Wiring Material

This schema optimises the circulation of heated water from solar hot water panels to a storage cylinder. It achieves this by controlling a 12V DC pump, which is switched on at a preset temperature differential of 8°C and off at about 4°C. This method of control has distinct advantages over some systems that run the pump until the differential approaches 0°C. In such systems, the pump typically runs whenever the sun shines. A small 10W solar panel charging a 12V SLA battery is sufficient to run the controller. Most commercial designs use 230VAC pumps, which of course don’t work when there is a power outage or there is no AC power at the site.

 

Temperature sensors TS1 & TS2 are positioned to measure the highest and lowest water temperatures, with one at the panel outlet and the other at the base of the storage cylinder. The difference between the sensor outputs is amplified by op amp IC1d, which is configured for a voltage gain of about 47. As the sensors produce 10mV/°C, a difference of 8°C will produce about 3.76V at the op amp’s output (pin 14). The output from IC1d is fed into the non-inverting input (pin 10) of a second op amp stage (IC1c), which is wired as a voltage comparator. The op amp’s inverting input (pin 9) is tied to a reference voltage, which can be varied by trimpot VR3. When the voltage from IC1d exceeds the reference voltage, the output of the comparator (pin 8) swings towards the positive rail.

A 10MW resistor feeds a small portion of the output signal back to the non-inverting input, adding some hysteresis to the schema to ensure positive switching action. A third op amp stage (IC1b) acts as a unity-gain buffer. When the comparator’s output goes high, the buffer stage switches the Mosfet (Q1) on, which in turn energises the pump motor. Mosfet Q1’s low drain-source on-state resistance means that in most cases, it won’t need to be mounted on a heatsink. The prototype uses a Davies Craig EBP 12V magnetic drive pump, which draws about 1A when running and is suitable for low-pressure hot water systems only (don’t use it for mains-pressure systems as it may burst!). For mains-pressure systems, the author suggests the SID 10 range of brass-body magnetic drive pumps from Ivan Labs USA.

Each LM335 temperature sensor and its associated trimpot is glued to a small copper strip using high-temperature epoxy. It is then waterproofed with silicon sealant and encapsulated in heatshrink tubing. Standard twin-core shielded microphone cable can be used for the connection to the schema board. Before sealing the two units, adjust their trimpots to get 2.98V at 25°C [(ambient temperature x .01) + 2.73V] between the "+" and "-" terminals. When both have been adjusted, clamp them together and allow their temperatures to stabilise for a few minutes. Next, measure the output voltage from the differential amplifier (IC1d), which should be close to 0V. If not, tweak one of the pots until it is.

Separate the two and warm the panel sensor (TS1), monitoring the output of IC1d. You should see a marked increase in voltage, remembering that an 8°C difference between the sensors should give an output of about 3.76V. The pump switch-on point is set by VR3 and can be adjusted over a practical range of about 4-10°C differential (1.88-4.70V). Adjust VR3 to get about 3.8V on pin 9 of IC1c as a starting point. If set too low and the panels are located far from the cylinder, much of the heat will be lost in the copper connecting pipes. On the other hand, if set too high and the weather is mostly cloudy, then the pump will not switch on very often, as the panels will not get hot enough. For best results, use copper pipes for the panel plumbing and insulate them with tubes of closed-cell foam.

As the pipes cool down between pump operations, small diameter pipes of 15mm are more efficient than larger sizes as they contain less static water. In practice, the pump in the author’s setup switches on for about 30 seconds every 4-5 minutes. As the Davies pump shifts 13 litres/minute, it displaces the heated water from a single panel in about 14 seconds. There is a thermal lag in the sensor readings, so after the pump stops, the temperature difference will keep decreasing for 40 seconds or so as the panel sensor cools down and the cylinder sensor heats up.

Source by : Streampowers

This is a Simple Panel Frequency Meter Circuit Diagram to measure the frequency of 230V AC mains. When you connect it to the 230V AC line, the display shows the line frequency. Generally, the line frequency is 50 Hz, which may vary from 48 Hz to 52 Hz. Beyond this frequency range, sensitive equipment may start malfunctioning.

The AC mains supply is stepped down by transformer X1 to deliver a secondary output of 9V-0-9V AC, 250 mA. The secondary output of the transformer is rectified by diodes D1 and D2, filtered by capacitor C1 and given to regulator IC1 to produce regulated 6V DC. 9V AC is also connected to pins 2 and 6 of IC2 via resistor R1. Timer IC2 converts the sinewave frequency sample of AC mains into a square wave that is more suitable for the schema operation.

Simple Panel Frequency Meter Circuit Diagram

IC CD4093 (IC3) is used as an oscillator-cum-divider. The oscillator, wired around gate N1, produces 10Hz clock. Decade counter IC4 divides 10Hz clock by 10 to produce 1Hz clock. The output of gate N1 is fed back to its inputs via potentiometer VR1 and resistor R4. Capacitor C2 connected between the inputs of gate N1 and ground charges/discharges depending on the logic level at the output of gate N1. The values of VR1, R4 and C2 are selected to produce accurate 10Hz clock.

Decade counter IC CD4017 (IC4) divides the output of IC3 by 10 to provide one pulse per second. LED1 connected to pin 12 of IC4 gives one flash per second to indicate that the oscillator and the counter are working properly.

This 1Hz clock is fed to clock pin 14 of decade counter IC CD4017 (IC5), whose Q0 output is given to pin 2 and the square wave produced by IC2 is given to pin 1 of AND gate N1. Therefore, the unknown frequency of AC mains line, applied to pin 1 of AND gate N1, passes through it for only one second and the number of clocks per second are counted by IC7 and IC8.

Decade counters/7-segment decoders IC7 and IC8 are cascaded to drive common-cathode, 7-segment displays DIS1 and DIS2 (each LTS543). DIS1 shows units place of the frequency and DIS2 shows tens place. The top and bottom views of LTS543 common-cathode, 7-segment displays are shown in Fig. 2.

This is an auto-reset schema. You can select the reset time of 1 second through 5 seconds using rotary switch S2, which is connected to reset pins of IC5, IC7 and IC8. For long-time display of the frequency, keep the knob of rotary switch S2 towards fifth position. Keeping rotary switch S2 to first position (minimum reset time) allows you to instantly see any variation in the supply frequency on the display. Also, while adjusting the generator frequency to mains frequency, keep rotary switch S2 towards first position.