So here you can see an example of an
off-grid system. And as you can see the
system consists of several components
and I'm gonna introduce each in this
video. Let's start with batteries. Batteries store the solar energy.
Solar batteries work by storing the DC
energy being produced by solar panels
and giving it back to you when you need
it . There are different types of
batteries used in solar systems and you
can choose them according to your
specific requirements. Here the batteries
are connected in series with each other
to increase the voltage of the system. Each battery has a positive and negative
terminal, and you can connect them in
parallel or series to change of voltage
and the capacity of your off-grid system.
This is the charge controller. It manages
the power going into the battery bank
from your solar panels. It also ensures a
healthy charge profile for the batteries,
and stops the power running backward to
the solar panels overnight. Typically
charge controllers come in to two
technologies: the maximum power point
tracking or MPPT and pulse width
modulation or PWM. And this controller is
an example of an MPPT charge controller.
this is the Inverter. Inverter converts the
direct current or DC output of the
batteries into the alternating current
or AC, which enables you to power your AC
equipments with the use of batteries.
this is the monitoring device which will
be connected to the charge controller
and is responsible to provide you with
information about your solar set such as
voltage, current, power, temperature
and so on. DC and AC breakers provide
methods for us to stop current and
voltage being supplied to the equipment,
so when we would like to remove or service
those items, or in the event of an
overcurrent, they come really handy.
solar panels and batteries are the DC
sources.
Therefore DC switches are used for solar
panels and batteries.
DC switch is connected to the inverters
output and protects the inverter and
consumers in case of abnormal conditions.
So using the AC switch, we have the
control over the AC output. Okay there
are lots of connections here. Let's find
out how to wire the off-grid system. Two
connections come out of the batteries. One from the positive terminal and the
other from the negative terminal. Battery
positive
goes to the charges positive battery
terminal and bettery negative goes to the
charges negative battery terminal. The
bus bar makes it possible to split the
connections. This means that the positive
is connected to two places and the
negative is also connected to two places. Then the negative connection once goes
to the charger and inverter and the
positive goes to the charger and
inverter. This is called the rail or din
rail which is a metal strip that is used
for securely attaching electrical and
industrial control products such as
circuit breakers or terminal blocks and
here we mounted our switches on it. Ok
I remove the cover here.
here I have the PV positive and negative
terminals, battery positive and negative
terminals, and DC loads positive and
negative terminals. Turning this DC
switch on will connect the batteries to
the charge controller and will turn it
on. As you can see the charge controller
is on and it's displaying some
parameters on its LCD. turning the other DC switch on will connect the solar panels
positive and negative terminals to the
charge controller. Now I turn the
inverter on and turning the AC switch on
will bring the power to the plug. So I
plug an AC consumer like this drill and
it will let me use my AC equipment.
in next videos we will talk about each
component in more details
