wind turbines - what do you use as a dump?

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Sailingsaves

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For those that use turbines, what do you use as a dump when the controller states batteries are fully charged and gale is blowing, so controller sends electricity from turbine to the dump to save damage to turbine.

I am talking about controllers that don't use a brake obviously and assuming you are not the sort to go out and tie the turbine off.
 
Sailingsaves said:
For those that use turbines, what do you use as a dump when the controller states batteries are fully charged and gale is blowing, so controller sends electricity from turbine to the dump to save damage to turbine.

I am talking about controllers that don't use a brake obviously and assuming you are not the sort to go out and tie the turbine off.
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MIne an LVM Aerogen 6 had a big dump resistor and it's own regulator and divider to feed any combo of 3 battery banks, but I added on/off switches on each output too so I could select where the charge went That said I did tie it off when not needed. or more to the point did not untie it unless need. Our solar panels did the job mostly as we had a 75W permanently mounted and a 120W that I put out on deck only when required , at ancho. I had a switch on the fixed solar panels too ( The other was unpluggable at a deck socket) and had to turn it off one/both on occasion as the volts were getting a tad high even tough we were running a fridge/freezer 24/7 at anchor, in Southern Brittany. I had both voltmeters and ammeters on the wind and solar circuits to monitor what was going on from each source...
 
Robin said:
MIne an LVM Aerogen 6 had a big dump resistor and it's own regulator and divider to feed any combo of 3 battery banks, but I added on/off switches on each output too so I could select where the charge went That said I did tie it off when not needed. or more to the point did not untie it unless need. Our solar panels did the job mostly as we had a 75W permanently mounted and a 120W that I put out on deck only when required , at ancho. I had a switch on the fixed solar panels too ( The other was unpluggable at a deck socket) and had to turn it off one/both on occasion as the volts were getting a tad high even tough we were running a fridge/freezer 24/7 at anchor, in Southern Brittany. I had both voltmeters and ammeters on the wind and solar circuits to monitor what was going on from each source...
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I have the same these past 20 yrs, feeding domestic bank but recently fitted a vsr too
 
I wish we had an Aerogen 6, we actually have the aero4aquagen. The 4 is great but I wish we had more wind capacity - the aqua4 gen part is brilliant (I think ITT discontinued it). You can never have too much electricity capacity.

We use standard dump resistors, as supplied. They have worked flawlessly.

Jonathan
 
coopec said:
I planned to heat water in the HWS. Is that not on?
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Well, best to ask those more knowledgeable than I am (I am tinkering and experimenting and learning).

All I will say is that water needs to be heated above 60 degrees C to kill legionnaires' disease. Also, it is the spray / mist of water that is inhaled that gives one legionnaires' disease; so baths in hospitals would be better than showers (at least that is what I have been told by a person in the know - he said one could drink contaminated water with no ill affects, but inhaling the mist could kill you).

The resistors are good and reliable.

Where does one fit them for safety?

How about using 12V air heaters as a dump £3.99 buys a 100Watt heater for winter use (taking a lot of safety precautions)? Or dump to a lot of peltier chips with heat sinks and 12V fans attached? (for summer use)?

Water ingress to bearings???? I thought I read somewhere recently (could have been oly applicable to old turbines? that turbines need to spin most of time (esp in wind) as this ensures rain is 'thrown off' ?

If so, then allowing a turbine to spin (even if at a lower rate in a gale via loading the turbine with various dumps / brake) would be better?

More questions than answers. But having batteries fully topped up always seems good (using solar and wind would be my preference). At moment, just experimenting at home.
 
Dougal Tolan said:
And when the water is hot enough?......
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The dump load should be dimensioned to dissipate the generators maximum output power. You can use a "car ceramic heater" or a regular 12/24/48v immersion heater. If you need a higher capacity dump load you can use a cheap DC-AC inverter to generate 240volts and a domestic oil filled radiator.

(I PINCHED THE ABOVE FROM AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE WHICH I THINK IS HIGHLY RELEVANT TO THIS THREAD)

Wind Turbine Regulators and Charge Controllers. Part 1.

http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Wind-Tur...-Controllers-Part-1-/10000000006308446/g.html
 
Neeves said:
I wish we had an Aerogen 6, we actually have the aero4aquagen. The 4 is great but I wish we had more wind capacity - the aqua4 gen part is brilliant (I think ITT discontinued it). You can never have too much electricity capacity.

We use standard dump resistors, as supplied. They have worked flawlessly.


With apologies to the Op for thread drift..

Jonathan
Click to expand...


The Aerogen 6 worked just fine but in truth was put out of business when we added a 120W 'roving' solar panel that we would lay on the coachroof usually only when at anchor. THe wind gennie was untied on longer passages at sea when we were running autopilot, lights etc in addition to the fridge/freezer. I had no regulator on that panel ( just a simple plug or unplug from a deck socket or the fixed 75W panel mounted on the stern goal posts, but had simple push/pull switches in both circuits and simple volt meters and ammeters so I could see what went on.
 
Sailingsaves said:
Well, best to ask those more knowledgeable than I am (I am tinkering and experimenting and learning).

All I will say is that water needs to be heated above 60 degrees C to kill legionnaires' disease. Also, it is the spray / mist of water that is inhaled that gives one legionnaires' disease; so baths in hospitals would be better than showers (at least that is what I have been told by a person in the know - he said one could drink contaminated water with no ill affects, but inhaling the mist could kill you).

The resistors are good and reliable.

Where does one fit them for safety?

How about using 12V air heaters as a dump £3.99 buys a 100Watt heater for winter use (taking a lot of safety precautions)? Or dump to a lot of peltier chips with heat sinks and 12V fans attached? (for summer use)?

Water ingress to bearings???? I thought I read somewhere recently (could have been oly applicable to old turbines? that turbines need to spin most of time (esp in wind) as this ensures rain is 'thrown off' ?

If so then allowing a turbine to spin, t (even if at a lower rate in a gale via loading the turbine with various dumps / brake) would be better?

More questions than answers. But having batteries fully topped up always seems good (using solar and wind would be my preference). At moment, just experimenting at home.
Click to expand...

In the lazerette out of the way the controller is there too

​I rebuilt mine about a yr ago after 25 + yrs of faithful service, i had replaced the bearings once before. The rectifier was duff so new rectifier,bearings (ss on the outside ends of pole & rotor shaft) + new blades total cost approx £200.

Mine has really been stopped in the time i have had it, it was running even 2 week ends ago in 45+ kts


 
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