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Prior to installation of the solar energy system there were two classes held in the home of Bernardo Martinez Gonzales. All and anyone was invited to these workshops as a place to discuss the system that the community would be installing that following Sunday. The purpose of these workshops was to share knowledge of solar energy system components that would be installed, how they would be wired and how to size the components to support the desired energy needs.  
Prior to installation of the solar energy system there were two classes held in the home of Bernardo Martinez Gonzales. All and anyone was invited to these workshops as a place to discuss the system that the community would be installing that following Sunday. The purpose of these workshops was to share knowledge of solar energy system components that would be installed, how they would be wired and how to size the components to support the desired energy needs.  
====Topics of Day One====
====Topics of Day One====
#The components involved in a system
#The Direct Current components involved in a system
#The fuctions of these components
#The fuctions of these components
#Calculating the Power, Current, and voltage in a system
#Calculating the Power, Current, and voltage in a system

Revision as of 01:27, 9 July 2015

Solar Team 2015.jpg

Abstract

This project is a follow-up to the solar panel systems installed in La Yuca and Ghetto2Garden, in addition to the installation of a new system completed in Las Malvinas. The following page will cover system assessments, costs, and how to install a system. The background goes into the past projects, as well as problems faced by the solar team. The literature review outlines information specifically for PV solar panel systems and some information on education matters, as the solar team involved the community in the installation process. The timeline displays the daily tasks of the project followed by the budget. In the last portion of the page, there is a guide explaining the installation of the Las Malvinas system.

Background

In the summer of 2015, Practivistas from Humboldt State University and Universidad Iberoamericana joined with three communities around Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to improve previous Practivistas solar systems as well as build a new solar photovoltaic system. La Yuca, Ghetto2Garden, and Las Malvinas are communites that Practivistas have worked with in the past. In 2014, a solar system was installed in a small La Yuca school to power lights and fans. The goal of the 2015 team was to run tests to check the health of the battery and to fix any issues found with the system. The same was needed for Ghetto2Garden. The final challenge was to teach community members in Las Malvinas how solar systems work, and by bringing everyone's knowledge together, construct a small solar system. The system was installed in a public location in Las Malvinas to power three LED lights and a fan with help from the community. Amongst all these projects, it was a priority to educate and involve members of the communities so that each system can be maintained by the people who use them.


Past Project Links
The following page mainly concentrates on the Las Malvinas installation. To view the updates regarding the La Yuca system, click here. For more information about Getto2Garden, click here.

Problem statement

​The objective of the project is to install a solar photovoltaic system in a publicly accessible location in Las Malvinas as well as to improve current solar photovoltaic systems in the communities of La Yuca and Ghetto2Garden. The team will hold solar classes in Las Malvinas in order to work with community members to collaboratively install the new system.

Criteria

After meeting with the community of Las Malvinas, Tomas of Ghetto2Garden, and the director of the school in La Yuca, our group thought these were the most important criteria of the three different solar projects.

Criteria Weight Constraints
Durability 9 The panel must be mounted in a way that can withstand 5 mph winds common to Santo Domingo. The other components must be installed in an area that will be kept dry.
Education 7.5 Through workshops, members of the community will learn the concepts behind solar energy and how to maintain the systems.
Security 7 The solar system must be mounted to decrease the risk of theft. It should be placed in plain sight so the community members can keep an eye on it.
Maintenance 8 The system must be low maintenance so community members can keep it in working order without the need for solar experts.
Cost 5 It is necessary to spend all of the set budget.
Safety 6 The solar system must not be able to be tinkered with by children in the area.
Effectiveness 10 The system must supply electricity so that the communitiy benefits from the resource.

Literature Review

Here is the link to our Practivistas solar 2015/lit review

Process

This section covers the specific steps taken by the solar 2015 team in order to assess and maintain the systems in La Yuca and Ghetto2Garden as well as achieve a completed solar system in Las Malvinas.

Timeline

The following table outlines the tasks completed by the solar 2015 team.

