Will a wind gen regulator also work for a solar panel

Conachair

Conachair

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Anyone know how a solar panel regulator works? I have on fitted with my wind gen which switches on a resister (basically a small bar heater)in parellel when the voltage gets above I think it's 14.2v. Would this work for a solar panel as well or do I need to fork out more cash for a seperate one.
Thanks
 
there are "splitters" regulators that accept both inputs .... Maplins and various outlets have them.
 
Paddy, I can say with reasonable authority that the regulator you have will take more load than the Aerogen puts in. What I'm not so sure of is whether the output from your solar panel can be connected directly to the output of the Aerogen... which is what would happen if you were to connect them both to the regulator without a diode system.

Can someone else offer any input on that?
 
I might be wrong about the voltage at which it kicks in but it seems to work. If the batterries are fully charged and there's nothing turned on you can hear it kicking in when there's a bigger gust. Also, it kicks in when the battery charger is turned on (sterling 20a smart) but not if the charger is set to gel. Basically I think the regulator stops the voltage across the battery terminals getting above 14.2v, I just turned the charger on and when the voltage got to 14.2 you could hear the buzz of it kicking in. In a 5 or a 6 I would get maybe 4/5 A out of the aerogen (BEP battery meter). Surely all systems must be similar in that outputs of both solar panels and wind gen need to be paralleled at the battery? I'm fitting a rocker switch today so that I can easily turn on and off the aerogen regulator. The BEP meter makes it easy to see the state of the batterys and what the voltage ? current in out is.
Ta
 
I have two brand new 12v/12 amp solar regulators, You can have one for nowt if you can find me in Mallorca/menorca in August or Barcelona in October.
 
Kind offer, doubt if I'll be in those necks of the woods then but if I am I might hunt you down even if just for a glass of wine.
Cheers
 
Should work just fine, just watch how hot your amp dump gets - wires have been known to scorch in high winds. We had a similar setup on our boat - funnily enough an Ebbtide 33 !! We spent a season in the carib and had to tie off the genny frequently as the hot seat (where the amp dump was located beneath) frequently became too hot ! Solar panel supplied all our needs.

Hows the Ebbtide going? We have just sold ours and are building something completely different. Fantastic boat, it'll always look after you - heavy weather tactics are straight forward - go below, make a cup if tea, wait for it to go away! - Boat will be fine.

We averaged just over 5 1/2 knots for the Atlantic circuit - we wouldn't have been quicker in a cruising plastic boat the same size, but we would be dead had we hit the same whale.
Rgds
JackIron
 
We've got a Rutland HRDX charge controller. It regulates the charge from both the wind generator and solar panels, adds them together, and can charge two independent battery banks at the same time. It also has a switch which allows you to electrically stop the generator from spinning. This also engages automatically to prevent battery overcharging. It displays the various charges coming from each input device, and also displays the potential difference at each battery bank. Quite a neat little unit.
 
A solar panel regualtor is different to a wind generator regulator.

The wind generator has to dump the extra power generated by the wind generator when the battery becomes fully charged. One of the ways is to switch the power to a resistor ,as you describe, to absorb the excess power.

With a solar panel I have used 2 types. The simplest just switched off the feed from the panel to the bottery when the battery voltage reaches it set point usually between 14 and 14.3 volts and switches back on at about 13.4-13.6 volts so no current is drawn from the panel when the regulator switches off. The panel does to it open circuit voltage

The other type of solar panel regulator is the same as the 3 / 4 stage battery charges except the power comes from the solar panel and not a mains powered power supply
 
I'm pretty sure that the output of solar panel arrays tends to be of the order of 17-19v, but how that affects anything else connected to it is a question for an expert!

I'm unsure of what you will gain by turning off the regulator though, as it only kicks in (and buzzes) when the batteries are fully charged, and that is when you need it! Saying that, an unregulated 4-5A charge rate is unlikely to boil the batteries on a liveaboard boat.

One device I fitted to Sylvia was this:
http://www.mailspeedmarine.com/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/104826

Which takes inputs from the Aerogen and the solar panel(s) and splits charge to the 2 battery banks. I thought it was pretty neat to be able to see the current output from the wind gen and the solar panel separately or jointly and the voltage of all batteries. No buzzing either! Not so cheap, but easily fitted.
 
I was only going to turn the regulator off when using the mains charger, it's clever enough to pump in more than 14v for a little while. I suppose I could wire a little relay so that when the regulator kicks in it puts the solar panel into open circuit. But I've been crawling around bilges and inside lockers with a crimper and soldering iron for about a week now so time to think of something else for a minute. Like red wine. Boatwork should be thought off not as man days but headtorch battery hours! And swearwords per hour.
Thanks for all help.
 
YES - DIAGRAM ATTACHED

aerogen-solar.gif



If you or anyone would like the full manuals for aerogen, pm me your e-mail address. They were sent to me by the nice people who build the gear so there is no copyright issue.
 
Re: YES - DIAGRAM ATTACHED

THANKS. Regulator I have is slightly different in that it has only four cables, red & black to battery +/- and 2 white to dump resister but can't see that it would make much difference. Solar panel is still seeing a load at the dump resister so isn't short circuited. And I need a diode in there somewhere, presumable do stop slight discharge at night.
Ta V much.
 
I used to have a wind generator and I had a regulator that worked in a similar way to the one you are describing but there was a major difference: the output from the regulator had a diode which prevented current flowing back from the battery to the regulator. The regulator would only dump current when the voltage <u>produced by the wind generator</u> exceeded a defined threshhold.

This meant that the battery voltage could exceed this value when the mains charger was in its bulk or equalisation phases without the regulator trying to dump current to pull the voltage down to its own regulation level.

Your manual switch will perform the same function as the diode as long as you remember to use it.

Basically there are two ways of regulating: series regulators and parallel (or shunt) regulators. Series regulators adjust a series resistance to maintain a particular voltage (or current, if a constant current type regulator). Parallel regulators adjust a resistance in parallel with the output to obtain a similar effect.

Wind generators need to use a parallel regulator. With a series one they would end up with no load in a high wind - and spin very fast generating large and destructive internal voltages.
 
Not sure that would work with mine. The regulator is attached to the battery terminals so presumable it just sees the voltage across there, can't see how it could know where the voltage is coming from, aerogen or charger. Would be nice to have it hands free, though I am becoming quite obsessive about the whole thing. Worst thing that could happen is to forget to turn the switch back on when not on mains power allowing the aerogen to pump too much into the batterys. Saying that I don't use the charger much anyway, laptop has biggest draw on the boat and it usuall goes straight into the mains if I'm at a marina or stays in case otherwise. Hopefully with a solar panel I could forget the mains charger most of the time.
 
The diode was built into the regulator in my case but it could be external between the positive side of the shunt and the positive terminal of the battery(ies). Whenever the regulator voltage is less than the battery voltage the diode is reverse biased and isolates the battery (and mains charger, etc.) from the regulator.

If your regulator and shunt a physically seperate items then the regulator output would need to go to the shunt side of the diode rather than the battery side. In my scratchy little diagram I've lumped the regulator and its shunt all into one box.
seriesreg.jpg
 
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