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Design and Development of Micro Off-grid Inverter for Solar Photovoltaic

System using Proteus Simulation

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 Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research
Vol. 81, May 2022, pp. 530-539

Design and Development of Micro Off-grid Inverter for Solar Photovoltaic

System using Proteus Simulation
Sonu Kumar1,2, C Sethuraman1,3* and Chandru G4
1
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad 201 002, Uttar Pradesh, India
2
CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India
3
CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), CSIR Madras Complex, Chennai 600 113, Tamil Nadu, India
4
SRM Easwari Engineering College, Ramapuram, Chennai 600 089, Tamil Nadu, India

Received 12 May 2021; revised 01 April 2022; accepted 06 April 2022

Solar photovoltaic panel generates DC power. It needs to be converted to AC power since most electrical appliances used
in our day to day life runs on AC power supply. The conversion of DC to AC power happens using an inverter comprising
of multiple electronic components, which generates harmonics in the AC power systems. The present investigation is
focused to design a micro off-grid solar inverter with a minimal number of components using Proteus design suite
simulation to generate quality power at an optimum cost. The designed solar inverter circuit mainly consists of resistors,
capacitors, voltage regulators, CD 4047 IC, OP07 IC, R-C Circuit, MOSFETs and step-up transformer. The output of CD
4047 IC was given to the R-C three stage circuits for conversion from square to sinusoidal wave through amplifiers OP07 to
boost the waveform voltage from 3.5 V to 7.0 V. The amplified sinusoidal waveform signal was applied to the gate of
MOSFET combinations. Each set consists of two MOSFETs connected in parallel to produce voltage with 180° out of phase
waveforms at MOSFET drain terminal and then supplied to center tapped step-up-transformer to produce constant 230 V
AC output voltage at 50 Hz. The voltage regulation was achieved with the help of a DC-DC Boost Converter which makes
the system capable of giving reliable power at 230 V even for varying solar irradiation from 145 W/m2 and above.
Frequency regulation was achieved by varying the values of R and C across pins 1, 2 and 3 of CD 4047 IC. The maximum
efficiency of the developed micro off-grid solar inverter’s hardware circuit was found to be 93.49% based on experimental
measurements and 95.72% based on the simulation studies.

Keywords: Astable multi-vibrator, Micro off-grid inverter, MOSFET, Proteus simulation, Solar energy

Introduction the load is the deployment of renewable energy

Solar energy is abundantly available in India which supplies.7,8 In a solar photovoltaic system, the sun is
can be considered as a best source of clean energy for the source of energy and the intensity of solar
fulfilling the ever-increasing energy demand. The irradiance will vary with respect to time and so the
weather condition of India is about 300 days of bright voltage produced by the panel also changes. There is
sunny sky which allows for extensive solar power a requirement for designing the solar inverter mainly
generation.1 Over the previous decade, the solar sector to meet the loads in such a way that it produces highly
has flourished and this trend is expected to continue in constant output voltage even under the varying
the forthcoming years.2 Over the last ten years, global intensity of irradiation.
annual solar photovoltaic (PV) installed power India receives over 5000 trillion kWh of solar
generation capacity has increased at a rate of 57% on energy each year, greatly exceeding its total annual
average.3,4 The amount of solar energy received in a consumption of about 1200 TWh.9 The daily global
single day is more than ten times the total annual solar radiation in most parts of India is approximately
energy consumption of everyone on earth.5 With the 5 kWh/m2/day, with sunshine varying between 2300
demand for energy becoming intensively increasing, and 3200 hours per year.10 India because of its
the photovoltaic industry has developed rapidly.6 The location between the tropic of cancer and the equator
biggest difficulty in delivering uninterrupted power to has solar power potential of around 7,50,000 MW.
India has set a target of achieving 450 GW renewable
——————
*Author for Correspondence energy based power plants capacity by the year 2030.
E-mail: [email protected] As of 28 February 2022, India had a total installed
 KUMAR et al.: MICRO OFF-GRID INVERTER FOR SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 531

