Photovoltaic System Design For A House In Karachi, Pakistan

Introduction
We have learnt from the Hubberts curve that the fossil fuels resources are slowly dwindling and one day will come when we will have to rely on alternative energy resources. One of the most popular alternative energy solutions is the solar technology. Solar energy from the sun is the most abundant form of renewable energy. In recent years there has been great development in the solar panels technology. Solar power energy solutions are being implemented widely at residential and industrial level in order to meet the energy requirements. The object of this project is to learn how solar panel technology could be implemented in different parts of the world taking into consideration the weather of that location and the energy consumption of the house. Solar energy solution for residential areas of could be two types 1) Grid-Tie Systems 2) Off-Grid Type Systems. The solar energy solution provided for house the house provided for our project is off-grid type.

General Information About Home City

Country: Pakistan City: Karachi Latitude/Longitude of City: 24 53N / 67 00E Weather in Karachi: Karachi is a coastal city of Pakistan. We have sunny and warm days all year round. There is not much rainfall in Karachi and duration of winters is also short. Summer Months in Karachi: May till October Winter Months in Karachi: End of November till February Average Summer temperatures in Karachi: 33 degrees Centigrade Average Winter temperatures in Karachi: 16 degrees Centigrade

Specifications Of the House

Latitude/Longitude of exact location of house: 24 55 47.22N/67 06 9.63 E Area: 25 yards*40 yards=1000 square yards or 22.86 metres *36.576 metres=836.13 square metres Number of Storeys: 1 Roof Type: Roof is flat Number of Occupants: 4 Input Voltage: The household voltage provided by Karachi Electric Supply is 220 Volts and frequency is 50 Hertz.

Number of Rooms : 4*((bedroom+bathroom)), 1*Drawing Room, 1*Dining Room, 1*Kitchen,

1*Lounge and 1*Store.

Load Calculation
Load calculation was done for the summer and winter seasons. For the project we have assumed that the consumption of electricity is same throughout the different types of season. The energy consumed daily for each type of equipment was calculated by the formula mentioned below. Total Energy Consumed per day = (Power in watts) * (Total Number of Hours used in a day) Another factor to consider is the design of the house. The house is designed according to the hot weather. Since the weather in Karachi is quite hot therefore it was taken care that the house remains cooler in summer. The temperature in the house in winters is cool enough that there is very little or no usage of cooling equipment. Hence in our load calculation for winter we have subtracted the cooling equipments daily energy consumption from the total energy consumption. The table below illustrates the daily energy consumption in different seasons.

Table A
Total Energy Consumed by Lighting, Fans and Air Conditioners (KWH/Day)
7.7319 4.66

Season

Total Energy Consumed by Other Equipment (KWH/Day)

11.6135 11.6135

Total Energy Consumed per Day

(KWH/Day)
18.89325 16.2735

Summer Winter

Selection Of PV Panels
There are several factors which we have to take into consideration before selecting a PV panel system. Effect of Solar Radiation Orientation and tilt of the PV panel. Power Rating PV efficiency Number of modules and the area of each module.

Effect Of Solar Radiation The output of a solar panel is directly proportional to the amount of sunlight falling on it. Power output of a PV panel is calculated by the use of sun hours. In a sun hour 1 KWH/m^2 of energy is produced by the PV panel. This means that we could have a day of 13 or 14 hours but the number of hours in which PV panels are working efficiently is quite less. The captured total solar radiation by the PV panel depends upon the length of the day, cloudy weather and the orientation of the PV panel. The next table shows the average number of sunlight hours that were calculated in the excel sheet submitted in Phase-2 of the project. We have used the below mentioned formulas to calculate the total daylight hours on each day of the year. Then some assumptions were made for calculating the sunlight hours of each day of the month in which solar energy was converted into electrical energy efficiently by the PV panels. Finally a monthly average was taken of the sunlight hours for each day of every month. Angle of Declination = 23.45*SIN(PI/180*(360/365*(N-80)) Sunrise Angle s = Cos-1 (-Tan (Angle of Declination) * Tan(Latitude))

Daylight Hours= 2/15 * s

Assumptions

a) In Winter months i.e (November, December, January and February) days are shorter in winters therefore we have made an assumption that 4 hours should be subtracted from the total daylight hours of each day of these months since most of the solar energy is transmitted on the earth's surface during this time period. b) July and August are summer months but due to Monsoon season most of the days are cloudy. We have made an assumption that 3.5 hours should be subtracted months from the total sunlight hours of each day of these months. In (September and October) days start to get shorter therefore we have also subtracted 3.5 hours from the total sunlight hours of each day of these months. c) In other summer months i.e from (March,April, May & June) we have assumed that sun is at its brightest and therefore we will have more sun-hours for efficient p-v production .Therefore 3 hours was subtracted from the total daylight hours from each day of these months.

Table B
Month January February March April May June July August September October November December Average Sunlight Hours In Each Month 6.652019 7.1768 8.87596 9.619701 10.23244 10.52571 9.866858 9.321793 8.59931 7.857524 6.750905 6.473428

Calculation of the sunlight hours will help us determine the number of PV panels needed in order to satisfy the energy consumption of the house. Orientation and tilt of the PV panel The big question that arises is that whether we should track the sun on hourly, monthly or seasonal basis and orient the PV panels accordingly? The solution to the problem is that we can use sun trackers as they can contribute significantly to PVs output. But we will not use sun-trackers as they are

expensive and secondly for city like Karachi where there is little rainfall and less seasonal changes a fixed mount system will be a better option. The orientation of the fixed mount system will be changed on seasonal basis .It is wiser to spend more on extra batteries or a better PV panel rather than spending on sun-tracking system. PV panels are oriented according to the slope with the horizontal and the azimuth angle determines the angle towards which PV panels should be faced. In our case we will only change the slope of the PV panel. Since our system is fixed array system therefore the azimuth will be 0 degrees south as Karachi is in northern hemisphere.

Tilt of the PV array in Winter is (Latitude + 15 degrees=24+55/60+47.22/3600 + 15= 39.929 degrees). Summer is (Latitude-15= 24.929- 15=9.929 degrees).