Need advice for recently purchased used wind set-up please!

Options
Podd
Podd Registered Users Posts: 2
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
I’m new here and hope to obtain some advice from you guys! I’ve been reading around the subject but have much to learn – so would appreciate any first impressions you may have and a few answers please?

I’ve had a couple of solar panels for charging car batteries for about 5 years and have an interest in renewables. I recently saw a used wind set-up and decided to buy it for only £150 ($240) to see what I could generate. Therefore initial cost/return on investment is not a factor. The vendor had never used it and was unable to give me much information about it apart from the fact it is apparently about 6 years old and came from a farm in Wales. I’m assuming all the components do go together!

What I have is:- “Olys” 500W DC to AC Power Converter; 24V “Automatic Wind Generator Charge Controller” with gauges showing 0-30V & 0-30A but manufacturer unknown, the pcb inside is marked up in English; 3-Phase Generator weighing 32kgs, dimensions of case about 35cm long x 25cm diameter – manufacturer unknown and no data plate. The three 1.2M blades (weighing 2.3kg each) give a swept diameter of 2.5M. The tail fin is 1.5M long. Also included is a 6M pole plus guy wires, cabling etc.

Now, the vendor said it was a 24V generator rated at 500W. Whilst spinning the hub quite slowly by hand (blades not fitted) I read about 54V DC on my multimeter, through a rectifier. I’m wondering if he understated the specification? I presume the only way to find out what it generates is to install it – but from what I have listed as the equipment I have, should it all work together? Can I just connect it to a couple of 12V batteries connected in series? You’ll probably laugh at my “schoolboy errors” as I probably should know better – but I don’t ;)

Is it possible to utilise old-ish (but good) car batteries rather than leisure batteries whilst evaluating the set-up, as I don’t wish to buy expensive new ones if it transpires that my location is totally unsuited to producing wind power.

If anyone could identify the manufacturer/make of generator and controller, from the pics, that would be a great help.

Thanks in anticipation!
· Share on Twitter

Comments

  • gww1
    gww1 Solar Expert Posts: 963 ✭✭
    #2
    Options
    Re: Need advice for recently purchased used wind set-up please!

    I don't know what the turbine is. I have a 48 volt home built turbine and if I turn it at aprox 60 rpm (just counting 100,000, 200,000) I get about 17 volts and that is a bit more then I need. 15-16 volts would be better. You can also just time a minute while turning at any speed and counting the turns and when the minute is over, however many turns is your rpm..

    If you have an eight foot wide rotor, which what you have closely, you probly want to hit your battery voltage around 200 rpm. This should start giving you a tiny bit of power at about a wind speed of 7 miles an hour. This of course depends on the blade tip speed of 7 times the wind speed. If your blade is a tsr of 4 or 6 or 8, it might make power earlyer or later. You voltages seem very high for twenty four volts. It wouldn't be to high if your controller was an mppt which I doubt.

    The ways I figure the voltage/rpm is if rpm is 120 then I double my 17 volt and get 34 volts. if I want to know 180 rpm I triple the voltage and get 51 volts, my battery bank voltage. for me it would be better if I could hit that at 200 rpms.

    This method may not be perfect but will probly be good enough to figure out what you have. If I had some car batteries that where laying around I would use them for test. If I had to buy them I would look at the cheap golf cart batteries cause car batteries are not really cheap either althoug 12 volts compared to six volts will add up. If you got them I would use them for testing.

    I hope this post helps
    gww
    · Share on Twitter
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,439 admin
    #3
    Options
    Re: Need advice for recently purchased used wind set-up please!

    Call it, roughly, a 1 kWatt rated turbine (guess). Electrically, it should be pretty simple to connect.

    Turbine to rectifier to battery bank (through a fuse). Note a horizontal axis wind turbine always needs a load when the wind is blowing. If the battery bank was disconnected, the turbine in moderate to high winds would over speed and self destruct). Usually there is a switch from the turbine that can be switched from "To Battery" to "Shunt" (or similar)--This shorts the output of the turbine to stop it from turning (turn off turbine--short the output which makes it very hard to turn blades--basically the high torque stalls the blades--Used to shut down if high winds are forecast and/or for maintenance).

    The bottom box would connect to the battery bank (should be a "dump controller" + load). When the battery is charged, the dump load turns on ~1,000 Watts of resistance heater to get rid of excess charging current when the wind is blowing.

    The 500 Watt DC to AC inverter--You connect it to your battery bank (again through a circuit breaker) to supply 230 VAC @ 50 Hz (guessing) power for your AC loads.

    Your biggest issue will be to properly "fly" the wind turbine. Ideally the turbine should be mounted a least ~20 meters from the ground and 10+ meters above any local obstructions (trees, houses, buildings within several hundred meters). Wind turbines need to be in "clean air" flow. Do not mount wind turbines to the side of your home or your roof... The noise will drive you crazy and probably will damage your structure.

    Towers can cost a lot of money--As much as the rest of the system combined (structure, concrete footings, etc.). And many areas will require permits for such towers (and you do not want the turbine near any occupied buildings/where children will play. Turbines have been known to shed blades and even fall from towers (improper design, installation, bad hubs/bearings/castings).

    Our forum does not do a lot of wind systems (personally, I would highly suggest researching/building an off grid solar power system first, then if you are still interested in wind--Do wind second). Winds tend to be highly seasonal for most regions, and few areas have much useful wind at all at less than 20 meters... A 10 meter or less tower is not going to generate power for the vast majority of people).

    Here are some other forums/sources that you may wish to look at:

    www.otherpower.com (good forum for DIY Wind Power)
    Hugh Piggott - Scoraig Wind Electric site for tons of info (from mike90045)
    Scoraig Wind "Recipe Book" for DYI Turbines
    www.greenpowertalk.org (added from "russ"--Like here but more wind/less solar)

    I can give you lots of reasons I would not even attempt to install a wind system--But the first requirement is that you live in a (pretty much) miserably windy location. Most turbines will not generate any useful power below ~19 kM/h -- and will not generated rated power at less than 40 kM/H...

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
    · Share on Twitter
  • Podd
    Podd Registered Users Posts: 2
    #4
    Options
    Re: Need advice for recently purchased used wind set-up please!

    GWW, Bill,

    Thank you both for your helpful responses. I now have read up on and understand TSRs!

    I will try those sites you recommend, Bill - and revisit Solar-Electric from time to time.

    Cheers, Paul.
    · Share on Twitter

Categories