power plant capacity of 395.60 GW, with renewable for running critical and sophisticated AC appliances.
power plants accounting for 106.37 GW (26.88%), There are two main challenges in designing an
including 50.77 GW from solar PV-based plants.11 inverter, one is getting higher efficiency with quality
Considering the government’s support for clean power and another is making low-cost inverter15 than
energy technology and the tremendous increase in the the present commercial inverters available in the
solar PV system based energy users in the country, market at the cost of 6–12 ₹/VA.16 In order to
there is a requirement for developing suitable solar overcome these challenges, one has to use the
inverters which can support in fulfilling the energy simulation tools effectively. Mainly Proteus and
requirements of every household in the country. Multisim software are used for simulating inverter
An inverter is a power electronic device12 that circuits. The present investigation is carried out in
converts DC power to AC power. Generally, normal Proteus software because of its simplicity and reliable
inverters take input power from a battery connected to simulation results. By using proteus simulation tool,
the voltage regulator to supply a constant DC voltage an attempt was made in this present investigation to
as input voltage to the inverter. A block diagram of design and develop a cost-effective energy efficient
the solar photovoltaic system is given in Fig. 1, in micro off-grid inverter for the solar PV system.
which it can be seen that the inverter takes input from
the battery and gives output to the load. Since the Literature Survey on Solar Inverters
constant input voltage is maintained there won’t be The development of inverters started in the late 19th
any effect on the inverter’s output voltage. Unless and century. Back in the year 1956, solar systems had
until the voltage of the DC battery starts deteriorating only 6% efficiency and solar inverters were not in
and input voltage falls below the threshold level, there practice. Residential solar inverters were first
won’t be any effect on output AC voltage. introduced in the year 2000 once scientists at Sandia
Inverter acts as a bridge between a solar panel and laboratories in New Mexico developed the modern
the load since most of the load runs on AC power and inverter. With advances in solar panel technology and
it is very much important that all the components in more efficient solar inverters, the average solar PV
the circuit are properly designed in such a way that it system now has an efficiency of 14 to 18% and costs
should not create any problems in terms of as little as $3/W.17 Currently a variety of solar
impedance, voltage and current level mismatch which inverters are available in the market, however they
may cause inverter failure or fire accidents. Many have their own limitations and challenges.
loads or processes not only require continuous power Classifications of solar inverters are discussed in the
supply but also quality power which can’t be expected below sections.
from grid power obtained from the electricity board.
During power cut, DC power produced by the solar Classification of Inverters
PV system and stored in a battery can act as a source The inverters are mainly classified into three
of power to run the AC appliances. For this, the categories 1) battery backup inverters18, 2) grid-tied
inverter is a highly necessary device to convert the inverters and 3) stand-alone inverters. Battery backup
DC power stored in the battery to AC power. inverters consume energy from the battery and the
Considering the SPV system as an alternate source to charge of the battery is managed by the onboard
run the appliances, the AC power produced by the charge controller and it19 exports excess energy to the
inverter must be of good quality sinusoidal waveform utility grid.20 These inverters produce AC power and
with required voltage levels. Because the regulated supply it to the utility loads during power outages.
square wave is harmful to appliances, pure sine wave Grid-tied inverters have the same phase as the utility-
inverters are employed to produce a pure sine wave at supply sinusoidal wave. Grid-tied inverters will
the load's output.13,14 automatically shut down for safety reasons when there
The solar inverter should have all the qualities is no utility supply. It doesn’t provide backup power
mentioned above to supply reliable and quality power during utility outages.21 Solar grid-tied inverters are
classified into three types based on the highest
amount of power fed into the grid. Micro, string and
central inverters are the three types of inverters.22–26
Stand-alone inverting devices are also called off-grid
Fig. 1 — Block diagram of solar photovoltaic system inverters which take DC input from a battery charged
532 J SCI IND RES VOL 81 MAY 2022

