Istabreeze 48v i2000 windsafe low voltage

[pedro54]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I have an Istabreeze 48v i2000 windsafe turbine. I also have a SunSynk 8.8kw Hybrid Inverter, I was hoping to connect the wind turbine but subsequently found the input for this must be between 150 - 400v dc. So I have now purchased a 48v wind grid tie inverter Sun-2000G2.

The issue I have is that the turbine at lower speeds only produces 20v - 35v so the Sun-2000G2 inverter doesn't kick in.

What I would like is either to not use the Sun-2000G2 and have a booster that boosts the turbine to 150v DC so that I can use SunSynk directly.

or have a booster that boosts 20-48v to 50v then is bypassed when it has reached this the 50v mark.

Looking forward to see if any of these are feesible.

Thanks
Peter

[Bruce S]

Peter;
Welcome to the forum.
There are quite a few boost convertors that will boost the voltage up to where you want it to be. The harder trick is one that will kick out once the input is reached.
Are you  committed to having a grid-tie inverter ? OR???


Cheers
Bruce S

[pedro54]

Hi Bruce,

I’m open to other options.

Peter

[Bruce S]

Is it possible that you could give us a bit more info of what you are using these for?
What set up do you already have working , OR is this a new set up.
To get a better response from others please include a few things like;
Median winds
How high up is the Windmill
What are your goals for the near future.
Any other items you'd like to add can also be helpful.

Thanks
Bruce S

[pedro54]

Hi Bruce,

I currently have
4.5kw PV
48v 30kw LifePo4 battery pack.

The PV is AC coupled and battery directly connected to SunSynk 8.8kw inverter. The inverter charges battery from excess solar and overnight on low rate grid power.

I now have an Istabreeze 48v i2000 on 10m tower on a hill approximately 120m from house.

My goal was to connect the turbine to the SunSynk and then have that control the battery charging and sending excess to the auxiliary load (water heater). The SunSynk only accepts turbines with voltage between 150 - 400v. If I could step-up the voltage from 20 - 90v -> 150 and above (max 400v) that would be ideal.

I then bought a Sun-2000G2 grid tie inverter. Here my goal was to connect the turbine to this inverter and have it appear like AC coupled to the SunSynk.

Currently in normal days the turbine is only generating 20-35v. When it's windier it does get past 48v. but I would like to be able to use this lower voltage.

To be truthful I'm not sure it is working the AC coupled technique (I haven't had enough wind to generate consistently over 48v yet. We are only just coming into winter months)

Does this help?

Peter

[Bruce S]

Yes, it sure does help
There are members on here who have similar setups though more like home-grown Windmills.
So I'll try to pop a few thoughts in here while they have a read of your information.
I'm certain their information will be much more helpful than mine.

Cheers
Bruce S

[Mary B]

Connect the WT to the boost converter to charge batteries... BUT at full charge it will need some way to signal the WT into shutdown so it doesn't run away.

[pedro54]

Hi Mary,

Thanks will that boost converter be connected to my inverter?

[Mary B]

Just via the batteries. Not directly.

[pedro54]

Hi Mary,

How would I do that? Is there something I can buy/build.

Peter

[mab]

Hi Peter,

I Don't have a lot of wind turbine experience,  but my 1st thought is that your 48v wind turbine is presumably designed for direct connection to a 48v battery - if so then when it's generating less than 48v it is because there's not much wind and it's power output would be minimal anyway - if it's only getting above 48v when it's very windy, that suggests it's designed for a lower voltage.

[Bruce S]

Mab;
I took a look at the wind vs power chart for this specific 48Vdc 'mill. This 'mill needs to get pretty high up in the speed before it really kicks in (say 10m/s) according to their power chart (SEE attached PDF I'm linking here it unfortunately won't hit its peak until ~15m/s .
 i2000-wind-turbine-performance-chart.pdf (600.37 kB - downloaded 188 times.)
Therefore, his hope is to find a solution to boost the lower voltages up so the inverter/CC can kick in.

