I'm and electrical engineer just starting to build my first axial flux windmill. I have decided to use it to charge lead acid batteries but haven't found a charger controller that takes care of all the aspects of using a windmill as the power source: monitoring the battery's voltage, differential current (charging current versus current going out to the load), switching in a shunt resistance to protect the mill, reducing the cut-in voltage to increase useful power and so on. So, I'm now designing my own buck/boost switch-mode controller. Here are the specs I'm thinking of implementing:
Input voltage 0 - 120VDC (probably start useful charging at 5VDC at the input)
Output voltage - three stage, lead acid battery charging voltages for 24V to 96V battery arrays
Output current - up to 40A, but could go higher, say to 80 - 100A
Input voltage sense, charging current sense, output voltage sense, battery output current sense
Three load control outputs - one to shed, two to add (local shunt resistance, distant resistive load - like an unused oven or something)
Temperature monitor
Battery state-of-charge monitoring (state-of-health, too?)
That's fine as far as it goes, but I have absolutely no experience with using these mill-controller-battery systems. And while I could do my own experimenting over the next several years, I figure all you guys and gals out there have 'been there and done that.' So, if you have the time, let me ask you, "If you had a windmill-to-battery controller, sort of like what I've just described, what would you want it to do?" What is really important in a set up like this? What is currently not being done that would be the most helpful?
I know these are open-ended questions that could take a lot of time to answer. But I'll bet that as you read this a few things just popped right into your mind, based on your past experiences. Please, just jot those few things down for me and I'd be grateful. Thanks to everyone.
Sorry, you did not seem to search.
