Gel Cells, Wind, and Solar?

[hamitduk]

Hi

I am now the proud owner of 12, 6VDC 235AH each Gel Cells (and I can get more, for free)! I run a bit of solar and a bit of Wind. How do i make these two work together without cooking the Gel Cells.

It is all 24VDC (wind and solar), so the battery bank is 24VDC @ 705AH.

Hami

[DamonHD]

A decent controller or two, such a three-stage solar controller combined with a dump controller to take care of excess wind energy.

Rgds

Damon

[hamitduk]

Gel cells required a lower charging voltage (than standard batteries), is there a system that is designed/better for Gel Cells?

[DamonHD]

A decent controller should have a "gel" setting and/or adjustable setpoints, my Morningstar MPPT solar controller does for example.

Rgds

Damon

[hamitduk]

I am currently using a combo solar/wind controller is there one out there that will have a Gel setting?

[SparWeb]

You haven't said what kind or model of controller you have.  Can you adjust the voltage ranges it uses during charging cycles?  If so, then you can set them yourself and not need a new controller.  You should also look up the required set-points of your batteries on the manufacturer's website.  Then you can verify that the controller's settings are correct for your batteries.

[hamitduk]

Oh, it's a crapola 1000, when I got it, I had to call the manufacture to find out what the LED's on the front were for.  It took them three day to figure it out. It was made by WindMax.  I trust it for $500 worth of wet cells, but 4K of gels (and soon more), I think I would like to get one where the instruction doesn't sound like the instruction on the back of a pack of fire crackers "light fuse lay on ground get away fast"

Sure I could Modify to function! But I would rather get one that works.

[SparWeb]

Okay, the general opinion is that flooded lead-acid batteries can take a lot of abuse, but only with enough maintenance, while gel-cells need to be "Babied".

I have a Morninstar TS-60 and a Xantrex C40 charge controller, each of which can be set to regulate gel-cells.  In fact I (kind-of) have the Morningstar set to "gel-cell" right now even thorugh my batteries are "AGM" types, but they don't accept over-charges well except on occasion.  Note that I use separate charge controllers for the wind and solar in my set-up.  Although the TS-60 could, by name-plate values, handle all of the solar and wind at the same time, the ability to control them separately, turn one off leaving the other on, is very handy.  Not to mention that wind needs a diversion load, and solar doesn't, so I set up two controllers differently so that the solar doesn't need to be dumped through the diversion load if I can help it.

There is a competing Outback charge controller.  I hear excellent reviews of them and their customer service, so it's probably a good way to go, too (just costs more).

Other charge controller can be found that are much more "DIY" friendly, too.
Have you checked out Ghurd's website yet?  If you're interested you can get a kit from him, and build it the way you want.  If you choose to go with two controllers then you save even more money.