Date Task Photos
May 28 The first community meeting was held in Las Malvinas where the electrical needs of the community was discussed and the team exchanged contact information. It was also announced that there will be a free solar panel installation workshop taught by practivistas. They will also be installing a small system in an accessible area in the community. This is projected to happen around the week of June 22.
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May 30 The team went to Ghetto2Garden to check out the cat and dog sanctuary and to check out the situation of the solar system as it was disassembled while the owner went out of town. Tomas expresses need for protective shelf for the batteries as he wishes to remodel the kitchen. The system has been disconnected and must be correctly rewired. The team concluded that they need to solve the wiring problems and come up with a secure system at this site.
DSCN0063.JPG
June 1 The team went to La Yuca to meet with administration, although they did not show up, and to assess the PV system. Once they gained access to the storage room it was apparent that the LED lights in the storage room have been disconnected due to damage to the roof and it was discovered that the Rainwater Catchment System has been dismantled by bad weather and children, who could also potentially stand on the solar panels. Update: The teaching assistant, Jack, and Javier fixed the Rainwater Catchment system and the LED lights were also repaired over the duration of this project.
DSCN0105.JPG
June 2 The team met with the administration at La Yuca to gain permission to assess the system- by draining and recharging the batteries. Administration in La Yuca have addressed that we need to make sure we give a hands-on tour of the solar panel system once we have finished so they can address any future problems and/or educate the children in order to prevent them from possible destruction. They stated that the inverter has not been outputting power and the team used a multimeter to measure the voltage. The batteries were at 12.86 v and the inverter was at 1.2 amps. The team was then informed that the inverter was smoking in April. The inverter was removed from the storage room in order to have it repaired.
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June 3 Due to the broken state of the inverter the team could not return to La Yuca to test how long the solar panels would take to recharge, as planned. The day was used instead to strategically plan out the next steps we need to make. The first priority was transportation of the inverter to an electrical shop and to make a shelf/ table to hold the four 6V batteries at Ghetto2Garden.
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June 5 The inverter was taken to SM Electronica by Tito's to be fixed. The team called Eddie to ensure that he had the tools needed to construct a compartment to hold the batteries at the system in Ghetto2Garden for next Thursday's proposed construction meeting. (Update: Tomas informed the team that there is a shelf sturdy for the batteies) Communication is a vital component as the team spent a lot of time and energy planning the shelf and with this new information we are able to adapt to new circumstances and use the materials in another way.
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June 8 The inverter was fixed and picked up by Tito. The cost for repairs was RD$1050. The team went to La Yuca to connect the inverter with the intention of draining the system however the solar panels were left on due to miscommunication.When the batteries were checked with the multimeter it was at a healthy 12.28 DCV.
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June 9 After discharging the batteries overnight, we went to La Yuca in the afternoon to begin recharging the batteries. We had difficulty reading the voltage of the batteries, so we were unable to effectively take data of the charging process. Due to little knowledge on the voltage of a charged and discharged battery, the team researched more that evening to return in a couple of days to efficiently repeat the process. This is will give them a better understanding of the functionality of the entire system, and we will have reliable data that can be used for future systems in Ghetto2Garden and Las Malvinas.
Solar recharge 1.jpg
June 11 Today the team had the community meeting to collectively plan out the days with members of the community for the solar panel workshop. We chose June 23, 26, and 27th as they work best with all our schedules and Sunday June 28th we will install a small system at the Botica. As be a solidifying learning experience for our team and the community members of how to size and wire the system.
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June 12 Met with Lonny in order to create a lesson plan and update him on the current state of our project. Made a tentative schedule to go to Ghetto2Garden to rewire the system. We split up so half of us could work on updating the General Solar Sizing Spreadsheet and discharge the system in La Yuca, as it was not well monitored the first time. As the school only used the PV system once before the batteries are still in good shape and data from discharging and recharging will be displayed further down the page.
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June 13-14 The second group in the team went to La Yuca to recharge the batteries back to 13.7 Volts and the other group went to buy a battery monitor and other materials unfortunately the stores were closed but the batteries proved to be healthy. The team met up the next day to assess the data and size the system for Las Malvinas, further equations must take place as we collaborate with the community and decide what items are necessary for the Botica.
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June 16 The team went to Ghetto2Garden with the fixed inverter as the old inverter was mutilated by rats. The batteries were not wired correctly and had to be rotated and corrected. The charge controller had to be removed from the system and taken back to Santo Domingo for repair and the team took the wires in order to rewire the system before returning to Ghetto2Garden as it will be time efficient to hook up the wires.
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June 19-20 The charge controller was taken to TraceSolar and turned out to be beyond repairs. Must wait until they get a shipment of new charge controllers and purchase necessary items for the classes and system in Las Malvinas. The team started making an outline for teaching the community on solar energy systems and actual steps in the classes have been laid out for the team to better prepare themselves for teaching the community members. The team has a material list and will continue purchasing items necessary for the system.
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June 23 Today the team had a meeting with the director of the program resulting in restructuring itself and choosing a leader. The team needed more motivation and communication in order to manage time wisely and complete the required items with the limited amount of time left. The first solar workshop was held today at 5pm and was successful. The topics covered in this class were components of a solar panel system, power equations, and the difference between series and parallel wiring.
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June 25 Today the team purchased a charge controller from Téchnica Electromecánica Núñez. The team also made an outline to teach how to size the components needed for a PV solar system for the second class at 5pm. During the first half of the class there were hands-on learning with the small solar panels doing series and parallel, by connecting the panels and measuring the voltage and current with a multimeter. Everyone in the class also had their own light systems that they were able to connect to visualize each component in the mini system. The topic covered in the second half of the class was primarily on sizing the system and deciding on what should be powered in the Botica. While in Las Malvinas the team took inventory of the 7 outlets and backings, electrical wire, conduit, and an indoor panel board load controller that was bought by the construction team.
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June 26 Today the 250 W and 24 V solar panel and accessories were purchased from Téchnica Electromecánica Núñez with a grand total of RD$37,045. The team was planning on rewiring the Ghetto2Garden system with our professor/director, Lonny, however Tomas told us that he would not be able to get us a ride. Therefore we spent the time planning what had to be done over the next week and assigning tasks. Afterwards we received word from Tito that he will be able to go and give us a ride. With the limited notice our team leader accepted the late night challenge to rewire the system with the help of another member and phone advice from Lonny and she was able to complete the task.
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June 27 Today the team rewired the system in Ghetto2Garden. They also purchased the 24V inverter as well as lights and a fan for the Botica in Las Malvinas. The following Saturday the team plans to split up so everyone can work on individual components of the project. This picture displays the completed system in Ghetto2Garden protected within a shelf and rewired correctly so that it it now a working system.
IMG 8442.JPG
June 28 Today was the third and final day of the solar workshops.The participants connected the components in order to connect the system. Utimately they were bale to get the system to run and power a fan which was the highlight for Junior, the youngest participant to see. During this hands-on workshop the participants began questioning each other on what each component did and how to wire it and everyone was pitching in to answer it. The system hd to be taken down and put into Enrique's house as the Botica did not have doors at that time.
IMG 8457.JPG
June 30 The team installed the solar panels in Las Malvinas with the help of local electricia, Bernardo and his son, Junior. The Botica received a door and windows in order to protect the equipment inside. The government should be inhabiting the Botica to provide affordable medicine to the people in Las Malvinas.
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July 1 Today the team did a walkthrough in La Yuca with the maintenance people on how to clean their system and what signs to look out for. This included washing off the panels with water and a sponge once a month, monitoring the wires, dusting the batteries, and that they could use the system for up to 4 hours without sun. Today was also the last day of spanish class and we are preparing our group presentation.
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July 2-3 The team did their final presentations for the community of Las Malvinas and for UNIBE.
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Budget

