wind to VFD to water pump

[(unknown)]

I built a test stand to determine if it was practical for a wind turbine to provide power to a common centrifugal type down hole water pump through a VFD.  Most of what I did was to determine if VFD can handle input from the generator. If this sound interesting to anyone let me know.

Justin  

[witapple]

Pardon my ignorance but what is a VFD?  I am guessing Variable Frequency Device?

[aogden]

Justin, I found this info on the Franklin website;

http://www.franklin-electric.com/CatalogSubmersible/ConstantPressureControllers.aspx

They offer a variable frequecy drive VFD for pumps under 1 HP single phase. They offer a VFD for 3 phase motors uncommon for residential use though. The limitation is with the >1 HP single phase motors that employ capacitor starting.

Regards, Adrian

[drdongle]

Variable Frequency Drive

[(unknown)]

Cool, It would be very easy to do with my setup.  I used 3 phase for everything.  The drive will be able to control the pump so that it will pump the max amount of water given the current power input.

Right now I am int the process of putting the generator on the tower.

Justin

[cslarson]

I know this was posted a while ago, but I would be very interested in what you learned. There is also the Aerovironment USPC-5000 (and smaller USPC-2000) but it looks like it costs in the range of $5500! I have not found any competing products, but it looks like it is some specialized kind of VFD (voltage frequency drive, ac drive). I have no experience with these devices, but understand that they rectify ac->dc and then use pwm (pulse width modulation) to convert the dc back to ac at varying frequencies. I want to combine the output from a number of wind turbines (each 4m rotors) to power a large (5kw) standard water pump. Is it possible to access the dc (bus?) in the vfd directly?

I would very much appreciate hearing what you discovered.

Carl

[(unknown)]

Justin, in just the past few days I have been told by Apps Engnrg at several VFD mfrs that for 3 phase standard industrial VFD's:  input voltage can range over about 208 to 240 VAC; input frequency can range over 48 HZ to 120 HZ -- without derating the VFD.  I have not tried this myself -- but am about to do so.  Hope this helps.

I am new to this board.  I hope I am not duplicating info in another post.

Now, my question is:  how can I support standard single-phase US consumer loads 120VAC/1PH/60HZ(e.g., a microwave oven)?  Apps Engrng at the VFD mfrs have no advice / they have no experience with other than 3 phase motors on the output of their products.  They do confirm that, yes, a single-phase load connected between the VFD output phase/motor lead and the PE (Protective Earth) terminal of the VFD should see a voltage of 230/1.732 = 120 VAC.

Well, if I have to rig up a 230 to 120 VAC delta/wye transformer(s), with the VFD output connected to the primary and the single-phase loads to the secondaries -- the cost to do so will be  2 or 3 times the cost of the VFD.

Any help out there, please?  Thank you.

[joestue]

This is an old thread.....

It would be cheaper for you to buy an "inverter based" microwave, IIRC walmart has one for around $100, not only do they not care what frequency you give them but it should operate on dc as well. May take some modification if there is a 60hz tx in there to power the electronics though.

Problem is that not all VFD's have a 4th "leg" so they cannot pass any current from line to neutral, and naturally the ones that do are only rated to 33% (you would need a 5 hp vfd for a microwave in that case.)

This is single phase but it will run a microwave:

208:115,

$61

1.5KVA

http://cgi.ebay.com/SQUARE-D-Transformer-1-5KVA-208v-to-115v_W0QQitemZ170378492642QQcmdZViewItemQQpt
ZBI_Circuit_Breakers_Transformers?hash=item27ab597ae2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14