IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO.

2, JANUARY 15, 2019 679

IoT Application for Real-Time Monitoring of Solar

Home Systems Based on ArduinoTM
With 3G Connectivity
Ascensión López-Vargas, Manuel Fuentes, and Marta Vivar

Abstract— A novel datalogger based on free software and stand-alone PV (SAPV) systems. Typically, these installations
hardware has been designed, built, programmed, and installed as use crystalline-silicon PV modules. Regarding the battery
an experimental prototype in multiple sites. Remote monitoring backup unit, the most commonly battery type installed is lead-
extends the effectiveness of the datalogger in the areas deprived of
electrical grid and traditional wired telecommunication networks. acid and most small SHS employs charge controllers using
The integration of Internet of Things in solar measurement PWM to regulate the charge current to the battery [4].
systems allows the remote monitoring of small stand-alone The absence of adequate monitoring of SHS and, there-
photovoltaic (PV) systems, enhancing the performance and the fore, the impossibility of detecting operation and maintenance
maintenance of the system. The datalogger measures electric problems, can lead to a dramatic shortening of the useful
and climatic parameters (up to 14 parameters, expandable) with
the required accuracy established by the IEC61724 standard; to life of the PV systems or even to the withdrawal of their
include 3G technology in it allowed the stand-alone PV systems use. [5]. In the case of grid-connected PV systems gener-
system monitoring remotely via web or via mobile application, ally have high budgets, and the associated data acquisition
all at low cost. An outdoor campaign of over 12 months under systems allow to monitor the main parameters to conduct the
the harsh environmental conditions at multiple locations was necessary maintenance actions without impacting significantly
performed to test the new datalogger under real and different
conditions demonstrating the robustness and the reliability of the in the total installation cost. However, it is very difficult to
system. supervise the operation of SHSs due mainly to the fact that
the required commercial dataloggers available in the market
Index Terms— 3G mobile communication, Internet of Things,
photovoltaic systems, remote monitoring. are very expensive compared to the total system cost, they
require special software and they also generally demand an
external power supply or a PC to be connected all of the time.
I. I NTRODUCTION As a result, it is necessary to further develop data acquisition
systems very accurate and independent of external sources, all
A N ESTIMATED 1.1 billion people currently lack elec-
tricity access [1], mainly residing in rural areas of
sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and, to a lesser extend
at low cost. In recent years, analytical monitoring has been
progressively applied to small PV systems.
in the Middle East, Central Asia and Latin America [2].
Due to the emergence of rural electrification programmes, II. R ELATED W ORKS ON DATALOGGERS
thousands of Solar Home Systems (SHSs) [3] are installed in FOR PV M ONITORING

remote regions, commonly in locations with no electrical grid, The literature includes numerous reports of PV monitor-
no traditional wired telecommunication networks and often ing systems during the last two decades. Mukaro et al. [6]
with difficult accessibility by common transport. SHSs are in 1998 developed one of the first low-cost systems designed
for solar radiation monitoring. With 4 analogue inputs, this
Manuscript received September 24, 2018; revised October 11, 2018; monitoring system was based on an 8-bit microcontroller. This
accepted October 11, 2018. Date of publication October 17, 2018; date
of current version December 21, 2018. This work was supported by the datalogger was suitable for monitoring of meteorological para-
University of Jaén, Ayudas Propias para la Cooperación Internacional y la meters at remote stations, especially in developing countries.
Educación para el Desarrollo, 2016 call. The work of A. López-Vargas was The main disadvantage of this work was the connection of
supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Ayudas
para la Promoción de Empleo Joven e Implantación de la Garantía Juvenil en the datalogger to PC. Koutroulis and Kalaitzakis [7] in 2003
I+D+i Programme, under Grant PEJ-2014-A-42354. The work of M. Vivar reported another monitoring system for renewable energy
was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, sources. With 16 single ended (eight differential analog) input
Ramon y Cajal Programme, under Grant RYC-2015-17306. The associate edi-
tor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was channels, the datalogger used a DAQ card installed in a PC
Prof. Guiyun Tian. (Corresponding author: Ascensión López-Vargas.) and a 12-bit accuracy ADC converter. As a disadvantage,
A. López-Vargas is with the Water and Energy Group, IMDEA Water the dependence on a PC and the use of commercial software
Institute, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain (e-mail: [email protected]).
M. Fuentes is with the Grupo IDEA, EPS Linares, University of Jaén, increased the final cost of the system. Forero et al. [8]
23700 Linares, Spain, and also with the Water and Energy Group, IMDEA in 2006 proposed a system for monitoring a stand-alone PV
Water Institute, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain (e-mail: [email protected]). plant. The system was designed for measuring environmental
M. Vivar is with the Grupo IDEA, EPS Linares, University of Jaén,
23700 Linares, Spain (e-mail: [email protected]). variables, as well as for monitoring the performance of a stand-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2018.2876635 alone PV solar plant. The datalogger was based on precision
1558-1748 © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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680 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

