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Sizing & Data Capturing For A Vacation Home

Solar Energy SystemsECET-52100

Presented By:Abdulhaleem Al

OwaisheerJen Vacendak

Tanima Zaman

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Project ObjectivesThe goal established for this project was to design and simulate an alternative solar power system for a vacation house which enables an owner:

To rely the least on the “Grid Power”

To meet the electricity requirements for “Reasonable Costs” during the winter season

To earn money by selling the additional power generated in the off-seasons to the “Power Grid”

To “Monitor System Parameters” (e.g. temperature, power etc.) from original residence

Store “Backup Power” for the cloudy day (If financially feasible

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The design approaches established and all simulations performed in this project were focused on the following preliminary data:Location: Key West, Florida, FL 33040

Latitude: 24 o 33 ‘N, 81o 45 ‘WPower Requirement: 1120kWh/monthCost of Electricity in Florida: $0.1165/KW

PV System Size: 10.785KWattThe annual solar irradiation data

Software Tools:SolarBear (www.pvpower.com)Battery Sizing CalculatorHomerOnset’s HOBO Data Logger

Research Considerations

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Methodology 1The first approach for the project was to figure out recommendations for PV Systems from SolarBear based on the zip code, price per kWh and solar system size. The obfollowing systems with three different criteria were tained :

Lowest Price System

Lowest Cost per Watt System

Most Powerful System

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SolarBear Recommendations

Lowest $/W,

Most Powerful

and Least

Expensive

System

Most

Powerful

System

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Methodology 2Secondly, energy storage battery bank s were sized for sufficient backup purpose. The battery sizing calculator was used to determine the watt-hours and amp-hours . The results obtained were 223,252Wh and 9303Ah in order to meet the following criteria:2 Days backup power37,333Wh of energy usage/day400 F minimum temperature24V battery bankBased on the calculations, the system

would require 12 6V, 200Ah in 3 strings. The cost for this came out to be $1678/each with a total of $20,136.

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Methodology 3Thirdly, the simulations were performed in HOMER software based on the two recommendations provided by SolarBear . Two simulations were run with and without considering the battery backup systems. The parameter values collected and entered in HOMER were as below:General Information:Solar radiation indexLatitude and longitude for Key WestEnergy usage per month 9 (zero 8months of the year)

Cost per kWh20-year life time

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PV Information

System size in KW

Total cost

Efficiency

Nominal Operating Cell

Temperature

Pmax (%/ 0C)

Inverter Information

Size in Watt

Cost

Efficiency

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Battery Backup Information

Single battery voltage and Ah

rating

Batteries per string

Number of strings

Cost

LifetimeHOMER provided the simulations

results with all scenarios including

buyback.

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Methodology 4Finally, the HOBO Data Logger was introduced in the design for monitoring conditions (e.g. temperature, solar radiation, power consumed by appliances and output power of the PV systems) remotely over the internet when the owner is back to his/her original residence after vacation. Following the image of how HOBO provides information:

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Result 1: Cost Comparison without Battery

Most Powerful

Lowest Cost per kWatt System

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Result 2: Cost Comparison with Battery

Most Powerful

Lowest Cost per kWatt System

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Our Recommendations1. Lowest Cost per Watt/ Lowest Price ($15,553.96)

11kW PV System (11 modules, 4 strings)10kW Inverter (1) Grid-tied for Electricity Buyback

2. No Battery Backup

3. Data Logging Equipment ($2178.00)Onset HOBO U30 Ethernet Data Small Backup Battery (1)Solar Radiation Sensor (2)Energy & Power Meter (2)Temperature Sensor (1)HOBOlink Remore Monitoring Software

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Significance of the project

We found this project a significant design problem as it very closely related to real-life solar application. This project lead us to some challenge regarding gathering pertinent information, simulate the systems, data analysis and based on the simulations come up with a right choice. It bridged the classroom and field work and that is very valuable

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Any questions???