Intelligent Solar Lamps for Rural India

INTELLIGENT SOLAR LAMPS FOR RURAL INDIA

Department of Electronics Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering *

NIT , Jamshedpur  831014

Jharkhand (India)

Phone : + 91-9835171619 (M)

e-mail :  snsnitjsr@sify.com

e-mail :  akselect2006@yahoo.co.in*

Abstract

Solar powered lightening system is becoming popular in remote isolated Indian villages. The design and construction principle of a solar lamp is presented in this paper. It investigates the performance characteristic of the proposed system. The paper also presents the comparison of the proposed solar lantern with conventional lightening systems, hurricane lantern and candle, in terms of cost and performance. The Impact of these systems in the life of the Indian villagers has been reflected in terms of parameters like employment generation, their  educational and economic status etc.

Lightening is essentially required for a human being in his living place wherever it might be. There are places in remote Indian villages where grid supply is not possible due to technical and economic reasons . An alternative source of lightening may be used in such isolated remote areas. The operation of alternative source should not be sophisticated one so that rural people can easily operate. In the present study solar lamp has been used to meet the lightening system requirement of these remote villages. The constructional features and performance characteristic of the new proposed solar lamp has been presented .The comparison between new proposed lamp with other conventional lightening system, hurricane lamps and candle is also presented in terms of construction, performance characteristic and cost [1,2,3 ].

Conventional sources of lightening

The conventional sources of lightening used in a rural home are usually of two types:

i)          Hurricane

ii)         Candle

The hurricane lantern is made of steel. It has a reservoir/tank of fuel. The usual fuel is kerosene. The flame is produced by firing a cotton feather, which absorb kerosene from the fuel tank. The flame is covered by a tubular glass. The life of these lamps are 5 years

A candle is made of wax. It provides light for 20 hour or more depending on the size of candle. In the present study a candle of 25 cm height and 5 cm diameter has been used which give light for 20 hours.

Technology of Solar Lantern

Solar lamp consists of following components/modules as shown in Fig (1)

§  PV module 3W/10W – 6V/12V

§  Battery 4.5/7.5AH

§  Power Converter 230V,10W

§  Lamp (LEDS) 10W

§  Intelligent Controller

The source of the energy of the proposed lantern is the DC electricity produced by a solar panel during insolation period. The energy is stored in a battery which supplies power to lamp (LEDS) working as a load.

A voltage regulator circuit controls the charging of the battery. The low voltage protection circuit is incorporated to prevent the battery from deep discharging (SOC=50%)

 An inverter circuit converts DC voltage to sinusoidal PWM AC waveforms with 95 % efficiency and THD less than 2%.

The unique feature of the innovative intelligent solar lamp is its controlled delivery of power through intelligent action of the control switches to regulate the intensity of lamps as per requirement

PV

Inverter

Battery

Intelligence   Controller

Load (Lamp)

Fig (1) Schematic Diagram of Solar Lamp

Illumination Level of   Lamps

The output power in terms of illumination of solar lamp and its comparative study with conventional Lamps have been shown in Fig (2)

Fig (2) Comparison of illumination level of solar powered lamp, hurricane lamp and candle lamp

Cost Analysis of Different Lamps

The cost of    solar lantern include the cost of different  accessories which include Voltage Control Unit, Low voltage protection Circuit , Inverter LEDS, Casing and SMF Battery etc. In the cost analysis of hurricane lamp its life time is considered   as 5 year. The consumption of kerosene is 40 ml per hour and is used for 4 hour a day for lightening purpose. The cost of candle is also evaluated considering 4 hours of illumination each day.

The annual repayment cost of different types of the lamps is given in Table 5 

Table (5) Cost of different type of Lamps

Lightening Lamps

Life cycle

Annual Expenditure (Rs.)

10 Watt Solar Lantern

20 year

1750=00

Hurricane Lamp

1-5 year

2000=00

Candle

20 hour

2500=00

(A) The out put power generated by PV Source   during insolation is presented in Table (1)

Table (1) PV Source Output (watt)

Time

6:30 am

1

7:00am

2

8:00 am

4

9:00 am

8

10:00 am

10

11:00 am

11

12:00 Noon

12

1:00 pm

10

2:00 pm

8

3:00 pm

7

4:00 pm

6

5:00 pm

3

6.30 pm

1

(B) The 10W solar panel charges 6V/4.5AH single SMF battery. The charging of battery is done in two modes of operation i.e. trickle and boost for both cloudy and sunny day. Table (2)

presents the SOC of the battery depicting the voltage and charging current.

