Help with a Wind Controller for Dummies

[suitep123]

Hello all:

I've seen several postings for charge controllers.  Just about the time I think I get the pictures, I compare the pictures to the schematics and I get lost.  I'm not an electrician (don't do electricity at all actually).

We got the genny almost built, charging anywhere from 12 to 14 volts in the street at the end of our driveway so we're feeling OK about it.

We have no clue where to start with a charge controller.  Can anyone walk us through this part of the project, please?  We'd really appreciate the help!

Thank you so much.

Pauline

[Flux]

"We got the genny almost built, charging anywhere from 12 to 14 volts in the street at the end of our driveway so we're feeling OK about it."

If you really mean that you may not need a charge controller. Get it feeding a battery and measure amps then you will know it is charging and when you see how many amps you get you will have an idea of what you need in the way of a controller.

Somehow everyone seems to think a charge controller is essential , it is only a luxury and you can work without it. If you can get good results from the turbine then you can simplify life with a charge controller so you don't have to baby sit the thing and match the input power to what you use.

If you get some idea of the current requirement then you can decide if you want to risk building a kit, in your case I doubt that it would be wise. You would do better to find someone to build a kit for you and you may be able to find someone selling an assembled and working kit ( I seem to remember someone offering a built version of Ghurd's kit). Failing that I would just buy a commercial controller some of the smaller ones are not that expensive really.

Building things yourself is fine if you know exactly what you are doing, if you don't understand anything about it, you may be lucky with inserting parts parrot fashion, but if you hit a snag you may never get it to work and you may blow the lot and not save any cost.

Flux

[TomW]

Flux;

Somehow everyone seems to think a charge controller is essential , it is only a luxury and you can work without it.

I have to chime in here and point out how true this is.

In fact, I had no controller for a good long time. Still don't, actually. I happen to have less coming in than I use so mostly I rely on my Outback inverter to kick on and charge my batteries if they get too low. If you need a turn key, set it and forget it system then you likely need a controller. I started in this as a hobby that combined several of my interests so I enjoy the hands on aspect of being a human charge controller. I add loads if I have extra power and remove them when I don't.

A tiny turbine feeding a couple of amps into a couple Trojan 105's, for instance, will not really need a controller if you use power regularly and you don't get days of high winds regularly.

Fact is, you  will learn a lot more by monitoring the system manually and making decisions yourself than watching blinky lights on a black box.

Just an opinion and a real world analysis.

Very soon I hope to bring a couple 10 footers online and then my aging 900 AH, 24V bank will probably get a controller for those days when high incoming will require dumping power to keep things happy.

Just how I do it here, now.

Tom