Renewable energy project experience: generating one’s own electricity at home. Since a wind turbine was impossible in an apartment, the switch was made to solar energy, which has no vibration or noise drawbacks. After the initial 5w panel test, an investment was made in an 80w panel and a 38-amp battery system was installed. The pleasure of switching to off-grid lighting using mushroom LED lamps in the living room, where the most energy is consumed, is recounted.
💡 Home Renewable Energy Adventure: Starting with a Solar Panel
Renewable energy has occupied a big part of our lives for a year now. In our country, where the importance of energy is felt even more, we were planning to generate our own energy and use it, at least in our home.
Searching for Alternatives: From Wind to Solar
Initially, I thought about generating energy with wind turbines and storing it in batteries for use. However, doing this while living in an apartment (due to disadvantages like vibration, noise, mounting on a high pole, security, and consistency) was almost impossible, and we were unsuccessful in this area. The second alternative, solar energy, seemed more suitable for us as it did not have the drawbacks of wind turbines.
System Installation and First Steps
- First Test: First, I bought a small panel (5w) and took the first step by sending the energy produced from this panel to my 7-amp battery without any control device.
- Big Step: I decided to think bigger. An 80w solar panel was purchased from Elektropazar in Menevşe Han.
- Control Device: A 10-amp Steca brand charge controller was purchased to properly transfer the energy coming from the panel to the batteries.
- Storage: We connected the system to a total of 38 amps of batteries that I had extracted from various different devices. Thus, we had started generating energy from the sun.
Off-Grid Lighting
Next was using this generated energy. Since changing the wires in an existing home is difficult, we decided to make the transition slowly. We started by making the switch in the living room, where we use the most energy.
- White and daylight-colored mushroom LEDs purchased from Karaköy were used. (With a setup of 3 LEDs and a 200 ohm resistor in a row).
- Approximately 200 LEDs were used in the lamp we made.
And now, we have a lamp in our living room that never turns off and is dependent on nowhere. Knowing that you are not paying for this energy, not polluting nature, and reducing your contribution to your country’s current account deficit is the greatest pleasure.