Las Malvinas Materials Unit Price $(DOP) Quantity Cost $(DOP) Cost $(USD)
Solar Panel 250W / 24V 9,000 1 9,000 200
Feet of cable to Panel 35.00 15 525 11.67
Connector Panel 500 1 500 11.11
Nationwild Batteries 115AMP / 12V 9,500 2 19,000 422.22
Jumper 6" 70 1 70 1.55
Jumper 36" 600 2 1,200 26.67
DC 30 Breaker 625 1 625 13.89
DC 63 Breaker 625 1 625 13.89
Electrical Wire 300 7 2,100 47.72
Las Malvinas 24V Inverter 10,000 1 10,000 228
Barello Wire #18 190 1 190 4.22
Soldering Iron 236 2 472 10.48
Solder 637.20 1 637.20 14.16
Electrical tape 60 1 60 1.33
Heat Shrink N/A 1 50 1.11
Plywood 980 1 980 21.78
Screws 1.20 24 28.80 0.64
Nails N/A 12 5 0.11
20" Enlate 215 2 430 9.56
Total Cost $46,498 $1,040
Ghetto2Garden and La Yuca Materials Unit Price $(DOP) Quantity Cost $(DOP) Cost $(USD)
Fix Ghetto2Garden 24V Inverter 7,000 1 7,000 155.66
Fix La Yuca 12V Inverter 1,000 1 1,000 22.20
Total Cost $8,000 $177.86

