Content

 Abstract
 Introduction
 Literature review of generator
 System flow
 Working of each component
 Advantages
 Disadvantage
 Application area
 Future modification
 Conclusion
 References
 Abstract

In this project we generate electrical energy by solar power, and by

waterfall as well as by wind power. For this 12volt,10watt solar panel is
use for convert solar energy in to electrical energy 150 rpm gear motor
is use as a generator it is use to convert mechanical energy in to
electrical energy . the energy obtain from solar energy, wind energy
and from water falling is store in the battery for use as per requirement
 Introduction

According to many renewable energy experts, a small "hybrid" electric system

that combines home wind electric home solar electric (photovoltaic or PV) and
and home water enery technologies offers several advantages over either single
system.

In much of the United States, wind speeds are low in the summer when the sun
shines brightest and longest. The wind is strong in the winter when less sunlight is
available. Because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at
different times of the day and year, hybrid systems are more likely to produce
power when you need it.

Many hybrid systems are stand-alone systems, which operate "off-grid" -- not
connected to an electricity distribution system. For the times when neither the
wind nor the solar system are producing, most hybrid systems provide power
through batteries and/or an engine generator powered by conventional fuels,
such as diesel. If the batteries run low, the engine generator can provide power
and recharge the batteries.

Adding an engine generator makes the system more complex, but modern
electronic controllers can operate these systems automatically. An engine
generator can also reduce the size of the other components needed for the
system. Keep in mind that the storage capacity must be large enough to supply
electrical needs during non-charging periods. Battery banks are typically sized to
supply the electric load for one to three days.

Electricity cannot be seen, felt, tasted, smelled, heard or (safely) touched.

Providing Industrial Technology students with vivid, memorable, hands-on
learning experiences in the area of electricity is a challenge for all educators in the
Industrial Technology area. The traditional measuring instruments for electricity
(oscilloscopes, voltmeters, ammeters, and power meters) and traditional signal
sources (motors, transformers, resistors, inductors) are fine but have some
drawbacks: They have a tendency to become repetitive and boring.
• They have an artificial, educational non-real-world feel They may fail to convey
the notion of the true complexity and interrelations of industrial electrical power
systems.
• They may not capture the student’s attention and motivate learning.
• They may not give an intuitive feeling for what electrical quantities really mean
physically

Iowa is a geographically large state with a low population density. Electrical

power needs are supplied by a large number of local power companies. Due to
the isolation of many dwellings, agricultural sites, and industrial sites, there is
considerable interest in novel forms of electricity production. Two such forms of
production are solar photo-voltaic (PV) cells based on DC-power generating arrays
and wind-turbines based on propeller-driven DC-power generators. In fact, Iowa
is now the home of the largest wind-turbine power.
 Future modification

. A computer measurement and control bus will be added to the system.

Computer controlled relays will be added to allow all the major elements of the
system to be switched in and out of the system through computer programs. The
measurement bus will be connected to all the major signals in the system and will
allow for computerizes data acquisition simultaneously of all the major signals in
the system. These improvements will allow for the study of more complex issues
like power faults caused by sudden over voltages like lightning. These
improvements will also allow the same benefits to instruction realized in
electricity an electronics classes to be extended to control and instrumentation
classes.
 Literature Review

The literature in the subject areas of this paper is very extensive. An

Excellent textbook for instructional us
Installation in the world. Electrical power generation and special sources of
electric power, like wind-turbines, are frequently discussed in the public media
and are very vividly in the minds of Industrial

Technology students from daily-life experiences. The additional factor of the

general concern and interest for environmental issues is a further enticement to
attract the student’s interest in these “green-technology “forms of electricity
generation. Special Educational Issues of
Wind-turbines and Photo-Voltaic Cells As the wind does not blow all the time nor
does the sun shine all the time, solar and wind power alone are poor. is

