The Ultimate Solar Power Design Guide Less Theory More Practice
By Lacho Pop, MSE and Dimi Avram, MSE
4.5/5
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About this ebook
Imagine how often you read books about solar panels and solar power systems and their design and felt disappointed, confused without knowing how to get started and put together the pieces of the puzzle of your much anticipated and long-awaited solar power system.
No more confusion!
The book 'Ultimate Solar Power Design Guide - Less Theory, More Practice' is the missing guide for proven simple fast design of solar electricity systems for your home, business, boat, vehicle or other outdoor activities.
What is more, this guide is written by experts especially for beginners and professionals alike.
Proper sizing of a solar system is very important.
The final goal of the design of a photovoltaic system is to come up with a cost-effective, efficient and reliable solar panel system for your home, RV vehicle, boat or business - a solar system that squeezes the maximum possible power for every cent invested.
In our opinion, the main drawback of many solar books is that they give too much general information about solar panels and solar components and, if you are lucky enough, just one or two very basic design formulas.
Those formulas, however, are far away from a proven yet simple system for sizing a solar system from scratch. Moreover, such sizing information is buried in too much fillers and fluffs you could easily find by just surfing the web.
Obviously, such authors limit solar design methods to their own cases only. Ironically the reader's case rarely coincides with the authors' solar case.
You feel confused and lost without being aware how to wire and put all the components of the solar power system together.
The mission of this book is to fill this gap by offering a simple practical, fast, step-by-step approach for designing a solar system of any scale, whether simple or complex, intended for your home, business, RV vehicle or boat.
The book is written by experts, holding master's degree in electronics, and is intended for those who cannot get started or are utterly confused.
While reading the book you will discover that our approach to sizing a solar system is just the opposite to the currently prevailing ones.
We prefer to give you lots of fast and simple step-by-step universal design methods applicable to all cases, accompanied with many sizing examples - starting from very simple solar power systems and finishing with the design of the more sophisticated off grid solar power system.
Thanks to this approach you will be capable of designing any solar power system or tailor the sizing methods according to your own needs.
The book provides 3 general approaches:
- Business sizing - simple and fast design but not too accurate for every case
- Basic sizing - not so fast but more accurate, and
- Advanced sizing - more accurate but not so fast
You may choose one of the general approaches, depending on the type of system you are going to use.
For example, the fastest business case approach could be used for sizing simple solar systems for outdoor activities. It may be even accurate enough for sizing small solar systems for RV vehicles and boats.
If you need more accuracy, you could use the basic approach. However if you apply the advanced method for those systems, it would be just for the love of sizing.
The basic and the more accurate advanced approach are best suited for sizing off-grid and grid-tied solar electric systems. Last but not least, the book contains at the end quick sizing cheat sheets. After reading the book you may use them as a quick reference.
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The Ultimate Solar Power Design Guide Less Theory More Practice - Lacho Pop, MSE
Before starting to size your system...
Electricity basics
Voltage, current, power, and energy
There are two types of electrical devices – loads and generators.
Every photovoltaic module is a generator. It generates voltage when sunlight falls onto its surface.
Voltage is what makes electrical devices operate.
In a closed circuit with voltage applied, current starts flowing and the plugged-in devices start to work.
Voltage and current are the main electrical parameters. Voltage is measured in volts (V) while current is measured in amps (A).
Power is the rate of generating or consuming energy. It is measured in Watts.
If your TV set is 150 W, it consumes 150 W at a given moment. Your TV set is a load – it consumes electricity.
If you have a photovoltaic array of 1,000 W installed on your roof, your PV system can generate 1,000 W at a given moment. Your PV system is a generator – it produces (generates) electricity.
Energy is the amount of work that can be done. Energy is measured in Watt-hours (Wh). Often kWh (equal to 1,000 Wh), rather than Wh, is used. To compare, 1 kWh equals 1,000 Wh.
Energy is the amount of electricity used or produced over a set period of time.
If you know the rated power of that device and its time of use, then you can calculate the energy consumed or generated by a device.
Example:
A TV set of 150 W, operating for 2 hours, will consume 150*2 = 300 Wh of energy.
A photovoltaic array of 1,000 W installed power, operating for 10 hours, will generate 1,000*10 = 10,000 Wh of energy.
When you get your monthly electricity bill, you pay for the total energy consumed by your household or