Las Malvinas Workshops and Installation

This is process and steps that went into completing the solar energy system on the Botica.

Preparation to Installation

Prior to installation of the solar energy system there were two classes held in the home of Bernardo Martinez Gonzales. All and anyone was invited to these workshops as a place to discuss the system that the community would be installing that following Sunday. The purpose of these workshops was to share knowledge of solar energy system components that would be installed, how they would be wired and how to size the components to support the desired energy needs.

Topics of Day One

  1. The Direct Current components involved in a system
  2. The fuctions of these components
  3. Calculating the Power, Current, and voltage in a system
  4. How to wire in series and parallel
Worksheets of The Day

SolarPrintout day 1.pdf
Visual of System Components.pdf

Topics of Day Two

  1. Distincting between parallel and series wiring for solar panels
  2. Equations for calculating size of components
  3. Sizing the system on the Botica
Worksheet of The Day

Solar Topics day 2.pdf

Wiring

File:Bpack bike trailer - demo 1.jpg
How to Wire Batteries and Panels in Series or Parallel

Installing The System

Wiring Together the Components

Operation

Inverter for Las Malvinas system.

To protect one's solar panel system, the components MUST be turned on in this order:

  1. Turn on inverter
  2. Turn on the 63 amp breaker to the battery
  3. Turn on the 30 amp breaker to the solar panel
  4. Turn on the Alternating Current breakers in breaker box

The components MUST be turned off in reverse order:

  1. Turn off the Alternating Current breakers in breaker box
  2. Turn off the 30 amp breaker to the solar panel
  3. Turn off the 63 amp breaker to the breaker
  4. Turn off inverter

What Will be Powered

Below presents what loads will be powered by the system within the Botica and a recommended length of time the loads should be operated.

Loads in the Botica

  1. Three LED lights
  2. One fan
  3. One radio
  4. One cash register
  5. One phone

Schedule

Monday - Friday
LED lights - 4 hours
Fan - 4 hours
Radio - 4 hours
Cash register - 8 hours
Phone - 2 hours

System Testing

Using this test, one will be able to learn how many hours certain loads can be used without sun. This test will also provide information about how long it takes the battery to reach full charge on a clear day, and reveal any malfunctions in the components.

  1. On a clear day, turn off inverter and turn off all loads in order to charge the battery 100%.
  2. Turn the 30 amp breaker for the solar panel off and the 63 amp breaker for the battery on
  3. To check that the battery has reached its maximum capacity, consult the charge controller. Some charge controllers will blink green lights when the battery is fully charged. Take a voltage reading with a multimeter that is set to 20 Direct Current Voltage (DCV) for a 12 volt system and 200 DCV of a 24V system. Consult the table on this site to determine if the battery is fully charged based from the DCV reading http://www.solar-electric.com/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html Proceed with steps once the battery is 100% charged.
  4. Turn on all loads that would replicate the amount of power needed from the solar system by the user normally.
  5. Turn off both breakers: the one for the panel and the one for the battery.
  6. Finally, have one person turn on the inverter while another person starts a 10 minute timer.
  7. Every 10 minutes check the DCV of the battery and record findings.
  8. The battery should never be discharged more than 20%, reference the table from the link in step three to calculate what the DCV should be when the battery has reached an 80% depth of discharge (DOD).
  9. Once the battery has read the desired DOD, turn off all loads and the inverter, but turn on the breaker for the battery.
  10. To begin the recharging process, have one person turn on the breaker for the solar panel, while another person starts a 10 minute timer.
  11. Monitor the DCV every 10 minutes until the battery is fully charged.