from solar panels and supply AC power to the local Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), Bipolar
loads. Further, the off-grid inverters are classified junction transistors (BJT), Gate turn-off thyristors
based on output characteristics, input characteristics, (GTO) are normally used as switching devices in the
switching devices and the voltage level of output inverters.
which are described in the below sections. MOSFETs are solid-state2 electronic devices that
can function as a switch, amplifier or buffer
Off-Grid Inverters Inter-Classification depending on their operating region (linear, saturation
Based on Output Waveform Characteristics and cut-off). When a MOSFET operates in the
There are two waveforms produced by inverters viz saturation and cut-off region, it is completely OFF or
square wave and sinusoidal wave. Square waveform ON i.e. switch operation. These characteristics of
inverter is one type of inverter which produces a MOSFET make it suitable to be used in different
square wave as an output voltage waveform. These inverter circuits.
circuits are generally less complex since square wave Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) are
generation is simple and can be generated with even mainly used in inverters where the demand for
one integrated circuit or with some basic circuits. switching is not fulfilled by MOSFETs. The
Square wave inverters can serve non-critical loads. integrated device configuration's gate drive signal is
Modified sinusoidal wave inverter is another type of given to the power MOSFET structure, allowing for
inverter that produces a modified sine waveform as an small, low-cost gate drive circuits that enable high
output waveform. These inverters are also not input impedance in voltage-controlled operations.27
preferred for supplying power to sensitive equipment. Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs) were the first
Generally, PWM techniques are used for producing power electronic component to be used for power
modified sine waves. switching devices and applications. It comes in two
Pure sinusoidal wave inverter is an inverter whose versions NPN and PNP, with only NPN being
output voltage waveform is purely sinusoidal. This frequently utilized in drive inverters, primarily for
type of inverter can be used to supply power to any applications up to a few KW.28 To switch ON the
type of load including critical loads and highly device, a low-value current must be made to flow
sophisticated equipment and these inverters are of a from base to emitter and this is caused by the input
higher cost compared to other inverters. voltage. When the current flowing from base to
Based on Input Voltage emitter is zero, the device is switched off.25
Micro solar inverter can be operated supplying Gate Turn-off thyristors (GTOs) are turned ON by
input voltage either at 12 V or 24 V. Since the a gate pulse current as same as that of a thyristor. A
inverter takes input power from the battery, it is very normal thyristor couldn't be turned off by gate action,
much dependent on battery voltage. Supply of 12 V but a negative gate-cathode current can turn GTOs
DC can be converted to a 230 V AC voltage. In this off.28 The GTO is employed in high-power inverters
type of inverter, the circuit is designed in such a way because it has far higher voltage and current ratings
that 12 V is sufficient for the circuit to operate and the (up to 3 kV and 2 kA) than BJT, MOSFET and IGBT.29
inversion process to take place as well as boost the Based on Output Level
voltage to 230 V. This type of inverter is generally of Off-grid inverters can have either two-level or
lesser cost. multi-level output. Regular two-level inverters are
In 24 V battery system, the solar inverter takes inverters whose output waveform is of two-level, one
24 V DC as input voltage and gives 230 AC as output. is high and another one is low. Two-level inverters
In this system, the voltage may be regulated down to require only a few switches for the inversion process,
18 V or 12 V to operate the ICs and other components whereas multi-level inverter needs many switches
present in the inverter circuit. Generally 24 V solar depending upon the level of output to be produced.
inverters are more preferred than the 12 V, as they are Multi-level inverters are designed to give high
relatively more efficient. output power from the medium voltage source. Sources
Based on Switches like super capacitors, solar panels and batteries are
Inverters operation is based on the functional medium voltage sources.30 As the name states, the
properties of ON/OFF switching devices. Metal oxide multi-level inverter requires an important switching
semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), arrangement for producing multi-level output.30
 KUMAR et al.: MICRO OFF-GRID INVERTER FOR SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 533

