September 02, 2020

Off Grid Systems

Off-grid systems are widely used domestically when sending power to the grid is not an option for consumers. An off-grid system can be used in two ways. You can use it as an uninterrupted power supply or you can use it as a regular power supply. Depending upon the application there are two types of the inverter.


 

    Solar UPS Inverter: Solar UPS inverters are the same as our home inverter that supplies power when the grid supply is out. The only difference is that Solar inverters charge the battery primarily from solar energy and power the load during the grid outage. During grid outages, if sufficient solar energy is available, the load runs from solar power only.
    
    Solar PCU: On the other hand solar power conditioning units continuously run the load primarily from solar energy as well as charge the battery from solar energy irrespective of a grid outage. 

Nowadays almost all solar inverters have both modes. We can select the mode required as per our needs. All Off-grid inverters have three basic building blocks. 
  1. One MPPT/PWM-based charge controller unit that protects the battery from over-charging or deep-discharging.
  2. One Battery Charger unit that charges the battery from the mains. Which is only used if solar panels fail to charge the batteries completely.
  3. One Sine Wave Inverter Unit
  4. Other than that one control system and display/indicators are there
 Apart from this, Sometimes a battery balancing unit is also there. Some of the inverters come with IoT-based remote monitoring or data logging-like features this depends upon the manufacturer and model of the device.

MPPT: Maximum Power Point Trackers are used to capture maximum output from solar panels. An MPPT is an electronic DC-to-DC converter that optimizes the match between the solar array (PV panels), and the battery bank.
 
PWM: Maximum power points could also be achieved by using PWM-based DC-DC converters. PWM converters are very much used in lower voltage systems. Especially for 12V systems and less as they are cheap and reliable.

To learn more about Solar Panels follow the links below:
https://creativestudio1973.blogspot.com/2021/06/introduction-to-solar-panel.html

To learn more about PWM/MPPT Controllers follow the link below:
https://creativestudio1973.blogspot.com/2020/09/solar-charge-controller-unit.html

To learn more about Batteries follow the link below:





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