AUTOMATED DOMESTIC POWER GENERATOR

Project Abstract / Summary : OBJECTIVE
A major problem in India is energy crisis. Frequent power outages severely hit our economy. The government invests huge sums on power projects. We design a system that makes the domestic consumers generate energy on themselves, at reduced cost, so that they need not rely much on state electricity boards. Ours is an automated solar power generator. We demonstrate a prototype of 1 KW. The maximum power requirement of an average domestic consumer in India is 6 KW. Generators of required power can be designed using alternators of required power rating. It would save energy bills up to 100%.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

We propose a power generator system to be installed at houses that makes domestic consumers self-dependent on power needs, at a reduced cost. The system is similar to a solar power system available in the markets. The difference is that the available system depends completely on a battery. Our system is not purely battery- dependent. Battery acts as an auxiliary source in absence of sunlight. We plan to design a solar power product with increased efficiency through efficient solar harvesting.

It includes a solar panel, inverter circuits, car alternator, 100 Ah battery, microcontroller and UPS. A 200 W solar panel provides electrical output 12 V 11 A at good lighting conditions. The panel output feeds a 200W sinusoidal inverter board that provides electrical output 230V 50 Hz 0.87 A. This power is sufficient to run a 100 W grinder motor at 1300 rpm on load. The motor is coupled to a car alternator via suitable gear ratio to achieve the desired rpm of 2500. The alternator used is 24 V 35 A car alternator. The alternator output is usually dc that can be further inverted using inverter board. Instead of using single alternator run continuously, two alternators are run on shift. This is done to avoid heating and burnout of motors and alternators. Switching between alternators is done by a microcontroller programmed accordingly. The microcontroller is programmed to switch between two motors at regular intervals, say 6 hours. Electronic three terminal device such as transistor or SCR shall be used for switching. An uninterrupted power supply provides continuous power to microcontroller.

Here, the alternator output is the primary source of power in the presence of sunlight. At nights, the fully charged battery would take over the control. The power supply will not be interrupted even if sunlight and battery charge gets exhausted. The generator output and Electricity board’s supply feeds the domestic live wire via a relay. Hence, the conventional power lines would power the house when the system output ceases. Thus, it may save the energy bill up to 100 %. A solar charge controller is interfaced between solar panel and the battery. This ensures constant charging voltage to the battery and prevents chances for battery damage. Also, the solar charge controller provides battery backup for alternator running, in the absence of sufficient sunlight at daytime.
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Why did you choose to work on this project topic : Market Potential:
Many states of India, like Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc. are blessed with abundance of unprecedented sunlight throughout the year. The reception of solar radiation, potential hotspots and the current solar power capacity are depicted state wise

Besides the abundance of sunlight, solar power generation is not widespread in India. The hurdles are mentioned hereby.
1. Land: 5 acres per megawatt is required (for industrial scale generation).
2. Low efficiency
3. High cost per unit for residential purposes.
4. Unawareness among masses.
5. Costly setup: the system costs INR one lakh per kilowatt. This prevents masses from installing residential power systems.
These are the drawbacks of the conventional solar power generation system and residential solar power systems available in the markets. These hurdles are addressed to a great extent by this project

Project Highlights : Innovativeness & Usefulness

The innovativeness and usefulness of this project is accounted for by the economic and environmental benefits which this product shall bring about.

Economic and Environmental benefits
The estimated budget is INR 42,000. As a commercial product, this can be made available to common people at INR 20,000 (considering large scale production and government subsidies). This could save government from investing billions on hydro and thermal power plants. Also the pollution created by thermal power plants are addressed. The government (public sector electricity boards) cannot sell energy at increased rates to domestic consumers, for India being a welfare state. When the domestic consumers become self-dependent for energy gives away with the government a surplus of power. This could be utilized to meet the industrial demands, giving the government a surplus finance. This surplus finance shall be channelized for more productive and developmental activities.


Project Category : Electrical / Electronics / Communication
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Institute/College Name: FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
City: ERNAKULAM
State: ANGAMALY
Participating Team From: Final Year

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