Xantrex C60

[ruairihev]

I have a wind turbine system set up for heating water. I have a 24V 160Ah battery bank that I use as a buffer to hold the voltage down so I can use a 1500W inverter to operate the 230V heating elements. The max heating element is 1325W. If the turbine starts putting out more power than this then the C60 is meant to kick in to divert the extra power, this should happen at 28.5 Volts. The inverter cuts out at 29V so I never want the voltage to get that high. I have a 1400W @ 28.5V resistor element as a dump load which could draw about 49Amps. The problem is that when the C60 is supposed to kick in it buzzes for a half a second and then an orange blinking light comes on. This causes the inverter to cut out and the turbine becomes unloaded and goes very very fast. I have the C60 set to diversion mode. Orange blinking means that there is an overload so I tried a smaller resistor and the same problem. I used to use it on a bigger battery bank and it work fine (with the same load im using now), could the small bank be the problem? I also tried setting the voltage to 27V, then 26V to give it more time to kick in but the same problem.

Has anyone experienced a problem like this before? How was it fixed?

I tried the reset button but no luck with that. I mite try leaving the c60 disconnected for half an hour tomorrow and see if that resets it better.

thanks for any help.

[ghurd]

"This causes the inverter to cut out and the turbine becomes unloaded and goes very very fast. I have the C60 set to diversion mode".

Compare how it is connected to how it should be connected.

Sounds like it may be connected for solar, instead of wind.

G-

[SparWeb]

Hi.

Are the batteries temperature controlled?  Is a temperature sensor attached to the C60?  The C60 will compensate for low temperature with increased voltage.  I regularly find my batteries at 29V because my C40 is adjusting the bulk charge voltage upward.  On cold days I turn the dial down.

This approach doesn't seem to be working for you, but I wanted to get it out of the way.  The battery bank size does matter, somewhat, and in your case you have a charging rate of about C/3.  That's pretty high!  You tried it on a bigger bank and had less trouble, so that looks like your answer.  The C60 may be overloading because the current is rising rapidly (too rapidly for you to measure), cutting out, and after that the battery bank is too small to hold the voltage down at all.  In fact the batteries may be too small to regulate the voltage even with the assistance of the dump load.

The C60 isn't quite maxed out by the dump load you have, but the windmill is certainly it giving it a lot of work to do.  The simplest solution is to install more batteries, of course, but surely you've thought of that by now.

How feasible is it for you to eliminate the inverter and batteries altogether?  Re-wiring the alternator to a higher voltage would make it possible to match the windmill to the heating elements.  I'm not expert enough to help you do that, but this is certainly the place to find people who are!

Good luck and if you find a solution that works, please share it on the board - we all are here to learn!

[Flux]

 "This causes the inverter to cut out and the turbine becomes unloaded and goes very very fast. I have the C60 set to diversion mode."

If the C60 is set to diversion mode the turbine can't get unloaded, the C60 will be directly connected to the battery and so will the turbine. You obviously don't have it in diversion mode.

There is still the issue of whether the C60 is fast enough to prevent your inverter tripping but until you connect it correctly you won't know that.

Flux

[cardamon]

As others have said it sounds like the controller is not connected correctly.  The turbine should be connected directly to the batteries.  Once that is straightened out, this thread  explains why a c60 is not the best controller for wind:

www.fieldlines.com/story/2009/1/10/0822/69367

[ruairihev]

I think I fixed the problem. I added another 160Ah to the battery bank and I reduced the trip in voltage for the C60 so that it catches the voltage well before the inverter cuts out. The C60 seems to need to ramp up to the amount of power you want to dump instead of dumping that amount instantaneously which allows enough time for the voltage to creep up and cut the inverter out, so when the inverter cuts out the 1325W that it was using is too much for the C60 to dump because by the time it starts dumping the turbine could be putting out over 1600W causing the orange blinking light to come on due to overload. Even though the dumpload is only 1400W it still displayed the overload light.

The main problem is that the C60 is just too slow to do what I wanted it to do with a small battery bank. Luckily I can get batteries for free so no extra expense to my system.

I had the C60 connected correctly.

I only want the C60 as a safety device for situations when the turbine is putting out more than 1325W.

If anyone is thinking of going down this route then use an inverter that accepts a higher voltage (maybe 32V) as this gives a lot more room for cut in and cut out voltages. Don't use a C60. From what I read a MorningStar controller would preform better for my application.

If doing it again I'd probably connect directly to the heating elements and build a good controller. I went this route as I want to have the option of electricity in the future.

[scallywagard]

I had a simmaler problem. My system is 24v turbine feeding into a small battery bank going to the Xantrex C60 controler, putting all extra power into a hotwater heater. I bought the 2,75.00 buck 24v heater elements. After I bought them I read in the back of the Xantrex guide book, it would be ok to use the ones that came with the water heater. the 240v ones.

Any way I had my Xantrex controler hooked up in the dump mode. I used the 800 number in the back of the guide book to talk to the tec support. They told me to refigure it in charge control and set the charge at Bulk at 28.8 and the Float at 27... I went and did what they said, I waited for the wind to blow and found it works fine if I lower both settings. Now every time the wind blows it dumps all extra power straight into the water heater. My batteries are old and not up to standards but they are always at 25.4v - 25.3v.

Call tec support they are good. and maby see if you can just bypass the inverter.

Right now it is blowing 35 mph and I am making hot water!!!

           Good Luck

              Greg