electronic modular field point I/O devices and a high speed TABLE I
data acquisition card. The main inconveniences were the use PARAMETERS TO BE M ONITORED IN R EAL T IME PV S YSTEMS
of a graphical environment based on the Labview™program
and the requirement of a PC connection. Tina and Grasso [9]
in 2014 proposed a dedicated data acquisition system for
remote monitoring the operation of a stand-alone PV appli-
ance. With 20 analog inputs, the monitoring system measured
electrical and climatic parameters using low-cost commercial
sensors. However, measurements were not compared with
another calibrated datalogger and the errors were not weighted.
After reviewing the published literature, it was identified
that it is difficult to track the functioning of these SAPV
systems with conventional dataloggers mainly due to various
limitations:: external source dependency [10]–[13], require-
ment of commercial software [14], [15] and in numerous
designs the measurement of errors were not bounded following
international standards of accuracy [16], [17].
To solve the former technical and economic issues, a low-
cost prototype based on open source and free hardware
technologies (ArduinoTM) for monitoring PV systems was
proposed by Fuentes et al. [18] in 2014. With 8 analogue
inputs for measuring up to 8 electrical/meteorological parame-
ters and 3 inputs for low-cost analogue temperature sensors,
the resolution of the datalogger was 18-bits. Virtually unlim-
ited inputs for digital temperature sensors were available. The
datalogger was especially designed for installing in remote
areas or regions in developing countries. The datalogger was
tested under the harsh environmental conditions of the summer
and winter in Southern Spain and it accomplished the accuracy
requirements of the IEC standards for PV systems. Later
on, López-Vargas et al. [19] in 2018 developed an improved
version of this low-cost datalogger in order to overcome of this work lies in designing, manufacturing and testing the
several of the shortcomings of the solar ArduinoTM datalogger, prototype under real (electrical and environmental) working
and so the power consumption was minimized, the num- conditions.
ber of meteorological parameters measured was increased,
III. R EQUIREMENTS FOR THE SAPV E LECTRICAL
the electrical measurements were improved and a user-friendly
P ERFORMANCE M ONITORING S YSTEM
interface was integrated. The new prototype was specifically
designed for SAPV systems located in remote areas. The new The IEC61724 standard [20] entitled “Photovoltaic system
datalogger was empirically tested measuring a real stand-alone performance” describes the general guidelines for the monitor-
system. The results indicated that the datalogger provided ing and analysis of the electrical performance of photovoltaic
high accuracy, and it was autonomous, low-cost and robust systems (stand-alone and grid connected). In Table I, a sum-
in harsh environments. Data was stored in SD card, allowing mary of parameters to be monitored in real time PV systems
the installation of the system in isolated areas, requiring is presented.
minimal maintenance. But this minimal maintenance of the The standard defines three classes of monitoring systems,
novel datalogger was based on a manual procedure requiring corresponding to different levels of accuracy and different
human operator intervention for collecting data, which can be intended applications: Class A (high accuracy), Class B
an inconvenient at locations that are difficult to access as well (medium accuracy) and Class C (basic accuracy). The accu-
as it increases the maintenance costs and operation. racy classification and the suggested applications are presented
The objective of this new work has been to develop a in Table II.
novel and improved version of this solar ArduinoTM low-cost According to IEC61724 standard, Class B or Class C
datalogger based on the application of IoT (Internet of the would be most appropriate for small systems, such as smaller
Things), adding internet connectivity and allowing the SAPV commercial and residential installations. An example of the
system to be monitored remotely via web or via mobile IEC61724 standard appliance for SAPV systems is shown
application, which means that not only data of the long-term in Fig.1.
system performance is retrieved but also that instantaneous
information is received and so the problems related to the A. Electrical and Climatic Parameters
operation and maintenance of the stand-alone PV system can The measurements of electrical parameters provide informa-
be rapidly detected and solved. Additionally, another novelty tion on the consumption and the efficiency of SAPV systems.

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LÓPEZ-VARGAS et al.: IoT APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF SHSs 681

TABLE II integer number of recording intervals should fit within 1 h.

M ONITORING S YSTEM C LASSIFICATION AND S UGGESTED A PPLICATIONS Each record shall include a timestamp, and the time should
refer either to local time (not daylight saving time) or uni-
versal time, to avoid winter/summer time changes. When
multiple data acquisition units are involved that each inde-
pendently apply timestamps, the clocks of the units must
be synchronized, preferably by an automated mechanism
such as global positioning system (GPS) or network time
protocol (NTP).
To be able to apply the automated synchronization mecha-
nisms advised by the IEC61724 standard, the connection to the
Internet is required. To access the Internet, the standard does
not set any requirements concerning the type of communica-
tion method. However, in the case of decentralized systems,
wireless technologies are most appropriate: commonly SAPV
systems are located in remote and inaccessible regions, in
locations without access to traditional wired telecommunica-
tion networks. The datalogger should be able to transmit the
measured data anywhere; the location of the SAPV system
should not act to the detriment of the correct functioning
of the monitoring system. The communication technology
should be capable of operating autonomously, without requir-
ing additional wired communications networks. To obtain real-
time monitoring, the delivery speed of the data transmission
system should allow compliance with the sampling intervals
established by the IEC61724 standard.

