I don't no. Got to ask him. Maybe Japan panel?

Yeah. Coz I wanted the inverter to be at the back of the house and I shifted the tnb panel to the main door. That was totally unexpected. I mean the cost
Really I tot it was market price. Went to ask some quoted me rm 5xk. So what's the market rage for 4kw?

China one la. But according to them last time use Korea but no mire production. So they use china ibstead but claim good one. Instead of plus minus they but the min yield. Anyway according to them la.

The solar panels are dirt cheap now. Because of monopoly business issue, I never apply for it. If based on your initial investment, ROI are about 2-3%.

Ers ad in the star yesterday for a 12kw is equiv to 6.7k per kw. Sma n canadian solar.

Very cheap. Maybe they Re not making money ??

Anyway good for consumer.

Ps i'm not from ers. Just an observer.

Does anyone here bought solar panel from taobao?

Can it go through malaysian custom?

Of course can go through. Just need to pay 10% tax. Maybe not over rm500, can pass without tax.

Been a while didn't do any solar system DIY. Don't remember when was the last. Hand start to itchy liau.

Work in Shenzhen few mth back. Got a chance to visit the electronic street. Brought 6pcs solar panel and charger controller back. The cost is cheaper than local or brought online. It is a 30W 12VDC panel and a 10A 12/24V charge controller. The charge controller have 17kind of program built in for you to choose. From manual on/off to auto on/off base on sunshine to sunset. Also timer delay ON after sunset. My first plan is to setup a 12VDC system with a battery to charge some gadget.



Fisrt is to check the polarity. Expose the panel to light and check the + and - using multimeter. Write it down on the panel.


Solder a diode on the + side to the wire. The diode is to makesure it don't kick back the voltage and damage the panel. Screw the wire to the panel. Comfirm the polarity and the voltage to makesure the wiring is correct. Finally close the cover. Repeat this with another 5pcs of panel.





Next is to setup the panel on the roof. I m using the pipe frame as a frame for the panel. Cut to the size, drill hole and join together. Attach the panel to it.





Continue.........

Time to hang up to the roof. Damn heavy this 6pcs panel with the frame. Probably 20kg. The panel is facing the south side to get max sunlight. Than bolt the frame to the wall.


Setup a junction box on the frame. All the panel wire is terminated in this box and joint in parallel. A 4mm wire is run into the house. Close the cover box and all done.



This is the electrical circuit setup to charge the battery and some gadget. A bit messy as I do the testing and wiring and rewiring again. The flow is like this: Solar panel wire into the MCB. Than to the charge controller. From Charge controller to another MCB. Than to the seal lead battery. Also wire out from charge controller to any load you want. I wire out to a fuse, than to 12VDC charger. And a step down converter 12VDC to 5VDC to charge those gadget that require 5VDC. Powerbank, ipad, phone etc.

When the sun up, the battery start to charge up. The panel can go as high as 19V. The charger controller will limited the voltage to go into the battery (14v) to prevent it from damage. Also the charger controller can output to the load side at the same time if you set it to ON. How fast the battery can charge up is depend on the sun light, battery capacity and battery drainage amount. In my case it probably took about 1-2hr to charge full the battery (7.5Ahr). From the capacity panel 180w (30w x 6), it able to charge about 250Ahr of 12vdc battery in a 5hr sunlight perday. You can use this battery bank capacity in the night.




Continue........

Look familiar

How much in total you got the entire unit for? If you go again, can tumpang buy?

This post has been edited by weikee: Dec 9 2014, 05:51 PM

It been run for over a mth. There is some waste in this setup. As mostly the panel just sitting there after the battery full. The gadget mostly charging in the night. After the battery full charge for 1-2hr, the rest of the day is waste without using for anything. So decide to reconfigure the setup to direct feed back to the main.

Direct feeding is much more easy to setup. As you can see in the picture, it only require a MCB, grid tie inverter, watt meter for DC and watt meter for AC. The panel have to rewiring to 24VDC. So the panel will be in 2 pcs in series with 3 set in parallel. In this setup, when the sun up, it direct feed into the inverter. The inverter will wakeup when it sense the DC power coming in. The DC watt meter is to monitor the power coming from the panel. Once the inverter wakeup, it will check the voltage out going, Hz and DC incoming range. Than start to run and feedback to the main.



Here it showing the watt feeding to the main from the inverter.


Here is showing the panel incoming watt, Amp, voltage etc.


So does it really feedback to the main? Here is the house meter running backward when feedback. It run from right to left. Usual running is from left to right.


In this setup, there is some waste in effeciency. The inverter efficiency is about 86% and below. It mean the panel output every 100w, only 86w it feedback to the main. Well, it still better than sitting duck for the panel. It running only few day now. Have yet see the total KWH for a mth. Will check the bill for end of this mth.

The setup cost for this DIY

1) Solar panel 30W 12v RM85/pcs
2) Charge controller 10A 12/24V RM35
3) Inverter 240VAC RM310
4) Others --- forget liau. Cause longtime purchase before this DIY.

Your video marked private leh

Aiyah, you think you only kena poison meh. He......

This wago simplified my wiring termination. Very usefull. But a bit messy and confuse when doing the series and parallel wiring. So got to becarefull.

Well, if got the chance go again....

If you go HK, take 1 day go over to Shenzhen. It only take 1hr to the electronic street. And I guarantee you won't comeback HK after night.

If you want the contact and address of the shop, let me know.

Set to public already.

This post has been edited by ozak: Dec 9 2014, 06:06 PM

Cheap man.. My ideal setup is to power my 3000w storage heater, it don't need so much energy, maybe 40mins at most, because it only take 20-25mins to heat up the storage. Maybe enough to charge 3 units of DIN55. Guess the challenge is to have a 3300watt inverter (estimate 10% losses), and the wiring from the battery to the interter (280amps)

Have you try electronic meter?

How about when the fridge is running, and your solar is feeding into the unit. I wonder if you need to match the sine wave.

Yes. Compare here which is selling at RM360/pcs for 30W. 6pcs panel is already max I can carried back. Freaking heavy with 2.8kg/pcs. Lucky I topup the luggage weight free. They have 10w, 20w 30w, 40w, 80w and 100w+ over panel. Depend you can carry back or not. No tax go thru airport custom.

3kWatt ? Cannot la. That too costly. 3kw, I better power others beside heater and aircon.

Yeah, but that I have to make some visit in China. Solar panel no tax? If like that can buy from Taobao

Is your inverter a "Grid-tie" inverter? it have to be grid-tie so it match the phase, and also auto shutdown when incoming power are trip.

Mana ada electronic meter in my house. But don't worry. It still feedback to the main even if your meter doesn't let it go thru. Cause your house electrical appliance will use it too. That can reduce the main usage coming in.

The meter will just run slow down as there is feedback from the panel. The inverter is a pure sine wave. Which suit for all the electrical and electronic. Have tried everything switch on without any problem.

If you go they holiday lah. The shipping cost killing you.

I let the airport custom scan the box everything. But no ask or tax also.

It is a 200w grid tie inverter.

Sound good for a project. Dam, China I need to go...

I will slowly collect/buy the goods. Maybe start with Pasar Road.

This post has been edited by weikee: Dec 9 2014, 06:31 PM