Wind and Solar Power System by Patel (1999) that covers the specific issues in
this project in a style appropriate for Industrial Technology students. Sabin (1999)
and coworkers have summarized the various standards and benchmarks used in
large-scale power quality, and Koval (1999) and coworkers have presented similar
finding for rural (small-scale) power
quality problems. Many articles have appeared on the impact of new electronics
technologies on power quality management, for example Poisson (1999) and
coworkers have described
the impact of DSP chips on the problem. Barbosa (1998) and coworkers have
described the use of PWM (pulse-width-modulation) control schemes to power
quality control. Numerous studies have appeared. describing the impact of power
quality

problems caused by PV systems from early work by McNeil (1983) and coworkers
in to more recent work by Oliva (1988) and coworkers and most recently by
Chowdhury (1999). The
extensive literature on power quality aspects of wind generation includes work by
Demoulias and Dokopoulos(1996) on transient power measurement and by
Thiringer (1996) on harmonic contamination measurement issues. Taylor (1987) is
responsible for some of the early practical work on power quality measurements
in wind generation. Kariniotakis and Stavrakakis(1995) have written extensively
on simulation problems in wind generator and power grid interactions Finally,
many papers have been written on the electronics regulation/control aspects of
the problem including a recent study by Neris and co-workers (1999) proposing an
IGBT(Integrated-Base-Bipolar-Transistor)based regulator.
System flow

Wind Solar

power Panel

Battery
Lamp

FAN
Working of system

1 wind power: wind power is use for electrical energy generation at the night time
when sun light is not present as well as when wind power present then electrical
energy is generates by wind power.

2 solar panel: It is use to generate electrical energy from solar.

3 Battery: It is use to store electrical energy obtains from wind power and solar
panel.

4 Lamp: It is use to convert electrical energy into light energy.

5 Fan: it is use to convert electrical energy into air circulation.

Advantage of Wind Solar Hybrid

Both Solar & Wind power are used in remote areas for charging a battery and
delivery of grid quality electricity through large capacity sine wave inverters. In
areas where wind speeds are above 5.4 m/s, our 1 Kw wind turbine will deliver
more than 5Kwh of energy everyday as against maximum 4 Kwh delivered by 1
Kw solar panel. Our 3.2 KW Whisper 500 wind turbine delivers 16 KWH of energy
per day at 5.4 m/s annual wind speed average. When the wind speed is above 6.3
m/s average, our 1 Kw wind turbine delivers 8 Kwh of energy/day. Wind turbines
are less expensive than solar panels of the same capacity. Therefore, in places
where wind speeds are above 5 m/s it is advisable to use a combination of wind
and solar power for optimum investment & maximum output. It is also to be
noted that wind power and solar power complement each other. During monsoon
months solar power generation is reduced to a large extent due to cloudy skies,
during the same period, the wind speeds are much higher than rest of the year.
During monsoon, wind turbines generate extra power to compensate for the loss
of solar power.

It is hard to determine precise payback periods for solar wind hybrid

systems. The solar wind hybrid systems work best in industrial-commercial
situations where the grid power is in chronic short supply or where the
remoteness of the terrain makes power supply unreliable (military, railway
application) or where the power is expected all the time (high end apartment
owners have such expectations).
One type of industrial-commercial area which can use this product is small rural
offices: rural health centers, e-governance canters, agricultural center offices,
Village Level entrepreneurs’ kiosks/chauppals. These small rural offices will run on
a few fans and lights, one or two computers and a laser/bio-metric scanner. It will
typically consume 3-4 units of power per day. The discharge/charge cycle below
will explain the benefit:
Applications

The solar wind hybrid systems are used where the load is relatively small. In
commercial and industrial sectors, the systems are used (for example) in rural
offices or small tourist hotels where power shortage is chronic. It can be used in
schools especially in rural and urban fringe areas. It can be used for military
(charging of communication units) as well as in railways (track signaling).

It can be used in high end residential apartments and villas for specific needs.
Amitabh Bachchan’s villa in Pune has a solar wind hybrid system for powering the
garage doors!
Working of components

