Beat the heat with solar-based coolers, air-conditioners

Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, May 2

Bhupinder Singh, a retired professor from IIT Roorkee, who is based in Fazilka, and is the recipient of the Urja Purush award by the Uttarakhand government, has introduced solar energy-based fans, coolers and air conditioners.

The equipment would work on solar energy during the day and will require minimum investment, without the use of any battery and will help save grid energy.

"Since the sun rises for more than 260 days in a year in Punjab, hence, the shopkeepers, office and house owners can save grid power by using solar power equipment during the day in summer," said Singh.

For this, there will be a need to set up sun radiation photovoltaic (PV) panels which would meet the demand during the day. The significance of the project is that the consumers do not need batteries as these have to be replaced after about two years, which would have resulted in cost escalation. The panels generate the energy which runs the fans and coolers.

Singh demonstrated the two systems today at his research centre in Ghas Mandi, Fazilka. One is a DC fan of 9" diameter run by a 90 W PV panel during the day time without any battery. It can provide spot cooling.

Another is a standard PV set of panels with 90x3 W coupled to an inverter and a small battery capacity to operate an AC or a desert cooler.

"A consumers needs to spend only Rs 4,000 on the project to run a fan, having a life of 10 years without incurring any expense," said Singh.

A patron of the Graduate Welfare Association, Fazilka, Singh called upon consumers to joint hands to tap solar energy during this summer. He invited them to watch the system at his research centre in Ghas Mandi.

He regretted that the Punjab Energy Development Agencies (PEDA) has been allegedly unsuccessful in motivating people to conserve energy.

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