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2017 IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid and Smart Cities

Reducing the Cost of Solar Home System Using the Data from Data Logger

Shahidul Islam Khan, Sheikh Arif Raihan, Md. Habibullah, Sk. Fahim Abrar
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: shahidul@eee.buet.ac.bd, arifraihan188@gmail.com, habibbueteee@gmail.com, fahim1106162@gmail.com

Abstract—Installation of small low cost Solar Home Systems power and protects the batteries and appliances from damage
are on the rise in remote off-grid rural areas of Bangladesh. by Low Voltage Differential (LVD), High Voltage
Initial investment of this units is prohibitively high for poor Differential (HVD) signal and at least one battery to store
population of the concerned areas. The major cost of each energy for use when the sun is not shining. For the
Solar Home System is the battery used for energy storage for
experiment a solar panel KYOCERA SM-42KSM [5] of 42
the use of electricity during night time. Study reported in this
paper indicates that resizing the storage battery in a stand- Watt, a 55 Ah lead-acid battery, three 3 Watt LED Lights (9
alone Solar Home System by using the in-situ solar radiation Watt) and a 12 Watt DC fan (instead of a 15” LCD/LED TV)
data of a year will reduce the cost. Significant cost savings will has been used in the ECE building of BUET, which
result from the resizing of the storage battery from 55 Ah to 30 replicates the 40/42 Watt capacity Solar Home System. The
Ah of each stand-alone Solar Home System being installed in voltage rating of the battery and the loads used is 12V. The
off-grid rural areas of Bangladesh. system was made automated by using a timer switch which
turns on the system daily at 6pm for four hours. Eight data
Keywords-solar home system; solar electricity; renewable readings were recorded using a Data-logger (DataQ
energy; solar PV
Instruments model DI-710) [6] for about one year. Three
voltage readings and three current readings were recorded
I. INTRODUCTION from three voltage sensors and three current sensors
Rural electrification through solar PV technology is respectively each of which were connected to the panel,
becoming more popular, day by day in Bangladesh. Solar battery and load terminals of the charge controller of the
Home Systems (SHSs) are highly decentralized and system. Rest two recordings were acquired from a
particularly suitable for remote, inaccessible areas. SHSs can temperature probe (LM35) and a solar irradiance meter LI-
be used to light up homes, shops, fishing boats etc. It can 190 [5] to correlate the voltage and current recordings with
also be used to charge cellular phones, run televisions and the weather conditions. The weather during the study period
radios. Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, is was sometimes sunny, foggy, cloudy and sometimes rainy.
harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such The length of daylight also varied due to seasonal changes.
as solar heating, photovoltaics, concentrated solar power As a result, the data recorded during the period reflects the
(CSP), concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), solar architecture actual weather pattern of Bangladesh. Also this data can be
and artificial photosynthesis [1]-[2]. used to observe the seasonal variation of temperature,
The first and foremost advantage of solar energy is that, irradiance, length of day and night of Bangladesh.
beyond panel production, it does not emit any greenhouse This data are analyzed for different weather conditions
gases. Solar energy is produced by conducting the sun’s for one year to make sure that the load gets enough power
radiation – a process void of any smoke, gas, or other from the Solar Home System.
chemical by-product[3]. This is the main driving force
behind all green energy technology, as nations attempt to
meet climate change obligations in curbing emissions. Italy’s
Montalto di Castro solar park is a good example of Solar’s
contribution to curbing emissions. It avoids 70,000 tons per
year of carbon emissions [4].
SHSs present an attractive alternative to conventional
electricity such as no monthly bills, no fuel cost, very low
repair, maintenance costs and easy to install.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
A SHS typically includes one or more PV modules
consisting of solar cells, a charge controller which distributes
(a)

978-1-5386-0504-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 37


from the data of one year is depicted in Fig. 2. This analysis
has been started in 1 March 2016. In the figure 2, the red
curve is indicating the panel power from the sunlight and the
green curve shows power consumed by the load. These
power curve has been obtained from the voltage and current
data coming from the panel and the load.
In this system, 9Watts LED lights and 12Watt DC fan i.e.
total 21Watt loads have been used which was the Grameen
Shakti package. From Fig. 2, it is clear that the load power
has remained almost same throughout the year in different
months and different weather conditions. However, the
power input to the system from the solar panel has varied in
different months and weather conditions. From Fig. 2, it can
(b) be observed that, during the summer in the month of May,
June and first few days of July, the solar panel has got the
Figure 1. Block Diagram (a) and Experimental Setup (b) of the Solar
Home System, BUET
power input almost same for everyday from the sun.
Therefore, maximum energy input to the system has been
The data logger records data in each 30 seconds intervals obtained during the summer. Moreover, it is also clear that,
and a laptop was used to store it for the whole year. Block energy input from the panel has more higher value than the
diagram of the system is presented in Fig. 1(a). The energy output to the load in Summer.
irradiance sensor and temperature probe were directly In August, September and October months, the weather
connected to the data logger to record the weather condition was mostly cloudy and rainy. As a result, the panel did not
and compare the data with the readings of the panel. get the maximum power from the sun as it was covered by
The experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1(b). The the cloud most of the time. That’s why, there were lots of
temperature probe and irradiance sensor is shown in the variation in the power input. The peaks of the curve in
upper left image, the panel is shown in lower left. The image August, September months has indicated the time duration of
of the right is the actual indoor setup with battery, charge the day when the panel got higher power from the solar panel
controller and load. Laptop was used to record the data using than required power by the loads. Somedays during the rainy
the data logger and analysis. season, the power input from the panel and power output to
the load became same because the solar panel has absorbed
III. ANALYSIS OF DATA OVER A YEAR as much power from the sun as it was required for the loads.
In this section, the power input to the system from the
solar panel and the power consumed by the loads obtained

