The 'Tristar' is a dedicated battery charge controller with the capability of diversion to a Dumpload. It can offer differeing charge rates for 12v, 24v, 36v, and 48v by selecting internal DIL mini switches.
Hugh Piggott advised me that 3 'Tristar' controllers individually connected to the battery bank would work well.
And I agree with Hugh, the 'Tristar' is excellent, fast operation, well built, robust and just does its job.
The wind turbines are connected to the battery bank, the battery bank clamps them down.
In a winter storm and a few days later and the battery bank is fully charged, then the 'Tristars' step in. At first just one of the 'Tristars' will start dumping to dumpload heaters when the battery shows it is full and the controller will not allow overcharging of the batteries.
So, No 1 'Tristar' max's out and is dumping 2kW, but No 2 'Tristar' now see's that the battery voltage is rising above the set battery charging rate, and it starts dumping 2kW. And this procedure is then carried into the No 3 'Tristar' controller, and so on, actually I have 4 'Tristars' but have never got to use 4off 'Tristar' 45's, but it does mean that if there is a cable failure or controller failure, then No 4 is always ready.
The 'Tristar' is not expensive at about $170, it is bullet proof and continues when its maxed out at 45 amps. The LED screen option show data etc and in this photo shows ALARM, but hell it keeps on working.
Empirical evidence . ...... After a good 10 years of operation they are excellent and certainly more guaranteed reliable than just One BIG controller when we are dealing with 6kW to 8kW of Dumping to heaters. Every 3 years I check the controller connections.
This is 'Tristar' controller No 1, it does most of the work, as you can see its dumping 30amp and also it shows ALARM state so a few moments ago it exceeded its own 45amp rating, and therefore 'Tristar' Controller No 2 stepped in.
Here is Wind Turbine No2 control box, with the lids removed on the internal boxes/enclosures, each of my turbines has the same arrangement and its own Box.
DC MCB fuses, AC Short out switch, Amp meter, Rectifiers and heatsink, and yes that heatsink is just right,
and the 'Morningstar Tristar' 45 PWM Controller set for diversion mode.