An integrated solar home system-history

To date, many traditional Solar Home Systems (SHS) have consisted of separate components which required assembly by trained individuals and were also more susceptible to failure and maintenance. As a result, many SHSs in remote areas have not fulfilled their expected lifecycles or simply have not functioned at all. Thankfully, a solution to these problems has arrived - the newly developed Integrated Solar Home System (I-SHS). Within this new system all components such as the support structure, foundation, PV modules, charge controller, DC-AC converter and wiring are pre-assembled by the manufacturer. This eases installation and maintenance resulting in a reduction of cost and failure. Additionally, electrical yield was increased by 9% by a significant reduction of operating cell temperature. This was achieved by an integrated water tank, serving as a cooling unit and also providing the system´s foundation. This measure is neither expensive nor energy intensive, improves output of the system in an unproblematic way, and also allows use of the heated water.