IV. SAPV M ONITORING S YSTEM C ONNECTIVITY

Fig. 1. Example of application of the IEC61724 standard: SAPV system. Among all the different standards deployed in the mar-
ket [21], usually distributed in different frequency bands and
using multiple communication protocols, selecting the most
According to IEC61724 standard, the accuracy (the most suitable connectivity technology for an IoT application can be
restrictive case, high accuracy class) of the voltage, current a challenge. Wireless technologies have been widely used in
and power measurements, including signal conditioning, must the case of decentralized systems, although Ethernet cable is
be better than 2% of the reading. IEC61724 standard indicates also an alternative for centralized systems [22]. As there are
that climatic parameters must be measured at a location that is different options to add wireless connectivity to the ArduinoTM
representative of the SAPV system conditions. The accuracy solar datalogger, previous PV monitoring wireless systems
of temperature measures must be better than ±1 °C and the according to their data transmission techniques have been
accuracy of irradiance measures must be better than 8% of the reviewed. The connectivity requirements of different types
reading from 100 W · m−2 to 1,500 W · m−2 (including signal of IoT networks vary widely, depending on their purpose
conditioning). The measurement of optional parameters such and resource constraints. Relevant wireless communications
as wind speed, also must comply the standard requirements of techniques have been studied: Table III [23] shows a wire-
accuracy: ≤ 0. 5 m · s−1 for wind speeds ≤ 5 m · s−1 , and ≤ less connectivity technologies (non-exhaustive) comparison
10 % of the reading for wind speeds greater than 5 m · s-1. focused on range, bandwidth and cost.
According to the results obtained by López-Vargas et al. [19] A remote PV-system monitored via satellite was developed
in 2018, the previous version of the datalogger [19] met all the by Krauter and Depping [24] in 2004, where irradiance
precision requirements established by the IEC61724 standard and electrical parameters were collected and sent to the
mentioned above. ARGOS-SCD satellite. The satellite data was transferred from
the receiving ground station to the Internet, providing world-
wide access via WWW. Data transmission via satellite is very
B. Monitoring Requirements useful in regions without access to telephone communications.
According to IEC61724 standard, for medium and basic But this data transmission was reported to be slow, taking
accuracy systems (Class B and Class C, as indicated ear- around 8 to 12 min, and the initial cost for the transmitter
lier), the maximum sampling interval should be 1 min and was very high.
maximum recording interval should be 15 min (medium Papageorgas et al. [25] in 2013 reported a solar panel
accuracy) and 60 min (basic accuracy). The recording interval monitoring system based on Zigbee. The system measured data
should be an integer multiple of the sampling interval, and an for each solar panel of a solar park installation and allowed the

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682 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

TABLE III
C HARACTERISTIC OF W IRELESS C ONNECTIVITY T ECHNOLOGIES (D ATA S OURCE ITU [23])

optimization of electric power production through a web-based mobile-broadband networks (3G or above) they reach 84 % of
application. The client-server-web-publishing software was the global population, 67 % of the rural population [29].
based on an open-source platform. The integrated Zigbee On the other hand, a clear signal of the global mobile
communication technology was based on a Zigbee RF modem penetration rate is that in developing countries, there are more
available from ATMEL. However, the system required a wired households that own a mobile phone that have access to
network due to this technology only covers short distances. electricity or drinking water: roughly 70 % of the bottom
The same applies to the Bluetooth technologies that support fifth of the population in developing countries own a cell
simple wireless networking but only cover short distances phone, as reported by the World Bank’s World Development
(100 m is the maximum range without repeaters [26]) as Report for 2016 [30]. According to a Groupe Speciale Mobile
reported by Hua et al. [27] in 2009: typically up to 10 m for Association (GSMA) report [31], in 2014, more than a half of
Bluetooth class 2 and 100 m for Bluetooth class 1. A series all global mobile money deployments were carried out in sub-
of novel wireless portable systems including calibration, mon- Saharan Africa. The 63 % of Africans had access to improved
itoring and ISP systems were implemented for fuel cell city water supply and 32 % to electricity, compared to 82 % who
buses, using Bluetooth for transmitting data. had access to GSM coverage. A United Nations research in
Rosiek and Batlles [28] in 2008 developed a system for the India [32], in 2008, showed nearly 366 million people (31 % of
data acquisition from remote meteorological stations located in the population) had access to improved sanitation, meanwhile,
the north side of the Natural Park of Sierra Nevada (Granada, 545 million mobile phones were connected to service.
Spain). The system was based on an ATmega16 microcon- After studying the available wireless techniques, the use
troller and they compared this system against two other of mobile communications was selected for adding wireless
commercial acquisition systems obtaining an error in the connectivity to the ArduinoTM datalogger, since this tech-
order of 1 %. They used mobile communications due to the nology presents more advantages than the other communica-
considerable advantages in transmitting the information at big tion techniques studied and both, industrialized countries and
distances in isolated areas. The experimental data was received developing countries, are covered by mobile communications
from the remote stations network, located about 100 km of networks, even reaching areas where the electric grid and the
distance. water supply network do not. In addition, other studies endorse
Due to the location of PV systems in isolated regions, the use of mobile communications for this specific application.
the study of communication techniques focused on tech- In 2014, Tejwani et al. [33] presented the advantages and
nologies that provide greater ranges (WWAN). The use of disadvantages of several monitoring systems for rural appli-
mobile communications (2G, 3G) ensures an affordable and cation based on different techniques of communication. After
stable long-distance data transfer, but the effectiveness of this discussing, they proposed remote monitoring using mobile
technique is subject to the signal strength in the location of the communications. In 2017, Villagrán et al. [34] presented the
stand-alone PV system. The International Telecommunication design and implementation of monitoring system to study
Union (ITU) [29] in 2016 estimated that approximately seven down-slope winds in the Laja River Valley, southern-central
billion people, the 95 % of the global population, live in Chile. They used mobile communications because of the
an area that is covered by a mobile network. Regarding the continued growth of the mobile telecommunication industry,