Based on the literature survey, we observed that served as input to this integrated circuit. The output
various types of inverters are reported in the literature available at CD4047, 10 and 11th pins is square waves
as well as available in the market, however, they have with 180° phase differences.
their own limitations and challenges due to power
OP07 Operational Amplifier
electronics circuits, varying solar input and changing
In this circuit the operational amplifier is employed
load patterns. Hence, there is a need to develop a
to amplify the output from IC CD4047. The formula
micro off-grid inverter for solar photovoltaic systems
for calculating the gain of the operational amplifier is
with optimum cost to produce constant AC voltage
given by Eq. (2).
output even under varying solar irradiances and also
to obtain stable performance even under maximum 𝐺𝑎𝑖𝑛 1 ... (2)
load conditions.
In the current study, the operational amplifier with
Material and Methods R2 and R1 of 1 kΩ was chosen based on simulation
results. As a result, the gain of the op-amp used in this
Parts of Micro Off-Grid Solar Inverter
investigation is 2.
IC7812 Voltage Regulator
This integrated circuit produces 12 V constant DC RC Three Stage Wave Conversion Circuit
voltage. The minimum input voltage for which the To produce a sinusoidal wave as an output, each
output of 12 V is produced is 14.5 V. If the input to this RC conversion circuit consists of three resistors and
voltage regulator falls below 14.5 V, then there will be capacitors of proper values. The amplified square
a decrease in the output voltage level. In the present wave is converted into a sinusoidal wave by two sets
investigation, 24 V battery system was used, which is of three-stage RC conversion circuits, which supply
sufficient to provide greater than 14.5 V to the voltage the proper wave to the gate of MOSFETs.
regulator unless the battery gets deep discharged. MOSFET Combinations
IC CD4047 Astable Multi-vibrator MOSFETs are used in power electronics circuits
The pin diagram for IC CD 4047 is shown in for switching applications. But due to continuous
Fig. 2. This integrated circuit can be considered as the operation or high current, MOSFET may get heated
heart of the inverter since it is responsible for the and become unstable to perform switching operations.
production of a square wave of suitable frequency. To avoid this, multiple MOSFETs can be connected
The CD4047's 1, 2, and 3 pins are used to connect R in parallel along with the heat sink. In this present
and C. The frequency of the square wave, which is study, the IRFZ44N N-channel MOSFET with high
output from pins 10 and 11, is controlled by this R drain current and low resistance value 17.5 mΩ was
and C. The formula for calculating frequency is given used with two parallel combinations of two-two
in Eq. (1) MOSFETs as obtained from the simulation studies.
𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑓 ... (1) Step-Up Transformer
. Input center-tapped step-up transformer is used in
By adjusting the values of R and C, a suitable this circuit as described in the simulation studies. The
frequency can be achieved. The output of IC7812 is center tap is connected to a 24 V DC supply and it is
linked to the drain of the MOSFET. The specified
transformer has a 500 VA rating.
Pictorial View of Major Components
The pictorial view of major components used in the
proposed solar inverter is given in Fig. 3. It contains
IC 7812 voltage regulator, IC CD4047 astable
multi-vibrator, OP07 operational amplifier, IRFZ44N
MOSFET and 24 V - 0 - 24 V step-up transformer.
Proteus Design Suite Software Simulation
The present investigation is carried out in Proteus
design suite simulation software because of its
Fig. 2 — IC CD 4047 pinout diagram simplicity and reliable simulation results. The Proteus
534 J SCI IND RES VOL 81 MAY 2022

design suite is a simulation software tool used for simulation of the user's design as well as PCB layout
simulating various electronic designs like PCB, design. It is one of the best software available for
schematics. The first version of this Proteus Design design engineers and engineering works departments
Suite was developed by John Jameson in 1988. In to manufacture printed circuit boards and it has also
recent years, this suite is integrated with many been used by researchers and engineering students to
features namely SPICE simulation, microcontroller design and analyse circuits and develop products.
simulation, shape-based auto-routing, 3D board The entire circuit of the micro solar inverter
visualization, MCAD import and export and high- was designed in the Proteus Design Suite, as shown in
speed design. Schematic capture is used for Fig. 4. The input DC supply was given from a 24 V
battery system. The DC 24 V was then passed through
an IC7812 voltage regulator which is used to serve
input voltage to the CD4047 as table multi-vibrator.
This regulator was used to get a constant 12 V for
providing power to CD 4047.
This 12 V DC voltage was applied to the CD4047's
pins 4, 5, 6 and 14. The IC CD4047's pins 7, 8, 9, and
12 were all grounded. The output pins are the 10th and
11th pins which create square waves that are 180° out
of phase. The OP07 operational amplifier amplifies
these square waves even further.
Before amplification, the square wave's voltage
was 3.5 V and after amplification it became 7 V. A
Fig. 3 — Parts of micro off-grid solar inverter: (a) IC 7812,
three-stage RC conversion circuit was used to
(b) IC CD4047, (c) IC OP07, (d) IRFZ44N MOSFET and transform the amplified square wave to a sinusoidal
(e) Centre tapped step-up transformer wave. A sinusoidal wave was obtained at the end of