1 Wind Power
The first use of wind power was to sail ships in the Nile some 5000 years ago. The
Europeans used it to grind grains and pump water in the 1700sand 1800s. The
first windmill to generate electricity in the rural U.S.A. was installed in 1890.
Today, large wind-power plants are competing with electric utilities in supplying
economical clean power in many parts of the world.
The average turbine size of the wind installations has been 300 kW until the
recent past. The newer machines of 500 to 1,000 kW capacity have been
developed and are being installed. Prototypes of a few MW wind turbines are
under test operations in several countries, including the U.S.A. Figure is a
conceptual layout of modern multi megawatt wind tower suitable for
utility scale applications .Improved turbine designs and plant utilization have
contributed to a
decline in large-scale wind energy generation costs from 35 cents per kWh in
1980 to less than 5 cents per kWh in 1997 in favorable locations At this price,
wind energy has become one of the least-cost power sources. Major factors that
have accelerated the wind-power technology development are as follows:
• high-strength fiber composites for constructing large low-cost blades.
• falling prices of the power electronics.
• variable-speed operation of electrical generators to capture maximum energy.
• improved plant operation, pushing the availability up to 95 percent.
• economy of scale, as the turbines and plants are getting larger in size.
• accumulated field experience (the learning curve effect) improving the capacity
factor.
2.1 Wind in the World
The wind energy stands out to be one of the most promising new sources
of electrical power in the near term. Many countries promote the wind-power

Modern wind turbine for utility scale power generation.

technology by national programs and market incentives. The International
Energy Agency (IEA), with funding from 14 countries, supports joint
research projects and information exchange on wind-power development.

These countries are Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy,

Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United
Kingdom, and the United States of America. By the beginning of 1995, more
than 25,000 grid-connected wind turbines were operating in the IEA-member
countries, amounting to a rated power capacity of about 3,500 MW. Collectively,
these turbines are producing more than 6 million MWh of energy
every year. The annual rate of capacity increase presently is about 600 MW.
According to the AWEA and the IEA, the 1994, 1995, and 1997 installed
capacity in countries.

 TREAT LARGE BATTERIES WITH RESPECT

A car battery can deliver up to 300 amps if short circuited! This is very
dangerous. Extreme heating can result, lots of out gassing, the plates will overheat
and warp and the battery will be destroyed, often dramatically. However, this is
exactly what happens when you crank a starter motor. The battery survives
because these large cranking loads are very short lived. Be very careful when
transporting charged batteries and hooking them up. Shorting the terminals of a
large battery can be quite dangerous.
It is worth noting that a car battery has enough electric power in it to
electrocute you many times over. The reason it does not is skin resistance. It takes
about 48 volts to puncture the dry skin resistance of the human body and get
Battery :
 BATTERIES, CELLS, CHEMISTRY, MATH AND RADIOS
Batteries are an excellent emergency power source, but require some basic
information to use properly. They are electrochemical devices. They have plates,
usually metallic, and either a solution or a moist compound between the plates. A
chemical reaction takes place in the battery when it is discharged that produces a
flow of electrons out one plate on the negative side and into another plate on the
positive side.
Actually a single unit of a battery is a cell. A battery is called a "battery",
because it is a "battery" of cells together. Each cell will have a characteristic voltage
range between charged and discharged that is set by the electrochemical nature of
the metals used and the reactions that go on in the solution, gel, wet powder, etc.
between the plates.
Some non-rechargeable batteries contain other chemicals to absorb waste
byproducts from the chemical reaction that moves the electrons along. This is what
an "alkaline" battery is and why it lasts longer and costs more than a standard
carbon/zinc cell. It has an excess of these chemicals to absorb more byproducts
before the cell becomes poisoned. One such chemical is manganese dioxide, which
is mostly what the damp black powder inside a typical dry cell battery consists of.
Some cells or batteries can be recharged. In this case a power supply is
hooked up to run the chemical reaction backwards and restore the chemical
makeup of the battery back to its uncharged state. Not all batteries can be
recharged and attempting to recharge some non-rechargeable batteries can be
quite dangerous, as pressures will develop inside the case and cause an explosion.
An example of a rechargeable battery is a lead/acid cell. Here lead plates and
sulphuric
acid are used and lead sulphate is generated and destroyed as the battery
discharges and then gets recharged.
A "gel cell" is usually a lead/acid battery that has something in the sulphuric
acid solution to make it less gelled. Because they have more trouble dissipating
heat and out gassing, these gel cells should be charged slower than regular
lead/acid batteries.
The lead/acid battery has been in common use in automobiles since 1915 or
so. It has plates of lead in sulphuric acid solution in water. One of the sets of lead
plates is coated with lead dioxide. As such a battery discharges it creates two
chemical reactions, one at the anode that ends up with an excess of electrons, and
one at the cathode that ends up short electrons. If a wire is connected between the
two, the excess electrons from the anode will travel through the wire as a current
to the cathode where they are needed to complete the electron deficient reaction
there.

