Join the WhatsApp group here.

The problem

Nowadays, installing solar photovoltaic panels on big city buildings is limited to the roof area of the building. This means little power generation capabilities for energy savings when considering each individual apartment.

The idea

The idea of this "Smart Home Solar Power Management" Project is to develop simple components and accessories that enable easy, "for dummies" kind of installation of solar photovoltaic cells. For that to happen is required installation of additional wiring in the apartment electrical network. Staring with a 5V DC wire, suitable for most small home appliances such as vacuum cleaners, smartphones, tablets, and any other smart device or technology. And another with 12V DC suited for computers, gaming consoles, and OLED TV displays.

Energy storage methodology follows a decentralized architecture of installation, where each individual room or compartment has its own "independent" battery storage up to 40.000mAh. All connected to any Smart Home device I made available on my Github.

The solar panels can be assembled in a Lego-style kind of way. Due to the reduced photovoltaic solar cells, can be assembled into any shape or area. For instance glass door windows and doors. For instance in a terrasse or a terrasse exterior wall regardless of floor area shape..

Assembly and Installation of two solar panels in a window

On the previous iteration i began assembling the solar cells and soldering them into the support hardware. This make the solar cell much more resistant to handing when moving them and installing on a window.

Comparison of window area occupied by the solar cell installation. To the left without solar cells

I installed a total of 40 solar cells connected together in series of 10. The total output for this window alone is 6.2V and 5,200mA. This is still a provisory installation before the final. Is now only missing a piece of wood, equal to the existing on the window frame and cut to size and match the solar panel dimensions.

Close up detail of the solar cell installation at the bottom of the window

To connect the solar panels to the "power bank" I used a transparent copper wire found on most stereo and audio systems and with enough gauge to handle peak electricity production and output,

Solar Power Management

On every row of solar panels on the window above is installed at hinge side a solar panel power management PCB with the main and only functionality of stabilizing power output o a constant 5V DC . This hardware electronics is connected directly to the solar panel assembly. The electrical wiring connects to it for distribution and energy storage at a nearby "power wall". This is the 1st revision of the hardware and can be found on this Github repository.

Solar Power Management hardware Module

This PCB is for assembly with 79x38mm solar cells. It features up to 6x independent solar cell power lines, with a minimum efficiency of 92>#/b### and up to 97.1 >#/b###, that can be configured on a dip switch for 3 different DC outputs:

• 5V
• 9V
• and 12V

for a maximum of 9A. On the photo below one can see a close up of the Solar Power Management hardware Module already connected to the solar cells on a window.