Fig. 4 — Design of micro off-grid solar inverter in proteus softwar

 KUMAR et al.: MICRO OFF-GRID INVERTER FOR SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 535

the three-stage RC circuit. This sinusoidal wave Voltage Regulation

was also applied to the IRFZ44N MOSFET The voltage regulation was done using DC-DC
configurations' gate terminal (combination 1: Q1, Q2 boost converter module as shown in Fig. 7, which
and combination 2: Q3, Q4). The MOSFET's drain boosts voltage from 10 – 32 V input to 24 V output.
terminal was connected to the 24 V - 0 - 24 V step-up This module consists of one fixed inductor, two
transformer's two terminals. 24 V battery was linked fixed capacitors and one potentiometer. The
to the transformer's center tapped terminal. A single- potentiometer employed in the circuit was varied in
phase load, an electrical bulb (230 V, 50 Hz) varying order to vary the output voltage of the DC-DCboost
power from 9.20 W to 152.25 W was connected to converter. STP80NF70 MOSFET was used since
verify the simulation work done by us and also to test drain voltage and drain current rating is high which is
the quality of output voltage sinusoidal waveform of 68 V and 98 A respectively. STPS2045C power
the designed solar micro off-grid inverter. It was Schottky diode integrated circuit was used which
observed that the bulb was glowing at 230 V, 50 Hz consists of two diodes connected in parallel and each
and obtained pure sinusoidal current and voltage can handle 10 A. UC3843 Current-mode PWM
waveforms. controllers were used for controlled regulation of
current along with a 1 Ω power resistor. Heat sinks
Hardware Development were provided for dissipating the heat away from
The hardware circuit was developed for the micro MOSFETs when high current passes through them.
off-grid solar inverter based on the simulations carried The DC-DC boost converter module was used after
out in proteus software. The developed solar inverter the battery in the solar inverter set-up to boost the
hardware circuit is shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that battery voltage and provide 24 V at the solar input
the inverter has a large size heat sink to avoid terminal as shown in Fig. 8. It gives always 24 V DC
temperature rise due to heat loss at MOSFET as input to the solar inverter, even if the battery
terminals. voltage decreases because of discharging or due to
Inverter supplying power to loads (bulbs) is shown
in below Fig. 6.

Fig. 7 — DC-DC Boost converter module

Fig. 5 — Developed hardware for micro off-grid solar inverter

Fig. 6 — Inverter supplying power to the load Fig. 8 — Voltage regulation of solar inverter
536 J SCI IND RES VOL 81 MAY 2022

