Author Topic: Getting my hydro project going  (Read 30989 times)

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Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #33 on: November 04, 2010, 04:33:53 PM »
My system voltage is 48V, two of the panels are 69V, 2 are 65V and the hydro is 96V. Wouldn't joining the 65, 69 and 96 voltages drop them all down to the lowest voltage?

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #34 on: November 05, 2010, 01:58:14 PM »
The unit came today! woohoo! 8)


hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #35 on: November 05, 2010, 06:00:21 PM »
When you hook solar panels or the hydro directly to the battery they will be operating at the battery voltage plus the voltage drop in the wire. I 'm not sure how you are figuring that the hydro is 96 volts. Is that what you were told it will produce at your head? A dc to dc circuit might gain more power from the hydro. But the peak voltage for the hydro is usually a wide window. In my system it can vary from 38 to 54 without too much change of output. So just hook it up as is and see how much power it produces. If your satisfied leave it alone. If you want more you can tinker with it later.
You can test the hydro for max power by putting varying resistance in line and measuring the amps and volts to determine the peak output voltage. If the difference is great you can get a mppt. 
You can also vary the voltage by reconfiguring the stator output from wye to delta.  I've change that and noticed quite a gain in output. Have fun playing with your new toys.
Chris

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #36 on: November 05, 2010, 07:44:04 PM »
What are the "trimetric ts 60"  Trimetric makes amphour meters. Do you mean Morningstar ts 60?  Are they the mppt controllers. If so don't use one directly on  the hydro without a way to clamp the voltage below 150 vdc or you will let out the magic smoke. I got to thinking about my last reply and wanted to make sure we were talking about the same thing.
chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #37 on: November 05, 2010, 08:13:29 PM »
Sorry yeah morningstar ts-60 PWM charge controller. Harris unit is actually wired for 120V DC

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #38 on: November 06, 2010, 12:46:20 PM »
So how are you planning to clamp the voltage so it doesn't go over 150 volts with the hydro?  If you hook the solar panels and the hydro to one unit the solar panels will clamp the voltage to about 80 volts max when the unit goes open circuit. But then your maximum power point would be around 67 for the hydro during the day and under 80 at night.
 I haven't used that unit so I don't know if there is a way to program it so it never goes open circuit. But even then I'd be concerned with voltage spikes taking out the ts-60 if hooked to the hydro alone. I did hook up a Xantrex mppt to a hydro alone. After 24 hours the unit went open circuit and blew up. After repair someone figured out how to program it to never go open circuit and it has been working since. So it is possible if done right with some mppt units.
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #39 on: November 07, 2010, 12:06:57 PM »
From Morningstar TriStar TS-60 manual
Quote
Solar high voltage disconnect (HVD):
(R-G sequencing) If the battery voltage continues increasing beyond normal operating limits, the controller will disconnect the solar input (unless the FET switches cannot open due to a failure). See Section 11.0 for the disconnect and reconnect values.

Given that the head is static, there is only so much flow that can go through the nozzles right? That should mean that unless I put nozzles in that are too large and over-spin the wheel voltage should remain pretty constant?
I can adjust the field strength to slow the wheel and thus reduce the voltage, which then should remain pretty constant right?
From the Harris manual:
Quote
To operate at maximum efficiency, a pelton wheel should spin at exactly 1/2 the speed of the water hitting it. By increasing the magnetic strength the wheel slows down


Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #40 on: November 07, 2010, 12:14:00 PM »
Pics or it didn't happen right?