 DRIVING THE ELECTRONS THROUGH WIRES WITH CHEMISTRY

 Anode Reaction:-
Pb + HSO4- --> PbSO4 + H+ + 2 e-
This says that the metal lead in the anode reacts with the ionized sulphuric
acid to produce lead sulphate, hydrogen ions in solution and two excess electrons.
 Cathode Reaction:-
PbO2 + HSO4- + 3H+ +2 e- --> PbSO4 + 2H2O
This says that the lead dioxide reacts with the ionized sulphuric acid and the
available hydrogen ions, plus some donated excess electrons from the anode via
the connecting wire, to produce lead sulphate and water.

When charged, this flow of electrons is forced backwards, against the electro
potential of these reactions and the reactions are driven backwards, changing the
lead sulphate back into lead and lead dioxide on the plates and restoring the
sulphuric acid to the solution, the liquid electrolyte. Since sulphuric acid is a very
dense liquid, as the amount of sulphuric acid goes up and down in the battery, the
density of the liquid changes. Thus one method of monitoring charge is to monitor
the specific gravity or density of the liquid in the battery relative to water.
Modern batteries contain calcium metal in the lead to decrease the tendency
to produce hydrogen gas during charging by electrolysis of the water in the
electrolyte solution. If enough calcium metal is present, the battery gassing is so
well controlled that the cells can be "sealed" and their demand for replacement
water greatly decreased.
Another common type of rechargeable battery is a NiCad, based on Nickel
Cadmium electrochemistry. Because they are a different chemistry, they have a
different voltage. Dry cells, lead/acid cells and NiCad cells will all produce a
different voltage ranging from about 1.3 volts fully charged to 2.1 volts fully
charged. NiCad are often physically the same size as carbon/zinc "dry cells" and are
made in double A, and C and other common sizes. But they will have a different
voltage, a lower one. Usually this is not a problem for most electronics that are
tolerant about the exact input power required. All batteries or cells have an internal
resistance and a capacity. The internal resistance determines how many amps the
battery can reliably provide in service. The capacity is measured in amp/hours. This
is simply the number of amps the battery can deliver at a reasonable discharge rate
for that battery, and how many hours it is expected to deliver those amps.

 BATTERY MATH AND AMP/HOURS

Most batteries are rated in electrical capacity for a discharge rate of 20
hours. A 20 amp/hour battery should provide one amp of current for 20 hours
before being fully discharged. It will still show a voltage, it will no longer be
functioning correctly and if rechargeable, it will be in serious need of a recharge.
Some smaller batteries like those used on HandiTalkies are rated in
milliamp/hours. It is the same concept; they just use milliamps instead of amps for
these lighter duty batteries. A typical rating might be 1200 ma/Hr which is the same
as 1.2 amp/hour.
A standard small car battery is about 45 amp/hours. That means that it will
supply over two amps for 20 hours. A battery should not be discharged at a higher
current draw, or asked to deliver more amps than its amp/hour rating divided by
10 in order to get maximum capacity out of it. In the case of a 45 amp/hour battery
that would mean it should not be asked to deliver more than about 4 amps for best
service.
current flowing in the conductive juices inside. Even damp skin will not breakdown
easily at low voltages. This is why you can handle jumper cables hooked to a battery
and usually not electrocute yourself, the voltage is too low to get the current inside
the body where it can do damage. Still you should be careful about getting across
any heavy duty electrical power circuit regardless of voltage.
It is quite reasonable to discharge a battery at its amp/hour rating divided by
six, or four, or maybe even three. So a 45 amp/hour battery could be used to power
something that demanded 10 or 12 amps. But do not expect it to last four hours.
These higher demand currents will cause extra loses in the internal resistance of
the battery to go up, and the total capacity before the battery is fully discharged
will be less at these higher rates. More power is lost heating up the battery for
instance.
So, if you divide a battery's amp/hour rating by the current load you are going
to put on it, you can estimate how long it will last. If you divide a battery's amp/hour
rating by 20, you will find out how much current it can deliver and still live up to its
capacity rating. If you divide a battery's amp/hour rating by four, you can estimate
the maximum current you should expect such a battery to deliver and still have a
reasonable life expectancy before it is fully discharged.
Motorcycle batteries are handy for portable operation. A typical one would
be rated at 12 amp/hours. That means it can handle half an amp easily and work
for 24 hours. It should not be asked to deliver more than 3 amps Maximum. My
TenTec Argo 556 demands 2.1 amps on key down transmit and about .4 amps on
receive. A 12 amp/hour motorcycle battery easily kept it going for 30 hours of Field
Day activity, but most of that was receive and not key down. The battery was still
healthy, but definitely ready for a recharge afterwards.
 An advantage to motorcycle batteries is that they have screw caps on the
cells. The cells are still accessable for testing and examination, but they are less