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LÓPEZ-VARGAS et al.: IoT APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF SHSs 683

TABLE IV
A RDUINOTM UNO AND A RDUINOTM E THERNET C OMPARISON

I2C™bus, (b) sensors signal conditioning including the inte-

gration of electronic elements for filtering undesirable sig-
nals, (c) a RTC for tracking time and ensuring the precise
synchronization of the measurements, (d) two external ADCs
of 18-bits resolution for accomplishing the IEC61724 accuracy
requirements and (e) a specific module to reduce the energy
consumption.
When designing the new datalogger with connectivity fea-
tures, it was found that ArduinoTM UNO would not allow to
connect directly the board to the internet (it would require
an extra shield board). The 3G shields compatible with
ArduinoTM found in the market that met the requirements of
transmission were extremely expensive so the use of these
shields was discarded. As a low-cost alternative, an Ethernet
Fig. 2. Final remote datalogger diagram.
board with a nanorouter could perform the same connectivity
functions.
Therefore, ArduinoTM Ethernet (Rev 3) was selected as
its coverage has also expanded in Chile, even in remote areas
it has connectivity functions and similar characteristics inte-
inhabited by small communities.
grated all in a single board. Table IV shows the comparison
between ArduinoTM Ethernet and ArduinoTM UNO boards.
V. D ESIGN OF THE 3G DATALOGGER FOR S OLAR The use of an ArduinoTM UNO with an Ethernet shield stacked
P HOTOVOLTAIC M ONITORING on top could be also considered as an alternative option as the
price is comparable to that of the ArduinoTM Ethernet board.
A. General Description
Regarding connectivity itself, studies based on PV system
Fig.2 shows the diagram of the new wireless monitoring monitoring were reviewed (see Section IV) to select a suitable
system as well as the basic distribution of environmental and data transmission technique. The use of mobile communi-
electrical sensors for monitoring the SAPV system. The new cations, concretely 3G, offers the most significant advan-
datalogger measures meteorological and electrical parameters; tages. Main advantages of the 3G prototype are flexibility
data is sent via 3G and information is stored in two different and unlimited reach, although the latter is restricted by the
servers: a dedicated server (located in the University of Jaén) 3G mobile penetration rate. The system based on 3G does
and a cloud server (free storage platform). The connection not require the installation of additional networks and this
to the internet allows to monitor the SAPV system from any flexibility makes the 3G system more suitable for the moni-
device or computer. toring of SAPV systems located in remote areas, especially in
developing countries. Among the numerous options to connect
ArduinoTM to the internet using 3G, the TL-MR3020 router
B. Hardware from TP-LINK (Fig.3a) stands out over the rest because it
The previous datalogger was designed around the offers the potential to configure Wi-Fi and 3G transmission
ArduinoTM UNO board as it stands out in comparison with systems at a low price. This device requires an external
the other open-source platforms due to its robustness, cost and 5VDC/1A power supply and it operates over a temperature
developer community [18]. However, it did not cover all the range from 10 °C to 60 °C and relative humidity conditions in
functionalities for PV monitoring itself, so hardware enhance- the humidity range of 10 % RH to 90 % RH (non-condensing).
ment was integrated by López-Vargas et al. [19] integrated in As the router has an on-board interface USB 2.0 port,
an ad-hoc PCB (Printed Circuit Board): (a) a bi-directional the 3G operating mode can be configured providing internet

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684 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

Fig. 3. Connectivity system: router and modem (a) and SIM card into the
modem adapter (b).