Table (2) Development of charges in battery connected to 10W PV panel

Time

Battery voltage (volt) / current

Cloudy day

Sunny day

6:30 am

4.57V/0.04A

3.98V/0.06A

7:00 am

5.80 / 0.06

5.00 / 0.07

8:00 am

5.80 / 0.12

5.50 / 0.09

9:00 am

5.90 / 0.14

5.60 / 0.12

10:00 am

5.95 / 0.24

5.70 / 0.13

11:00 am

6.00 / 0.22

5.75 /0.20

12:00 Noon

6.50 / 0.20

5.80  /0.23

1:00 pm

6.10 / 0.17

6.10 / 0.30

2:00 pm

6.20 / 0.16

6.20/ 0.20

3:00 pm

6.20 / 0.15

6.30/ 0.10

4:00 pm

6.25 / 0.04

6.30 / 0.09

5:00 pm

6.30 / 0.01

6.30 / 0.03

(C) The output power in terms of illumination was measured in Lux at different distances from the solar lantern and observations as recorded is given in Table (3.)

Table (3) Illumination Data of Solar Lamps

Distance (cm)

Voltages (Volt )

7.0

4.5

1.5

30

350

240

80

61

100

80

19

91

50

43

10

122

45

30

8

152

40

22

7

183

30

18

6

213

20

12

5

274

11

11

5

305

8

8

5

335

6

6

5

Utilization of Solar Lamps and Socio- Economic Impact Study

A study was carried out to analyze the benefit of use of solar lantern in different  remote village houses  of East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand State ( India) [ 4 ] .The Database was  obtained with the interview of approximately 1000 villagers in different  villages of the District under study, where such Lightening system were implemented, through a pre-structure questionnaire  to record data and analyze the impact of solar Lamps on their socio economic development  and  the findings were concludes as presented in Table (6)

Table (6) Impact of Solar Lamps in the society of village

Parameters

Benefits

(% Increase)

Employment Generation

50%

Educational Status

30%

Economic Status

40%

Communication

10%

Health Awareness

30%

Clinic

5%

Animal Population

20%

Rural Cottage Industries

50%

The study reveals that the use of solar Lamp can give further  benefit to villagers in many ways such as their  children can do school work till late in the evening . Barbers   can open their shops till late night.

Basket weavers can devote more time under solar light during evening hours and can increase their productivity.

A Basket  weavers in a Solar Rural House of Bodam Village In Patamda Block of East Singhbhoom District of Jharkhand State (India)

Villagers can prepare their food under solar light during night hour. Aganbari centers can be run under solar light to conduct Distance Education OBC Literacy classes of National Open School (Government  of India)  for school drop-outs children or vocational linked Literacy classes for  neo literate adult persons. Training programme of need oriented vocational courses can be arranged by Jan Shikhan Sansthan (Sponsored organization of Government of India)  for potential youths specially for Tribal villagers and other weaker section of society for self employment or wage employment.

The author is  distributing the certificate on successful completion of a training  programme on basket weaving  to tribal villagers in Patamda Block of East Singhbhoom District of Jharkhand State  .

People can walk from one place to another place during night hours also. Tele-communication (WLL) services can be started in solar light powered community centers. Tailor shop can be opened during night hours.

A solar powered Lamp in a Tailor Shop in Koladoba Village in Ghatsila Block of East Singhbhoom District  of Jharkhad State (India)

Self employment can be generated in villages and thus potential youths can supplement their family  income.

A village potential youth running a cycle repair shop under solar powered lightening house in  Patamada Block of the District East Sighbhoom of Jharkhand State

The death rate can be reduced which are caused by snake bites due to darkness during evening hours .Village Health centers can be made operative during evening hours  by Government Doctors   People can be educated on general education through awareness programme  in solar light powered Panchayat Bhawan of villages by NGOs. Goatary, ,Piggery and Poultry Farms can be powered with solar lights  Small scale farmers producing cottage industry products (like agarbati , Jam and Jelly , Papad etc) can substantiate their family income. Thus more and more employment can be generated for potential youths in rural villages and migration of these  potential youths from  villages can be stopped.

The government of India and state Government  agency are taking initiative and  are providing the solar lamps at subsidised rate to the villagers through Block offices of every  district /

DRDA of Jharkhand state and many other states of our country .

Solar lamps are gaining popularity in remote villages due to its portability and light in weight. It produces pollution free clean   light source energy as compared to conventional lamps, hurricane and candles.

In this paper the design, construction and performance characteristic of different types of lamps have been presented and comparison of cost on yearly basis between all type of lamps have been done It is clearly observed that solar lantern is much cheaper than other lamps, hurricane and candles. More ever it produces more illumination without any operational hazard

The study reveals that use of intelligent solar lamps as proposed for lightening system have resulted in a significant impact on the lives of rural population allowing them to replace their poor quality kerosene lamps producing toxic gasses with more efficient safer and pollution free solar lamps

1. M. Alam et al Solar Power Lantern, B.Sc Engg Thesis 199 B HUET, Dhake


2. J.E Kanman et al IES Lightening handbook. Reference volume 1981 Illuminating engineering society of North America


3. Q Ah San “Solar Power Lantern for Flood Affected Area” IEEE 2000 page 487 – 492.

1. www.jharkhand.nic.in