wind turbine RPM question

Re: wind turbine RPM question

Hi Mike. Welcome to the forum. Do you have a make and model # we can google? To be truly honest, almost all small wind turbines are little more than hype, hope and high expectations, but deliver huge disappointments. I'm one of the thousands who have been burned. Dished out the money and got an interesting looking conversation piece. Unfortunately, interesting looking conversation pieces don't charge batteries.
Hopefully the ones you're looking at are different, but don't get your hopes up yet.

Re: wind turbine RPM question

I can not say about seller. I just know the small ginlong generator is in the tlgwindpower generator. I think they have a fairly good representation.

As I understand it ginlong just makes the generators not blades.

I pickup a few wind turbine setups and they had some ginlong generators in them. I do not have any metrics to compare the generators. THe gl 1500 lv which i believe you are asking about is sitting in my garage.

I also have a few gl 1800 hv(1800 watts). this is designed to be a grid tie wind turbine. It was sold with 5' blades. So 10ft diameter. I have it on a small test mount. I rewired the internal of the generator to lower to voltage a bit I do not need +400v to 600v It does very well to stop when leads are shorted. I just had it the other day in a strong wind. Can not tell you the exact wind speed. but definately over 20mph. It was hooked to a battery basically just clamping the speed. Wind was getting hard so I figured I play with the generator. I took leads off the battery and let the unit spin up for a few seconds. It spiked up to 200v very quickly and would have kept going. I had a multimeter on hand. I actually saw the pole which it was mounted starting to bend. I then shorted the leads and unit came to a quick stop.

So take what you want from this. I believe ginlong a fairly well built. but only have and air x as a comparision. and an air x is basically worthless so the ginlong looks fairly nice. tlgwindpower.com for the smaller generators

Re: wind turbine RPM question

Go with PMA turbine (Permanent Magnet Alternators). They have age old proven technology since the 1940's. Have 4 of them and after 3 years are working fine. See my site.

You'll get about 12v @ 150 rpm and more volts/amps the faster it spins. Generally a 5-7 mph wind will give results. Not nearly 1500 watts, yet proven to work.

Was always fond of the VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine). They work the best in low winds, wear n tear.

Re: wind turbine RPM question

animatt wrote: »

It is a bit hard to move power at low voltages.
http://www.solar-electric.com/wire-loss-tables.html

even for sub 100w power levels cables get thick FAST.

But like everything else depends on your situation. If your power level(usage) benefits from some wind power contribution at 50-100w it is a different story.


I do like the general idea which Chris pushes high voltage wind generators charging a battery back via mppt controller. definately helps with his higher power wind turbines.

Matthew

Agree re the higher voltage and MPPT. I had a "Hornet" wind turbine with PMA alternator that claimed 700 watts output, took it down after a couple of years as it was useless, gave everything away but for the alternator. The PM alternator has been operating perfectly for at least 5 years now, 24/7/365 on my micro micro hydro project. At the moment (as is typical) it's output voltage is 34 volts DC and it's pushing almost 5 amps through close to 400 feet of #2 aluminum cable (800 feet return) to a TS-MPPPT-60 controller which in turn is dumping 164 watts into my 12 volt system. The cable was scrap, had to splice it in a number of places, but didn't cost me anything. Very, very pleased with this set up. By the way, did have to add a fan to the alternator, as unlike high on a pole where it wasn't producing more than 5 or 10 watts except in a tropical storm or hurricane, and would have wind blowing through it's guts, it would overheat in hydro operation. In fact, before I added the fan, the the alternator got too hot to touch and melted the plastic insulating sleeves in the stator slots!

Re: wind turbine RPM question

I am just posting a link to chris's website. http://dairylandwindpower.us/index.html
he does not come around here any more to post. Just in case anyone in the future is interested.
also his posts here can be found http://forum.solar-electric.com/member.php?9634-ChrisOlson




Wayne you might have went over this before but why the large mppt controller for such small loads. Was it the internet capabilities of the controller?
I could imagine one of the small sun saver mppt would probably work for your situation, or if you wanted more head room the ts 45 mppt controller?

matthew

Re: wind turbine RPM question

BB. wrote: »

I don't remember if this was Wayne's issue... But the TS MPPT controllers have something like a maximum 140-150 VDC maximum input voltage--The small Sunsaver MPPT has ~70-75 VDC.

If the alternator ever becomes "unloaded", the 34 volts will probably go way over 70 volts and can damage the charge controller.

-Bill

Bill, you hit the nail on the head! I used to use a Sunsaver MPPT on the turbine and all was OK for a long time, but sometimes, not thinking, instead of gradually opening the inlet, I would suddenly open the gate at the inlet to the 200 foot penstock, and that water then gained speed, till it hit the nozzle, creating was a sudden surge in pressure and a brief high-reving of the alternator. Finally the voltage surges took out the Sunsaver
The TS-MPPT-60 handles the surges, + the additional 900 watts solar without any problems. The MPP loaded voltage of the alternator matches the MPP voltage of the PV close enough that all works well together.