connection through a 3G USB stick modem (Fig. 3b). For

this purpose, MA260 modem from TP-LINK was selected.
This modem allows to acquire 3G mobile broadband access Fig. 4. Development of PV output generation, battery and load current and
by inserting a SIM card into the adapter. It supports 3G voltage sensors.
HSPA+ technology, which provides improved data transfer
rates. The USB modem operating temperature range is 0 °C
to 40 °C. Thus, the operating temperature of the entire system
(router and modem) is limited by the most restricted values:
10 °C - 40 °C. This is particularly important since, depending
on the location of the system, temperature evacuation systems
(fans, heat sinks…) may be required.
The novel datalogger was developed ad-hoc for the monitor-
ing of SAPV systems that in most cases are isolated systems,
so an individual data transmission system was the most appro-
priate option. However, in the case of finding several SAPV
systems installed close enough, the monitoring system was
designed to provide scalability. The novel monitoring system
stands out due to its stackable hardware design. By adding
boards with the hardware improvements, the number of analog
or digital inputs can be expanded, and various SAPV systems
can be monitoring using a single datalogger. To do this, only
it would be necessary to extend the number of parameters
transmitted in each cycle by SW, achieving scalability at a
reduced cost.

C. Meteorological and SAPV Sensors

Sensor characteristics for measuring both electrical and
meteorological system parameters were previously detailed by
López-Vargas et al. [19] in their work on the ArduinoTM basic
datalogger. Employing exclusively low-cost sensors, the pro-
totype for measuring SAPV systems includes a wide range
of climatic measures: irradiance (Gi ), ambient temperature Fig. 5. Diagram for the routine executed by each iteration: sequence of
(Tamb ), humidity (H), wind velocity (W) and rainfall (R). processes and communications.
DS18B20 temperature sensors from Maxim IntegratedTM were
used to acquire PV module temperature (Tmod ) and PV battery LEMTM , were used for current measurements. These sensors
temperature (Tbat ). The electrical parameters measured by the presented a level of accuracy from ± 0.2 % to ± 0.7% (operat-
low-cost datalogger include the PV generator output voltage ing with internal measuring resistance at 25 °C). Fig. 4 shows
(VA ), battery voltage (VS ), load voltage (VL ), PV generator both voltage and current sensors developed.
output current (IA ), battery current (IS ) and load current (IL ).
Based on voltage divider circuits, low-cost voltage sensors
that increase the ADC input range were developed and three D. Software
common-mode voltage amplifiers were also used to allow mea- Fig. 5 shows the flow diagram of the process followed by the
suring differential signals in presence of high common-mode microprocessor. At start, the internet connection is established
voltage range accurately. Hall Effect sensors, LTS 15-NP from and the RTC is synchronized: these processes run every

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LÓPEZ-VARGAS et al.: IoT APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF SHSs 685

time the routine is initialized or the reset button is pressed.

In addition, once per day, at 00 AM, the RTC is synchronized
to avoid drifts. Every minute, in second 0 and second 30,
parameters are measured; data transmission and data storage
processes are carried out. Software improvements have been
developed and new processes have been included:
a) The internet access provides the possibility of syn-
chronizing the RTC using a NTP server. The clock is
synchronized at the start of the program or in case of
reset. As the drift of the RTC is a few seconds per week,
to synchronize once a day (at 00 AM) is enough.
b) The connection between the microcontroller and the
server is established by a Hypertext Transfer Proto-
col (HTTP) petition. After establishing the connection
between datalogger and server, the process of data
transferring starts.
c) The information is stored in a MySQLTM database
hosted in a server, located in the University of Jaén,
with a specific order and format.
d) Additionally, data is sent to ThingSpeak™, an open
source Internet of Thing analytics platform service that
Fig. 6. SAPV system installed at IMDEA Water Institute facilities: PV
allows inserting, visualizing and analyzing live data mono-crystalline module (a), charge controller (b) and lead-acid battery (c).
streams in the cloud.
Two types of data storage were implemented: a dedicated
server (conventional method) and a cloud service platform ThingSpeak™allows to analyze data using MATLAB without
(novel application of IoT). Both alternatives of storage allow requiring the purchase of a license from Mathworks™. Each
to monitor the system in a remote way. The use of free cloud monitoring system sends data to an individual channel. These
service platforms allows to obtain a highly accessibility and channels can be configured as a public or a private channel
cost-effective monitoring system based entirely on free SW (protected by password). In addition, mobile applications allow
and HW. to monitor ThingSpeak™channels using a smartphone. Free
In the first option (conventional), the measured data is users are limited to 10 million messages (3+ years at minimum
stored in the main base PC (located in the University of update interval, 15s) and 8 fields per channel. Irradiance
Jaén) which serves as the server for the website, such that (Gi ), ambient temperature (Tamb ), PV module temperature
users can retrieve data from any previous date within the (Tmod ), PV generator output voltage (VA ), battery voltage
monitoring period. The web-based monitoring feature was (VS ), PV generator output current (IA ), battery current (IS )
included for adding value to the global monitoring system. The and load current (IL ) parameters were selected for monitoring.
website allows users to observe the monitored parameters and
statistical data, as well as other information: daily production, VI. E XPERIMENTAL S ET-U P
charge of battery or consumptions. The website was developed Studies on rural electrification in developing countries and
in HTML language while the table and graph were created renewable-based initiatives energy programs were previously
by integrating PHP code and library from Highcharts. The reviewed by López-Vargas et al. [19]. Two real SAPV sys-
parameters monitored are processed and analyzed to produce tems, similar to those typically employed in developing coun-
information that can be understood easily by users; data is tries, were installed in different locations to verify the proper
protected by password and the information is represented in functioning of the monitoring system under real conditions:
graphs. The website is accessible using the following link: a) Alcalá SAPV system: The SAPV system (Fig. 6) was
http://energiaagua.ujaen.es/FVMonitor/. located at the test facilities in IMDEA Water Institute
On the other hand, a second option was also developed, (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain, latitude 40.513°
as the advantages of open cloud systems are really inter- N, longitude 3.339° E). The PV system included an
esting for this type of applications: they provide large data 80W mono-crystalline module, a 12 V lead-acid battery
storage, high reliability and low-cost. Cloud systems reduce (90Ah-C100) and a PWM serial charge controller.
the cost of data storage facilities and extra maintenance to b) Linares SAPV system: The SAPV system was composed
keep or maintain the data. Open cloud-based IoT platforms by a 100W mono-crystalline module, a 12 V lead-acid
and services were reviewed [35]. ThingSpeakTM, an open IoT battery (90Ah-C100) and a PWM serial charge con-
data platform based on public cloud technology was selected troller. The real SAPV system (Fig.7) was installed at
mainly due to its variety of third party platforms that include the test facilities in the University of Jaén, in the Linares
Arduino and Twitter amongst others. ThingSpeak™platform School of Engineering (Linares, Jaén, Spain, latitude
stores and retrieves data from things using HTTP over internet. 38,085°N, longitude 3,646°W).

