Charging LFP from a wind gen

[Sea Change]

I've got a Silentwind 400 which charges the engine/windlass batteries through its own charge controller.
I have a little Victron Orion DC-DC charger which can charge the lithium house batteries at 18A. The default settings are 12.7v input before connecting, and 12v cut off.
Generally, the wind gen cannot provide 18A continuously, so it cuts in and out.

Question- should I adjust the settings to maximise the amount of power I can get from the Orion? It's very easy to adjust and seeing as I'm on the boat full time I can turn it off when the sun comes out, so I'm not worried about long term effects on the lead acid batteries. Would lowering the voltage settings give me more output?

 

[geem]

I've got a Silentwind 400 which charges the engine/windlass batteries through its own charge controller.
I have a little Victron Orion DC-DC charger which can charge the lithium house batteries at 18A. The default settings are 12.7v input before connecting, and 12v cut off.
Generally, the wind gen cannot provide 18A continuously, so it cuts in and out.

Question- should I adjust the settings to maximise the amount of power I can get from the Orion? It's very easy to adjust and seeing as I'm on the boat full time I can turn it off when the sun comes out, so I'm not worried about long term effects on the lead acid batteries. Would lowering the voltage settings give me more output?

I used to run my Duogen directly into the lithium. It's output was so low compared to solar that i could leave it running when the batteries weren't full. If the lithium was near full I would just turn off the Duogen. It saved a lot of faffing about

 

[bergie]

I think the biggest risk is that the controller may get fried if BMS does a charge disconnect. So you may have to watch out for that.

The only wind generator that (to my understanding) is immune to this is the Superwind, where they power the controller from the wind generator instead of the battery.

We just bought a cheap Chinese wind generator, and plan to charge LiFePO4 directly from it. Initially with the charge controller it came with, and maybe upgrading to a Kiss Extractor later. This will be rigging-suspended so it'll only be in use at anchor.

We have a 100A Victron BatteryProtect between the charge sources (solar controllers, the wind generator controller) that the BMS can switch off as needed.

 

[Sea Change]

I think the biggest risk is that the controller may get fried if BMS does a charge disconnect. So you may have to watch out for that.

Which is one reason for keeping the lead acid and DC-DC in the loop.
I don't expect to be relying on the wind gen as a primary charging source, but it seems daft to have it installed and not get at least a little bit of good from it.

There's got to be an optimum setting whether the maximum possible power goes through to the lithium...

 

[bergie]

There's got to be an optimum setting whether the maximum possible power goes through to the lithium...

After discussion with the manufacturer, we configured our hydrogenerator to aim for the float voltage (13.5V) of our LiFePO4 house bank. Has worked without issues so far, charging the house bank directly with no lead-acid in the loop.

I think I'd do the same if we get the Kiss Extractor (where this is configurable unlike in the charge controller that we got with the Chinese unit).

Primary difference between the wind and hydrogenerators of course is that when we're making power with the hydro there is always someone on watch and able to pull it out of the water. I assume we're going to be more likely to leave the wind generator deployed while going ashore.

 

[geem]

After discussion with the manufacturer, we configured our hydrogenerator to aim for the float voltage (13.5V) of our LiFePO4 house bank. Has worked without issues so far, charging the house bank directly with no lead-acid in the loop.

I think I'd do the same if we get the Kiss Extractor (where this is configurable unlike in the charge controller that we got with the Chinese unit).

Primary difference between the wind and hydrogenerators of course is that when we're making power with the hydro there is always someone on watch and able to pull it out of the water. I assume we're going to be more likely to leave the wind generator deployed while going ashore.

With a dump type regulator, you simply set a voltage at which it start to dump. You could set 13.8v and never have an issue.