EEET 5004 - DC House Connection Improvements: Engineering Research

This engineering research report investigates potential improvements to DC house connections as replacements for AC power sources, particularly focusing on renewable energy integration. The literature review highlights the shift towards renewable energy due to the depletion of fossil fuels and the advantages of DC power in reducing energy losses associated with AC conversion. The research explores the use of LED lighting systems in DC houses, emphasizing their efficiency and compatibility with DC power. A proposed expansion involves incorporating flashlight adapters to enhance the functionality of DC houses, especially in remote areas. The project aims to design, test, and implement a portable light system for DC houses, incorporating batteries for portability and using DC-DC converters for efficient charging. The methodology involves a quantitative approach, comparing DC and AC houses based on light brightness and duration, along with qualitative analysis of existing power sources. The research ultimately seeks to optimize DC house designs for improved performance and cost-effectiveness.

ENGINEERING RESEARCH
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Problem Definition
What are the possible improvement that can be made on the already existing DC house
connections that have recently replaced AC sources?
Literature Review Exercise
Electricity is a kind of luxury that most people have taken for granted. Not very many people
have bothered to know where electrical energy comes from and how it is made. In the current
set, most countries are faced with shortage of energy rising from the depletion of the known
sources like fossil fuel. As a result of these impacts, attention has been shifting from these non-
renewable energy sources to the renewable sources. The DC house project aims to assist those
communities that do not have access to the power grids and electricity. The DC house project
uses renewable energy sources in the production of DC power(Werth, Kitamura and Tanaka
2015).
The DC power is converted into AC that is later connected to the generators of the company.
The resulting power is utilized by the lighting systems, wall outlets and other home appliances. It
is important to note that these conversions normally lead to power losses and eventually the
effectiveness of the system is affected. Most of the lighting system including bulbs work on the
principle of flow of electrons through the electric devices. Some of these appliances or devices
are only compatible with the AC.The voltage of alternating current alternate at an average
frequency of 50-60HZ.This will be dependent on the generator of the country. At these particular
frequencies, it is not possible for the human eye to perform a proper detection of the changes of
direction of electrons. The view of light is continuous.

LED light bulbs have become very popular and they have been replacing the other lesser
efficient light bulbs. The car headlights, house lights and other street lights are only some of the
many uses of LED bulbs. The bulbs that are made of the LED technology are nearly available
everywhere. Unlike other light bulbs, LED bulbs need excess electronics to assist in the driving
of the array safety from the AC power source. The driver of the LED consist of a power
converter and a sensing circuit feedback that resembles the switched mode power supplies. The
circuit for the power array allows the LED array to experience a controlled and very consistent
voltage regardless of the type and the value of the input. The regulation is normally achieved
through sensing circuit(Vossos, Garbesi and Shen 2014).
From such kinds of observation, it is clear that DC current is more efficient than AC since the
process of inversion is skipped while giving the same functionality and result. The project of DC
provides a clean solution to the communities that are poor(Tanaka et al 2012). Renewable energy
devices normally perform transformation to the resources such as solar power,wind.These energy
sources are converted into DC power by means of DC-DC converters. Each of the produced
output is connected into the MISO converter so as to ensure that there is production of bus line
to the DC house. The production voltage is maintained at the normal 480V.From the bus, the DC
loads and other applications are connected to complete and self-sustaining home.
This particular project seeks to expand on the functionality of the DC houses that had been
previously designed to use light bulbs. In the process of that proposed expansion, flashlight
adapter will be connected between the normal DC voltage of 480V of the house bus and the light
bulb of LED. This additional feature of the DC house is very much important for the applications
of the DC house especially in the areas that are considered remote. The flashlights will enable
people to walk and do their duties during the night hours(Marks et al 2014). The project focuses

