International Journal of Power Electronics and Drive Systems (IJPEDS) Vol. 13, No. 4, December 2022, pp. 2235~2243 ISSN: 2088-8694, DOI: 10.11591/ijpeds.v13.i4.pp2235-2243  2235 Journal homepage: http://ijpeds.iaescore.com A new technique in reducing self-power consumption in the controller of off-grid solar home system Mohammad Shariful Islam 1 , Siti Zaliha Mohammad Noor 2 , Hasmaini Mohamad 1 , Nur Ashida Salim 1 , Zuhaila Mat Yasin 3 1 Power System Planning and Operations Research Group (PoSPO) School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Solar Research Institute (SRI), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Power System Operation Computational Intelligence Research Group (POSC), School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Jul 1, 2022 Revised Aug 26, 2022 Accepted Sep 15, 2022 Reducing the self-power consumption of an off-grid solar home system is an economic model in which consumer employs photovoltaic (PV) system for its own electrical requirements. The latch-based clock gating approach has been employed in existing solar charge controllers to reduce integrated circuit (IC) power being used in the low-powered intended mode, although the reducing power is limited. This paper presents a self-power reduction technique based on wake-up power and latch-hold time; which minimize power supply during idle time for a solar home system. Wake-up power introduces a push-switch mechanism using typical transistor technology. Latch-hold time function is designed using an operational amplifier and negative-positive-negative (NPN) transistor. A technique with dynamic self-supply mechanism is also introduced for decreasing self-power consumption. The self-power consumption is identified via simulation studies where the result shows that the power usage is 70% lower than traditional approaches. This is determined using a simulated wave-shape analysis. Keywords: Latching Push switch mechanism Self-power consumption Sizing of solar panel Solar home system Time hold on This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Hasmaini Mohamad Power System Planning and Operations Research Group (PoSPO) School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia Email: hasmaini@uitm.edu.my 1. INTRODUCTION Installing off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in rural areas in developing countries dramatically reduces the electric load mainly on the local utility grid, lessening load shedding in the country [1]. An off- grid Solar Home System (SHS) is suitable for isolated areas with typical energy consumption for two or three lamps, one fan, and/or one television that does not exceed 150 watt peak (Wp) [2]. An off-grid SHS consists of five main elements that are a solar module, a lead-acid battery, a direct current to alternative current (DC- AC) inverter or direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converter, DC-powered home appliances, and solar charge controlling device [3]. SHS has a big challenge in minimizing self-power consumption when solar panel is only employed for power generation, and the battery is employed for energy storage [4]. The solar charge controller has been one of the fundamental elements attached to the battery, solar panel, as well as loads that monitor the charging and discharging of the battery. It is necessary to reduce its self-power consumption since the solar charger has been connected to the system for 24 hours [5].