Field Trials and Performance Monitoring of Distributed Solar Panels Using a Low-Cost Wireless Sensors Network for Domestic Applications

Use of solar panels is gaining an ever increasing foothold in society, especially on the roof of the houses for feeding domestic electrical appliances in recent times. In many situations, the expensive solar panels stop working due to some external nuisances which goes unnoticed to the users. There is a need of a low-cost monitoring system to get information of the defected solar panels for timely repair and maintenance. The design, development, and trial work of a performance monitoring system of distributed solar panels along with automated data logging based on a low-cost wireless sensors network has been reported to help the current situation. The developed system can be used up to 146 V and 15.5 A solar cell systems with automatic selection of best resolutions. The system can be extended for wide range of solar cells for material research and development activities. The fabricated system has been used for field trials and very satisfactory results are obtained.