Windmill water heating element

[brokengun]

I am looking for a 12 volt water heating element for use with my wind turbine, I have found one site and I was wondering if anyone has had a good experience with them. http://www.survivalunlimited.com/diversionloads.htm

I thought that their prices were a bit steep for a simple 12 volt heater but it does need to be robust to take the amount of current that will be thrown at it (which it looks like theirs will). I was wondering if anyone has made their own heating element to suit their voltage needs. I did the calculations and I think I need a resistance somewhere around .2 ohms. I can achieve this with a little nichrome wire, the problem is of course waterproofing it. I suppose I could take a normal 110 volt element and slip in my nichrome wire instead?

Anyone willing to share their experience using heating elements with wind turbines, I am interested in any advice you'd got to lend (particularly with controlling a battery-less system).

I know that 12 volt heating is sort of weird as the wires required from the wind turbine to the house need to be thick and therefore expensive. If you follow the same calculations that I did backwards you'll find that I am not producing much power (you're right!) this is simply my first try and is very much experimental.

[brokengun]

The other site I am looking at is here: http://www.hydrogenappliances.com/hotwater.html

They offer a 600 watt 12 volt element.

Also, admins feel free to move this post I put it in the wind power section because I'm using a wind turbine but I wasn't sure where it would fit best.

[ghurd]

Ouch.

Hydrogen-Stuff?

Survival-depending-on-Hydrogen's-Stuff?

Sea-50 anyone?

"was wondering if anyone has had a good experience"

I recall one guy who was happy, but he didn't know any better.

G-

[wooferhound]

If you don't have any pressure you can use an Immersible Beverage Warmer

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&h
s=9de&q=Immersible+Beverage+Warmer&btnG=Search

[Jon Miller]

Hi there,

http://www.otherpower.co.uk/Immersionheaters/Immersionheaters.htm

Im in the UK but I have used car 120watt heaters fine before, there cheap as well.

Let me know if your in the UK and I can post you one or two at cost.

Regards

[Opera House]

I haven't had the excess power to dump into a water heater, but I would use an inverter.  Using a 12V element will dump as much power into the wires as the water. I use a freezer as a dump load now.  When the set voltage is reached, the inverter turns on for eight minutes.  This drains the battery enough so it can act as the dump load. Any inverter application should use a timer, You always need to make sure you have enough battery to act as the real load.  A standard 240V element will be 1/4 the wattage at 120V.  That would be a light load for an inverter.  Running two independent inverters on two elements would provide a safety feature should one fail.   I should say that my cost for big inverters is way under $20 each since I buy them for repair. In many cases I eliminate half the electronics and use 140V DC as the output. This greatly increases the reliability.  Control is a complex issue, what do yo do when you have all the hot water you need?  There has been almost no discussion about inverters as dump loads because the control is so complex. One big problem is that inverters trip out with voltages over 15V so dumping has to start at a lower voltage than you would like.  I just find it much more practical than all those big wires.

[Jdevil]

Here is a link for a 12v water heater element from Southeast Marine Services.

I have not dealt with this company but, the price is right at about $40.00 plus shipping.                                                                

  http://www.semarine.com/store/product.php?productid=475&cat=222&page=1

[Opera House]

That is a nice explanation for those who have lofty intentions.

One common heater that is easily obtainable are the heaters from coffee pots.  These have a circular aluminum heater tube that measures about 24 ohms.  That is about 600W at 120 volts.  Two in electrical series would make a reasonable 300W heater that wouldn't get too hot at 120V.  Let them feed into a tank through gravity convection. Easily driven by a cheap inverter.  Keep adding more for more power.  Enough of them and you could run it at 12V.  Something to look out for on trash day.  These generally fail because the chemical thermal fuse opens up.

[tmcmurran]

Bought 2 of these units, but still have not found the time nor the tank to hook everything up to.  Also bought a Xantrex C60 to act as the diversion control, but found out later that better options are out if one looks a little more.