"spillable" and will withstand more sloshing about and reasonable amounts of
tilting during transport.
When the same motorcycle battery was asked to power a rig that demanded
six amps, it strangled, the voltage dropped dramatically and the power output from
the rig was mediocre. For a discharge rate of six amps, something more like a 28-
32 amp/hour battery is appropriate.

 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT A BATTERY

The three most important things to know about a battery, regardless of
whether it is for an HT, a large HF portable station or just an AA size NiCad, are its
amp/hour rating, its chemistry and its voltage. The chemistry determines the
voltage of a cell and the number of cells determines the voltage of the battery. A
standard car battery is six lead/acid cells in series. A standard "battery" for a
flashlight is actually a single carbon/zinc cell. A typical automatic camera battery is
two specially modified carbon/zinc cells in series to produce about three volts, etc.
Recharging a battery that can be recharged is easy to understand. You need
to apply an appropriate voltage and current for an appropriate time. If a battery
has a 12 amp/hour rating, you should expect to charge it at 1 amp for 12 hours,
amazing how that works out!
The approximately correct charging rate for a battery is the amp/hour rating
divided by 10. If you charge faster you will heat up the battery. Fast charging is OK
as long as it is not overdone, like at the amp/hour rating divided by ONE. The
amp/hour rating divided by four is OK if the battery is monitored or if a special
charging circuit that limits the current and maximum voltage is used.
The correct charging voltage is determined by the chemistry of the cells and
the number of cells in the battery. A typical car battery has six lead/acid cells. Such
a cell puts out about 2.1 volts when fully charged. SURPRISE! Six of them in series

cause it to be called a 12.6 volt battery! However, when really fully charged and
just off the charger, such a battery can be closer to 13.8 volts. Most car battery
eliminators such as the Astron regulated power supplies will crank out a fixed 13.8
volts. This is why you keep seeing this pop up like some "Magic Number". 13.8 volts
has become a standard input for Ham Radio rigs for this simple reason.
Keep in mind this simple formula, called the "Power Law”:

 AMPS TIMES VOLTS EQUALS WATTS

So for a fixed amount of watts required or desired, if the volts go down, the
amps have to go up. For that reason, rigs designed to work on "12 volt" power
supplies, specifically for Car battery systems for mobile use etc., work better on
13.8 volts since they require less amps to get the same power input demand. That
is another reason why most battery substitute
A/C line driven power supplies, even though called "12 volt supplies" actually crank
out a fixed 13.8 volts.
By the same token, if a battery drain is excessive, the internal resistance
drags down the voltage. The net result is that the amps demanded goes up in a
vicious cycle. This is why there is a reasonable maximum drain you should expect
from any battery, based on its amp/hour capacity.
The power in a battery can be impressive. Take a standard car battery. It is
rated at 45 amp/hours. That means it can crank out 2.25 amps for 20 hours. Also it
will start out at about 12.9 volts and drop to about 11 volts, averaging about 12
volts during the period. 2.25 amps times 12 volts equals 27 watts. 27 watts times
20 hours equals 540 watt/hours, a half a kilowatt/hour, not bad at all for portable
power.

 HOW LARGE A BATTERY IS NEEDED?

