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SuKam has introduced a truly innovative inverter model ‘Falcon Plus’ in the market Su-Kam Falcon Plus – Test Results We compared Su-kam Falcon Plus with Luminous Zelio, Luminous Eco Volt and Microtek Pure sine wave inverter models with a highly sophisticated testing device. Results clearly indicated some solid difference between other pure sine wave inverters and su-kam Falcon Plus. We list some important points here,
Installing an off-grid system has become the number one priority for most of us living in some remote parts of the world. This is because it completely reduces our dependency on the grid thereby fulfilling our power requirements entirely through solar power. If you want to install an off-grid system at your place this article would answer most of your questions. Types of Solar Systems A solar system can basically be of 3 types: A DC System, an on-grid solar system and an off-grid solar system. In a DC system as the name suggests the entire system is DC based. Its basic components would be a solar panel, solar charge controller, batteries and DC load. There isn’t any DC to AC conversion here. On-grid: In an on-grid system on the other hand the solar panels are connected to a solar charge controller which is connected to a grid-tie inverter which basically converts the DC power coming from panels to AC and runs the load and if there is excess solar energy it feeds back the power to the grid. An on-grid system has no means to store the solar power for later use. So batteries don’t come into the picture here. Decoding an Off-Grid Solar PV System An off-grid system is a standalone solar powered system which is an independent structure basically designed to run your AC load through solar power and grid supply and also charges your batteries. Off-grid system makes minimum use of the grid and thus greatly reducing your electricity bills. The major components here are solar panels, solar charge controller, inverter and AC load. One thing to understand here is is that an off-grid system makes use of only one type of energy source at a time to run the appliances. If enough solar power is available this system would run your load entirely on solar, if the solar power received is less to run the load it will take the rest of the required power from the batteries and run the load. In either of the cases it will not run your load through mains. If the solar power in insufficient and the battery is discharged to a user settable value only then the inverter runs the load directly through mains and uses solar energy to charge the batteries. This ensures that grid supply is minimum utilized which greatly reduces your monthly expenditures. Check out this video to understand the different working conditions of an off grid solar system and get an insight into the understanding of an off-grid system. How many solar panels do I need? How big of a solar inverter do I have to buy? How do I calculate battery backup? These are commonly asked questions by people who are installing solar for the first time in India. Let’s address them one by one.Before we start teaching the simplest way of calculating the size of solar installation in India, we would like you to remember this fundamental formula: Power (in watts) = Voltage x Current How to calculate size of solar system in India?Most of the solar installations in India are off-grid because our country, India, faces frequent powercuts. Off grid solar installation has 3 key components: solar panels, battery and solar PCU (solar PCU is a solar inverter with built-in solar charge controller). To calculate size of solar system, it is important to follow these steps: Step 1: Calculate your total load that you want to run You should know how much power (in watts) your electrical appliances consume. For example, a tube light consumes 40watts, fan consumes 80 watts etc. You should add the electrical load (in watts) that you wish to use. Let’s assume that you added everything and the figure that you get is 1000 watts. Step 2: Size your solar inverter based on electrical load After you know the total electrical load, the next thing that you have to do is find a solar inverter that can power the load. In this case where your total electrical load is 1000 watts, you should choose an inverter of 1600 watts. It is advisable to oversize the inverter because unfortunately DC to AC conversion that solar inverters do causes loss of energy. It is also good to know that a 1600 watts inverter comes in 24v (v = voltage). Remember this because we are going to use this fact ahead in our calculations. Step 3: Calculate the total current of your load This is easy! Go back to the formula we taught you in the beginning. Power (in watts) = Voltage x Current In our example, the power (watts) is 1000 and we already know the voltage to be 24v. Let’s insert these figures into our formula. 1000 (watts) = 24V x current 1000/24 = 41.66 amps Let’s round it off to 41 amps. Now our solar system needs to generate at least 41 amps of current to power the connected electrical load. Keeping this figure in mind let’s go to our next step. Step 4: Decide how many hours of battery backup you need – buy battery based on that The next step in calculating size of solar system in India is to think how many hours of backup you need. Remember, solar PCU/inverter will directly power your electrical load through solar. However, when solar is not available, the solar energy stored in batteries can be used to power load. Let’s say you need backup of 5 hours. Now there is a very simple formula to calculate size of battery based on your total load and backup time required. Total load (in watts) x hours of backup needed / 24 Why should we divide by 24? Because our inverter is 24v. Let’s put the figures from our example in this formula: 1000 (watts) x 5 hours / 24 = 208 Let’s round it off to 300AH because it is OK to have extra backup You can install 2 batteries of 150Ah. Step 5: Calculate size of solar panels based on battery size and current of electrical load Yes, sizing of solar panels comes at the last because panels are either going to feed the battery or run electrical load. They need to produce enough voltage and current to charge the battery properly and to run electrical load. So how do we decide the size of solar panels? Time to remember our fundamental formula again: Power = voltage x current And let’s give you another golden formula which will help us here: Charging Current of Battery = 1/10th of its Total AH. In this case, we have 300ah so if we divide it by 10 we get 30amps. Our solar panels need to make 30 amps of current to feed our battery bank. But what about the electrical load? Let’s not forget about that. We already calculated that our electrical load will need 41amps to run. We need to add this to the amps that our battery bank is going to take: 30+41 = 71amps. Our solar panels should make 71amps. Fact: On an average, 250 watts solar panels have a voltage of 30v. Now, let’s put everything together in our fundamental formula: Power = Volts x Amps Amps: We calculated in the last step that we need 71amps (30amps to feed the battery bank and 41amps to run the electrical load directly through solar). Power = 30x71amps = 2130 watts. Let’s round it off to 2500 watts because you can’t have 2130 watts panels. This is our answer: We need to install panels of 2500 watts to feed our battery bank and run electrical load. You can go for 10 panels of 250 watts each. Simple! Wasn’t it?_ Note: Please consider this as an honest attempt from our side to simplify complex ideas and calculations. We do not claim that this is 100% accurate. There are other things to consider such as power factor of inverter and other technical things. When you call us for installing solar at your place, our trained team sizes the solar system based on your unique needs |
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February 2017
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