Renewable Energy Innovation

I've not done a blog post for a while, but plenty has been going on. In this post I'm documenting my process for designing enclosures for some of my projects. This is the design process I use to produce bespoke enclosures with cut-outs, using the laser cutter at Nottingham hackspace and 3mm plywood.

In this example I'm designing the enclosure for a power monitor with a large 7-segment LED display. This is a relatively complex design, but this will show my design choices.

We have been wanting to design and build an open-design, relatively inexpensive but fully functioned charge regulator for solar PV, wind, pedal and small hydro systems for a while now.

The majority of off-grid renewable energy systems are based upon lead acid batteries. Lead-acid batteries need to be protected from over-charging by the renewable energy source and over-discharging from the loads. This can be one with a series regulator (in the case of solar PV) or a shunt regulator (for PV, hydro and wind). Please check the web or my electrical design guide in the information section for more details.

A number of our projects require accurate monitoring of voltages. Here we explain the numerous techniques for measuring voltages, both DC and AC, highlight some of the multitude of integrated circuits available and list the pros and cons of various techniques.

To measure power (and hence measure energy) within electrical systems, we need to know the voltage and the current. Power equals the voltage multiplied by the current (P=V x I). We have written information on measuring DC current, in this post we will be writing about measuring voltage, both DC and AC.

{jcomments on}Here are some details on the prototype for the 'build your own' solar power system I ran as a workshop at the Nottingham hackspace. I'm pretty pleased with how it looks.

Basically it is a micro solar PV (photovoltaic) system, which includes a 10Wp solar panel, charge regulator and voltmeter, all encased in a laser cut wooden enclosure. This can be used to power small loads such as charging mobile phones, running a small sound system or even charging a laptop. The maximum output is 50W.

Here is a link to the Instructable design which has full design details.