November 2014

What is a on-grid solar system?

By |2018-01-17T18:20:56+05:30November 3rd, 2014|

Electricity generated by a Solar Photo Voltaic (PV) system can be directly consumed by the load itself or can be  stored in a battery bank or can be sent out to the grid. A solar PV system in which the electricity generated can be sent to the grid is called an on-grid system. This type of [...]

September 2014

BLDC: The secret of the SuperFan

By |2017-11-20T16:46:01+05:30September 29th, 2014|

The difference between ordinary fans and superfans is the motor. Motors work on the principle that like magnetic poles repel. The fan blades are attached to a shaft that is connected to the motor. The motor has two main kinds of magnets. A permanent magnet and an electromagnet. The polarity of the electromagnet is changed [...]

Why are our solar panels at an angle to the floor?

By |2018-01-17T18:20:57+05:30September 4th, 2014|

Take a walk up to any terrace and look at the solar panels. They look like slides, don't they? Why ever is that? You would guess, correctly, that we want our solar panels to receive the greatest amount of sunlight. The sun does not rise in the exact east each day. The direction of sun-rise [...]

August 2014

How many units of electricity does the sun give us?

By |2018-01-17T18:20:57+05:30August 19th, 2014|

The answer to this question depends on where you live and how much space you have. We know that 1 unit of electricity is 1 kWh. Let us assume that you need 600 units a month. This is 20 kWh per day.  Check your actual average usage using your electricity bill. The average solar in-sol-ation in [...]

Rechargeable Batteries: C-Rating

By |2017-09-22T14:53:27+05:30August 12th, 2014|

If you follow this link: http://www.amco.co.in/products.php?id=9 , you can see how a battery's weight increases with it's Ah rating. You need bigger batteries to store more electric charge. The capacity of a battery is related to the quantity of active materials and electrolytes in it as well as the surface area of the plates. Electric current is the flow [...]

Rechargeable Batteries: Overcharging, Deep Discharging

By |2018-01-17T18:20:58+05:30August 7th, 2014|

If you go to their online store, you can see the Ah or Storage Capacity of a range of Exide Lead Acid Inverter batteries. With a terminal voltage of 12V,  you get Ah ratings of 180.00, 165.00, 150.00,  130.00, 100.00,  88.00, 80.00 and  65.00. To know which battery to pick, you must know your load current [...]

Nice to know: Rechargeable batteries

By |2018-01-17T18:20:58+05:30August 6th, 2014|

Any standalone off-grid solar system needs a Rechargeable Battery. Nearly everyone I can think of, is used to the idea of emergency lights and cell phones. In fact, battery life and charging time are two points of great interest in cell phones. Whether the source of power is the electricity grid or sunlight, we use [...]

July 2014

Good to know: LED Lamps

By |2018-01-17T18:20:58+05:30July 30th, 2014|

Trends: Industry predictions are that human society will move away from incandescent light bulbs to LED lamps in about a decade or two. People like smaller electricity bills. Environmentalists want less energy wastage as heat. Haitz's Law states that "every decade, the cost per lumen (unit of useful light emitted) falls by a factor of 10, and the [...]

Embodied Energy and LED Lights

By |2018-01-17T18:20:58+05:30July 27th, 2014|

The first step that the Energy Conscious people have to take, is to assess the effectiveness of energy saving devices and materials. What is embodied Energy? Wikipedia says: "Embodied Energy is the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or 'embodied' in the product itself." [...]

Energy Losses and Energy Efficiency

By |2017-09-22T15:25:18+05:30July 25th, 2014|

Thermodynamics teaches us that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but it can be converted from one form to another. It also teaches us that whenever there is an energy conversion some energy is lost to the environment as heat. This increases the disorder or entropy in our universe. Life forms are highly ordered, low [...]

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