I was worn out. So I only have one picture of the completed install on roof. Hooked them up at 2 PM. Boy is there going to be some higher numbers this month. I cut 1 1/2 inch lengths of 1 inch wide extruded aluminum for the clips. They are holding well. With just one I can not pull the panel down.
They look good up there Tom, great job! Is that your WN 500 on the left and Effsun 300 in the middle? I'll bet you'll be seeing some nice kWh's now.
Yes the 500 watt is on left and 300 is at the top of the valleys in the roof. Do not have much wind this time of the year. I am still updating my figures on page 4 of this post every month. Plus any changes to my system. Thanks guys. Did not think it would be as hard as it was. Pitch on roof is 45 degrees. So a little tough to get around on it for the install. Was hazy yesterday. Watts went from 120 with the 2 panels on the porch roof to 400 watts with all the panels. The new ones are on 6 ga for 15 ft and 1/0 for the last 20 ft to the GTI. I had it laying around so I used it just in case I add more later.
Well after smelling plastic burning smell on the 1000 watt hybrid GTI at 500 watts. I hooked to the wind GTI and saw close to 800 watts. So it was either limiting output or burning it off as heat. The wind GTI holds at 350 watts and will not go any higher. So I just snagged a 600 watt SunG solar GTI for $150 off of Ebay. Will be here within 5 days. Good thing I was home and it is not fall with all the leaves off the trees. Or it would have been TOASTED. 10-20 mph wind today.
So what would happen if you parallel two of the 360 W wind GTI's? Sounds like you've got a lot of potential in the wind there.
I have hit 800 watts between the 10.8-30 volt and 22-60 volt GTI in parallel that I have now. But this time of the year my wind what we do get. Is right thru a big tree. So I do not receive much power from wind this time of year. For me June to August is SOLAR time of the year. Wind is hardly ever blowing here this time of year. Right now trying to keep Solar GTI from frying. By the old picture I was using Heavy Duty ring terminals for the hookup. It was getting very hot. I know I touched it. Hot enough to burn a finger with just a touch. The terminal was working loose. So I changed it around. Look at picture two. Running at 290 watts right now and the terminals are cool to the touch. Guess I will not be using those again.
Nice Tom, thanks for the picturees.#6 mechanical lugs are the way to go. That is what i use on all my connections even on my rectifiers. They give a great solid connection and are very easy to work with. They do have to be drilled out a little to fit on the Sun G post's. I forgot to comment on your antenna mount, looks like a decent roof mount for a turbine. LOL Lots of luck with the system.
No trouble with the turbine mount at the peak. Just checked it for cracks or paint peeling. None so far. The NEW SunG solar GTI showed up yesterday. Package was beat up some. GTI looked OK when I took it out of the box. Hooked it up and waited to see how much of the 400 + watts it would take over from the other one. After an hour it never went higher than 13 watts. Boy was I shocked about that. I hooked up the wind one and it still will split the watts with the old GTI. Then I disconnected the wind one and shut off the old GTI and the new was putting out the same wattage as the old one was before I had shut it off. So before bed I planned to just hook up the two panels on the porch roof to the new GTI and live with it. I woke up this morning and the new GTI is sharing the watts evenly with the old GTI. Good thing I did not make the change last night or I would have never known about it. Although while watching the watts go up and down. I have clouds today. The new GTI will sometimes hog all the watts. Fickled little thing. So I will just keep an eye on it and see what it does the next few days before I decide what the final setup will be. (UPDATE) I found out the grid ties will reduce output when they get hot. So increase heat sink area. Or add fans external.
Tom, it's great to see these details. They will help others avoid connection problems when dealing with lots of current. Good to know that mechanical lugs are the way to go using these GTI's (Larry's info confirming this helps as well). I like your solid copper buss bars, no doubt about a good, solid connection there.
The 3/4 inch SCH40 copper tubing I pound flat and use as a buss bar. Even at 800 watts it does not even get warm.
nice tom love your setup great idea like that it can come down and be able to change stuff or if there is a big storm like you said, got me thinking about my set up. mine is fixed to garage floor goes up through roof and i can not lower it. was thinking about adding another 10 ft in the spring so that would be a godd time to rethink the whole setup.
I cut the pipe off and now it is fixed at roof level. I get less turbulence there. I also have no place to run guy wires. Would suggest any more than 5 ft you will need to run guy wires. At 15ft off the roof the interior wall had to be reinforced alot to hold it. Most I saw was 65 mph gusts. And it was scary at times.
This is just an observation. I have been receiving steady 15-25 mph wind for the first time ever. With gusts on occasion to 35 mph. Have been watching the voltages on the 10.8-30 volt Sun GTI. In the past with the weird wind I get here it runs 10.8-13 volts all the time.Until the gusts provide more than it can handle. Then it gives up and goes to dump. Today with the steady winds it has creeped up to 15-17 volts. So with steady winds it looks like you will have a higher output over the long haul.
I noticed the same thing when mine was up. I wondered if it's because the gusts go thru the blades too fast to start them turning. We had nothing but wind gusts again yesterday.Blew over a light pole onto some cars at a store, ripped off my grill and ac cover, and the Whirly Gig got destroyed. Gusts....thats where the money is if they can be harvested.
Well over the past two years I have read and heard that a few different GTI's only have one program in them. But it seems like the Sung GTI's have a program that learns or has many curves that it checks against the wind input and jumps over and uses what matches up. Also the grid ties will let the turbine run free while searching for a curve to follow. That is why you need a dump load. Set for max voltage.
Jan 29-31 2013 was a little scary around here. Had to tie all grid ties together in parallel. Dump was too active for me. Max gust I saw was 55 mph. There was some that were higher. And they shook the house good. 29-30th 1.67 KWH 30-31st 2.39 KWH Most I have ever seen out of these turbines. All survived and still working.
I hear ya, it can get real hairy sometimes. Good production and glad to hear everything is alright. Those GTI's work damn good once ya gott'em figured out. (Plug and play my A#$. LOL) Hey what ever happen to that GTI you were looking onto?
I am still sending messages back and forth. Waiting for a reply to my last message. They said that the 15-60 volt costs a lot more but I have not heard back yet. Will keep you posted.
