Equipment needed to produce a Power Curve?

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Timmy
Timmy Registered Users Posts: 1
in Wind Power Generation #1
Sorry mods if this topic has been done to death.I thought it would be rude to hijack someone's thread. I've built a 24VDC "Hugh Piggott" wind turbine and recently bought a anemometer that has an sd card function to store the wind speed.I have still to buy a charge controller,rectifier and inverter .I have sourced a charge controller with an sd card function to data log the current produced however I was wondering what equipment is out there to measure the voltage produced by the system.Is there any cheap and cheerful option to solve this?

Thanks in advance
-Timmy
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,440 admin
    #2
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    Re: Equipment needed to produce a Power Curve?

    Welcome to the forum Timmy!

    Actually, that subject has not been discussed too much... And, just over the last couple of days we have some posts:

    Meter for amp hours produced
    Question about performance monitoring.

    Read through those two threads... And feel free to ask your questions here in this thread (your setup, your thread, makes it much easier to keep things straight).

    Monitoring the output of your turbine should be very helpful.

    Something else for you to consider--If you are "serious" about wind power (turbine mounted on 60-90+ foot tall tower, very windy area, good non-turbulent flow, etc.), you may wish to consider using an MPPT type charge controller designed to support wind turbines. Besides having logging functions, an MPPT controller can double or triple the output of your turbine (matches the output of the alternator IV curve to that of the battery bank).

    Midnite Classic + Clipper would be a good place to start
    Midnite mfg + their forum

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • ChrisOlson
    ChrisOlson Banned Posts: 1,807 ✭✭
    #3
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    Re: Equipment needed to produce a Power Curve?
    Timmy wrote: »
    however I was wondering what equipment is out there to measure the voltage produced by the system.Is there any cheap and cheerful option to solve this?

    Hi Timmy - there is no cheap and cheerful solution that I am aware of. But APRS makes some excellent data logging equipment for wind and RE systems.
    http://www.aprsworld.com/productionlogger/pricing.php

    There are various sensors you can buy and they typically custom build a data logging system to suit your needs. I have used a APRS wind data logger for years here, and very happy with it. Like Bill mentioned, the MidNite Classic 150 MPPT controllers also do probably the best data logging in the business for battery charging wind turbines. Using a PC with the MidNite Status Panel software interfaced with the controller via ethernet, the Classic will log every two seconds:
    - Battery Voltage
    - kWh
    - total kWh
    - FET temp in the controller
    - input voltage from the turbine (usually much higher than battery voltage with a MPPT system)
    - watts
    - amp-hours produced
    - PCB temp in the controller
    - battery current
    - input current from the power source
    - battery temperature
    - charge stage status
    --
    Chris
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