very low solar irradiance. Moreover, during high solar The waveform of an RC three-stage conversion
irradiance buck converter which is used before the circuit is shown in Fig. 12. It is evident that a perfect
battery and after the solar panel takes care in sinusoidal waveform was obtained only at the end of
maintaining a fixed 24 V as battery charging voltage. the third stage which is more suitable for switching
The voltage at the battery terminal which is 22.9 V the IRFZ44N MOSFET combinations. This sinusoidal
is boosted to 24 V at the solar inverter’s input terminal
in order to produce precise 230 V under no load
condition as depicted in Fig. 8. Whenever the battery
voltage falls below 24 V, the boost converter module
will take care of voltage regulation and at the same
time the buck converter which has been used before the
battery through which the battery charge takes care of
maintaining 24 V at the battery terminals. In Fig. 9 it
can be seen that the inverter output voltage is almost
constant at 230 V, under a wide range of solar
irradiances from 145 W/m2 to 735 W/m2.
At solar radiation higher than 145 W/m2 since the Fig. 10 — Regulated sinusoidal output current waveform
charging voltage is controlled by a boost converter,
the excess current generated due to higher solar
radiation can bypass IC CD4047 and three-stage RC
circuit, it can (i.e. higher current) can go to the central
point of transformers and from its other two terminals
to MOSFET. The amplitude magnified quality pure
sinusoidal voltage waveform goes to connected
single-phase AC load.
Current Regulation
The inverter output current waveform should be
sinusoidal. In this developed micro off-grid inverter
for the SPV system, the current waveform follows the Fig. 11 — CD4047 Output and amplifier output square waveform
(Yellow: Output from 10th pin of CD4047, Blue: Output from 11th
voltage waveform which is sinusoidal. The inverter pin of CD4047, Pink: Amplified output of 11th pin & Green:
output AC current waveform is shown in Fig. 10. Amplified output of 10th pin)
Each cycle takes 20 ms, hence its frequency is 50 Hz.
Results and Discussion
The results obtained and the waveforms generated
from the proteus software simulations are discussed
below. CD4047 output and amplifier output square
waveform is shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 12 — (a) RC first stage output waveform, (b) RC second

Fig. 9 — Inverter Output under different solar irradiance stage output waveform and (c) RC third stage output waveform
 KUMAR et al.: MICRO OFF-GRID INVERTER FOR SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM 537

wave can be fed into the gate of a MOSFET to output wave form obtained from the transformer was
operate it and generate sinusoidal drain voltage. supplied to the AC load bulb.
The waveform of the drain voltage of MOSFET
Performance Testing of Developed Inverter
combinations are shown in Fig. 13. These two
The performance of the developed solar off-grid
MOSFET combinations drain voltage has been made
micro inverter hardware circuit was studied with
180° out of phase, so that to drive the center-tapped
twelve different AC loads varying from 9.20 W to
transformer.
152.25 W. The results of voltage, current and power
The output from the 24 V - 0 - 24 V step-up
values as well as efficiency calculation for the designed
transformer is 230 V AC, as shown in Fig. 12. This
solar inverter based on proteus simulation are given in
Table 1. The measured values of voltage, current,
power and efficiency are given in Table 2. From Table
1, it can be stated that for the designed solar inverter
the average efficiency is 85.17% (excluding no load
condition), and maximum efficiency is 95.72% based
on the simulation studies. From Table 2, it can be
stated that for the developed solar inverter circuit the
average efficiency is 82.79% (excluding no load
condition), and maximum efficiency is 93.49% based
on the experimental results.
Frequency Regulation
Fig. 13 — MOSFET output waveform and transformer secondary The inverter output can be varied by changing the
voltage (Yellow: Drain of MOSFET, Blue: Drain of another resistor and capacitor values, which are connected
MOSFET & Pink: Output of transformer) with pins 1, 2 and 3 of CD 4047 IC. The expression
Table 1 — Voltage, current and power measurement for the developed inverter connected with load based on simulation studies
Load Input side Output side Efficiency
Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) (%)
Load 1 23.67 0.41 9.71 232.00 0.00 0 0
Load 2 23.34 0.83 19.37 230.00 0.04 9.20 47.79
Load 3 23.13 1.50 34.69 228.00 0.11 25.08 72.29
Load 4 22.84 2.16 49.33 227.00 0.19 43.13 87.42
Load 5 22.57 2.52 56.88 225.00 0.22 49.50 87.03
Load 6 22.55 2.85 64.27 223.00 0.26 57.98 90.22
Load 7 22.26 3.52 78.36 220.00 0.32 70.40 89.85
Load 8 21.85 3.83 83.68 218.00 0.36 78.48 93.78
Load 9 21.70 4.43 96.13 214.00 0.43 92.02 95.72
Load 10 21.21 6.53 138.50 209.00 0.61 127.49 92.05
Load 11 20.86 7.31 152.49 206.00 0.67 138.02 90.51
Load 12 20.40 8.27 168.71 203.00 0.75 152.25 90.24
Table 2 — Voltage, current and power measurement for the developed inverter connected with load based on experimental results
S. No Solar irradiance Boosted Input DC Output AC Efficiency
(W/m2) voltage (V) Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) (%)
1. 405 24.02 23.67 0.47 11.13 232.1 0 0 0
2. 404 23.76 23.34 1.05 24.51 227.6 0.043 9.81 40.03
3. 407 23.75 23.13 1.63 37.70 225.3 0.110 25.68 68.12
4. 410 23.74 22.84 2.23 50.93 223.3 0.197 44.06 86.50
5. 400 23.71 22.57 2.70 60.94 220.2 0.237 52.14 85.56
6. 401 23.73 22.55 2.89 65.17 221.0 0.260 58.12 89.19
7. 395 23.70 22.26 3.34 74.35 218.0 0.303 66.08 88.87
8. 399 23.70 21.85 3.97 86.74 215.8 0.372 80.28 92.54
9. 402 23.71 21.70 4.66 101.12 213.4 0.443 94.54 93.49
10. 394 23.70 21.21 6.63 140.62 206.6 0.607 125.32 89.12
11. 397 23.70 20.86 7.35 153.32 204.4 0.667 136.36 88.93
12. 398 23.70 20.40 8.18 166.87 202.1 0.729 147.37 88.31
538 J SCI IND RES VOL 81 MAY 2022

