Title :
Living on PV power in comfort and style
Author_Institution :
Solar Depot Inc., USA
Abstract :
The Solectrogen House near San Francisco was conceived, designed and built by Solar Depot as an off-grid renewable energy house. It is powered by a Solectrogen hybrid power system consisting of a 3 kW PV array, two 1 kW wind powered generators, a 50 kWh storage battery bank and a 6.5 kW LP-fueled diesel engine generator for back-up. Two 4 kW sinewave DC to AC inverters are utilized, with 24 VDC input and 120/240 VAC 60 Hz output. The inverters are equiped with built-in battery chargers and microprocessors for controlling the engine generator operation. The water supply of the house is a well pumped by a PV powered submersible DC pump. The swimming pool filtration system utilizes a ¾ HP DC pump powered by a separate dedicated PV array of 640 watts at 90 V. Energy efficient lighting and refrigeration used in the house minimize the power requirements of the house. The house also utilizes a solar thermal system consisting of 640 sq. ft. of glazed solar collectors and a 500 gallon storage tank. The thermal system is utilized for heating water year round, for space heating in the winter and for swimming pool heating in the summer
Keywords :
DC-AC power convertors; battery storage plants; diesel-electric generators; internal combustion engines; invertors; photovoltaic power systems; project engineering; pumps; solar absorber-convertors; solar cell arrays; solar cells; solar heating; space heating; wind power plants; 0.75 hp; 1 kW; 120 V; 24 V; 240 V; 3 kW; 4 kW; 50 kWh; 6.5 kW; 60 Hz; 640 W; 90 V; PV array; Solectrogen House; USA; battery chargers; diesel engine generator; energy efficiency; glazed solar collectors; lighting; microprocessors; off-grid renewable energy house; projects; refrigeration; sinewave DC-to-AC inverters; solar thermal system; space heating; storage battery bank; submersible DC pump; swimming pool filtration; water heating; wind powered generators; Batteries; Diesel engines; Hybrid power systems; Inverters; Power generation; Renewable energy resources; Solar power generation; Space heating; Water heating; Wind energy generation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520066