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686 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

Fig. 8. Weather stations installed in Alcalá de Henares (a) and Linares (b).

Fig. 7. SAPV system installed at University of Jaén facilities: PV

mono-crystalline module (a), charge controller (b) and lead-acid battery (c).

Another version of the ArduinoTM solar datalogger was

installed in the School of Science of the University Benito
Juarez of Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico, latitude 17.047° N, longi-
tude 96.712° W). This datalogger was connected directly to the
Internet via cable, using the Ethernet input of the board. In this
case, the datalogger measures meteorological parameters; data
is sent to the Linares server.
Typical domestic energy consumption of a household in
developing countries will usually have several lamps for
lighting and it might also have a small household appliance.
A real load profile was designed by López-Vargas et al. [19]
identifying all the commonly used appliances in terms of
power and hours of usage per day for estimating the daily
energy consumption used in this work. The load system was Fig. 9. Final prototype assembly. Datalogger installed in Alcalá de
Henares (a) and datalogger installed in Linares (b). The datalogger uses
composed by two 12 V luminaries of 3 W and 50 W, respec- 9 small PCBs for electrical sensing (current and voltage measurements). The
tively. The total daily energy consumption of the designed load load control system includes an ArduinoTM UNO board and a relay system.
profile was 79 Wh.
Each SAPV system had also their own low-cost modular
weather station (Fig. 8), including a calibrated solar cell from indicated how the new 3G datalogger monitored and sent the
NousolTM to measure solar global irradiance in the same data correctly for the complete period of time.
plane of the PV mono-crystalline module (Gi ), a DHT22 The measurements were compared with a commercial mon-
digital sensor with shield protector to monitor ambient tem- itoring system that acted as a pattern. This pattern commer-
perature (Tamb ) and relativity humidity (H), a Small Wind cial monitoring system was an AgilentTM 34972 datalogger
Transmitter sensor from Thies Clima to measure horizontal of 22 bits with a voltage accuracy resolution of 0.004% that
wind speed (W) and a rain gauge sensor from PronamicTM to uses LabviewTM . Every 30 s, this datalogger measured and
measure rainfall (R). recorded the same parameters as the ArduinoTM datalogger.

VII. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS A. Electrical and Meteorological Parameters Monitoring:

Fig. 9 shows the final prototype of the new low-cost Comparison With Commercial Datalogger
datalogger installed in Alcalá de Henares (Fig.9a) and Linares Lopez-Vargas et al. demonstrated in 2018 that the
(Fig. 9b). At both sites, the results from the testing period ArduinoTM datalogger works well under adverse climatic

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LÓPEZ-VARGAS et al.: IoT APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF SHSs 687

