SOLAR REQUIREMENT FOR SMALL HOME

LOAD- 1FAN, 3(COMPACT FLOURESCENT LIGHT, ENERGY-SAVING LIGHT) AND LCDTV.

For  Limited budget, I could suggest best possible and cost effective configuration. Solar Inverter is the only solution for growing power cut problems.

MATERIALS NEEDED

(a) Inverter 850VA-1KVAOne 200-250watts Solar Panel

(b) One 12V 100AH Deep Cycle Battery (you may use 2 car batteries connected in parallels)

(c) 12V Charge Controller

(d) Battery stand, you may provide this.

INSTALLATION

(a) Mount your Solar Panel

(b) Connect your charge controller

(c) Connect Battery to inverter

(d) Connect Battery to charge controller

(e) Load your house

(a) Mount your Solar Panel

Here you will need some help from guys who will mount the panel on “roof” top of the house to enable the panel to be firmly nailed or screwed to your roof before breeze carrries it away.

Please place it where you can have direct sunlight especially where sunlight is most during the day. When the Solar panel is exposed to direct sunlight, it should give you at least 26V if you use your multimeter or voltmeter to measure its voltage.

(b)Connect your charge controller

The current from the Solar panels will not remain constant throughout

The day, So many ups and downs will be there, so that we can not connect Solar photo voltaic modules directly to charge the battery, it will spoil our battery over time.

So we need a device called solar charge controller to control the current we receive from solar panels. The charge controller has in-built PWD (Pulse Width Modulation) Charger to charge the Lead acid battery in three (3) stages, which ensures long life for battery.

The charge controller has three (3) connecting points for solar panel (s), Battery and Direct current (DC).We will use only the first two(2) in this case.If you look at the back of the solar panel you will see two wires, they are positive(+) and negative (-) respectively.

Connect them where Solar Panel is indicated on the charge controller. Connect positive to positive, negative to negative.

(C) Connect Battery to Inverter

We all know that a battery has two terminals positive(+) and negative(-), at the back of your inverter, you will see where 12VDC input is indicated.

Connect positive(+) of the battery to positive(+) of the inverter and negative(-) of the battery to the negative(-) of the inverter.

(d)Connect Battery to charge controller

The charge controller has positive(+) and negative(-) terminals for the battery, connect positive(+) from the charge controller to the positive(+) for the battery and negative(-) from charge controller to the negative(-) of the battery. Ensure that all connection are firm.

(e)Load your house

CAUTION:

Please get an electrician to separate the load intended for inverter, so that the inverter will not be strained or damaged when the house is powered.

(1) Power the inverter, use your voltmeter to check the voltage from the inverter outlet, that should be 230V.

(2) Turn off the inverter

(3) Turn off all your appliances

(4) Connect the inverter outlet to your house power mains.

(5) Turn on your inverter.

(6) Power your appliances, starting with the least voltage consuming appliance.

Battery connection types

Parallel connection involves positive(+) to positive(+) and negative(-) to negative(-) connection while Series connection involves positive(+) to negative (-) connection  and negative (-) to positive(+)  connection. Parallel connection multiplies the AH current by 2 and Series connection multiplies voltage by two(2).