PV Testing and Sizing

The department has sufficient facilities to size the PV panel requirement for a given load and work out the economics for the same. The efficiency of the PV panels can also be tested. Softwares such as F-Chart and PV F-Chart can be used for predicting the performance of any proposed PV system for a given climatic condtions and work out the payback period.

Key Facilities

Software:

  • F-Chart Solar Systems Analysis - F-Chart is the authoritative solar system analysis and design program written by S.A. Klein and W.A Beckman, the originators of the F –chart method. The F-Chart method provides a means of easily determining the thermal performance of active solar heating systems (using either liquid or air as the working fluid) and solar domestic hot water systems. The F-Chart method is essentially a correlation of the results of hundreds of simulations of solar heating systems. The conditions of the resulting correlations give F, the fraction of the monthly heating load (for space heating and hot water) supplied by solar energy as a function of two dimensionless variables involving collector characteristics, heating loads, and local weather. F-Chart is utilized in estimating the long-term average performance of the following solar systems: water storage heating, pebble bed storage heating, building storage heating, domestic water heating, integral collector-storage DHW, passive collector-storage wall, etc. It is used in evaluating the performance of solar collectors such as flat-plate, evacuated tube and compound parabolic concentrating etc.
  • PV F-Chart Photovoltaic Systems Analysis - PV F-Chart is a comprehensive photovoltaic system analysis and design program. The program provides monthly-average performance estimates for each hour of the day. The calculations are based upon methods developed at the University of Wisconsin which use solar radiation utilizability to account for statistical variation of radiation and the load. The PV F-CHART model was developed as a simplified model to provide long term (average) performance estimates for fixed, tilted, flat-plate photovoltaic systems having utility feedback capability, battery storage. In each of these system configurations, by assumption, power conditioning equipment maintains the array output at its maximum power point and supplies the proper voltages and current to the other equipment. The monthly-average hourly load on the system is supplied by the user. Power generated in excess of that needed to supply the load is either fed back to the utility, stored in a battery, or dissipated. Energy required by the load which is not supplied by the system must be obtained from an (unspecified) auxiliary source.

Solar PV Power Analyser Instrument:

  • MECO 9018BT - The MECO Solar System Analyzer is a portable analyzer used for testing, monitoring, measuring, analyzing and troubleshooting various parameters of Solar System. Analyzer draws I-V curve with parameters such as Voc, Isc, Vpm, Ipm with efficiency (%) calculation for solar system. This analyzer comes with Remote Solar Detector for measuring and monitoring solar irradiance and temperature. The Analyzer and Remote Solar Detector is connected by Bluetooth Wireless technology (Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Class 1).
  • Amprobe Solar-600 -Professional analyzer for testing, maintenance, troubleshooting and efficiency of solar panels. The analyzer is used in the installation of solar panels to determine the proper inverter size, optimum power output position of panels and identifies broken or worn-out cells.

Contact

Dr. M. Premalatha
Professor
Department of Energy and Environment
National Institute of Technology
Tiruchirappalli - 620015
Email: latha@nitt.edu
Office No: +91 - 431 – 2503135