Fig. 11. Voltages measured in (a) Alcalá de Henares (27/07/2017) and

(b) Linares (20/03/2017) sites under clean sky conditions.
Fig. 10. Irradiance and ambient temperatures measured in (a) Alcalá de
Henares (27/07/2017) and (b) Linares (20/03/2017) sites under clean sky
conditions.
quality of the data is excellent (meteorological and electri-
cal) as indicated previously. All the dataloggers have been
conditions [19]. As expected, the new datalogger continued to intensively tested over a period of 12 months, identifying the
measure correctly both the meteorological and electrical para- performance of the datalogger when a failure occurred. The
meters, always complying with the IEC standard. Fig.10 shows dataloggers only failed in 4 occasions over the year, due to
an example of the daily variations of the solar irradiance and different reasons. One of these errors was an access failure
the ambient temperature monitored by the low-cost ArduinoTM (to the server installed in Linares). The datalogger located in
datalogger and the commercial AgilentTM datalogger in Alcalá Oaxaca registered 1 error as a result of a network outage. The
de Henares (Fig.10a) and Linares (Fig. 10b), revealing the cor- datalogger installed in Alcalá de Henares failed in 1 occasion
rect functioning of the ArduinoTM datalogger: the uncertainly due to a power shortage. An equipment failure was detected
of irradiance measures was below the 8 % required by the in the datalogger installed in Linares. The experimental results
standard and the mean absolute errors of measured ambient showed that after 12 months under operation, taking into
temperatures were better than the ±1 °C required. account the low number of failures and that the most of
Regarding electrical parameters, Fig. 11 shows an example the failures are due to external factors, the datalogger is
of the daily variations of the PV generator output voltage, highly reliable. Details on the errors of different origin were
the battery voltage and the load voltage monitored by the low- registered:
cost ArduinoTM datalogger in Alcalá de Henares (Fig. 11a) 1) Access Failure: On 16/11/2017, it was detected an access
and Linares (Fig. 11b) sites. Battery voltage line and load failure to the server installed in Linares. This failure affected
voltage line overlap. The voltages measured by the ArduinoTM all three systems (dataloggers sent data to the same server).
datalogger using low-cost sensors under clear sky conditions In the experimental phase, one of the problems encoun-
shown in the Fig. 11 demonstrate the correct functioning of the tered was the loss of data sent for brief periods of time.
ArduinoTM datalogger. The uncertainly of electrical measures As previously stated, each datalogger sends the collected
was below the 2% required by the standard. data to a dedicated server, located in the Superior School of
Linares. Eventually, because of performing the maintenance
B. System Reliability activities by the university, the server installed in Linares was
During the experimental period, it has been verified that disconnected for short periods of time (it was beyond our
all the installed dataloggers send data correctly and that the scope of work: these maintenance works were carried out

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688 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

Fig. 13. Temperatures recorded by the datalogger in Linares, a previous day

before the failure (24/06/2017).

TABLE V
E XAMPLE OF E XTREME C ONDITIONS R ECORDED IN THE D AYS B EFORE
THE FAILURE . D ATA R ECORDED ON 24/06/2017

Fig. 12. Global horizontal irradiance (G0 ) and in-plane irradiance (G17 )
data registered in the network failure period in Oaxaca. Data recorded on
17/6/2017 (a) and 19/6/2017 (b).

by the general university technical unit). In these periods, with the Ardino datalogger, another commercial dataloggerr
the datalogger could not establish the connection to the server (LabJackTM U12 series) was installed. This commercial dat-
and data was not received or stored. The server downtimes lead alogger stored the data in a folder shared over the Internet.
to observe the behavior of the datalogger under this condition: On 17/06/2017, the datalogger stopped sending data to the
it was verified that as soon as the server functioned again, server as shown in Fig 12.a. It was observed that, the com-
the monitoring system was reconnected and the data was sent mercial datalogger, stopped sending data too. On 19/06/2017,
again and stored as normal. the solar datalogger (Fig 12b) and the commercial datalogger
2) Power Failure: Another data: in Alcalá de Henares, started sending data again. As the commercial datalogger has
on 21/05/2017 a power failure was detected in the Alcalá to be initialized manually in case of power failure, the bug
de Henares site. Problems with AgilentTM pattern datalogger was registered as a network failure.
occurred due to power shortages that forced to initialize the The ArduinoTM datalogger stopped sending data to the
software and perform maintenance. The ArduinoTM datalogger server due to a (WAN) network error. This failure served to
was designed to start-up without external help after power verify empirically that after a network failure, the datalogger
shortages and it did not require any external initialization. This can re-hook and resend the data, as designed by the software.
result is of special interest since the SAPV systems studied Subsequently, other networks failures were registered with a
in this work are usually installed in isolated and inaccessible certain frequency in the Oaxaca site, and these failures have
regions. The datalogger does not require external help to led to the loss of data in the fault period. It was found that,
recover from a power failure; the datalogger does not need often in developing countries, due to the quality of the wired
an external operator. In addition to providing the reliability to networks it is common to suffer successive Internet drops; it
the system, it was empirically proved the proper functioning was empirically proved that the monitoring system based on
of the system without the need for maintenance, reducing the transmission via mobile communications is more reliable than
operational costs of the monitoring system to a minimum. a data acquisition system that is wired network dependent.
3) Network Failure: The solar ArduinoTM datalogger 4) Equipment Failure: The datalogger installed in Linares
installed in Oaxaca provided information on how the new recorded a fall on 29/06/2017. The system was completely
monitoring system responds to a network failure. Jointly inoperative; it stopped sending data to the server and the

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LÓPEZ-VARGAS et al.: IoT APPLICATION FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF SHSs 689

Fig. 14. Online web-page view of data measured in the Linares site: graphs
on 13/06/2017.