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #41 on: November 07, 2010, 01:58:20 PM »
A hydro turbine puts out the most power when it is loaded by a battery or through a mppt at 46% of it's speed free wheeling. So if it is disconnected from the battery or the mmpt open circuits to reset it's calibration the hydro turbine goes twice as fast and produces double the voltage. So if you have it going through the mppt at 95 volts it will go to 190 volts open circuit. It isn't producing any amps but the voltage is enough to fry the mppt.  This is independent of nozzle size or magnet strength. Magnet strength only applies when it is hooked up and producing power. I rediscovered this last week when I was working on one Harris unit and forgot to replug it back in and turned the water back on. The voltage spiked and burnt out the bridge rectifier. On older Harris units he used automotive rectifiers that can't handle higher voltages.
Voltage in a Harris hydro is completely dependent on head and stator wiring.
 That is why you have to ensure that the unit never goes open circuit or you have a way to clamp the voltage below 150. Solar panels have an inherit limit on its voltage output, about 21 volts per '12 volt panel'  A hydro voltage is double it's mpp and spikes can be even more.
I just hope you read this before hooking things up.
Chris

TomW

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #42 on: November 07, 2010, 02:32:13 PM »
Pics or it didn't happen right?


Here you go.

« Last Edit: November 07, 2010, 02:33:47 PM by TomW »

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #43 on: November 08, 2010, 02:12:45 PM »
Tom, thanks!
Chris, this is a great idea.
I have 8 48W panels : 15.9 rated to 19.8V open circuit
http://picasaweb.google.com/jedon13/Solar#5365108627363510066
They are mounted 4 to a panel and I have them wired together for 63.6 Rated, 79.2V OC
I could wire 7 together for 111 rated and 138 OC, then the last panel I could just hook to my old Trace- C30 and charge some 12V batteries I guess.
Would this work?


« Last Edit: November 08, 2010, 02:15:44 PM by Jedon »

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #44 on: November 08, 2010, 04:34:44 PM »
I'd keep it 6 to a string. The hydro will push the open circuit voltage up 10% above the normal solar panels open circuit voltage. At that point the solar panels will act like zener diodes and conduct the power to ground.  You want to have panels rated at least 50% of the output of the hydro to avoid overheating the internal connections of the solar panels. So 6 of your panels is about 300 watts.  So if your hydro max output is 500 watts you should be ok. The hydro output will be lower at the higher rpm of open circuit.
 Looking at the picture of your turbine, I would suggest making the short hoses longer to be able to flex them and turn the unit up side down. There always seem be a reason you need to unscrew the nozzles. You can get junk into the pipe somehow and need to clean the nozzles. Or you want to change from large ones in the winter to smaller ones in the summer.  It's a lot easier if you can see what you are doing without water dribbling on your face.  Just something I've learned over the years.
The other thing is I use a three prong dryer plug into a recepticle to be able to easily disconnect the power to the turbine.  At the higher voltages you are using you may want to create a cover over all the exposed connections on the hydro. The last system I used a grey plastic outdoor conduit box upside down to cover the screws  and had flex conduit to a outdoor fuse box with a pull connector that is used on air conditioners. That is where I mounted the amp meter.
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #45 on: November 09, 2010, 01:58:50 PM »
Chris thank you so much for this info!!
I got it running last night but the field strength is too high so the wheel is barely spinning.
At first it was 25V but I cleaned out the intake and then got 45V ( loaded )
When I started up the generator the TS-60 thought the voltage was too high ( 58V bulk ) and shut off, the voltage jumped up to 50V.
So now I need to find the TS-60 settings to increase the allowed battery voltage and then adjust the field strength a bit to get the voltage up to say 80-90V.
After that I'll rewire the PV panels to clamp the open circuit voltage and then adjust the field strength again to get it up to 120V.
So what happens if the hydro is spinning but the charge controller decides it shouldn't accept it?
1383-01384-11385-2
« Last Edit: November 09, 2010, 02:23:43 PM by Jedon »

