Design And Construction Of A Solar Power Switch

ABSTRACT

The majority of domestic renewable energy is generated to supplement an existing mains power supply – for example, an array of solar panels used to reduce the costs of powering a home.

One way would be to separate the chosen lighting circuit completely from the mains power supply, connecting it directly to a suitable power inverter in turn connected to the renewable system battery bank, or replacing the light bulbs and fittings with low voltage equivalents.

However, this is not an optimal solution since manual intervention is required when the batteries become overly discharged and the sun is not shining. Ideally we need a way to power the lighting circuit from the renewable source, but with an instantaneous automatic switch to mains power when necessary, this device does the function, it switches solar power to mains automatically and vice versa

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

1.1   INTRODUCTION

1.2   AIM OF THE PROJECT

1.3   PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

1.4   APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

1.6    PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT

1.7     LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

1.8    PROJECT WORK ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE STUDY
• BACKGROUND SOLAR ENERGY
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOLAR CELLS
• THEORY OF SOLAR CELLS

CHAPTER THREE

3.0     DESIGN  METHODOLOGY

3.1     SYSTEM BLOCK DIAGRAM

3.2     MATERIALS USED

3.3     SYSTEM WIRING DIAGRAM

3.4      SYSTEM CONNECTIONS

3.5      CIRCUIT DESIGN

3.6       DESCRIPTION OF COMPONENTS USED

CHAPTER FOUR

TEST AND RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1      CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE AND TESTING ANALYSIS

4.2     CASING AND PACKAGING

4.3      ASSEMBLING OF SECTIONS

4.4       PACKAGING

4.5       IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURE

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0      CONCLUSION

• REFERENCES

 CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION

Energy plays vital role for development in all sectors. With depletion of fossil fuels used for power generation and increase in demand for power, the gap between supply and demand is becoming more. Renewable energy sources can only provide solution to face this energy crisis. Out of renewable energy options, solar energy is the most potential source for all tropical countries. Sun radiates 180 billion MW of energy over Earth Just one hour of this energy could meet power needs of entire planet for a year. India receives 5000 Trillion KWhrs of energy from SUN per annum. This energy is clean, pollution free and inexhaustible and is available free and in abundance. Basically the components involved in solar system are PV panel, DC-DC Converter, Battery, Inverter.

The PV panel produces electrical voltage/current from solar energy. This solar panel can produce more than the rated voltage to the battery which can be dangerous to the battery due to the high radiation of the sun. In order to tackle the present energy crisis it is necessary to develop an efficient manner in which power has to be extracted from the incoming solar radiation. The use of the newest power control mechanisms called solar charge controller was invented.

However, this work focused on solar power switch. A Grid Assisted Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that can use the power from a wall socket as it’s alternative power supply.

A Solar system that can provide power to run a device, but automatically switch between using power from a wall socket. This is for when the Solar power is insufficient and could be a cheaper option than spending much to install a Grid-Tied system.

There are systems called Plug and Play solar panels, but these sound too risky. I don’t want to fry a worker in case the power goes out. Instead, I want to try making a Grid-Assisted system that would automatically switch between Solar and Grid.

A Solar panel is connected to a Charge Controller (Solar Controller), which supplies the correct amount of current to a Battery.

An Inverter also connects to the battery and uses its current to produce AC (The higher Voltages and Amps required) for the device. When the battery is fully charged, it can be used as part of a circuit. Because any excess energy will be passed through to another ‘Load’.

The charging source needs to provide a Voltage that’s greater than the batteries, so the current can effectively flow through it. If the Solar panel doesn’t produce enough power, then we’ll need a way for the circuit to automatically switch over to the Mains (The Grid) and back again. If the battery drops below 50% of its total charge, it’ll become damaged.

To counter this, perhaps the Solar energy could be passed through an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which may be able to detect whether the battery has 51% of its charge left. At this point, it’ll provide an alternative power source, being the wall socket (The Grid).

For the UPS to switch back into using Solar power, it’ll need to also detect when the battery has regained a specific amount of its charge (98% for example). This amount would be a balance between how many times it needs to recharge and the loss of efficiency this causes.

1.2                                                   AIM OF THE PROJECT

The objective of this work is to construct a device that permits automatic switching of solar power to mains and vice versa. When solar charges the battery full it switch over to the battery, and when the battery goes below the required level it will automatically switch over to the panel for charging.

1.3                                             OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

At the end of this work, students involved will be able to:

1. Learn and understand the principle of switching using relay
2. Also learn how relay operates

1.4                                              PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

The main purpose of this work is to provide an automatic means of switching from solar energy to another source of power supply.

1.5                                          APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

This device can be used in places where solar energy is installed such as:

1. Home
2. Worship places
3. garages
4. Offices and industries. etc

1.6                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

• it provides an automatic means of switching
• If the Solar panel doesn’t produce enough power, this system automatically switch over to the Mains (The Grid) and back again. If the battery drops below 50% of its total charge, it’ll become damaged.
• It does not reduce the power of the solar panel.
• It is inexpensive and easy to construct.

1.7                                              PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT

The problem with this design is that the device activates as soon as the battery is fully charged. This does not necessarily coincide with when the appliance is turned on. Even if no appliance is on, the relays and the inverter will still consume power. This can waste electricity if you are powering a device that is not regularly on during the day.

1.7                                           LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

The operation of this device involves regularly cutting power and switching to a second power source that may be out of phase. As a result, the output may momentarily fluctuate via the relay that will be used

1.8                                        PROJECT WORK ORGANIZATION

The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the project is organized sequentially as follows:

Chapter one of this work is on the introduction to the study. In this chapter, the background, significance, objective, aim, purpose, application study were discussed.

Chapter two is on literature review of this study. In this chapter, all the literature pertaining to this work was reviewed.

Chapter three is on design methodology. In this chapter all the method involved during the design and construction were discussed.

Chapter four is on testing analysis. All testing that result accurate functionality was analyzed.

Chapter five is on conclusion, recommendation and references.