Diversion Load for Wind Turbine

[bricci]

I am interested in heating water with the excess power that my wind turbine generates. I have seen the 12/24v 300/600 watt submersible heaters and they look like they would be ideal. What I can't quite understand/comprehend is if they need 300/600 watts to work at all or whether they partially work with just a few watts. As the diversion load could be anything from a few watts to 500 watts depending on the speed of the wind. What is the best way to use all of this power, no matter the wattage being diverted.

Hope this all makes sense!

[nanotech]

A heater will output heat no matter what wattage you put into it.  But if you're only putting 5 watts of power into it, you won't get much heat out of it.  If you're putting 500W into it, you'll get a pretty good bunch of heat out of it.

Heaters are like light bulbs, the more voltage and wattage you put into them, the more you'll get out.  With a bulb, it's light.  With a heater, it's heat.

Hope that helps and didn't sound condescending.  It wasn't meant to.

[Nando]

Sorry, I did not see this message until tonight.

The load for a wind mill needs to be controlled for the wind mill to proper power generation.

The load needs to be " inserted " via a PWM (pulse Width Modulation" to insure that the mill is not load overpowered and stopped.

Question, how much power (peak ) do you need, also what is the peak generated voltage.

Regards

Nando

[georgeodjungle]

i had 2)300 watt ones.

but with the house of 3.

was not enough.

now i use 600watt 12v

and another with 12v at 600w at the top and 120v at 5kw on the bottom .all in one. i forgot where i got it.

but the one has two elements on it.

hot hater for every one.

[georgeodjungle]

ooops:

hot water for every one.

p.s.

it'll help keep the wind gen from over reving.

[libra]

Another question re heaters.

Can you use a 500w 120v heater on 24v?. In my estimation a heater is a heater but better to ask.

Libra

[ghurd]

A heater is a heater, but the lower voltage will greatly reduce the watts it uses.

Use ohms law to estimate it.

G-