TABLE VI
B UDGET FOR THE L OW-C OST D ATALOGGER

Fig. 15. ThingSpeak™ visualization of parameters measured by the moni-

toring system located in Alcalá de Henares.

inside the electrical cabinet (where the datalogger was

located), exceeded the ambient temperature, reaching
47 degrees Celsius as shown in Table V. The operating tem-
perature of the entire connectivity system (router and modem)
recommended by the manufacturer was 10 °C - 40 °C. As the
maximum operative conditions of the system were reached,
by all accounts, it was an equipment failure in the connectivity
system due to the high temperatures. After inspecting the
cloud. In Linares, the summer period usually contains some
system it was found that, in effect, the data delivery system
of the harshest environmental conditions for PV systems and
(consisted of the nanorouter and the modem) stopped working.
electronic equipment, including temperatures up to 45°, dust
The connectivity system was not broken, but it was necessary
storms (from winds from the Sahara Desert), and occasional
to reset the nanorouter and configure it again manually.
electrical storms with high speeds and heavy rain. In the days
before the failure, ambient temperatures (Tamb ) were recorded
above 40 degrees Celsius as shown in Fig. 13. Table V includes C. Data Visualizations
a summary of the daily environmental parameters recorded As the main novelty of this work, the remote visualization
on 24/06/2017 by the datalogger, including temperatures, of the data in real time via web or smartphone stands out,
irradiance, humidity and horizontal wind speed. due to the incorporation of connectivity to the system via
Although a cooling system consisting of two fans was 3G. The parameters monitored are processed and analyzed to
installed, in some instances, the Tec, temperature measured produce information that can be understood easily by users;

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690 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 19, NO. 2, JANUARY 15, 2019

fee of the contracted telephone service. As the information

transmitted is very low, with a cheap data plan should be
sufficient, so this expense is not significant.

IX. C ONCLUSIONS
A novel datalogger for monitoring SAPV systems via web-
site and mobile applications has been designed, built and tested
incorporating wireless technology in it, concretely 3G, along
with IoT. Two types of data storage were tested: a dedicated
server (conventional method) and a cloud service platform
(novel application of IoT). Both alternatives of storage allow to
monitor the system in a remote way. The integration of an open
cloud-based IoT platform allowed to monitor small stand-alone
PV systems remotely in real time via web or mobile app at
low cost.
The novel datalogger based on free software and hardware
has been installed as an experimental prototype in multiple
sites: Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain), Linares (Jaén,
Fig. 16. Screenshots on an Android smartphone using ThingviewTM Spain) and Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico). The datalogger was
App: weekly (left) and daily (right) ambient temperature monitored by the tested under real and different conditions demonstrating the
datalogger located in Alcalá de Henares.
robustness of the system, working with 14 variables with low
TABLE VII uncertainty. An outdoor campaign of over ten months was
B UDGET FOR L OW C OST S ENSORS AND L OW-C OST W EATHER performed. Considering the low number of failures and their
STATION C OMPONENTS origin (the most of the failures were due to external factors),
the experimental results showed that the datalogger is highly
reliable. The cost of the monitoring system is considerably
lower than commercial devices and allows high accurate
remote monitoring.
The main novelty presented by this work is that the data-
logger complies with the IEC standard accuracy requirements
and it is designed based on wireless communications taking
into account the limitations in rural areas of developing
countries. The integrated solution has been tested and it works,
the information is represented in graphs. Fig. 14 shows a view so the datalogger could be installed solving the problem of
of the dynamic charts integrated in the website. monitoring of PV systems located in isolated regions, all at
Fig. 15 shows the visualization of data measured and sent low cost.
to the cloud on 23/01/2017 in Alcalá de Henares. The open As future works, to avoid the loss of information in case
cloud platform selected, ThingSpeak™, allows to monitor up of failures (network, access…), a backup system based on
to eight parameters and to locate the monitoring system on the a micro SD card would add value to the system; it would
map via www. prevent the loss of data, storing the measured parameters in the
Fig.16 shows the daily variations of the irradiance disconnection period. In addition, it was proven that the con-
and the module temperature using the mobile application nectivity system, working in extreme conditions (temperatures
ThingViewTM. above 40 °C) fails. As a future line, another type of cooling
system more effective and another 3G connectivity system that
supports higher temperatures could be tested. To power the
VIII. C OST E STIMATION OF THE F IRST P ROTOTYPES
monitoring system using a solar cell could be another future
The ultimate goal of this work was to develop an IoT-based improvement. Due to the stackable hardware design (by adding
prototype of a datalogger that uses a mobile communication boards) several SAPV systems installed close enough can be
transmission system and is low-cost, accurate and autonomous. monitoring using a single datalogger as a central node. The
Table VI describes the budget of the monitoring system. development of these networks is another future work.
The final cost of the new prototype, including sensing and
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