Go to Otherpower.com Home Page Go to Forcefield Shopping Cart Go to Wondermagnet.com Home Page
Front Page - [Homebrewed Electricity-- (wind) (solar) (hydro) (steam) (controls) (storage) (mechanical)] - Classifieds - Site News
Everything - Newbies - [Remote Living-- (housing) (heat) (light) (water)] - Reviews - Diaries - Our Products
Voltage regulation


By Graeme, Section Controls
Posted on Sun Jul 30, 2006 at 05:43:41 PM MST
Voltage regulation

Hi their
Been thinking about building a wind turbine and was wondering how the voltage is controlled into my 12 volt battery, the max voltage needs to be the same as a car (14.1 volts maximum) has anyone used a voltage regulator from a car alternator ?
These should be easy to get hold of from a scrap yard and cheap but they are 3 phase, my wind turbine will be a single phase AC type so I was wondering if it is possible to just tap into part of the alternators regulator.

look forward to hearing from you.
Graeme
Great Britain

Voltage regulation | 5 comments (5 topical)

Re: Voltage regulation (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by RogerAS on Sun Jul 30, 2006 at 12:17:46 PM MST

Graeme,

Sorry but that won't work and here's why.

The alternator in a car has a rotor that is an electro magnet. Your windturbine, I assume, will have permamnet magnets on the rotor. The automotive alternator's regulation is done by varying the current allowed into the electromagnetic rotor, and thus the stator output varies accordingly. As the need for more output from the alternator rises, like when the headlights are switched on, more current is fed to the rotor. The stator responds by producing more current. RPM and other factors are related to the final output as well. So in short, no the regulator would not work for your needs. It has nothing to do with the number of phases in the stator, or the coils of wire in the stator which are surrouding the rotor.

Hope this is of some help.
RogerAS
Roger AS
9 Years off-grid & counting



Re: Voltage regulation (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by Flux on Sun Jul 30, 2006 at 12:25:45 PM MST

You don't need a voltage regulator, it can't be used with a permanent magnet alternator and even if you can use it with your alternator it will cause trouble.

The car type regulator works by reducing alternator output to keep the battery below 14v. If you do this with a wind generator it will run off load and will run at high speed which at best will be noisy and at worst dangerous.

Until the battery is fully charged, it will hold the alternator volts down to below 14v so you don't need to do anything until the battery is charged. The normal procedure is to use a dump load that loads the battery when it is fully charged and prevents the volts exceeding 14v.

Look up dump regulator or shunt regulator to find out what you need.
Flux



Re: Voltage regulation (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Graeme on Sun Jul 30, 2006 at 12:28:41 PM MST

thanks for your reply Roger and Flux

Will carry out some more research, there is more to this than meets the eye.

Thanks again
Graeme



Re: Voltage regulation (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by amiklic1 on Sun Jul 30, 2006 at 03:46:49 PM MST

I think everyone that's looking into collecting some stuf or informations from this board should first read some old posts (google search is the best way to go), and to read FAQs (http://www.fieldlines.com/faq/re_faq#2003/11/4/122453/226).

Even if every one of us is going to explain the same thing many times, it's still better to read what's available, think about it, and that ask if something is still not clear.

Allmost all of us thought about car alternator regulator, but it's not aplicable to axial flux alt we're all building.
Free energy? Yes, please!



Re: Voltage regulation (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by mattbrush on Tue Aug 08, 2006 at 10:10:37 PM MST

I would suggest something along the lines of this:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pt5071.html

It's really efficient and can be adjusted to output the charging voltage for a normal battery.  The best part is, as long as your generator is putting out more than 7 volts, you can still get a useful amount of output voltage to trickle charge.

The only problem with that specific module is that it's only built for 1.5A, so maybe not too useful for most generators.  But in any case, you could no doubt find similar modules on goole that handle more current.  Or do what I do and build your own to suit your needs (not the easiest way, but much cheaper).

My $0.02

Cheers
Matthew Brush



Voltage regulation | 5 comments (5 topical)
Display: Sort:
Menu
· create account
· How to use the board
· FAQs
· search the board
· Google search the board

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

Total Views
  171 Scoop users have viewed this posting.

Related Links
· Also by Graeme

Powered by Scoop
You must be a registered user to post here. It's easy and free, and the link is on the upper right side of your page.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Postings are owned by the poster, but may be deleted or moved at the ADMIN's sole discretion. The Rest © 2009 Forcefield.
You can Email the board ADMIN here. PLEASE include the username you signed up with!