wind

[mmm]

I have a 4kw older whirlwind, Ineed to convert the three phase 120vac into dc and then charge a 120 volt battery bank and then be able to divert. can anyone help me on places to buy any parts that will do this. Also could I possibly even convert to 24vdc to use my existing 24vdc system.

[mlz]

Very easy, You need to pick up some Schottkey rectifiers.  Now, connect.  See that was easy...

[hiker]

is that whirlwind somthing like the old winchagers ??

any picts.......

[John II]

Hello: I own a 2 kw Whirlwind 12v unit, and there are two 4 kw machines in the family too.

It's very simple: Use a bride rectifier on each phase. There are 3 phases so you will need three of them. Make sure they are over rated in voltage and amperage.

4000 watts divided by 120v = 33.3 amps / by 3 phases = 11 amps per phase.

So I would purchase at least 240v 20 amp bridge rectifiers. If they were 300v 25, 30 or 35 amp units would be even better. Each of the bridge rectifiers 4 connects will be clearly marked with two leads showing ac input connections and two leads having the dc output connections.

You wire all of your dc output connections in parallel. Make sure the three bridge rectifiers are isolated from each other ( no electrical connections of their cases touching each other .) and mount them on big aluminum heat sinks. Be sure to use special silicone heat transfer grease between the rectifiers and the heat sinks available at RadioShack and other electronic stores.)

On making your Whirlwind produce 24 volts is easy to. You use a large DPDT knife switch to switch from the input of your above high voltage bridge rectifiers to the input of 3 120vac to 24vac transformers. The output of each transformer will need to have at least a 60 amp continuous duty rating. Your bridge rectifiers should have at least a 50v 100amp rating. I don't know if you can obtain bridge rectifiers with that high of amperage (current) ratings. If not you can purchase large diodes and make up your own bridge rectifiers. It will take 4 diodes with the same ratings to make up each bridge rectifier. Do a Google search on bridge rectifiers, and you will find diagrams on how to wire them.

Ebay is an excellent place to find bargains on bridge rectifiers and diodes, but there are many electronic catalogs on the Internet as well.

You can leave out the knife switch and charge both battery systems at the same time, but your charging into each system will be reduced, because you are giving it nearly twice as much to do.

You can also leave out the knife switch and just switch off and on each dc output source.

Feel free to Email me at jjones(at)inter-linc.net if you have further questions.

Hope this helps some.

John II

[scoraigwind]

Wow you still have a whirlwind running??

I had a 10 kw unit for a few years but it was so badly made it needed constant attention.  Nice alternator in theory but the mechanical stuff was rather bad.

[mmm]

Thankyou so much for your input. The only other problem I have is diversion load control. Any suggestions?

mmm, Colorado

[mmm]

No it isnt currently running, since I have a triangle tube 70 foot tower it goes on and will require a crane to lift into place. The generator was working when it was taken down. And if you short the wires together it wont spin by hand so presumebly it still works. My problem is diversion load control? All the controls for this are mounted on my garge wall. And the main box is probably 12x12. John II gave me advice on using 60amp transformers to be able to tie this into my 24 system. There must be a eiasier way since the original control box was so small. What I would prefer to do is use my 120vdc 10kw inverter to supply (so called) grid voltage off of a seperate bank of bateeries to replenish my main batteries. The problem there again lies in the fact that the 10kw inverter I believe supplies a modified square wave which my trace 4024 may not accept. Can I modify this wave easily to a truer sinewave or would it be to much trouble. The nice thing about the 10kw inverter is it has 220 volt output which would nicely power my hot tub from my backup battery bank on a windy day. Anyway any suggestions would be helpful. I have also had to modify the furling device for this machine since it was broken when I got it and yes as you say I was not a very stron system, especiially since here in colorado we can occaisonaly see 120 plus mph winds.

So what I need to do is control 120vdc so that when it reaches 160vdc it diverts to another load such as water heating and then to air heating elements. This is the way it was originally set up.

This 4kw whirlwind was originally purchased for 20K US plus another 5K US for the tower in 1986, I has got to be worth fixing, since has not been in use most of its life.

[John II]

Wow Hugh: (in ref to your 10kw WhirlWind)

We owned a 10 kw whirlwind, but after seeing a couple of our 4 kw machines run, we were too afraid to put up the 10kw unit and sold it ! The 4 kw in my opinion had too much back lash in the bull gears and with the two bladed props it just vibrated way too much. The little 2 kw they made ran fast and smooth, wasn't that bad of a machine.

Hiker: It's a 2 bladed wind plant that I think was manufactured in the mid 80's it used a pm alternator and it used a tiny fan on top to steer it into or out of the wind rather than using a tail. The fan drove a bull gear, and it was not an anti-lash gear. It had play in it which caused a lot of trouble. Not sure where to dig up a pic of a unit. I currently have a 2kw unit, but I'm retrofitting it to use a tail similar to what's being used on the Bergy and on this forum.

MMM Unfortunately I can't think of an easy answer on a multi step sequence load diverter. Hopefully someone else can. I'm not sure there is an easy answer to your requirements ?

John II