Figure 2. Power input from the solar panel to the system and power consumed by the loads over a year (March, 2016 – February,2017 )

Figure 3. Voltage Analysis (a) and Current Analysis (b) of a Sunny day in
12 June, 2016

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November and December were the foggy season and
January, February were the winter season. In foggy season,
the panel did not get the sunlight all the time resulting in the
variation in power input to the system. Variation of power
during the months of January and February are less than
November and December.
The energy input and output has been obtained by
integrating the corresponding powers curve. The total input
energy from the panel over a year is 109.177 kWh and the
energy output to the load is 34.18209 kWh. Therefore, it is
apparent that, the energy input to the system is always higher
than the energy output to the loads. Even in worst weather
condition, the panel can supply power to the system to
sustain loads. Figure 4. Temperature and Irradiance analysis of a sunny day in 12
June,2016
IV. RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
In this setup, battery is charged at the day light which is
supplied from the panel output. Voltage and current readings V. POWER ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT WEATHER
of panel, battery and load as well as temperature and CONDITIONS
irradiance readings have been recorded by data logger. As
the data logger device, has limited recording capability (2
gigabyte), a laptop is connected and the data are analyzed by
using DataQ WINDAQ Data Acquisition and playback
software. Fig. 3 shows the data analysis of a sunny day on 12
June, 2016. The shaded portion of the figures is indicating
the night interval of a day.
A. Panel Data Analysis
Fig. 3(a) is showing that on an ideal sunny at around 1.00
PM, panel voltage reaches around its maximum voltage, 21V
and panel current reaches its peak around 3.2A. At night, the
panel voltage and currents reaches zero.
B. Battery Data Analysis
The battery voltage rises at day due to the charging
current from the solar panel and it falls at night due to the Figure 5. Power Analysis for a sunny day 12June, 2016
discharging current to the loads. At night when the loads are
switched on, the battery current becomes negative as it In this section, power and energy calculation for different
supplies power to the loads during the interval depicted in weather conditions per day have been depicted. In this work,
Fig. 3(b). the solar panel used, KYOCERA SM-42KSM has an area of
Length x Width =505mm x 680mm = 0.3434 m2.
C. Load Data Analysis
Theoretically, the maximum power output of the panel is
The 3 x 3Watt DC Tube lights and 1 x 12Watt DC fan 42W at standard testing condition (STC) [5]. Therefore,
are connected with timer to the controller. The loads switch energy obtained for 12 hours of day light E is 43W x
on and off at day and night respectively. The loads are 12Hours = 0.516 kWh/day from a 3434m2 solar panel. For
switched on at 6.00 PM and switched off at 10.00PM the fixed solar panel, the expected energy is less than 0.516
automatically with the help of timer. The full load current is kWh/day.
1.9 Ampere. From the Fig. 5 the total energy input over a sunny day is
The voltage rating of the loads is 12V. Therefore, the obtained by integrating the power from the curve in 24 hours
load voltage remains around 12V shown in Fig. 3(a). The and thus obtaining the area. The integration is done by
voltage rating of the battery is also 12V and remains 12V for OriginLab software for 24 hours on 12 June, 2016. The
all the time in a day except when the load is switched on. At calculated area is 237.598 i.e. the total panel energy input is
that time, due to discharging factor, the battery voltage 237.598Wh.
remains below 12V. The output power of the load has been calculated with
Fig. 4 is showing the temperature and irradiance analysis the load kept ON for duration of four hours. The total
of a sunny day. The temperature and the irradiance are at integrated area over one day in 12 June, 2016 is 100.725.
their maximum peak at around 12PM and the irradiance Therefore, the total consumed energy by the loads is
becomes zero at night in absence of sunlight. 100.725Wh.

