Photovoltaic-Thermoelectric Generator Monitoring System using Arduino Based Data Acquisition system Technique

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of a data acquisition system (DAQ) for a hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator (PV-TEG) to monitor and store system parameters collected from the PV-TEG source in large memory storage. A DAQ is an electronic device that collects and records data through a time-based microcontroller (DS1307 Real-Time Clock (RTC) chip). It utilizes the Arduino Mega 328P board in conjunction with the ATmega 328P chip for monitoring the system parameters such as voltage, current and power every second of the logging process. The hybrid system comprises 200 W panels and a combination of 192 TEG connected in series and parallel for higher output power. The system converts the original data into digital input for data acquisition and stores it on a secure digital card (SD card). The hybrid system performance was examined. The results from the DAQ shows that data were stored on the SD Card at a 1-second update cycle. The DAQ recorded maximum system parameter values as 39 V, 4.9 A for the hybrid system, 33 V, 4.7 A for the PV subsystem, and 6 V, 0.2 A for the TEG subsystem. The maximum power of 191.1 W was computed across a resistive load of $8\ \Omega$, 300 W. This shows an increase of 15.38 % than the PV subsystem.