International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2013)
Constant Electricity Generation From Self-Charging Inverter
Abatan O.A.1, Adewale A.O.2, Alabi A.A3
1,2
Physics/Electronics Unit, SLT, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
3
Physics Department, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Abstract-- Despite the continuous use of several energy
sources from both fast depleting non renewable
conventional and renewable non conventional energy
sources, interruptions of electrical power are still very
rampant in virtually all electrical power installations most
especially after a power surge, heavy rainfall or a severe
storm. This paper focuses on a more economical, noiseless,
emission free and uninterrupted alternate source of
electricity named self-charging inverter. The estimated
energy cost is comparable and competitive with the other
inverters and renewable energy sources for both
commercial power companies and technology suppliers.
Keywords-- electrical power installations, interruption of
electrical power, self-charging inverter, uninterrupted
alternative source of electricity,
I. INTRODUCTION
Electrical power interruptions are quite common in
every place especially after a power outage, heavy down
pour or a severe storm. In response to this power outage,
a more economical, noiseless and emission free,
alternative source of electricity -surpassing the use of the
generators, solar and more recently the inverters is both
the self-charging inverter. Both the generators and
inverters come with their adverse problems such as cost
of fuelling, the noise, emissions and the need to recharge
the inverter’s batteries after use.
A self-charging power inverter serves this purpose not
only as a back-up for power failure but as an
uninterrupted supply of electricity for 24/7 on daily basis.
It is a device used to convert direct current (dc) to
alternating current (ac) by converting 12 volt DC power
source into 220 volt AC.
A few of most widely used applications of self-
charging inverters includes television sets, microwaves,
printers, radio sets, and other household appliances and
charging of cell phones, laptops from a car cigarette
lighter outlet and running power tools from a 12volt
battery on jobsite where electricity isn’t available. Self-
charging inverter can be built in modules of 5kVA up to
the load capacity.
II. BACKGROUND OF INVERTER
Over the years, there had been epileptic power supply
due to uncontrollable factors such as vandalization of
electric cables, drop in volume of water flows in dams,
heavy rainfall overloading of transformers, bridging of
power cables.
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Inverters do not suffer much from all these except that
the batteries are consumed very fast as the load increases
calling for constant recharging of the batteries after each
use.
Self-charging inverter erases the problematic nature of
other inverters in that there is no need to search for way
of recharging the batteries when in use or after each use.
There are several types of power inverter available in
two categories-the true sine wave power inverter
produces utility grade power. These inverters are very
expensive and can power almost anything including laser
printers fax machines, fans, television set, computers etc.
A sine wave inverter is recommended to operate higher
electronic equipment.
Modified sine wave type of inverter can adequately
power most household appliances and power tools. It is
more economical, but may present certain compromises
with some loads such as microwave ovens, laser printers,
clocks and cordless tool chargers.
Simple inverters make use of oscillators driving a
transistor to create a square wave, which in turn is fed
through a transformer to produce the required output
voltage, while advanced inverters have started using
more advanced forms of transistors of similar devices
such as thysistors. Inverters are used in a wide range of
applications. From small power supplies form a computer
large industrial applications to transport bulk power.
Therefore, the main objective is to design and
construct self-charging inverter with relay switch, a
noiseless, non-polluting, non-toxic source of energy that
requires no cost of running.
III. SELF-CHARGING INVERTER PROCESS
The block diagram of a practical self-charging inverter
[1] and circuit diagram for 2kVA [2] are presented below.
The self-charging inverter is an electronic device that
produces an alternating output from a direct current input
or supply from 12V battery.
When inverter is connected to the power supply, the
AC voltage is converted to DC by bridge rectifier circuit
which is used to change the 12V battery.
The 12V DC from a fully charged battery connected to
the inverter switches to oscillating stage where the
oscillator generates a sinusoidal sine wave of frequency
50Hz. The oscillator converts the output voltage from the
charging stage to alternating current as an output voltage
which is 12V AC.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2013)
The converted voltage, 12V AC gets to the transformer
via the switching stage, the signal will be stepped up
from 12V AC to 220V AC before the output will be
supplied to the load and small to a low input charger that
converts the AC voltage to DC by bridge rectifier circuit
that charges the 12V battery. The relay switches to the
DC operators to power the load connected to the inverter.
INVERTER
OUTPUT
BATTERY BATTERY INVERTER
CHARGER - + D A
C C
Fig 1. Block diagram of a practical self-charging inverter
Fig 2: Circuit diagram for a 2kVA Inverter
The circuit diagram [3] for 250 – 5000W inverter that
could be made self-charging by connecting the charger to
its batteries while drawing current from the output of the
inverter.
This implies that any inverter could be connected to
self-charging inverters by incorporating the new charger.
