Rural Household Space Cooling and Lighting through a Solar Power-based Electric Supply System

Abstract

Quite a number of households in the world still lack electricity, especially in the sub-Saharan African continent. However, the abundance of solar irradiation in tropical Africa can be advantageously exploited to serve the inhabitants in this region, particularly the extremely low-income earners who not only have access to very inadequate power supply but also experience much discomfort in terms of poor ventilation and heat-triggered infections. This paper focuses on developing a small household-sized solar power-based electric energy supply system together with a temperature control circuit to power a direct current (DC) fan, and a light-regulating circuit to control LED lamps—with additional features such as a digital clock, a remote control, and mobile phone charging units. The system also has a provision for power supply through the mains (whenever it is available). The overall intent is to provide the rural dwellers with a cost-effective way of powering essential devices for basic economic living. This affordable solution is designed, simulated, and constructed to have hardware and software sections supported by various components and devices such as Arduino Mega, Lm35 sensor, RF transceivers, diodes, transistors, regulators, batteries, lamps, a DC fan, etc. The sensor senses room temperature, which is compared with the reference temperature of 25°C programmed on the Arduino microcontroller. When the temperature is less than 25°C, the fan remains stationary but when the temperature is higher than the reference value, the fan begins to run. As the temperature rises further, the speed of the fan increases to maintain adequate ventilation.