Author Topic: voltage regulation question  (Read 545 times)

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makenzie71

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voltage regulation question
« on: December 19, 2019, 03:53:34 PM »
One of the turbines I have up kicks out a lot of voltage...connected to a 24v bank it's still throwing 60+ VDC at the controller.  As soon as the voltage goes over 34vdc, the controller automatically throws the brakes on...no matter what voltage the batteries are at.  IE, right now, any time the wind gets over 10mph the controller is diverting to the dump resistor, but batteries are idling at 25.2v.  Currently there is no load on the batteries.

Does this sound like normal operation to you guys?

richhagen

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Re: voltage regulation question
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2019, 04:09:57 PM »
Just my two cents worth,

In an ordinary wind turbine alternator the output voltage is linearly proportional to the rotational speed.  Your controller appears to have a feature in it to protect the wind turbine against run away over speeding in that when the input voltage rises above a certain amount, an indicator that it is at a higher rotational speed, it applies the brakes to protect the turbine.  It appears that there is a mismatch between the controllers input voltages and the turbines output voltages. 

Check the literature with your controller as this may - or may not - be an adjustable setting.  If it is not adjustable, then the next way around it may be to see how your wind turbine is wired.  It may be possible to make some wiring changes on your generator to change the output voltage for a given wind speed.  For example on a three phase alternator it may be possible to rewire it from a star wiring to a delta which would have a lower output voltage and more current at a given wind speed, or even to wire and rectify each phase individually.  Rich
A Joule saved is a Joule made!

makenzie71

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Re: voltage regulation question
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2019, 11:42:54 PM »
yeah the turbine is definitely acting like it's wanting to charge at a higher voltage but the thing just seems to free-wheel if I hook it up to a 48v bank.  I think it's the charge controller/diverter overreacting...not really sure how to address it yet, though...I will likely abandon it and run everything through bridge rectifiers directly to the batteries, then find some other way to divert the load if it gets too hot.