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #46 on: November 09, 2010, 06:01:15 PM »
What is your pressure gauge reading with the valves opened and closed? If the TS60 thinks the batteries are charged it will treat the hydro like solar panels and increase the time between pulsed connection until it is entirely disconnected from the controller. At that point the voltage of the hydro should be determined by the stator winding and the effective head. What were you told the voltage of your  stator that is supposed to be at your head? You said it was a 120 volt stator but at what head? If it supposed to be over 80 volts at your head then the open circuit voltage is enough to blow up your controller. I'd be very cautious experimenting without a voltage clamp on the input of the controller. I'd have a voltmeter on the hydro output wires as you turn on the water to make sure it doesn't get too high. It might take awhile for the controller to recognize the input and turn on. Sometimes you want to open the valves partway until you hear the rpm change as the controller starts up and sweeps the voltage. Once it settles down you can turn on the valves all the way. Check the voltage, if it is over 80 don't leave it running without a clamp for many minutes in case the mmpt is programmed to open circuit once an hour to recalibrate.
If the magnet strength is too strong the mppt will unload partially to find the highest output. So the running voltage is higher.  That's why my first question was about pressure readings.  The fact that the voltage changed when you cleaned the input makes me believe you aren't getting all the pressure you could. If the pressure drop is greater than it should you might have an air blockage somewhere in the pipe.
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #47 on: November 09, 2010, 06:31:39 PM »
My static head was 19psi and the PM was designed to do 120V at 19psi at 20-120gpm.
I never measured my dynamic head and don't have my pressure gauge hooked back up yet.
I could clamp the voltage with my PV though like you said before, right?
It is a PWM controller not MPPT.
Thanks!!

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #48 on: November 10, 2010, 01:45:04 AM »
This thread is going around in circles. Sorry for confusing you.  Morningstar makes a pwm controller and mppt controller. My first advice to hook the hydro directly to the battery and the controller to a dump load was when I assumed you had a pwm. Then I thought you meant you had a mppt because you were talking about the hydro at 96 volts so I was giving you instructions to clamp the voltage with the solar panels and hook the hydro through the mppt .
Hooking the hydro through the pwm controller makes the hydro run at the voltage of the battery plus line losses. So you won't get as much power as you could. The hydro will be going slower than it is designed and the line losses will be higher than planned. You can try to connect the stator windings in delta to lower the internal losses and lower the strength of the magnets to try and manually find the maximum power with your setup. You won't need to clamp the voltage if you hook the hydro directly to the batteries and use the TS60 as a dump load controller. I usually put a bit of tape lightly over the breaker for the hydro so no-one accidentally disconnects it while the hydro is running  If you are satisfied with the output you can leave it like that.
 If you want to get more out of the hydro you will need a mppt controller. To see how much power you could get with a higher voltage you can insert resistance in between the hydro and batteries and measure the amps and voltage. By changing the resitance you can find out what voltage will put out the most power. In a couple of systems that needed heat and had surplus power I put in heaters to increase the resitance. That way there was less amperage,lower line losses but more useful heat energy in the house. With mppt you have more flexibility of how you use the energy from the hydro.
I saw a pressure gauge in an earlier photo but not in the last one. A pressure gauge is an essential tool in trouble shooting problems in hydro setups. If your output goes lower the pressure gauge will tell you if it is because the pipe isn't full or if the problem is in the electrical side of the system or a nozzle is blocked.
Again I'm sorry I didn't catch it when you said you had a pwm controller earlier.
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #49 on: November 10, 2010, 11:49:12 AM »
Chris,
Thank you so much, I read and read and read about hydro but I never got much info about the charge controller aspect of it. Everyone I talked to just said sure a PWM will work fine. Since my unit is designed to produce peak power at 120V, I would assume that at half that voltage or less it is going to be performing very poorly and I'll be getting a ton of resistive loss through my 650ft of 10g wire. Right now I'm getting 40V at .3 amps! The pressure gauge is off because I didn't have the right fittings to put is back when I put the unit in place, I'll splice that back in this weekend.
I had no idea that a PWM controller was going to clamp my voltage. If I hook the hydro right to my batteries it will still be clamped to near the battery voltage, right? Is the only option for going from 120V DC to 60V DC an MPPT controller? I was being cheap since a PWM was $180 vs $550 for an MPPT. I have the other TS-60 still in the box that I was going to use as the dump controller, I guess I should return that and get an MPPT controller?
-Jedon

I posted some videos of the process on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D9D9584BE7BF9815

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #50 on: November 10, 2010, 12:48:26 PM »
This looks perfect, wish it was a bit cheaper though!
http://www.midnitesolar.com/ Classic 250


Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #51 on: November 10, 2010, 08:49:20 PM »
I tuned the PM some more and now am getting 30V 1.3A so 40! Better than the 12 I was getting.
Turns out IOTA makes an AC battery charger that doesn't mind taking AC instead, up to 197V and will charge a 48V bank. Doesn't do anything fancy like multi stage charging but I don't really need that.