It is important to know how many amps your rigs draw in order to estimate
how big a battery you are going to need. The manuals will give you a wild guess. It
really needs to be measured. Such measurements are best done with the rig
connected to an adequately rated, voltage regulated power supply like an Astron.
If you meter has a heavy duty amps scale, it can be hooked in series with the
rig and you can read it directly. If not you need a series resistor. Remember that:

 AMPS TIMES OHMS EQUALS VOLTS

So if one knows how many ohms the resistor is and you measure how many
volts of drop there are across it, you can easily calculate the amps.
You do not want a lot of voltage drop! or resistance in series in this
application. Also you need a beefy resistor for the high power measurements and
a DVM with an accurate scale that can measure milli volts. I use a 200 watt by .01
ohm precision resistor. Yes! That is one hundredth of an ohm. It is a huge thing with
big lugs on the end and can easily measure current draws of 50 amps or more,
converting currents to easily read voltage drops in the milli volt range.
A typical 100 watt HF transciever is going to demand 20 to 25 amps. You can
see at once that you are going to need a BIG battery for this. In a car, the alternator
and not the battery power the rig when the motor is running. Using the HF rig
without the battery running at these power levels will strand you beside the road
fairly fast.
You can also make a wild guess at the power required for any rig if you have
a good idea of its transmit power. Take the rated power output, assume about 33%
total efficiency so take that times three, and compute how many amps are needed
to make that many watts at 12.6 volts. For instance, a rig designed to crank 100
watts is: 100 * 3 = 300 watts 300 watts/12.6 volts equals about 24 amps. If you

are lucky and the rig is well designed it should need a bit less than this on key down
CW transmit.
To take such a rig to the field you are looking at 80 to 100 amp/hours of
battery minimum, two Car batteries in parallel, or one really beefy heavy
equipment, or large marine battery. I have seen batteries easily available at up to
120 amp/hours each, but they are whoppers and back breakers to pick up. I
recently purchased a heavy duty, deep cycle Marine battery at Sears. It is about 84
amp/hours and weighs in at 53 pounds!
Typical Motorcycle Batteries will be in the 6 to 12 amp/hour range. The larger
batteries for big motorcycles and lawn tractors will range from 12 to 32 amp/hours.
The smaller foreign car batteries start in about this area, about 30 amp/hours.
 Many batteries today are rated in CCA or RC. CCA is Cold Cranking Amps. CCA
is approximately equal to the RC of a battery times five. [1000 CCA is about 190 RC].
RC is Reserve Capacity. You can convert RC to amp/hours by the following formula:

 AMP/HOURS = (RESERVE CAPACITY / 2) PLUS 16

One solution to battery mass is to turn down the power on the rig for
portable service [QRP]. Few will notice if you reduce power from 100 watts to 50
or 25 watts, but you will decrease the power demand on transmit and the size of
the battery sharply. This is a case where the FCC precept that you use the minimum
power required to communicate makes a lot of sense.
In an emergency, a few S units on someone's distant receiver sacrificed for
additional hours of operation on your end could be crucial. Remember battery life
is not linear, if you half the power demand you may well more than double your
operating time. Also remember that reducing power six DB, or to one fourth the

transmit power, will only cut your received signal strength by one S unit on the
other end.

 CHARGING BATTERIES AND BATTERY CHARGERS

Battery chargers are usually very simple things. The average manual charger
is just a beefy transformer, a few large diodes and not much else. They often have
less than wonderful internal connections and always benefit from a case removal,
some soldering of the crimped connections and maybe some extra heavy wire.
They usually have a circuit breaker somewhere and may have an alleged amp meter
which imagines it can read current, more or less, approximately, somewhat related
to reality. They produce pulsed DC with no filtering at about 15 volts. Some have a
"fast charge" setting that really abuses the battery with even higher voltages. They
are designed for very occasional use, expecting the battery to be routinely charged
by a car's regulated charging circuit, not to be the only source of recharge for a
battery.
Such simple chargers are good for pounding on batteries. They will easily
overcharge batteries of the lead/acid type they are designed to work with. This
causes electrolysis and gassing which damages the battery and makes an explosive
gas (hydrogen).
There are some "automatic" chargers available at places like Sears for just a
bit more than the equivalent manual ones. They are well worth the extra price
when your primary use for the battery is portable or emergency power and a lot of
recharging will be done off this charger. They are highly recommended over the
manual versions.
The best battery charger is a power supply that can be current and voltage
regulated. There are some super fancy automatic ones that incorporate these
features. Based on the chemistry of a battery, there is a MAGIC voltage where it

