Braking a windmill

[VinceB]

Hey guys,

I have a 8' wind genny, built exactly using Hugh's design.

I want to have the possibility to brake it in case of high winds or battery overcharging.

From what I understood from various sources, directly shorting the generator is not the best. I would like to brake the generator using resistors to lower the stress on the whole thing, but I seriously don't know what values would be necessary. I found an interesting 3- position switch which could be used to reduce the speed by steps...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Vincent

[Nando]

Unhappily you do not give information about the wind mill, the generator and their capabilities.

Hugh's design may cover several types of wind mills.

Voltage and power.

Nando

[Flux]

With an 8ft machine with typical line resistance a direct short is probably not that big a problem. You don't say what voltage your machine is but for 24v I would suggest 2 ohms step one, 1 ohm step 2 and direct short step 3.

If your rectifiers are on the tower remember that you must not short the battery.

Maybe for 12v halve those resistances and for 24v double them.  Should be near enough, better on the mill and far better on the switch.

Flux