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #52 on: November 11, 2010, 12:22:54 AM »
I looked at the Iota charger that someone else was thinking of using for a hydro. the price was similar to an Outback FM-60 but I couldn't see it allowing variable voltage input to allow automatically getting the most power from your hydro. You would have to manually adjust the magnet strength each time you change the gpm used.  The Fm-60 also has 120 days of past  output data. The midnite mppt is new and allows higher input voltages which may allow you to run the hydro through it without the solar panels in parallel to clamp the voltage. But the highest voltages comes with a higher price tag.The one I have the most experience with is the Outback Fm 60 so I know how it will work for you.  But the other mppt will work as well if you find a lower price for them.
In the past all dc hydro was connected directly to the battery and surplus power was diverted to dump loads to keep the battery from overcharging. If the battery isn't far from the turbine that may still be the best way to go. But to keep the wire cost lower it is nice to be able to produce the power at a higher voltage and drop it to battery voltage with a dc to dc converter.  If  you also have solar panels that can use a mppt to gain more power then it makes sense to use the mppt controller on the hydro too. In some cases you can even eliminate the dump load by letting the controller decrease the power produced by allowing the input voltage to rise. Then the hydro turbine is out of its most effective speed to produce power, and the solar panels out put decreases to zero at it's open circuit voltage. If even less power is needed for the batteries and loads the voltage goes even higher and the solar panels act like zener diodes and dissipate the rest of the hydro output to ground. I don't like to do that on a long term basis unless the solar array rated output is larger than the hydro output. One system I did had 300 watts hydro and 1000 watts solar into a mppt grid intertie inverter. I didn't put in a separate dump load for times that the grid might go out. 
In your case if you have a use for excess energy like a water heat it makes sense to use it. But the comparative sizes of the solar and hydro makes it optional not mandatory if you program the mppt to regulate the charge into the battery. The FM-60 and classic also has a programable relay to control  a power relay or fets to turn on dump loads. So you could get rid of both pwm controllers.
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #53 on: January 03, 2011, 07:45:22 PM »
I got it working! The Tristar TS-60 PWM charge controller limited the input voltage to the output voltage ie the batter bank voltage which was half the designed voltage of the hydro unit and so didn't work. I replaced that with an IOTA AC 13A 48V ( 54V ) battery charger and got the pelton wheel spinning up good with all the water currently available so it was making 208V DC. The IOTA can accept DC ( although it doesn't say so ) and when loaded it dropped the voltage to 114V then eventually to 107V but it works, I'm not sure how many amps since I don't have a DC ammeter on hand ( yet ). I put a 20A AC breaker between the hydro output and a standard AC power outlet, and another 20A AC breaker between the IOTA and the battery bank. I know I shouldn't use AC breakers for DC but I'm really just using them for switches, I'll get some DC breakers eventually. Usually in the morning my 8 golf cart batteries are at 48.6V but this morning they were at 50.5!

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #54 on: January 04, 2011, 12:03:12 AM »
I'm glad you worked through the problems to get it working. Since your loaded voltage is 107 and unloaded is 208 you should be close to the maximum power point. A hydro puts out the most power when the voltage is around 46% of unloaded voltage. You are close enough. Get a meter to see if you increased the output compared to before. Also so you can tell if something changes and you need to check out why. (Blocked nozzles, blocked intake, stream flow changes etc.)
Chris