Maintanence

Weekly
  • Keep an eye out for damage to the wires
  • Prevent dust from building up
Monthly
  • Clean solar panels with a wet cloth (no soaps)
Yearly
  • If anything breaks call an electrician or the solar company.
  • Test batteries

Conclusion

Testing

Discussion

Discuss the testing results.

Lessons learned

1. Communication needs to be extremely consistent throughout the process, and always make sure anyone involved in the project is informed on a step that needs to be accomplished.
2. The people involved in the process need to work together because you can't do it alone.
3. It is very important to establish a leader in the beginning and express what needs to be done and accomplished daily so everyone can be as efficient as possible and do what is best for the team.
4. We should have known exactly what steps needed to be made before we went to La Yuca to test the batteries as we found out you can damage the batteries by discharging them too low. We would have been more time efficient if we did not have to keep going out to the site without the knowledge needed to successfully complete the task we set out to do.
5. It is crucial to be able to adapt to the information given to us as we need to best prepare for the upcoming deadlines we need to accomplish. Overall, it is best to use time wisely and communicate with others as what is needed to be done.
6. The community members have been extremely helpful and are more knowledgeable on the subject than us and we are grateful they are willing to share their time and know-how on any subject with us. It is vital to learn useful phrases in Spanish to express your gratitude for them and communicate what needs to be done so we can complete our project.

Next steps

System improvements to be made in the future:

  • In Las Malvinas the next step is to add enough power to run a refrigerator.
  • The systems at Ghetto2Garden and La Yuca need to be checked up on by Practivistas to make sure they are still in working order.

Troubleshooting

This is only how to troubleshoot basic operation. For complex issues, the solution might just say contact ________. It should be a table in this format:

Component Size Picture
PV Panel 250 Watt PV panel
Panel 250.JPG
Inverter 2.6Kw
24V
Inverter 24.JPG
Deep Cycle Batteries Two 12V batteries in series
115AH and 24V total
Batteries 24.jpg
Panel Breaker 30 amps
shuts off current of PV panels to the rest of the system.
Breaker 30.jpg
Charge Controller 30 amp 48V
Charge controller LM.jpg
Breaker 63 amps,
shuts off current to batteries
Breaker 63.jpg
AC Breaker Box Contains two 120/240V 40 amp breakers
Control over what loads will run in the Botica.
Breaker box.jpg

Information for breaker box.jpg
Wire 10 gauge, 2.5mm2
DC: red(+), black (-)
AC: black (hot), white (nuetral), no ground, blue (back up for hot)
Wire 10.jpg
Conduit 3/4 in2
Protects wires from getting damaged
Conduit 1.JPG
Battery Terminal Ends Connect the battery (+) and (-) to the charge controller (+) and (-)
Terminal ends.jpg
Battery Terminal
Connectors
Wire the two batteries in series
Terminal connectors bat.JPG
Invertor Terminal
Connectors
Connect the batteries to the invertor.
Terminal ends invt.jpg
Lights LED 13V each
LED lights.jpg
Fixtures porcelain, sized to any household light
Fixtures .jpg
Outlets, Switches,
Switch plates
three of each
Outlets switch .jpg
Electrical Box 6 for each light switch and outlet
Electric box.JPG
Problem Suggestion
Example issue Example solution or suggestion
Does not turn on Make sure it is plugged in
Another issue Et cetera

Video

Error in widget YouTube: Unable to load template 'wiki:YouTube'

Team

References

Template:Reflist

[[Category:Solar]], [[Category:Photovaltaic System]], [[Category:Renewable Energy]], [[Category:Workshops]], [[Category:Maintainance]], [[Category:Solar Energy]], [[Category:Solar Power]]

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