Hi I recently bought 2 x 400 watt 12V Turbines out of China (Big Mistake) These are rated at 400 W Peaking out at 550 W at 12 V DC Both had built in controllers The turbines look very similar to the AirX We are only using 1 at a time with a 240w Regulated Solar panel and a 220 regulated Solar Panel We set up the first turbine and thought we were on a winner with the wind we get, but the brake come on and never released. We disconnected the solar from the batteries and still no charge. Pull it down again and tested all the wiring.The wiring by the way is very large, 10mm Diameter multi strand copper. A Electictian said that the problem was the cable being too large the power got lost on the way to the batteries. Tha cable length from turbine to batteries is about 20Metres or 60 foot. Fitted the other turbine and exactly the same problem.We changed the cable but still no go Sourced another controller and fitted it at a workshop.Hooked it up to a battery and stated to spin it up with a drill. As soon as the voltage hit 13.8 v DC it stopped charging and the brake come on and will not come off. HAve disconnected the turbines from the controllers and spun them up with a drill and we get 12 V AC at 780 rpm 24 V AC at 1500 rpm and 48 volts at 2800 rpm So my theory is I have been caught out with some Chinese @#$%$#. Or Did I screw up ???? At no time have these been connected reverse polarity or let to spin freely in the wind What we want to do now is fit a new slip ring system to the turbine and run the ac current to a controller And with the solar is to replace the panels with 2 X 250 W panels unregulated and run them to the same controller with a dump controller? We have 8 trojan T105 6 volt Batteries wired pararell 12 volt to feed a 12 Volt 3000Watt/6000Watt 240 Volt inverter If someone can point us in the right direction in what to purchase or what not to,it would be appeciated Thanks Jamie
Some controllers including the newest AirX are designed to stop the turbine (apply the brake) once the batteries are full. This extends the bearing life and eliminates noise. T105s which should be charged at a miniumum of 2.45V/cell, which is 14.7V. They can tolerate up to 2.7V/cell which is 16.2V. The "full" no load voltage is 12.73V. Can you adjust the brake level? We are quick to bash Chinese goods but it should be looked at on a case by case basis.
Thanks for the reply Battery voltage on the T105s was 11.8v and the battery in the workshop when testing was 11.4v When testing with this one the voltage come up to 13.8 then the brake come on but battery voltage droppped back to 11.8v There is no adjustment on the contoller, It is all fixed We are quite happy to buy a decent controller to suit what we have
Not sure what the problem is. From you description, I think the problem lies in a bad charge controller. Here are some option that will solve your problem. 1. Contact the company who makes the wind turbines and as them for new electronics and install them. 2. Contact Southwest Wind Power or one of their distributors. Get a quote for their electronics and install that. 3. Rip out the electronics inside the wind turbine. Because you have a two wire slip ring, install a 3-phase bridge rectifier inside the wind turbine where you ripped out the electronics. Get a Xantrex C60, three 12 volt, 300 Watt resistors and use this for your charge controller set-up for both wind turbines. While the C60 can only handle 900 Watts, I doubt you will ever see a sustained 900 Watts from both of those wind turbines running in parallel. Typically, the Airx type wind turbines are good for 300 Watts max.
If the controller is built into the turbine, that is where it senses the voltage. It will measure the voltage of the battery plus the voltage rise from the battery to the controller. That rise is due to current x loop resistance. Even one less than perfect connection (high resistance) in the loop can cause the 2V voltage rise even with just a little bit of current flowing. Disconnect the turbine and the battery and measure the ohms of each leg to see if you find anything.
Thanks for the input Windy I did contact the supplier and with great difficulty he supplied a controller which he says is a Genuine Southwest Wind unit (Looks the same as the ones I took out) (Might send all 3 of the units to them and have them tested) This is the one we tested on the workbench with about a 500mm long 6mm Twin Core multistrand copper cable. Have already ripped the contollers out and ordered a Xantrex C60, two 12 volt, 300 Watt resistors .a Slip ring setup and a rectifier from Windy Nation ( If this setup works well, will order same again for other turbine) Note, we are only using 1 turbine for this setup the other is a spare or another project Questions What is the most effficent way to supply power to the controller ? With the rectifier in the turbine or fit it in or near the controller?? We are are thinking of voltage drop AC Versus DC Not to mention the ease of replacement if needed With our solar panels should we run them thru the controller or have the them regulated straight to the batteries Again we are thinking of voltage drop The contollers are at this time fitted to the back of the panels The solar panels we are using at the minute have their own regulaters I am about to order 2 X 250 Watt Panels The Xantrex C60, does that have a turbine stop switch?? I do have 2 50 amp switches to suit. Once again thanks for the input This forum is great Jamie
Our set up is 6 hours drive from home which is very annoying. All the joints are soldered, even when we tested on the bench. The bench test had the same results with a very short 500mm long 6mm Twin Core multistrand copper cable. When we go back next trip we will test the cable again and try and get an accurate omhs reading We had replaced the 10 mm cable with 2 core 6mm multi strand copper I had a 30 metre roll of it so we rolled it out soldered the wires and stood the turbine up the and used it to test the turbine and basicly had the same result It is very fustrating to not know what the problem is. 3 Controllers ???? Hopefully it is what my friend says is the Chinese Syndrome I buy a lot of gear direct out of China and most of it has been good I am fairly confident that the gear we have ordered will fix the problem One more question We have a fridge rated at 340 KW/Hours per year We want to run that 24/7 What would be your ideal set up We will have 2 X 250 Watt Panels 1 X 400 Watt ??? turbine 8 X t105 Batteries hooked up 12 V and the 3000W/6000w Inverter Do you think that is enough battery bank?? We are on the West Coast of Australia just north of Perth and have no issues with sun and the sea breeze ( Fremantle Doctor) as it is nick named comes in every afternoon and can get quite strong Probably the biggest factor here is my half Knowledge It can be a dangerous thing It can turn an easy job into bigger than Ben Hur Once again thanks for your input Jamie
