The unstable power supply / outrageous bill served by various power companies has made a lot of people resort to alternative sources of power, solar is one of those sources that the world is gradually becoming aware of because of Its friendliness to the environment.
For now it still remains one of the very many untapped resources especially in Africa.
This blog tries to explain c how solar energy can be put into good / profitable and productive use.
Let’s look at some advantages of solar Energy usage
1. Lower or no electricity bills
2.Compared to generator users, there is no fuel cost and stress of
getting it and no fumes. Etc.
3.Little or no maintenance is usually carried out on your solar equipment, as long
as you keep them in a well- ventilated area and away from moisture.
A solar powered generator capable of converting the sun rays into usable electricity comprises of the following components:
1. Solar panel
2. Power Inverter
3. Deep Circle Battery
4. Charge controller
5. Suitable cables
6.Meter
Solar Panels
You can decide to go for a complete panel from manufacturers (already made) or build panels by yourself using solar cells.
Solar panel is rated In watts e.g. you can have a panel rated 50 w, 100 watts, 200 watts etc.
There are different brands of panels available in the market today, some of which are Sharp, Suntech, e.t.c
Power Inverter:
stored battery charge from D.C to A.C.
In physics inversion is the conversion of voltage from ac to dc.
So going by that definition an inverter is an electronic device that
converts 12, 24, 48, or higher volts DC power from batteries or solar
panels to 120/240 volts AC to operate normal appliances.
Inverters are mainly divided into 2:
i, Modified sine wave inverter
ii, Square wave inverter
iii, And pure sine wave inverter
Out off all three, the pure sine wave inverters are the best because all appliances run smoothly on them as compared to the square wave and modified sine wave inverters where certain appliances e.g appliances that use motor speed controls or that use timers may not work quite right with a Modified Sine Wave inverter
There are so many inverters out there with different brand names some of which are sukam, cyberpower, nexus ,luminous etc
Storage Battery
your charges will be stored, which will consequently be converted from AC to DC
voltage by your inverter.
The only batteries that are recommended for solar energy setups are deep cycle
batteries and this is because the are the only ones that have the ability to withstand
continuous charging and discharging and the the also allow you to take more charge
out of them than the regular car battery would.
Batteries can either be connected in series or in parallel.
Parallel connections increase current output while voltage output remains
constant.while series connections increase voltage output while the current
output remains constant. series and parrallel conections can also be combined
to increase both the voltage and current output. See images below.
Series Battery Connection
Parrallel Battery Connection
Charge controller
Just as the name suggests, a charge controller is a device that controls the
current entering the batteries and stops the it from from overcharging,
which could damage your batteries.
Once the battery is fully charged, the charge controller shuts off additional
current form reaching the battery.
Cables:Suitable cables with the right thickness must be used to avoid excess
energy loss when cables start heating up during usage.
Meter: The job of the meter is to simply tell you how much power
you are consuming on a daily basis.
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