turbine to batt Q.

[gww]

can I run mulipule turbines to a buse bar and if I can is this a good meter for between the bus bar and battery?  48 volt system.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-120V-100A-Volt-Amp-Combo-Meter-Battery-Charge-Discharge-Indicator-With-Shunt-/170902084499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ca8edb93

Is a non digital gage better?
Thank you
gww

[fabricator]

You can run as many turbines as you want to a single buss bar as long they are all the same voltage and it's beefy enough to handle the combined current, I'd consider a Doc Watson with an external shunt, it will tell you a lot more about what the turbines are doing.

[gww]

Fabricator
When you say the same voltage do you mean that mixing two 500 watt hugh turbines would be ok but adding a fisher and paykel and a cieling fan convertion might mess it up.  If the wind is hitting the turbines differrently even two simular ones might steel from each other?  I have not advanced far enough to have looked at the doc wattson yet.  I have saw it referanced here many times.  I will look but, does this need a computer to work?  Also what will it give me that I need?  I am trying to keep the battery wiring managable.  I saw a trimetric on ebay today but I have no ideal what owning either will get me.  I just don't know yet.  I did finely get explained how to use an inverter to be a dumpload but only because Chris olson went though 30 post of me getting it wrong till it finely clicked.  I have seen you advocate this many times but I just didn't get it.   I don't want to put you through that but could you maby give me an abreviated exspanded explination. 
Thank you.
gww

PS  If a 48 v0lt battery bank clamps the voltage and one turbine is puting out 48 volts would one on the same buss bar that was only putting out 35 volts rob from the 48 volt one?

[gww]

Fabricator
I just looked up the doc wattson meter.  $59 bucks,  am I looking at the right thing?

http://www.powerwerx.com/digital-meters/doc-wattson-meter-dc-inline.html

Does this also need a shunt?  Does a guy need two of these, one to show the battery state and one to see what the turbines are doing?
Thank you
gww

[mab]

When you say the same voltage do you mean that mixing two 500 watt hugh turbines would be ok but adding a fisher and paykel and a cieling fan convertion might mess it up.  If the wind is hitting the turbines differrently even two simular ones might steel from each other?

Assuming you are using a DC bus, then you are connecting the turbines downstream of the rectifiers; the rectifiers only allow the current to flow one direction (away) from the mills, so they cannot steal from each other.

The exception would be a DC motor based mill, but even then you would have a blocking diode to stop the battery back-feeding the mill, so as long as the blocking diode is between the mill and the bus you're OK.

[gww]

Mab
That is one of the things I was trying to figure out.
Thank you
gww

[fabricator]

Fabricator
I just looked up the doc wattson meter.  $59 bucks,  am I looking at the right thing?

http://www.powerwerx.com/digital-meters/doc-wattson-meter-dc-inline.html

Does this also need a shunt?  Does a guy need two of these, one to show the battery state and one to see what the turbines are doing?
Thank you
gww

Yep that's what we are talking about, that unit has a constant battery state meter, in the bottom left corner it alternates readings of kWh, and two other readings I can't remember right now, somewhere on that site they sell the external shunts also, on the actual DocWatson site they tell you how to hook it up.
To dump power on the ac side you need something like the morningstar RD1 relay driver, you connect the AC side of your inverter to one side of a normally open relay, to the other side you connect your load whatever you want to use, a space heater, the elements in a water heater, whatever.
The relay driver is connected to the batteries and you program it to do whatever you want it to do, you do need a pc or a laptop to program that unit, the output from the relay driver gets hooked to the coil of the big relay, when the parameters you put in it are met it energizes the relay coil and dumps ac to your load, when the low end parameter is met the driver turns off.

[gww]

Fabricator
I bought a ssr to trigger the load using the auxillery on  my outback mx60 cc.  It should turn on my hot water elements through the inverters. 
Do I have to buy the assesory wires for $3.95 to be able to hook up The doc wattson and if so do I need two wires.  Also do I need two meters to see what the turbines are doing also or will I be able to figure that out with just one?  I did read it has an internal shunt.  If my ssr and outback cc don't work I will be revisiting this post.  I do have a morningstar 60 also.  I will have to study what you wrote several times to get the full gist of it.
Thanks
gww

[birdhouse]

gww-
i won't comment on dumping with the mx-60 and a ssr, because i have never done it. 

like stated above, you can hook any amount of turbines to a DC buss.  they won't negatively affect eachother because of the rectifiers.  rectifiers are like a one way valve for electricity. 

the doc wattson has an internal shunt that is a piece of junk.  it's the size of a pencil eraser.  you'll need to unsolder it, and solder in sense wires that go to an external shunt.  you can get 100Mv (correct rating) 100A shunts, as well as the meter from powerwerx.com. 

just be careful with the soldering.  i spent too much time with the hot soldering iron on mine, then it never worked right.  since you have to crack the case of the doc wattson to do so, the warranty is void, so i was out $60. 

adam

[fabricator]

Fabricator
I bought a ssr to trigger the load using the auxillery on  my outback mx60 cc.  It should turn on my hot water elements through the inverters. 
Do I have to buy the assesory wires for $3.95 to be able to hook up The doc wattson and if so do I need two wires.  Also do I need two meters to see what the turbines are doing also or will I be able to figure that out with just one?  I did read it has an internal shunt.  If my ssr and outback cc don't work I will be revisiting this post.  I do have a morningstar 60 also.  I will have to study what you wrote several times to get the full gist of it.
Thanks
gww

No you don't need the wires they are just for a switch to zero out the display and start logging information over again, all you need to do is put a switch in the big red wire to do do the same thing.
Yes if you want to monitor individual turbines you would need a unit for each, or, you could make a plug for the source side black wire and unplug one turbine and plug another one in, the meter uses the black wire to get all it's information, the other wires could all stay the same.

[gww]

Adam and fabricator
Thank you.  I believe I will buy one doc wattson and one shunt.  I believe for now I understand how it will work.  Wish me luck on the soldering. 
Thanks
gww

[fabricator]

It's not hard, just use low heat just enough to melt the solder and you'll do fine, the trick to getting the internal shunt off is to take a very small screw driver and stick it under the body of the shunt and apply gentle upward pressure while you are unsoldering the tabs, it's a surface mount shunt so it comes off pretty easy.

[gww]

fabricator
I paid the $103 for the meter and shunt.  I believe I'm going to buy one of the little round $11.00 ones off ebay for my 12 volt turbine.  I thank you for your advice on changing the shunt.  I am hoping both shunts are marked so I don't put it backward.  I guess I won't be bothering you again on this untill late 2013.  Maby by that time I will have the connection down properly in my head.  I guess I will go back and read steadfast's thread as I saw lot of advice given there on wiring it to the batt bank.  Thank you for the advice I believe I will be much happier with this then what I was originally asking about.
Thanks
gww

Mab and Birdhouse
Thanks
gww

[fabricator]

Have fun and good luck.