Table 3 — Inverter output frequency variations study

S. No Resistance value Capacitance value Theoretical output frequency Measured frequency Frequency
(MΩ) (pF) (Hz) (Hz) variation (%)
1. 3.300 2000 34.13 32.35 5.215
2. 2.620 2094 41.05 38.70 5.724
3. 2.620 2047 41.99 39.44 6.072
4. 2.680 2000 42.02 39.73 5.449
5. 2.159 2094 49.82 46.50 6.663
6. 2.091 2094 51.44 48.10 6.493
7. 2.000 2094 53.78 50.03 6.972
8. 3.459 1047 62.19 58.70 5.611
9. 2.680 1000 84.04 79.16 5.806
10. 2.000 1000 104.32 97.93 6.125
Table 4 — Cost analysis for the developed solar inverter 500 VA waveform thus obtained from R-C circuit at 7 V was
S. Details of Items Quantity Cost in INR applied to the gate terminals of the MOSFET
No. combinations to produce an amplified sinusoidal
1 IC CD4047 Astable multi-vibrator 1 30 waveform of 24 V at MOSFET drain terminals. Then
2 7812 Voltage regulator 1 20
3 Resistors (220 Ω, 1 kΩ, 12 kΩ, 2 MΩ) — 20
the amplified sinusoidal waveform was supplied to
4 Capacitors (1000 pF, 47 pF, 1 uF) — 30 center tapped step-up transformer to obtain a quality
5 OP07 Operational amplifier 2 50 power output at 230 V AC at 50 Hz. The voltage
6 IRFZ44N MOSFET 4 120 regulation was achieved with the help of a DC-DC
7 24 V - 0 - 24 V Transformer 1 1800 boost converter which makes the system capable of
Total = 2070
giving inverter output voltage almost constant as 230
for obtaining the frequency theoretically is given in V under a wide range of solar irradiances from 145
equation (1). The theoretical frequency obtained with W/m2 to 735 W/m2. Output frequencies were also
different R and C, measured frequency and frequency varied by changing the values of R and C across pins
variation in percentage is given in Table 3. It is 1, 2 and 3 of CD 4047 IC. The maximum efficiency
observed that the average variation in frequency of the developed micro off-grid solar inverter
between theoretical and measured is 6.013%. hardware circuit was 95.72% based on simulation
studies and 93.49% based on the experimental
Cost of Inverter measurements. The cost of the proposed solar inverter
The cost breakdown for different components of is INR 2070 which is found to be lower than the
the proposed micro off-grid solar inverter is given in commercially available products.
Table 4. The cost spent for making this solar off-grid
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