48v wind turbine

[pfcgreene]

Hello out there. I have a 48v wind turbine and my system is 12v. How can I use this turbine with my battery bank with out changing the internal wiring of the turbine. thanks,

[DanB]

The only practical solution I think is change your wind turbine.

What sort of turbine is it?  It might be surprisingly easy and inexpensive to ask the manufacturer about this.  I had to change the stator in an Air403 once and was surprised that the manufacturer could provide 'used' parts for cheap!

Otherwise... youd have to charge a 48 volt battery bank, and use that somehow (inverter charger??) to charge your 12 volt bank.  It would be expensive and inefficient.

Someday soon we might have nice MPPT charge controllers for wind turbines that would make this easy (but still expensive I suspect)... but not yet, as far as I know.

[chux0r]

Do you have AC coming out of your turbine?  You could use a 4:1 transformer (or 3, if it's 3 phase) to bring the voltage down.  This would be very expensive.

[zubbly]

Hi!

not knowing what your winding is, but if a 48 volt unit, depending on how many circuits there is, it may be quite possible to reconnect the winding for more circuits and a lower voltage. ( if 4 pole and 1 circuit, it could be connected 4 circuit and give you your 12 volt exactly ).

you would have to take a more detailed look at the winding and go from there.  Post some super close up pics of the winding and i may be able to help. Also, please give some detail as to the type of genny it is (1 phase-3 phase-DC )

have funn-zubbly

[PowerBox]

Hello, You need to have a secondary Buck converter after your turbine rectifier, this is a DC-DC Step down power supply. You will need 1 Power Mosfet, 1 Fast recovery diode and 1 Inductor + 3000uF/50V Electrolytic capacitor and UC3843 as your PWM controller. I will send you the circuit later.

   

[pfcgreene]

Hello, great idea. look forward to your reply

[pfcgreene]

hello, it is a lakota 3 phase ac.

[zubbly]

Hi pfcgreene

ok, 3 phase makes it more promising. Now if you can get in touch with lakota, ask how many poles and circuits, you will know quickly if the winding can be re-connected.  perhaps if anyone else is familiar with the lakota units, they can chime in here.

zubbly

[Jerry]

Hi Zubbly. It has 8 poles.

              JK TAS Jerry

[ElectricJim]

Hi there to pfcgreen, I see you are having a problem with converting your 48 VAC output down to 12VDC, perhapse my suggestion might help you out.

Browsing through the suggestions i can sence you are looking for a simple to understand solution, perhapse here might be the answer.

I understand you have a 3 phase output at 48Vdc, your battery bank is 12Vdc.

Might I suggest the 48Vac be sent in its current form to your battery room, and there you modify the voltage. As it is 3 phase, use 3 48V (primary)transformers to convert each phase to 3 outputs (secondary)of 24-28V AC. Use 3 bridge diodes, (one across each phase) and connect all (+)positaves together and all (-) together.

Get a decient heat sink for each bridge diode and cool them by a PC fan.

Get yourself a voltage regulator that will regulate to the required output voltage you want to use. There are many circuits avaliable that can do the job.

Now I notice you are using 12V DC to run whatever it is you have eg Fan, Lights, motors, I suggest you update your battery bank to at least 24v. My reasons for this is runs of cabling at 12v DC produces losses in resistance and heat in the cables, you want to have as much power avaliable to operate the equipment, loosing a portion of it along the way is just not good enough. So if you send 24v DC towards what ever it is you want to run is a better idea, then install a small Voltage regulator that can handle the current the device takes to reduce the 24V dc down to 12V Dc makes much more sence.

I have a backup 12V DC system at my house in outback australia, and I need to beef up my own system, as I am also having voltage losses (talk about calling the kettle black)

Another idea I have that might be of help to others reading this, is to use 1/2 inch copper water pipe to use as a bus feed for DC, wind insulating tape around the copper pipe, this is a poor mans way to piping heavy currents around the workshop.

Use one for each of the POS and NEG and just tap off them, it works a treat with electric welding setups in workshops, just leave the heavy welder in one location and move the clip/clamps to where ever you need to work.

OK hope my suggestions make sence