Basic Components Needed for Solar

Panel System Installation

General Requirements for a Solar Panel System

Installation
Green energy, the clean and renewable solar energy is the best
alternative for residual and industrial consumers around the world.
It minimizes the overall running cost and carbon environmental
pollution. The opt-out transform percentage from regular power
sources to the green energy, especially solar power is rapidly
growing in the US, EU, China, Middle East and Asia.

Table of Contents
1. Solar Panel System
2. Main Components of a Solar Panel System
2.1. (1) Solar Panel
2.2. (2) Charge Controller
2.3. (3) Battery
2.4. (4) lnverter/ UPS
3. Which one is the Best Solar Panel for Home and How Much
Does it Cost?

Solar Panel System

Solar panel (also known as photovoltaic cell or solar cell) is a
device which absorbs photos from the sun light and converts to the
electrical energy.

In recent years, the concept of of-grid and smart grid system is

more populated and consumer opting out for clean energy like
wind and solar power system to eliminate or at lease reduce the
dependency on regular power from electricity provider and reduce
the overall running cost as well. An efficient solar power system
with warranty for many years will lead to recover the initial cost and
free energy.

Main Components of a Solar Panel

System
Below are the basic and general components and devices which
needed for a solar panel system installation at home. Details of
each device is given below each section.

0 Solar Panel

Sun

@ 6 6 Battery

6 UPS/ Inverter

6 Charge Controller ‘

LOAD LOAD

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(1) Solar Panel

Solar panel also known as Solar Cell or Photo Voltaic Cell is the
backbone of solar power system. There are some types of solar
panels such as polycrystalline and monocrystalline.
Monocrystalline is more efficient and little bit expensive as
compared to polycrystalline solar panels. The selection criteria for
a solar panel are different i.e. space, warranty, efficiency,
technology type, cost etc. Keep in mind that output is the king
when selecting a proper solar panel for residential solar power
installation.

In general, the solar panel is directly connected to the charge

controller but there are different connection of solar panel arrays
such as series and parallel connection which depends on load
calculation and specific energy requirement for home appliances,
battery bank connection, roof surface space, climate and peak
sunshine hours.

You can easily find the number of required solar panels and
charging current for battery and follow the step by step guide for
solar panel installation with inverter rating, backup power of
batteries according to the load requirement.

In fig below, a 120 watts, 12V and 10A solar panel is shown which
produce 12V DC supply for direct battery charging and DC load
can be directly connected through it via charge controller.

Fig -120Vl/, 12\/, 10A Solar Panel

(2) Charge Controller

As the name suggests, a charge controller (also known as charge
regulator) is a device which is used to regulate the voltage and
current from the solar panels connected to the batteries. The main
purpose of a charge controller is to prevent the overcharging of
batteries (which may lead to damage the battery as well) through
solar panels as 12V solar panels provided 17-20V in case of no
load or full sunshine. The reason behind this scene is that
manufacture desin a solar panel for different climate and
environment so that, you get the max rated voltage in case of
cloud cover, low sunshine and heavy haze etc.

There are multiple types of charge controllers are available in the

market such as follow:

- Simple — 1 and 2 Stage Charge Controllers: Relay and

shunt resistor are used to control the voltage in single or two
stages to disconnect the solar panel from the battery in case
ofovervofiage.
- PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) — 3 Stage Charge
Controllers: It based on pulse with modulation and cutoff the
battery circuit from the connected solar panel from the photo-
voltaic cell in case of overcharging.
- MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) Controllers:
MPPT is a DC to DC converter in case of solar panels array to
the battery bank. It optimize and regulate the higher DC
voltage levels from the solar panel and convert to the lower
optimized and regulated voltage to charge the battery. These
are little bit expensive but more efficient. They provide 10-
30% more power to battery with efficiency of 94-98%.

In fig below, a 5-100 Ampere MPPT Charge Controller is shown

which can be used for 12-48V battery bank and the max rating for
solar panels system is 170A, 150V.

Fig— 100A, 12-48\/, Max 170A, 150V, MPPT

Charge Controller

(3) Battery
Batteries are used for backup charge storage. there are different
types of batteries used in solar power system for storage and
backup operation at overnight when the direct power from solar
panels are not available. Series, parallel or series-parallel
connection of batteries bank is depends on the system design i.e.
12V, 24V or 48V system configuration. In case of clouds and no
sunshine, the battery bank can be charged through AC supply from
power grid via inverter for later use.

The following fig shows a 150Ah, 12V. The battery is directly

connected to the charge controller which control the incoming
charging currents and voltage from the photovoltaic cell connected
to the charge controller for backup storage and operation.

~ |-

Fig — 150Ah, 12V Solar Battery

(4) lnverterl UPS

Inverter is a device which convert the DC power supply to the AC
power supply. Inverter and converter which known as UPS
(Uninterruptible Power Supply) is used to convert the DC voltage
to AC for AC operated home appliances. UPS is also used to
convert the AC to DC to charge the battery from direct AC power
supply.

There are many types of inverters available in the market

according to your needs such as follow:
 - Centralized or String Inverter with less cost but inefficient.
- Power Optimizer used to convert DC to AC and connected to
central inverter.
- Micro Inverter with smooth and reliable operation even with
low sunshine but costly.

The following fig shows a 1000 Watts, 12 V DC to 110VAC and

230V AC inverter. It is connected between battery and load to
convert battery output (12V DC to 230V AC) to our home
appliances which operate on 230V AC. The second slot is for 110-
120V AC operated equipment.

Fig—1000Vl/, 12 VDC to 110VAC and 230VAC

Inverter

Which one is the Best Solar Panel for

Home and How Much Does it Cost?
monocrystalline solar panels are better option than polycrystalline
but they are little bit expensive. The final decision depends on
many factors such as your region and environment, sunshine
hours, load requirements and types of batteries used in the system
etc. We have already discussed the topic in details as it depends
on many factors such as load, space, environment, technology,
backup hours etc and all these factors should be considers while
selecting a proper solar panel installation system according to
the requirements.