Wind Turbine need to charge Batteries
Dcline
Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭✭
Hello
looking for information to use wind powered equipment to help charge the batteries on my 17.1KW off grid solar system. I would like to augment the charging during bad/Cloudy weather.
Is there equipment out that can do this?
thank you
looking for information to use wind powered equipment to help charge the batteries on my 17.1KW off grid solar system. I would like to augment the charging during bad/Cloudy weather.
Is there equipment out that can do this?
thank you
Comments
It's expensive if you want reliability
It requires maintenance ( bearing grease and inspections, air foil repairs )
Noisy. Requires a good site, away from trees and buildings and a tall tower ( hard to do maintenance 80' up )
Often, adding more solar is a better choice.
|| Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
|| VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A
solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,
Can you tell us about your battery bank (voltage, AH, type of cells/batteries)?
Typically, for "useful" charging, something like 5% to 20% rate of charge is "useful" (i.e., 500 AH battery bank * 10% rate of charge = 50 Amp charging @ 58 volts for "48 volt" battery bank) or 50a*58v=2,900 Watt "charging source"...
Anyway, a quick example of how to "size" the wind turbine for "useful" charging.
As Mike says, Wind Turbines are difficult install and service... 30' to 100' tower (depending on location) to get into "clean air" (above local trees, building, etc.). And that can take a lot of concrete, steel, and ability to raise the tower and service the turbine.
Depending on the size of your turbine (if you use smaller models), perhaps you can get away with a "gin-pole" tower... Easier to tilt up/down.
Most locations do not have very good wind conditions--And those that do, need turbines that can reliably harvest that wind, and shutdown in high winds safely.
Typically, the turbine is the lesser of the expenses for residential wind... The tower+concrete+wiring+controllers+any crane/bucket truck rentals, etc...
We can help--But most of the stuff we do here is solar--And usually recommend more solar (cheaper and more reliable on average).
For folks farther north (away from equator), the long dark days, a wind turbine can be a nice addition to your energy harvest... But finding reliable turbines can be very difficult.
There is a fairly active (from what I have read) Do It Yourself wind turbine community out there... And if you have the skills (and land/workshop) to build your own turbine, it can be a viable solution.
-Bill
17.1 is the size of the array. Thanks for all the info. We have just moved into our new home with this off grid system. We will go through the seasons and see how this works out before we make any decisions. After reading these reply’s if we need to do anything I think I will lean towards expanding the system instead of wind turbines.
Dan
Just forget about wind turbines!