ABSTRACT
Kenya receives some good sunshine owing to its location in the tropics. Solar energy, being environmentally friendly and an inexhaustible source of energy, has the potential to change people's lives for the better, especially in the rural communities in Kenya. Solar energy is converted to useful electrical energy using solar panels exposed to the sun's radiation. The solar panels and the other balance of system components are usually interconnected to provide this energy for powering loads. This connected system, popularly known as a Solar Home System (SHS) is creating a lot of impact in the rural communities in Kenya. Although the system's installation is key in the overall system performance, the system has to be well designed and sized as well for it to perform optimally. A number of commercially available sizing softwares are complex and way beyond the average person in terms of cost. There are two main sizing methods: the charging current method, herein abbreviated as CCM, and the total energy method, abbreviated as EOM, which could be easier and more accessible to solar designers and installers. In this paper, we have presented a comparison of the two sizing methods to assess if there is any significant difference between the two methods. On applying both methods to an example, it has been found that they give the same sizing details of the components. Furthermore, the EOM appears more appealing since it provides the total power rating of the system, the most commonly used and understood term in rating solar panels. The method is recommended for estimating the components for small solar PV systems. Large solar PV system sizing needs commercial sizing software.