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Fig 3 Circuit Diagram for 250 – 5000W Inverter that can be
incorporated with charger to become self-charging inverter
IV. EXPLOITATION POSSIBILITIES
There exist numerous ways to exploit the energy from
a self-charging inverter making it very useful and
dependable source of electricity supply whenever there is
no alternative source coming from national grid. Below
are brief description of some of the applications.
A. In the homes: to operate electronic appliances such
as television sets, cd player, lighting
B. In industries to power equipments requiring power
less than 5kVA and provides continuous
illumination
C. Offices: to operate office equipments and provide
illumination
D. Business Enterprises: Most of the businesses
require electricity supply for carrying out their day
to day activities
E. In hospitals: self charging inverters can replace
emergency back up generators that must be made
available for any major medical health care
facilities due to critical nature of work.
F. Behind Data Centres: self-charging inverters can be
used to power computers, the heart of today’s
industry. When servers and systems go down,
communication can be lost, business stops, data is
lost, workers sit idle and just about everything
comes to a halt
V. SELF CHARGING INVERTER DEVELOPMENT
The output capacity of the self charging inverters is
determined mainly by Amp-Hours (AH) capacity of the
battery as this determines how long one can run the
battery. The 12V battery must be fully charged and the
inverter must not be overloaded.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2013)
Many inverters of different types have been developed
such as square wave modified sine wave, multilevel and
pure sine wave inverters.
The square wave inverters were the simplest, least
expensive and early incarnation of inverter technology.
They are seldom seen because of the low quality power.
Modified sine wave inverters produce similar square
wave output except that the output goes to zero volts for
a time before switching positive or negative. They are
simple low cost and suitable for many electronic devices
except for sensitive or specialized equipment such as
computers, laser printers, microwave, ovens, fluorescent
lighting audio equipment. A pure sine wave inverter
produces nearly perfect sine wave output (typically
below 3% total harmonic distortion) that is essentially the
same as utility supply grid power thus it is compatible
with AC electronic devices.
All equipments sold in the market are designed for a
sine wave hence sine wave inverter will guarantee that
the equipment work to its full specification. Sine wave
inverters are the most expensive but they also deliver the
most consistent wave output. The multi level inverter is a
power electronic system that synthesises a desired
voltage from several levels of a desired voltage from
several level of direct current voltage as inputs. The
advantages of using multilevel topology include
reduction of power rating of power devices and lower
cost. There are three topologies: diode clamped inverter,
flying capacitor inverter and cascaded inverter.
However, these different types of inverter require
charging of the batteries after depletion (use) and this
calls for a self-charging inverter that constantly recharges
its battery when in use.
VI. SELF-CHARGING INVERTER’S POTENTIAL
The application of self-charging inverter to generate
electricity is limited to the capacity of both the battery, in
terms of Amp-Hour and output capacity of the inverter.
The availability of numerous brand of deep cycle
batteries of high Amp-Hour ratings up to 200AH gives
the self charging inverter its potentials.
Researchers have shown that the potentials for self
charging types is more than five times the potential of
wind, solar, osmotic power due to its ability to deliver
24/7 daily in any part of the continent
VII. EARLY INVERTERS
From the late nineteenth century through the middle of
the twentieth century, DC to AC power conversion was
accomplished using rotary converters or motor generator
sets (M-Gsets). In the early twentieth century, vacuum
tubes and gas filled tubes began to be used as switch in
inverter circuits. The most widely used tube was the
thyratron.
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The origin of electromechanical inverters explains the
source of the term inverter. Early AC-to-DC converters
used an induction or synchronous AC motor direct-
connected to a generators commuter reversed its
connections at exactly the right moments to produce DC
– AC later development is the synchronous converter, in
which the motor and generator windings ar combined
into one armature, with slip rings at one end and a
commutated at the other one field frame. The result with
either is AC in, DC out. With an M-Gset, the DC can be
considered to be separately generated from the AC; with
a synchronous converted, in a certain sense it can be
“mechanical rectified AC”. Given the right auxiliary and
control equipment, an M-Gset or rotary converter can be
“run backwards”, converting DC to AC.
Hence an inverter is an inverted converter. Since early
transistors were not available with sufficient voltage and
current readings for most inverter applications, it was the
1957 introduction of the thyristor or silicon-controlled
rectifier (SCR) that initiated the transition to solid state
inverter circuits.
VIII. THE INNOVATION
The self-charging inverter though costlier than any
inverter is still the newest, most promising renewable
energy technology cheaper than fuelless engine that
produces the same capacity. The self-charging inverters
could be in modules of 5kwatts with separate battery to
power heavy duty equipments. It was noticed that the
output remains constant irrespective of the number of the
similar batteries connected in parallel and used with the
self-charging inverter except that input current increases
making the self-charging inverter to be more stable than
when a single battery is used.