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #55 on: January 04, 2011, 01:17:03 PM »
Thanks for that info, I didn't know that. The field is turned all the way to it's strongest setting right now. I had contemplated that perhaps if I lowered it just a little that I could raise the loaded voltage up a bit, I need to make sure I stay above 108V ( AC ) or so since that's the rated low input cutoff voltage for the IOTA charger. I also need to swap out two of the smaller water nozzles for the large ones since I am at peak water flow right now and have a lot more I could use, I'm guessing when I do that the loaded voltage should go up since the amperage is set by the field strength?
Thanks!
-Jedon

hydrosun

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #56 on: January 04, 2011, 05:30:51 PM »
My guess is the voltage at the hydro will go up slightly because of the increased voltage drop in the wire from the hydro to the iota.  The iota may stay at 108 volts because that is the voltage that it starts working. If the voltage went below that it would shut off and the voltage would rise, turning it on again. That cycling  may be happening continuously. I hadn't thought about that before but it would act similarly to the MX-60 in unloading the hydro to let the voltage rise to the mpp without changing the field strength of the hydro.  With the iota the voltage isn't variable but is close enough to the right voltage for your hydro setup.

But play around with the magnet strengths and different nozzles to see what the voltage does. I haven't worked with an iota charger for a hydro so I'm only guessing how it is operating. I've done  a lot of playing around with the Harris hydro to see how things change with different settings. Another variable is the wye and delta connection of the stator output to the rectifier. In your case you probably need to  have it in wye to get the higher voltage. One end of all three stator winding is wired together to make the wye. 
Chris

Ungrounded Lightning Rod

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #57 on: January 05, 2011, 07:56:18 PM »
A hydro puts out the most power when the voltage is around 46% of unloaded voltage.

I was going to ask "Isn't that "50% (46%?) of unloaded RPM?"

But then I realized that 50% of RPM is to get the most power from the water into the genny shaft.  But what you're after is getting the most power into the load through both the turbine torque vs. RPM curve and the wiring resistance.  And unless I'm mistaken those two combine into an equivalent "resistance" in a thevanin equivalent circuit, with the virtual voltage source as the unloaded voltage.  So the max power IS delivered at (approximately) 50% of the open circuit voltage at the load terminals, with the turbine running over 50% of unloaded RPM, boosting the voltage to cover the voltage drop in the coils and wiring.

Cute!  Makes tuning dog-simple.

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #58 on: January 12, 2011, 02:12:27 PM »
I finally got a multimeter that will read DC current and it's measuring 5.26 amps at 108V DC! 560 Watts or so, I'm stoked. 13+KW/h's per day should easily power the house 24/7 but for some reason it isn't so I need to trace that down now. My intake gets clogged a bit, anybody know of an affordable source for a small ( like 12x24 inch ) coanda screen?

HiddenMountain

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #59 on: January 13, 2011, 01:24:10 AM »
My intake gets clogged a bit, anybody know of an affordable source for a small ( like 12x24 inch ) coanda screen?

"Affordable" and "coanda" are not usually used in the same sentence, I'm sorry to say. My 12" x 18" was $300CDN.  :o

I had many and varied types of intake screens and all of them require regular cleaning. It's good exercise anyway, and it gives you a good excuse to check your penstock and other odds and ends.

If you want a lead on the coanda screens, send me a PM and I'll give you the address of the guy I got mine from. It might be a bit of a round about way for you, since he ordered it from the US and had it shipped to Canada, but I can put you in touch if you want anyway...

Jon
Energy Systems & Design Stream Engine, 30A @ 24V, 750W 
Magnasine MS4024P AE
4 450AH Rolls Surrette
2 Xantrex 60A Charge controllers
Power, by God!

I hope they never find a cure for Eleutheromania

ghurd

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #60 on: January 13, 2011, 10:35:39 AM »
I'm stoked.

13+KW/h's per day should easily power the house 24/7 but for some reason it isn't so I need to trace that down now.

I'd be stoked too!  And I am still jealous.  Congrats!

How are the batteries?  New, used, abused?
What voltage are they typically?

Just because the hydro is making 560W 24/7 does not mean the battery can hold it all.
After a few hours, the battery will be at control voltage, then much less of the 560W is not being stored for later use.
The system can only supply 560W, plus whatever is in the battery.
If the system should be keeping up, and it is not, I would be looking at the batteries a lot closer.  If they are relatively new, might be a good idea to add another set now.