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So, on a sunny day, the energy remain unused is is the lowest (7.217KWh) because of the cloudy weather. In
approximately= 237.598-100.725Watt-hour = 136.873Watt- January, the energy input was low because of foggy weather.
hour.
In this setup, total 21Watt loads are used for 4 hours. So, VII. CALCULATION OF BATTERY SIZE
the estimated energy output to the loads is 21W x 4hours= For determining the size of Solar Home System, trial and
84Wh. Therefore, there is a difference between the practical error method is used. Formula for determining the battery
and theoretical value. At daylight, the load is switched off, so size is given below,
the load voltage should be zero. But experimentally there are
Total load energy(Wh)per day×Autonomy
some noise value occurred in the load voltage in day light Battery size (Ah) = Depth of Discharge×Battery Voltage×Efficiency
shown in Fig. 3(a) which has come from the voltage sensors.
From Fig. 3(a), one thing is to notice, at night, there is no The term Autonomy means the number of days a battery
sunlight and so the panel voltage should be zero at night. bank can supply power to the appliances that have been
However, the figure showing us a certain amount of panel connected to the system without being recharged by the solar
voltage at night and it remains locked with the battery panels. The term Depth of Discharge describes the degree to
voltage. That has happened because of the design of charge which a battery is emptied relative to its total capacity.
controller. If the panel voltage becomes zero, then battery In this setup, 21Watt loads are used for 4 hours a day, the
voltage will be higher than the panel. As a result, battery energy input is 21Watt×4hours= 84Watt-hour. For 3 days
would supply power back to the panel. Therefore, panel backup, the autonomy is 3. Therefore, the total energy input
voltage remains locked with the battery voltage. is84×3Watt-hour= 252Watt-hour.
As the battery discharges, the voltage of the battery
TABLE I. COMPARISON FOR ENERGY IN FROM PANEL AND ENERGY
CONSUMED BY LOAD FOR DIFFERENT WEATHER CONDITIONS reduces from the rated 12V. Considering the depth of
discharge 50% and efficiency of the battery 80%, the battery
Months Sunny Cloudy Rainy Day Foggy Day size has been calculated.
Day Day 10 27
12 June 20 September December 252
Battery size(Ampere-hour) = = 52.5 Ah.
August 0.5×12×0.8
Energy In(Wh) 237.598 221.559 163.496 170.729 Thus, in this system, 55Ah battery is used.
Energy consumed(Wh) 100.725 102.238 99.195 71.8013 From previous analysis, it is clear that energy coming
from solar panel is always more than enough compared to
However, it does not affect the power calculation, as the the energy consumed by the load in all possible days or
panel current becomes zero at night as evident in Fig. 3(b). months. It can be said that there is no need for backup unless
Therefore, the ultimate power input to the system becomes the load usage is increased as the battery can easily sustain
zero at night shown in Fig. 5. The comparison of Energy In any day of the year. As no backup supply is required, the
and Energy Out for different weather conditions in daily autonomy considered is 1 day.
basis has been depicted in Table I. 84
In this work, it is observed that, the sunny day has the Battery size(Ampere-hour) = = 17.5 Ah.
0.5×12×0.8
higher Energy input to the system from the panel among all Thus, 20 Ah batteries should sustain 21Watt loads for 4
the weather conditions and the rainy day has the lower hours a day. But as it is the extreme case, during some
Energy input. However, from the analyzed data, it can be extreme bad weather conditions there might be outage of
implied that for every weather conditions, the energy input to supply power to the load. Therefore, the optimum condition
the system from panel is always higher than the Energy is to use 30Ampere-hour battery for the 21 W load for risk
consumed by the loads. free usage.
VI. MONTHLY ANALYSIS OF THE DATA VIII. CONCLUSSION
The objective of this study was to reduce the battery size
without affecting the load. In order to do so, the readings of
the existing system have been observed. The analysis of the
data is done throughout a year recorded by ‘Data logger’.
From this analysis, it is clear that, Power In from the solar
panel is always higher than the Power consumed by the fixed
amount of load used in Solar Home System for various
weather conditions and different months of the year.
Therefore, it is acceptable to lower the charge storing
Figure 6. Comparison of energy input from solar panel and enrgy
consumed by the load over a year (March, 2016 – February,2017 )
capacity for the battery as required instead of using the rated
capacity of the battery. As the battery size depends on the
From Fig. 6, it is clear that, in the month of May, the total charge storing capacity of the battery, therefore, the battery
amount of Energy Input from the panel is the highest size can be reduced to an optimum level 30Ah instead of
because of maximum sunshine (12.249KWh) and September 55Ah as well as the cost of the Solar Home System.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT [5] Datasheets for KYOCERA SM-42KSM Solar Panel, 0-25 V Analog
Voltage Divider, 20A range Current Sensor Module ACS712 Module,
The authors thankfully acknowledge the support Campbell Temperature Probe and LI-COR Terrestrial Radiation.
provided by the alumni of BUET in Bay Area, San Francisco, [6] DataQ Instruments DI-710 data logger user manual.
USA. [7] Mondal, Md Alam Hossain. "Economic viability of solar home
systems: Case study of Bangladesh." Renewable Energy 35.6 (2010):
1125-1129.
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