Too Much Current

[2windy]

It finally sunk in my thick skull that my wind gennys are making to much juice for my controllers to handle. I added a second C-40 a couple weeks ago, but I am making over 80 amps on a good day and the battery voltage keeps rising, then shuts the inverter down. If I am home I can find something to do with the power but when I am gone its wasted.  What should I do, sell the C-40's and invest in two C-60's or I heard mention here of Hydrogen Appliance selling a battery regulator ( an oversized solenoid) that connects to your battery bank and then to your diversion of any size (440 amps) they claim it can handle almost any load. Is anyone here familar with these  ($169.00) or should I stay with the C-60's. I do have 12  Troyan batteries in 24 volt system. Any suggestions?

[TomW]

Check out http://ghurd.info

Glen is a regular contributor here and he sells a nice, inexpensive controller either in a kit or plug n play form.

Tom.

[SparWeb]

Hot water?

Mad scientist tesla coils?

I wish I had your problem!

[Flux]

If the input exceeds the total dump capability even momentarily you will see a voltage rise. There is also a fairly well known fact that the C series controllers are slow and a large surge in input current will let the battery rise before the controller reacts and this can also trip some inverters.

Using 2  C60s will give a bit more capacity but is not much of an advantage.

The hydrogen appliance thing is crude in the extreme but would solve your present problem. You can run a relay from the C40 and do much the same thing in a more refined way.

You could adapt Ghurd's controller to drive a relay and do the same thing.

Better still would be a mosfet power stage on the C40 so that you could let it operate as it does now but with very large switching capability but that is a project for the electronics enthusiast.

Simplest solution is to use the power when you have it available to do something useful but if it is left unattended for long periods it's not so easy.

Flux

[2windy]

Thanks guys for the input. Flux what kind of relay could I use? Would an automotive type work, or are they not capable of switching on -off alot or are they even large enough. Don't have enough electronics to build what you suggest. I have 50 amp breakers in the power line to the C-40's, will they open and save the controllers from frying if I overload them?

[electronbaby]

I try to stay away from c40's and c60's. As mentioned, they are slow to respond and I have blown up many.

I have used them as a crude relay driver however, by using them in load diversion mode. I filtered out the PWM with a big filter cap and had it drive a small contactor for bigger DC loads. It worked alright, but the controller still has an undesirable amount of latency.

I hear good things about Glens controller, but Ive never tried it.

If you own a decent inverter, most have settings to control auxiliary loads or generators. These settings (in addition to external relays) could be capable of doing what you are looking for also.

[ghurd]

Sea-50?  Run away! Run away!

Shouldn't take much googling on 3 forums to get more info on the item and supplier.

I wish they still had the crazy charts and crazy explainations on that site.

I do recall ONE guy had that relay thing and liked it.

Auto-style relays tend to fail soon under any kind of good control.  They were not intended for a lot of cycles.  Simple to make my circuit drive a relay, just widen the hysteresis and add a flyback diode.

My circuit was not really intended for something that big, but it sure beats a sloppy zener relay driver.

For that kind of money ($169), from me, you could get my kit, extra power fets, And 100A (at 12V) of dump resistors!  And still have a bit of cash left over.

It would be more for 100A of 24V resistors.

Not so much a sales pitch as pointing out Better options are available for a lot less total money.

A stray idea.

I don't know if the C-40 over-voltage condition is dependant on a set time, as in "if the voltage is over X for 1 minute, then start dumping".

Could set one of my controllers to less than the inverter trip voltage, and have it dump say 20A(?).  The lower charging amps should result in the battery voltage rising above the C-40 threshold voltage more slowly.  Maybe that would allow the C-40 to do its job, without tripping the inverter?

G-

[Flux]

"Could set one of my controllers to less than the inverter trip voltage, and have it dump say 20A(?).  The lower charging amps should result in the battery voltage rising above the C-40 threshold voltage more slowly.  Maybe that would allow the C-40 to do its job, without tripping the inverter?"

That sounds a sensible idea seeing that he already has the C40s.

Flux

[2windy]

Its just a ProWatt 1500  24volt

[2windy]

Thanks guys for setting me straight. I would be interested in one of your controllers Ghurd but I don't have the electronics background to build something like that. It may be simple to some guys but I don't think I could handle it. You just about lost me explaining it to me. (LOL) I sure do appreciate your help though!

[ghurd]

Sea-50.  Run Away.  When you are done running, run that distance again.

Car parts.  Bad.

Solder.  Good.

E-me if you want to.

G-

[2windy]

Do you sell the controller already made up?

[antw]

What sort of wind turbine do you have that puts out over 2kw?  I looked through your stories but couldn't see details on a 24v turbine.  Is it a commercial one, motor conversion, or axial home made one?

[lamonto]

Do I need to use a diode or straight connection. when checking amps used when inverter is on load get erroneous readings on ammeter which is linked to discharge amps on a wind system

[2windy]

I have 3 of them all connected together