New guy intro with question

bashmaki
bashmaki Registered Users Posts: 3
in Wind Power Generation #1
I'm a trained tech guy and have been messing with solar for awhile. I am now thinking of venturing into the wind arena on a small scale (back up for solar on a class B motor home) and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this chinese (assumtion here) MPPT charge controller. I am going to make my own turbine gen set as a project. I know MIDNITE makes one but I'm not ready to lay out that kind of dough for a small system right now. I am currently running a BZ250 with my solar panel.
I live in North Dakota and I think the wind would be a good compliment to the solar for my class B.

Thanks,
Gus
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  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: New guy intro with question

    Welcome to the forum.... do yourself a favour and search out BZ charge controllers , IMHO you may want a get a real CC for you setup.Morning star is a reputable supplier.
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #3
    Re: New guy intro with question

    Welcome to the forum Gus.

    You have a BZ charge controller? You poor man. :p They are notoriously poor units.

    Small wind is not that great, especially as an attachment to an RV. It won't be that far up in the air to get non-turbulent wind. This doesn't mean it won't work at all, just don't expect miracles okay?

    You didn't actually give any info on the charge controller you were wondering about. In any case, a turbine would require some form of diversion controller & dump load (in the off chance it may actually produce too much power when the batteries are charged).

    Honestly you would probably be better off by maximizing the available panel space and getting a better charge controller.
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  • gww1
    gww1 Solar Expert Posts: 963 ✭✭
    #4
    Re: New guy intro with question

    If you match the turbine to your battery voltage you could build a divertion controller with a Ghurd controller kit. I found the most exspensive part of building it being the actual divertion load. If you want mppt for a turbine, you might want to get that first and build you turbine to better fit the mppt.
    good luck
    gww
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  • bashmaki
    bashmaki Registered Users Posts: 3
    #5
    Re: New guy intro with question

    OK so the BZ charge controller isn't good . . .it works. For waht I paid for it if it quits tommorrow I'm out nothing. I bought it used for 50 bucks and it's been faithfully controlling the charge for 300 ah of batteries for awhile. I bought it because of two things 1) it was available 2) it was an MPPT controller. In North Dakota you can't be choosy about such things. You have no idea what I went through to get AGM batteries up here. I got that dear in the headlights look everywhere I went.
    Here is the link I forgot last time I posted.

    http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/MPPT-wind-turbine-charge-controller-Can-be-used-for-AIR-X-and-AIR-BREEZE-wind-turbine/403386_496367400.html

    Like I said, this is all experimental right now. I don't expect miracles from wind; if you read my post it is to be backup to solar. If you are a perfectionist quit reading my posts; I have no time for perfectionism. There is too much of it on the Inet.
    I do however want solid, practical advise. The other advise about the Ghurd kit and buying the MPPT controller first; i can use that advise. Thanks. I will look into that.
    If I was looking to make this all easy I would just buy more solar and get a larger better MPPT controller and buy more storage but that would be too easy;) I just want to mess with this stuff to see what I can do with it.

    Thanks again,
    Gus
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: New guy intro with question

    Avoid that controller. It's a fake.
    "Only need 3V wind turbine voltage it will can charge your battery" - this is not possible.
    The pictures of the circuit board show far too few parts to be an MPPT controller. No wonder it's only $85.
    I see no mention of its current handling capacity either.

    Design the turbine to meet your battery Voltage specs. Spend the money on a good PWM type diversion controller. $85 ought to get you 15 Amps of controller.
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  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: New guy intro with question

    here is a good selection of PWM types from the forum sponsor. http://www.solar-electric.com/stpwmchco.html

    ps none of the mods here are associated with NAWS
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #8
    Re: New guy intro with question

    The Morningstar small units aren't meant for diversion, btw. If you want to go small this Xantrex C35 would probably be a good choice: http://www.solar-electric.com/tracc35solch.html
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  • bashmaki
    bashmaki Registered Users Posts: 3
    #9
    Re: New guy intro with question

    I was just looking at these c 35's but I found out the C40 has a heat sink, which might be nice. @111.00 not a bad price!
    Thanks,
    Gus
    Cariboocoot wrote: »
    The Morningstar small units aren't meant for diversion, btw. If you want to go small this Xantrex C35 would probably be a good choice: http://www.solar-electric.com/tracc35solch.html
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