Also, using battery of high Amp-Hour ensure stability
of the self-charging inverter output voltage. Once the rate
of discharging the batteries is equal to the rate of
charging the batteries when in use, the output voltage
remains constant courtesy of the charger, the self-
charging inverter could operate 365days without any
interruption.
This is an ideal cheaper renewable energy source than
fuelless engine that produces the same output power up
to 5kwatts. This technique has been tested and proved
reliably steady.
IX. FUTURE PROSPECTS
The charger built with self-charging inverter could be
incorporated with any of the inverters on sale throughout
the world to make them become self-charging inverters
thereby increasing the potentials of these inverters.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2013)
X. APPLICATIONS 2. Outback inverters are the best when it comes to power
(i) DC power source utilization: inverter designed to back up
provide 115V AC from the 12V DC source provide in an 3. The Nocria inverters have an inner drying
automobile. The unit shown provides up to 1.2 amperes function designed to prevent the growth of mould
of alternating current, or enough to power two sixty watt and fungus
light bulbs. 4. Inverter are more portable and lighter weight,
An inverter converts the DC electricity from sources making them easier to manoeuvre around the job
such as batteries, solar panels, or fuel cells to AC site
electricity. The electricity can be at any required voltage; 5. Inverters offer high-quality, multi process welding
in particular it can operate AC equipment designed for capacities so that one machine can handle stick,
mains operation, or rectified to produce DC at any MIG, TIG, FC, AW are going and even pulsing
desired voltage. Micro-inverters convert direct current 6. The energy produced is clean and non-polluting
from individual solar panels into alternating current for 7. There is no carbon dioxide or any other by-
the electric grid. They are grid tie designs by default. products released, it produces no greenhouse
gases or other waste
(ii) Uninterruptible power supplies: an 8. It is a renewable energy that will help reduce our
uninterruptible power supply (UPS) uses batteries and an reliance on the burning of fossil fuels.
inverter to supply AC power when main power is not 9. The electricity supply is constant and efficient
available. When main power is restored, a rectifier 10. Once you’ve constructed it, the energy is free
supplies DC power to recharge the batteries. because it comes from batteries that are constantly
(iii) Induction heating: Inverters convert low recharged
frequency main AC power to higher frequencies for use 11. It produced electricity reliably
in induction heating. To do this, AC power is first 12. Insignificant or low maintenance cost
rectified to provide DC power. The inverter then changes 13. No environmental impact
the DC power to high frequency AC power. 14. Deep cycle batteries last for 5 years
(iv) High Voltage Direct Current power transmission 15. Isolated energy generation
(HVDC): with HVDC power transmission, AC power is 16. No need to connect to the electricity grid
rectified and high voltage DC power is transmitted to 17. Possesses no threats to life and properties.
another location. At the receiving location, an inverter in 18. Occupies small area depending on its size
a static inverter plant converts the power back to AC. 19. self -recharging when in use
(v) Variable-frequency drives: A variable-frequency
drive controls the operating speed of an AC motor by XII. DISADVANTAGES OF INVERTERS
controlling the frequency and voltage of the power 1. The disadvantage of using micro inverter is
supplied to the motor. An inverter provides the controlled additional up-front cost
power. In most cases, the variable-frequency drive 2. Not ideal for inductive AC and motor loads
includes a rectifier so that DC power from the inverter 3. Sensitive electronic devices can be damaged by
can be provided from main AC power. Since an inverter poor wave forms by low batteries.
is the key component, variable-frequency drives are 4. Installing inverter at home may cause regulators
sometimes called inverter drives or just inverters. of fans to go out of work
(vi) Electric vehicle drives: Adjustable speed motor 5. Waste of power when in use
control inverters are currently used to power the traction 6. On the flipside, portable inverter generators are
motors in some electric and diesel-electric rail vehicles as more costly than the ordinary generators
well as some battery electric vehicles and hybrid electric 7. Reduced efficiency, more complexity, increased
highway vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, BYD e6 and cost.
Fisker Karma. Various improvements in inverter
technology are being developed specifically for electric XIII. CONCLUSION
vehicle applications. In vehicles with regenerative The increased energy demand on daily basis in all
braking, the inverter also takes power from the motor sectors of life throughout the whole world to better the
(now acting as a generator) and stores it in the batteries. lot of world populace has led to uncountable researches
into both non-renewable conventional and renewable non
XI. ADVANTAGES OF INVERTERS conventional energy sources producing numerous
1. Outback inverters are designed to support a wide alternatives with associated competitive high cost and
range of appliances including the residential, complexity. However, the self-charging inverter.
commercial appliances and for mobile use

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 12, December 2013)
However, the introduction of self-charging inverter
can compete reasonably with those of either generators or
any inverter that is already in use for similar purpose.
Self-charging inverter potentials can be fully utilized
by existing that the inbuilt charger recharges the batteries
at the same rate that the DC discharges that the battery
when drawing current from the battery.
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