This project report describes the design and development of a solar air cooler and heater system with auto-tracking. The system utilizes solar energy through photovoltaic panels to power a battery, which runs motors that operate blowers for air cooling and heating. It also includes a water pump. An auto-tracking mechanism uses an LDR light sensor and control circuit to activate a motor that adjusts the panel positioning to follow the sun for maximum energy collection. The report provides details on the components, working principles, advantages, and references.

1. A PROJECT REPORT
ON
SOLAR AIR COOLER AND HEATER WITH
AUTOTRACKING

2. CONTENTS
▪ PROJECT OBJECTIVE
▪ UTILISATION OF SOLAR POWER
▪ PHOTOVOLTAIC METHOD
▪ COMPONENTS AND DESCRIPTION
▪ WORKING PRINCIPLE
▪ AUTOTRACKING MECHANISM
▪ CONCLUSION
▪ SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT
▪ REFERENCE

3. Our objective is to design and develop a solar system normally
“SOLAR AIR COOLER & HEATER WITH AUTO
TRACKING”.
Solar electricity is the technology of converting sunlight directly in
to electricity. It is based on photo-voltaic or solar modules, which
are very reliable and do not require any fuel or servicing. Solar
electric systems are suitable for plenty of sun and are ideal when
there is no main electricity.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE

4. UTILISATION OF SOLAR ENERGY
▪ Solar energy can be utilized
directly either by photo-voltaic
method or thermal method.
▪ Energy conversion devices, which
are used to convert sunlight to
electricity by use of the photo-
voltaic effect, are called solar cells
or photo-voltaic cells.
DIRECT METHOD OF UTILIZATION OF SOLAR ENERGY:

5. PHOTO-VOLTAIC EFFECT
▪ The photo-voltaic effect is the creation of voltage or electric
current in a material upon exposure to light.
 When the sunlight or any other light is incident upon a material
surface(conductors or semiconductors), the electrons present in
the valence band absorb energy and, being excited, jump to the
conduction band and become free. These highly excited, non-
thermal electrons diffuse, and some reach a junction where they
are accelerated into a different material. This generates
an electromotive force, and thus some of the light energy is
converted into electric energy.

6. COMPONENTS & DESCRIPTION
The physical setup of this project consists of following components.
• Solar Panel
• Battery(12 Volt DC)
• Blower(DC motor coupled with impeller)
• Water Pump

7. SOLAR PANEL
▪ A Solar panel consists of many
solar cells.
▪ Solar cell, also called photovoltaic
cell, any device that directly
converts the energy in light into
electrical energy through the
photovoltaic effect.A solar
cell(photo-voltaic cell) works on
the principle of photo-voltaic
principle, the photo-voltaic solar
energy conversion method is one of
the most attractive method of
utilization of solar power.

8. PHOTO-VOLTAIC CELL

9. A number of solar cells electrically connected to each other and mounted in a
support structure or frame is called a photovoltaic module. Multiple modules
can be wired together to form an array. In general, the larger the area of a
module or array, the more electricity that will be produced.

10. BATTERIES
Batteries are used for storage of solar energy. We use lead acid battery for
storing the electrical energy from the solar panel. To be economically attractive
the storage of solar electricity requires a battery with a particular combination
of properties:
▪ Low cost
▪ Long life
▪ High reliability
▪ High overall efficiency
▪ Low discharge
▪ Minimum maintenance

11. BLOWER
▪ The fan (impeller) rotates inside the shell. The shell is so designed that
the air is rushed out forcibly. The blower consists of two main parts.
They are
▪ D.C motor
▪ Blades(fan)
▪ The D.C motor is directly coupled with Impeller blades. The water
pump is used to circulate the water to the blower. The cool air is rushed
out forcibly. The battery is connected to the D.C motor, so that D.C
motor runs directly. The switch is connected to disconnect the water
pumping system when the time of water heater ON. The water heater
has drawn the power from the single phase power supply.

12. The working principle tells that, when a current carrying conductor is
placed in a magnetic field, a force is produced to move the conductor
away from the magnetic field. The force given by the equation,
F=B I L Newton
Where,
B = Flux density in WB/sq.m
I = Current through the conductor
L = Length of the conductor

13. Dc motor connected to two blowers

14. NEED OF AUTOTRACKING
▪ To increase the efficiency of the system.
▪ To increase the power production in the solar panel by adding auto
tracking mechanism.
WORKING PRINCIPLE
▪ Light Depending Resister (LDR) is used as a light sensor. The LDR
output is given to the control circuit. The control circuit is used to
activate/deactivate the relay circuit depends upon the input signal (i.e.
output of LDR) of control circuit. Whenever the sun position changed,
the control circuit is activated to the relay circuit.
AUTO TRACKING

16. The Relay output is connected to the Permanent Magnet D.C. Motor
(PMDC). The relay is activated, the Permanent Magnet D.C (P.M.D.C)
motor starts running. The P.M.D.C motor coupled with chain drive to the
solar panel. So the panel was tilting some angle depends upon the motor
activating time.
The solar panel was tilted according to the sun movement. So this
mechanism is called “AUTO TRACKING MECHANISM”.

17. WORKING PRINCIPLE
▪ The solar panel converts sun rays to the Electricity by “Photo-Voltaic
Effect”. This electrical power is stored in a 12-Volt battery. Battery D.C
power is used to run the D.C motor and D.C water pump.
▪ The D.C motor is coupled with impeller blades. The D.C motor runs
during the air cooler button ON, the impeller blades starts rotating. The
water pump is used to circulate the water to the blower unit.
▪ The forced air is then flow through the water which is sprayed by water
pump, so that the cold air produced. The switch control is used to
ON/OFF solar air cooler circuit and heater circuit.

18. CONSTRUCTION

19. ADVANTAGES
 Simple in construction
 This system is noiseless in operation
 It uses non-conventional source of energy
 Power is stored in a battery
 Maintenance cost is low
 Heating and cooling operation are possible in a single system.
DISADVANTAGES
 It is not portable, so it can not be transferred easily from one place to other place
 Initial cost is high
 Solar panel saves the energy during day time only
 Low efficiency

20. REFERENCES
 Wikipedia
 Chemistry of Engineering materials by P.C. Jain.