on the design, testing and implementation of the portable light system of DC house project. The
addition of the batteries to the system is normally meant to include the feature of portability as
operational flashlights. Although the connection is done as a DC light bulb, the charging of
batteries is through DC power that is produced by the house itself. This particular system of
lighting uses the back DC-DC design with converter(Kakigano, Miura and Ise 2013).
The result of such connection is that the design of DC-DC is improved or boosted to the
recommended level. The implementation of the hardware of the portable DC light bulbs will be
conducted and tests performed so as to assist in the verification of the functionality, performance
and operation of the system. The project phase’s focuses on the improvement of the past designs
by including features that will push further the value of the project. The improvement will be
done on the certain types of the commonly known convertors and also the concept expanded
beyond its limit. Before conduction of the optimization, a complete prototype of the DC house
will be built prior to the field implementation(Ismail, Moghavvemi and Mahlia 2013).
Selection qualitative and/or quantitative approaches
Selection of a quantitative approach
Define parameters or commonly known variables that might be required in the research-
quantitative data sources.
In order to ensure that a very fair comparison is made, there will be proper identification of the
DC houses. These prototypes will be subjected to the same patterns of simulation during the
process of optimization. During the comparision,one of the houses will be fitted with the DC
while the other with the AC so as to verify the differences. The performance measurement will
be taken in the terms of;

 The brightness of light from the bulb
 The duration of bulb light performance in the flashlights.
The research on the bulb configuration and material type will equally be important since they
determine the performance of the system.
Briefly describe those factors that shows there will be no need to work directly with other
people as subjects in the gathering of qualitative data
The research will not require any qualitative data. It is however of interest to note that interaction
with subjects bother at personal level and online will be necessary in the gathering of data.
Highlight the factors that may dictate a high level of the structure of the stated research
In order to have a fairly accurate research, several measurements will be taken. The analysis of
the results or finding will be properly done including use of graphs. The estimation of the cost
will then be done(Athreya et al 2016).
Selection of a qualitative an approach
Briefly describe the qualitative data sources that will be needed and cannot be converted into
the quantitative
In the research time, the existing power sources will be analyzed and their advantages and short
coming will be noted. The project will then seek to address the shortcomings while making
improvement on the already existing benefits. This will be pure qualitative data source that will
be taken through analysis

What factors indicate that there will be no need of working with other people directly as
subjects in the installation of the DC houses?
The information regarding the possible improvement of the solar power will be obtained online
thus there will be no need to work with other individuals directly.
Briefly outline those factors that might show low level of the structure of the research
The failure to obtain the exact solutions for the specific problem with the AC applications may
make the research a low level one Also the research will involve use of low level or just simple
software of engineering.
Considering the answers that have been provided in the above questions, what is likely to be
the position of the project methodology?
The topic of research will be exactly quantitative as it will seek to evaluate the performance of
the DC houses while checking on the quality of the energy provided in comparison to the AC
sources

REFERENCES
Athreya, V., Odden, M., Linnell, J.D., Krishnaswamy, J. and Karanth, K.U., 2016. A cat among
the dogs: leopard Panthera pardus diet in a human-dominated landscape in western Maharashtra,
India. Oryx, 50(1), pp.156-162.
Ismail, M.S., Moghavvemi, M. and Mahlia, T.M.I., 2013. Techno-economic analysis of an
optimized photovoltaic and diesel generator hybrid power system for remote houses in a tropical
climate. Energy Conversion and Management, 69, pp.163-173.
Kakigano, H., Miura, Y. and Ise, T., 2013. Distribution voltage control for DC microgrids using
fuzzy control and gain-scheduling technique. IEEE Trans. Power Electron, 28(5), pp.2246-2258.
Marks, M., Chi, K.H., Vahi, V., Pillay, A., Sokana, O., Pavluck, A., Mabey, D.C., Chen, C.Y.
and Solomon, A.W., 2014. Haemophilus ducreyi associated with skin ulcers among children,
Solomon Islands. Emerging infectious diseases, 20(10), p.1705.
Tanaka, K., Yoza, A., Ogimi, K., Yona, A., Senjyu, T., Funabashi, T. and Kim, C.H., 2012.
Optimal operation of DC smart house system by controllable loads based on smart grid
topology. Renewable Energy, 39(1), pp.132-139.
Vossos, V., Garbesi, K. and Shen, H., 2014. Energy savings from direct-DC in US residential
buildings. Energy and Buildings, 68, pp.223-231.
Werth, A., Kitamura, N. and Tanaka, K., 2015. Conceptual study for open energy systems:
distributed energy network using interconnected DC nanogrids. IEEE Transactions on Smart
Grid, 6(4), pp.1621-1630.