Posted by Circuits Arena on Friday, 16 February 2018
How to Make A Hybrid Solar Charger Circuit On Make Your Own is the artlcle explaining Hybrid Solar Charger Circuit The effectiveness of a solar charging system depends on the weather conditions. Normally, the solar panel ...
Hybrid Solar Charger Circuit
The effectiveness of a solar charging system depends on the weather conditions. Normally, the solar panel will receive four to five hours of sunshine in a day. On cloudy or rainy days, the charging process is impaired and the battery is not fully charged. This simple hybrid solar charger can solve the problem by providing the battery with both solar power and AC.
This hybrid solar charger can give the solution for this problem. It can charge the battery using both solar power as well as AC mains supply. When the output from the solar panel is above 12 volts, the battery charges using the solar power and when the output drops below 12 volts, the battery charges through AC mains supply.
Hybrid Solar Charger Circuit
The following figure shows the hybrid solar charge circuit. The following hardware components are required to build the hybrid solar charge circuit.
- A 12V, 10W solar panel (connected at SP1)
- Operational amplifier CA3130 (IC1)
- 12V single-changeover relay (RL1)
- 1N4007 Diodes
- Step-down transformer X1
- Transistor BC547 (T1)
- Few other RLC components
10 Watt, 12 Volt Solar Panel
In this project, we used a 10 Watt, 12 Volt Solar Panel. It will provide enough power to charge a 12V battery.
This solar module 10w-12v module is an array of 36 multi-crystalline silicon solar cells of similar performance, interconnected in series to obtain the 12-volt output.
These solar cells are mounted on a heavy duty anodized aluminum frame provides strength. For each 18 cells series strings, one bypass diode is installed. These cells are laminated between high transmissivity, low-iron, 3mm tempered glass and sheet of a Tedlar Polyester Tedlar (TPT) material by two sheets of ethylene Vinyl acetate (EVA). This setup protects against moisture penetrating into the module.
Working of Hybrid Solar Charger Circuit
The 12V, 10W solar panel delivers up to 17 volts DC with the 0.6-ampere current at the sunny time. The diode D1 provides reverse polarity protection and capacitor C1 buffers voltage from the solar panel. Op-amp IC1 is used as a simple voltage comparator.
Zener diode ZD1 provides a reference voltage of 11 volts to the inverting input of IC1. The non-inverting input of e op-amp gets voltage from the solar panel through R1.
The working of the circuit is simple. When the output from the solar panel is greater than or equal to 12 volts, Zener diode ZD1 conducts and provides 11 volts to the inverting terminal of IC1.
Since non-inverting input of the op-amp gets a higher voltage at this time, the output of the comparator turns high. Green LED1 glows when the comparator’s output is high.
The transistor T1 then conducts and relay RL1 energized. Thus the battery gets charged current from the solar panel through the normally-open (N/O) and common contacts of relay RL1.
LED2 indicates charging of the battery. Capacitor C3 is provided for clean switching of transistor T1. Diode D2 protects transistor T1 from back EMF and diode D3 prevents the discharge of the battery current into the circuit.
When the output from the solar panel gets down below 12 volts, the output of the comparator turns low and the relay de-energizes. Now the battery gets charged current from the transformer based power supply through the normally closed (N/C) and common contacts of the relay.
This power supply includes step-down transformer X1, rectifying diodes D4 and D5, and smoothing capacitor C4.
Testing
To test the circuit for proper functioning, the below instructions to be followed:
Remove the solar panel from connector SP1 and connect a DC variable voltage source.
Set some voltage below 12V and slowly increase it.
As the voltage reaches 12V and goes beyond, the logic at test point TP2 changes from low to high.
The transformer-based power supply voltage can be checked at test point TP3.
