household 230v system (but not so far as installing a complete fusebox)
my head is spinning of the loads of information I get on internet and also “experts” over here (but it’s a country we’re they will tell and do anything to make a sale, so it’s questionable)
at this point I’m not yet really interested how many panels I need or how many batteries. But it’s got more to do with the inverter and how to set everything up and connect it. I heard that a lot of batteries only have a lifespan over here of about 3 years, and that it got mostly to do because people discharge the batteries completely and that the lifespan will expand drastically when you don’t let it get under 50%. Is that true or is it just the poor quality that they sell over here? (I have the possibility to buy it in Europe and ship it over)
so I was thinking and trying to search because I thought I couldn’t possibly be the only one with these problems, is there something like a smart inverter or an “add-on” that automatically monitors the batteries and will shut the power of when it gets below 50%? or even more smart dat it can even shut of certain circuits of the house at a certain percantage (60% for example) so only the essentials are left like lights and the fans)
there is a national grid system, but it’s really unreliable. Is it possible to wire it in to the inverter? For example in the rainy season that the inverter can detect that todays weather (information collected by internet forecast for example) and sun is not good enough to charge the batteries by solar and if there is power on the grid it will fill up the batteries from there? (During the day I mean so I’ll have power in the evening and night if the grid is off)
like I said im completley new to this and maybe I’m being stupid but these are questions that pop in my mind. Surely considering how smart appliances are becoming. In europe my Honeywell thermostat even knows what expected time I’m coming home or leaving home and adjust the temp for it, it’s not that impossible to think a solar system can be that smart right?
its probably not going to be a massive system, here are some appliances on the top of my head that will be needed. It’s going to be livingroom/2 bedrooms/2bathrooms/pantry/porch
- 2 fridges
- 1 freezer
- led lighting spots for the house and garden
- 2 TV’s
- washingmachine / dryer (but I’m okay with wiring that into the national grid and not on solar)
- boiler (but may also go the route of solar heating)
- small items like charging your phone / ipad / router etc.
- pump for the borehole
- pump for the swimmingpool (but also okay with wiring into national grid)
- fans for livingroom, bedrooms and porch
- in rare occasions kitchen appliances like a waterheater / toaster ect
- eventually if possible 2 AC’s
i get there are still a lot of it’s and but‘s but i will have to start somewhere right?
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