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Electromagnetic pollution in solar systems

Over 20 years ago I put my first small 50Watt solar system together.

At that time something like this was very special. Particularly liked the idea of being independent of the big energy companies, who had conspired against all arguments and protests to nuclear power. Since those early days of Photovoltatik much has been achieved, but in a global perspective, it is far from enough.

The boundless energy waste has still not changed. With a little more energy-consciousness (Light- television- computer off when not in use) and even more effective devices (stand-by ...bye-bye), we could easily save half the electricity we use. Solar systems are now becoming part of the modern landscape. Technically it would no longer be a problem to live 100% on solar power now, if we would reduce our electricty needs. And still, the potential of solar energy is greatly underestimated.

In this Article I would like to draw your attention to the literally very silent potential of photovoltatic. Unfortunately, because I notice that this potential falls into oblivion, and it burns me to the soul to keep reminding about it. A solar systems give us the possibility of setting up an independent power supply without any disturbing alternating electromagnetic fields (also called Electrosmog). With solar energy we can enjoy the luxury and benefits of electricity, while not beeing forced to live in a permanent electrosmog field.

But first I'd like to say a bit more about this strange topic: Electrosmog !&$%#?

Perhaps you have already heard too much dubious stuff about it. Why else would most people ignore this problem?
We know that mobile phones can cause brain tumors and that some people cant sleep well near mobile phone masts. The number of domestic electrosmog polluters is growing, without any thought of the possibly harmful radiation, within energysaving lightbulbs, cordless phones, WLAN routers, outside sensors of weather stations, Bluetooth or any other wireless devices.

Electrosmog is an issue that is very difficult to capture because it contains too many parameters to make reliable statements. The range of effects are:
-Restlessness, sleep disturbances. (Typical at 50 Hz AC power fields)
-Tension, headache. (Usually the range of KHz to MHz) up to
-Immunodeficiency and cancer. (MHz and GHz frequencies).

We all react very differently from it,

and of course we are all affected by it around the clock.
It is as if we are doing a collective experiment on ourselves, with largely unknown side effects. As with many other areas of human experimentation like climate change, genetic engineering, radioactivity.....

We dont really care about the insidious effects of electromagnetic pollution.

All this can only be changed if we are willing to take the responsibility.




 
Electromagnetic pollution in solar systems:

Although solar panels and batteries in offgrid systems generate a clean direct current.
The situation is quite different with modern solar controllers, 230Volt inverters and the inverters for feeding the grid. These are the ones which can turn a basically very harmless technology into an bad electrosmog polluter.

There are technical ways to do it differently.

I think, perhaps the entire direction of solar development needs to be thought about.

Here comes some more information for those who are not afraid of technical details: Solar controllers:

After the first simple 2-point controllers (on/off), the pulsed shunt regulators have been on the market for many years. They feed the battery at the end of the charging only with small chopped pulses (50-100Hz), in order to keep it always at the maximum charge-end voltage.

Like this the battery is fully loaded as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Disadvantage- The strong electromagnetic fields are also distributed via the whole cable systems and often you can hear interferences in audio devices which are connected on the same supply network. Also the electrostatic fields interfere strongly with frequencies that are very similar to the 230V mains.

But the latest rage among the solar charge controllers are called MPPT-Solar-Controllers (Maximum Power Point Tracking). They have a voltage converter who workes often between 20 and 30kHz. They generate from any input voltage, the optimum ratio of current and voltage for the battery to charge it. A practical idea, one would think.
These regulators can be used in systems with a couple of solar modules in series in order to get a higher output tension for example 60V. Like this you can use thinner cables, or the cable losses are a bit reduced.

It is also practical to use solar panels, that were designed only to feed into the grid, for the use in 12Volt systems. But no one mentions that such a solar inverter controller is really a potent electrosmog polluter, humming all day happily to itself! The interference fields are often comparable with those of small transformer stations. Well meant, unfortunately, is very often the opposite of well done.

My Tip: With a very simple device you can make low frequency fields hearable. Connect a insulated coil, like a guitar pick up without the magnets, with a small guitar amplifier.

If you want an eletrosmog free solar controller, you will not really have much choice than to build one yourself! Because up to now we cant buy one anywhere. I have therefore developed and published a DIY regulator in my book:

"DIY- 12 Volt Solar power" available at: www.permaculture.co.uk - ISBN: 978-1-85623-039-1

In this book you will find a whole chapter about electrosmog, with a lot of practical instructions, tips and tricks how to measure it yourself and also how to reduce or avoid it.

Have also a look at my site under: www.solarcontroller.blogspot.com.

The here described solar controller uses the latest MOSFET shunt technique but with very slow switching frequencies of about 20 seconds witch makes it electrosmog free. The only drawback with it is that the last 5% of the battery capacity is only recharged quite slowly. A small loss, but it should be worth for our health.

Inverters
The inverters fall into the same category of electrosmog polluters. Unfortunately, they are often unavoidable if you do not want to make all the effort to get or rebuild all your appliances on 12Volt which have less electrosmog and converting losses.
Many 12 volt conversions are easy to do, such as 12 volt lighting with halogen or LED lamps. Even the most cordless tools and all battery devices can be easily converted into 12Volts, but for computers, TVs and washing machines its best to get an 230Volt inverter. The less we have to turn on the inverter the better, because our bodies respond much worse to a continuous 24-hour stress than only short electrosmog attaks.

The interference from inverters are very strong because of the big currents between battery and the inverter. Most low-cost devices with high-frequency technology (20-30KHz) generate on top of these only trapezoid waves which causes a lot of more interferences.My Tip: Use pure sine wave inverters with a big ring core transformer and low-frequency technology (50Hz). Not really cheap ...but they last you so much longer than all these cheap ones ....

Grid Inverters

In terms of electrosmog the disadvantages of MPPT-Controllers and 230Volt-Inverters are combined here.

The Grid inverters always make a lot of wave motions in the ether. The interference frequencies of these inverters (mostly 20-30KHz) also often drop into the DC circuit of the solar panels on the entire roof. The electrosmog is then very strong because of the large size of these plants.
Capacitors or mains filter can buffer the harmful electromagnetic waves but do not eliminate them entirely. This could only be corrected by creating a decentralized DC network, but something like this is certainly still a long way off.

My Tip: You can easily find out when you use a multimeter (set to 200V AC) between the DC circuit of solar modules and an earth (eg a water pipe). When you see an AC tension here (up to 100 Volt!) the system is unfortunately not electrosmog free. Check some working examples like this before you chose the best grid inverter for your own system. And publish your results for others. Ask your suppliers for more information about their products.

Certainly, not all problems can be solved. Life is always full of compromises, but if we would at least try to do our best it would certainly help. I dont want to scare anyone here, because no one benefits from that, but I think a conscious level of respect for this phenomenon could not harm us at all.

Solarmichel