Throw in 400W of solar on top of the 560W of hydro, and it will not take very long before the battery bank is at regulation voltage.
Use it while you got it?
Thinking things like do laundry and vacuum when the sun is out, because the 400W of solar power used then would not have been stored to use after dark anyway.
G-
www.ghurd.info<<<-----Information on my Controller

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #61 on: January 13, 2011, 01:33:47 PM »
Jon, thanks I did talk to someone and got a quote of $350 so I guess they are just pricey.

I just got new batteries, 8 6V golf cart batteries, 200AH @ 48V.

Voltage never really gets above about 51.6 from the hydro alone, in the summer it would get up to 58V with 800W of solar when the sun was shining for many hours.

Now even when the sun shines for a couple hours and the hydro is running the voltage doesn't jump up like that.

I run the generator for a few hours in the evening while we watch some TV so the batteries are floating and when I get up they are in the 50.1 to 50.5 range, which would seem to indicate that the resting power usage of the house is over 500W? My fridge uses 1.2KW/h day and same for the freezer, a few things like routers and such take a few watts but I still seem to be missing out on a couple hundred watts an hour!

I have an AC power meter to install that should tell me how much the house is using.

ghurd

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #62 on: January 13, 2011, 01:48:22 PM »
"I get up they are in the 50.1 to 50.5 range, which would seem to indicate that the resting power usage of the house is over 500W"

Wow.  Something, somewhere, is not right.

I think you are on the right track by checking the actual DC hydro amps into the battery.
G-
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Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #63 on: January 13, 2011, 02:08:39 PM »
I'm wondering if the input voltage to the charger is not high enough, it's right at the low end cutoff range, 108V. I'll put bigger jets on the hydro to get some more voltage out of it under load and if that doesn't work I'll lower the field resistance to keep the voltage up under lower flow rates.
This is the charger : http://www.iotaengineering.com/dls5413.htm
it does say 80% efficient so that would lower the 560W down to 450W, then the inverters are 97% so now we are down to 434W max, if the charger is producing less current at the lower voltage,
If it can push 13A into 54.4V, it can only push 11.7 into 49V ( battery bank voltage )? Or it makes 13A at 120V but only 11.7A @ 108? Combine the two for even less power?

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #64 on: January 15, 2011, 03:13:47 PM »
Just throwing some silly ideas out, I have a Morningstar TS-60 PWM charge controller. Right now it's not hooked up. I have my PV going right into my batteries at 65V. I was going to hook my PV up to the TS-60, but should I instead hook the output up the IOTA up to it so that perhaps it trades some amps for volts and puts less load on the charger? Can I hook both the PV ( 65V ) and the IOTA ( 54.4V ) up to the TS-60 at the same time?

Jedon

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Re: Getting my hydro project going
« Reply #65 on: January 15, 2011, 08:53:10 PM »
Anybody have some advise on how to tune the Harris unit? I have 1/2" nozzles and all 4 water inlets going and the pipe is staying full so water flow isn't an issue. Pressure might be? I only have 19psi. I played with the field adjustment on the Harris unit a lot today and didn't really get anywhere. I thought that if you turn it all the way strong then it's harder for the water to spin it so it spins slower and you get lots of amps but not as many volts, and it I make the field weaker then I get more volts but less amps. This doesn't really seem to be the case. At full strength at the turbine I get 8A @ 110V, when I go back to where the charger is 700ft away I get 105.4V and 5A. I expect the voltage drop but not the amperage drop, I though only voltage dropped over distance? I have 10g wire so I expect 10% voltage loss which would actually bring my voltage to 99V but it doesn't. ( from here http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm ). I want to get as much voltage as possible to feed the AC IOTA charger which wants 108 to 132V AC which the 71% difference for DC means I need more like 150+V DC, not sure I can get that since the Harris unit is 120V DC rated, it's 208V open circuit but I can't get it above 112V loaded so far. Is there some way I can up the voltage electronically? I know I can't use a transformer since that's for AC. Should I stop wasting time and spend the $500 on an MPPT controller instead of the IOTA charger?
Thanks!!