can be left connected and it will not overcharge, and its internal leakage will be
compensated for, keeping the battery fully charged all the time. This is called trickle
charged or "floated", but most so called trickle chargers are junk, not voltage
regulated and really just slowly boil away the electrolyte with electrolysis, making
certain it will be a "late" battery when you actually need it.
To properly charge a battery, you should apply a voltage that causes current
to flow (being careful to get the plus and minus hooked up properly!) at about
1/10th the amp/hour rating of the battery to a maximum of about 1/4th the amp
hour rating of the battery.
For instance, for a 45 amp/hour battery you should not charge much faster
than 5 amps. For a 12 amp/hour motorcycle battery you should not charge faster
than about 1.5 amps, etc.
When the voltage required maintaining this charge rate exceeds 14 volts, you
should turn it down and regulate it at 13.8 volts. Just let the charge rate drop
naturally while the voltage is held constant at the battery terminals.
Eventually the current into the battery will drop to practically nothing at 13.8
volts if it is lead/acid. Different chemistries will have different magic voltages. This
is what is called "float" charging a battery. Maintaining it at a voltage which just
balances the electrochemical potential of a fully charged series of cells, just below
where they will start to perform electrolysis on the battery solution. If done
correctly such a float can go on for a very long time and the battery will stay healthy,
just compensating for the internal discharge rate of the battery.

 EXERCISING BATTERIES
All lead/acid batteries like to be exercised at intervals. To do this you should
discharge them at a rate of 1/10th to 1/4th of their amp hour rating. For standard
12 volt lead/acid battery you can usually find something at the NAPA Parts Store
that

is just right. I like truck tail light bulbs for small batteries and headlamps for larger
ones. You can use just the backup filament, or the turn signal filament or both. With
the headlight you can use normal or high beams.
 Just wire up some clip leads from the battery to this "load". Monitor the
voltage on the battery and when it tries to drop below 11 volts under load, stop.
The battery is now ready to recharge. This evens out the distribution of the lead
sulphate on the lead plates of the battery and the sulphuric acid strengths in the
cells.
This in turn helps insure that the battery will have its full charge capacity.
How much to discharge the batteries depend on the exact battery and its
chemistry. Lead/acid batteries should not be over-discharged. A standard car or
motorcycle "12 volt" battery should not be discharged below 10 volts. NiCads need
deeper discharges to condition them and avoid "memory effects" where the
battery capacity is greatly reduced, causing them to appear to charge just fine, but
rapidly go flat when a load is applied.

 BATTERY DANGERS
Be careful around bubbling batteries, the gas is hydrogen and it will explode
if you make a spark or open flame. There should NOT be a lot of bubbling. That is a
symptom of too much voltage on the cell during charging or too rapid a discharge.
The solution is being broken down into gas and that is NOT supposed to happen. It
is NOT a normal part of the charge/discharge cycle.
PLEASE do NOT be one of the sad idiots who checked his battery fluid levels
while charging a battery with his cigarette lighter!!! No flames around a charging
battery. It should not be heavily out gassing but do not take a chance.
Some out gassing is inevitable, a small amount, due to difficulties in getting
the same voltage across all of the cells in a battery. Also watch the liquid levels in a
battery. The non-sealed ones will evaporate. Replace the fluid with distilled water
only! Never add more sulphuric acid, you will unbalance the battery. The
replacement needed is distilled water. Many batteries come "dry", at least the
lead/acid ones. You will get a bottle of sulphuric acid with it. Add it carefully up to
the indicated line. Purchase of dry charge batteries is highly recommended. You are
certain they are new and fresh.
Watch out for sulphuric acid. The acid will burn skin. It will cause very serious
damage or blindness if you get it in your eyes. If you come in contact with it, rapidly
wash it off with lots and lots of water. If you get it in the eyes, flush with water and
get medical attention at once.
Sulphuric acid will make cotton cloth disappear as you watch , eating holes
in everything cotton you are wearing. It is poisonous and would cause hideous
internal damage if swallowed. The stuff inside a battery is even worse. It also
contains dissolved lead.
Any spills of lead/acid battery contents or battery acid can be neutralized
with ordinary baking soda from the kitchen. Do not get any baking soda inside the
battery. You will destroy the battery. The soda will A lead/acid battery that has
access, the old fashion type with the fill holes on top with plugs that allow you
access to the liquid in the cell, has one advantage. You can measure the specific
gravity of the liquid inside. Since this liquid is sulphuric acid solution that changes
strength as the battery charges and discharges, and sulphuric acid is very heavy,
the density of the battery fluid changes as it charges.
A hygrometer will measure the specific gravity. You can get very portable and
easy to use ones that have a series of colored balls inside an eyedropper like device.
You suck up some of the acid and how many balls float shows the state of the
charge on each cell. Again, be careful, and wash off any such equipment after
use since it will be covered with the acid. It is an excellent method of accessing
charge state on Lead/Acid batteries.

