Help help help.....

System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum #1
I am currently working on my final year project, which i basically have to use a PV to do something. I have been ask to go set up a project myself. Below is what i came up with. So i need to know if i am on the right track, If there is any amendment that can be made to the specification or perhaps suggestion on what to add or remove. I am also interested if anyone has a sample related PV project spec?



My description of the proposed project specification.

SYSTEM DIAGRAM:

PV - CHARGE CONTROLLER - RECHARGEABLE BATTERY - MICRO-CONTROLLER BOOST CONVERTER - LOAD



Photovoltaic: 18Volts (36 cells)
The Pv volts value will be around the 18V because of the chosen charge controller for the project.

Charge controller: 12Volts
The controller will have to be the same volts as the battery and the current needs to be greater by at least 25% of the Pv current noting that the controller current must not exceed the battery current. I will use shunt mode solar charge controller.

Rechargeable battery 12Volts lead acid battery

Micro-controller boost converter
The output of the boost converter will be at least twice the batter.
The output of the boost converter will be tracked and measured continuously and the values are sent to a micro-controller unit to produce pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM will control the duty cycle of the boost converter.

LOAD
The load will be to run a pump that will pump water to a storage reservoir to demonstrate hydropower. perhaps it wont be the only load.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME
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Comments

  • SteveK
    SteveK Solar Expert Posts: 387 ✭✭
    #2
    Re: Help help help.....

    So I gather you are solar electric pumping water up to the reservoir in order to use that stored energy to generate electricity? Or to do other hydraulic work?

    If so that's cool, very lossy it would appear, but very cool.

    I'm sure the others will want to know much more about the pump/load requirements, head pressure, flow rate and such....then will want to know the run times expected off of battey power when no sun is shining......from there they will calculate forward to the front-end stuff like the PV's and charge controller requirements.

    Neat project!

    Good Luck!
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  • jagec
    jagec Solar Expert Posts: 157 ✭✭
    #3
    Re: Help help help.....
    temy wrote: »
    I am currently working on my final year project, which i basically have to use a PV to do something.

    "something", huh? That's very broad! May I make the following suggestions:

    solarl.png

    In all seriousness, though, I would say that you'd be better off hooking your solar panels to your pump directly (no batteries). If you don't have enough storage capacity in your reservoir to keep the hydro running 24/7, you can still put a battery pack on the hydro output, which will be more efficient than using solar-charged batteries to pump water to maintain hydro output all night.
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  • kendive
    kendive Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭
    #4
    Re: Help help help.....
    jagec wrote: »
    "something", huh? That's very broad! May I make the following suggestions:

    solarl.png

    In all seriousness, though, I would say that you'd be better off hooking your solar panels to your pump directly (no batteries). If you don't have enough storage capacity in your reservoir to keep the hydro running 24/7, you can still put a battery pack on the hydro output, which will be more efficient than using solar-charged batteries to pump water to maintain hydro output all night.


    You just made my day... Pretty Funny. :D:p:D:p
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Help help help.....

    how about putting solar cells around you and spin in a circle while going beep beep beep beep beep.......
    poor man's sputnik.:p
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: Help help help.....
    niel wrote: »
    how about putting solar cells around you and spin in a circle while going beep beep beep beep beep.......
    poor man's sputnik.:p
    Hahahaha Thanks for the laugh :p
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: Help help help.....
    temy wrote: »
    I am currently working on my final year project, which i basically have to use a PV to do something. I have been ask to go set up a project myself. Below is what i came up with. So i need to know if i am on the right track, If there is any amendment that can be made to the specification or perhaps suggestion on what to add or remove. I am also interested if anyone has a sample related PV project spec?



    My description of the proposed project specification.

    SYSTEM DIAGRAM:

    PV - CHARGE CONTROLLER - RECHARGEABLE BATTERY - MICRO-CONTROLLER BOOST CONVERTER - LOAD



    Photovoltaic: 18Volts (36 cells)
    The Pv volts value will be around the 18V because of the chosen charge controller for the project.

    Charge controller: 12Volts
    The controller will have to be the same volts as the battery and the current needs to be greater by at least 25% of the Pv current noting that the controller current must not exceed the battery current. I will use shunt mode solar charge controller.

    Rechargeable battery 12Volts lead acid battery

    Micro-controller boost converter
    The output of the boost converter will be at least twice the batter.
    The output of the boost converter will be tracked and measured continuously and the values are sent to a micro-controller unit to produce pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM will control the duty cycle of the boost converter.

    LOAD
    The load will be to run a pump that will pump water to a storage reservoir to demonstrate hydropower. perhaps it wont be the only load.

    THANKS FOR YOUR TIME
    Putting the side-tracked humour to one side for a moment ...

    So you want to set up a solar power water pump as a project. To what end? Is this to demonstrate the power available from solar? You will find numerous threads on this forum about the difficulties with such systems.

    It all comes down to scale: how much water, how high, at what pressure?
    Your "basic design" is standard off-grid solar electric: battery power inverter, with the battery recharged via photovoltaics - charging regulated by a controller.

    You could say that my cabin system does this, as I run a (full size) water pump as one of the loads. Mind you, spending $8,000 for a demonstration system might be overkill.

    Also, this part of your post isn't very clear:
    The output of the boost converter will be at least twice the batter.
    The output of the boost converter will be tracked and measured continuously and the values are sent to a micro-controller unit to produce pulse width modulation (PWM) signal. The PWM will control the duty cycle of the boost converter.
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #8
    Re: Help help help.....

    kk, Thanks

    The load does not have to be a pump. Its optional.
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