 LEAD ACID BATTERY SPECIFIC GRAVITY FOR VARIOUS CHARGE LEVELS

Specific Gravity - Percent of Charge

1.265 = 100%

1.225 = 75%

1.155 = 25%

1.120 = Discharged

Solar panel

A Detailed Theory Behind Working of Solar Panels

Solar panels harness the energy of the sun light and convert it into usable
electricity. In this article, we are going to have a detailed look at the theory
behind the basic principle used in solar panels.

Photons are the basic fundamental unit of any form of light energy. The photons
that are emitted by the sun (visible light) are captured by the solar panels. The
generation of electricity in the solar panels is possible because of a principle
called as photovoltaic effect.

Photovoltaic effect: This effect is the creation of an electrical voltage or rather the
electric current flowing in a closed loop, here referred to in a solar panel. This
process is somewhat related to the photoelectric effect; although these are
different processes altogether. The electrons that are generated when the solar
panels are exposed to a stream of photons are transferred between the different
bands of energy inside the atom to which they are bound. Typically, the transition
of the energy state of electrons takes place from valence band to the conduction
band, but within the material that is used in the solar panels. This transfer of
electrons makes them accumulate in order to cause a buildup of voltage between
the two electrodes.

There is however another principle that guides the behaviors of solar panels. This
refers to p-n junction solar cells used in solar panels. Here the material which is
illuminated by the sun's energy is the source of current due to the separation of
excited electrons and holes that are swept away in the different directions. This is
caused due to the built in electric field of the p-n junction present at the
depletion region.

Solar panels contain a system of solar cells that are interconnected so that they
can transfer the induced voltage/current between one another so that the
required parameters can pile up and a suitable throughout can be obtained.
Series connections of solar cells in solar panels help add up the voltage and the
same is true for solar cells connected using parallel connection.

Solar cells are protected from the mechanical damage as well as external factors
like dust and moisture that can be severe to degrade their performance. Solar
cells have materials that are mostly rigid. But when it comes to the thin films, they
need extra care as they are available in semi-flexible nature.

It all depends upon how the solar panels are designed and manufactured. These
factors help them produce electricity from a range of frequencies of light. Solar
panels cannot be designed practically in order to capture photons of the entire
spectrum of light emitted by the sun. Capabilities of solar panels that capture rage
of frequencies mostly exclude the infrared, ultraviolet etc. and a poor
performance is witnessed in the low or diffused light.

Another fact is that solar panels produce much lesser efficiency as compared to
when their basic components viz. solar cells are used independently without any
interconnections. Typically, solar panels that are available commercially are only
able to depict their best efficiency as low as 21%. Due to the significant impact of
efficiency, a number of techniques are used in order to tweak the performance of
solar cells.
Solar cells are designed in conjunction with concentrators which contain lenses or
mirrors to focus the light on to tightly packed and coupled array of solar cells.
Although there is an increase in the design and implementation of the solar
panels in terms of high cost per unit area, the basic motto of increase in efficiency
is achieved with least efforts. Thus the science and technology behind solar
panels is increasing by the day and advancement in the same is occurring at a
rapid pace.

Working of solar cell

A solar cell is any device that directly converts the energy in light into electrical
energy through the process of photo voltaic. The development of solar cell
technology begins with the 1839 research of French physicist Antoine-César
Becquerel. Becquerel observed the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with
a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution when he saw a voltage develop when
light fell upon the electrodes.