Pedro54 Do you have any performance charts you can share? There might be a different route you can go

Bruce S

[mab]

Hmm.. that chart doesn't actually say what voltage it is generating for the given power - if we suppose the chart is for a constant 48v (doubtful) then it ought to be >48v from <3m/s.

If the voltage does need boosting then the simplest way might be 3 transformers on the ac output, then rectify into the sunsync - if it is designed for a WT input, otherwise lower voltage transformers into the sun-2000g2 gti.

[pedro54]

Hi Mab,

Hmm.. that chart doesn't actually say what voltage it is generating for the given power - if we suppose the chart is for a constant 48v (doubtful) then it ought to be >48v from <3m/s.

If the voltage does need boosting then the simplest way might be 3 transformers on the ac output, then rectify into the sunsync - if it is designed for a WT input, otherwise lower voltage transformers into the sun-2000g2 gti.

that would be my preference to have 3 transformers on the ac output, then rectify into the Sunsynk which according to the brochure and videos accepts WT input only above 150v. Where would I get/build the transformers? But I'm happy to just get the most power out

Bruce,
I've only had it up about a month with hardly any continuous wind (also not sure how to wire it up to get readings can you get 3 phase readers?).

[Bruce S]

Mab;
Yea I saw it too, so I took the info posted earlier. It's only putting out ~35V until it gets much higher wind. Didn't see what the higher wind even though it should be outputting 48V at around 4m/s.

Pedro54;
I'm certain there are BUT they're gonna be pricey, data-loggers I've used it the past started ~800USD!
I don't know the connections on that particular unit, so I'm guessing that the 3-phases all come down the slip rings. There is a few things you can do depending on your meters. Do you have a clamp style meter?

Forum members who have some pretty hefty units can give you much better ways than I. SparWeb just put up a different unit. Kitestrings has a beauty, bigrockcandymountian also has a bunch of knowledge (THIS is just a few).

Bruce S

[mab]

If you haven't had any good wind yet it may be worth waiting till you do.

I'd try and find transformers off the shelf if it were me. As to what size/volts/hz, that's a whole other question before you get to 'where?'

I assume that the volts you're reading from the WT are open cct? Are they d.c.? - if the WT is connected to the GTI then it will possibly be pulling the voltage down slightly as it will be charging the caps, but if it is below the startup threshold it won't be having too much affect.

I'd try and find out what the open cct a.c. voltage is between phases 1st, and really you need to have some idea of the frequency at that voltage  Once you have them we can take a guess as to what transformers might work - although you might also want to take a view as to what the maximum power you realistically expect to see from this turbine, as 3 x 600va transformers won't be cheap, and I'm not convinced this WT is worth the effort, though others may well know better.

[gsw999]

What I have noticed building turbines as a hobby is that there needs to be lots of wind before the juice starts flowing , I have geared up my wind turbine and put 1.4m blades on it, How tall is your tower maybe you could get it higher up that may help your situation , if you don't have a good source of wind then it's never gonna put out that much, I think there are inverters that work at 22-65 volts this may be a better option, or you could run it to a seperate battery bank and use that power when its windy.

[pedro54]

What I have noticed building turbines as a hobby is that there needs to be lots of wind before the juice starts flowing , I have geared up my wind turbine and put 1.4m blades on it, How tall is your tower maybe you could get it higher up that may help your situation , if you don't have a good source of wind then it's never gonna put out that much, I think there are inverters that work at 22-65 volts this may be a better option, or you could run it to a seperate battery bank and use that power when its windy.

Yes I was thinking about that. If I got one of those inverters I would like to switch across to my current inverter when voltage hits say 60v. Is that doable? What type of switch would I need?

[gsw999]

What I have noticed building turbines as a hobby is that there needs to be lots of wind before the juice starts flowing , I have geared up my wind turbine and put 1.4m blades on it, How tall is your tower maybe you could get it higher up that may help your situation , if you don't have a good source of wind then it's never gonna put out that much, I think there are inverters that work at 22-65 volts this may be a better option, or you could run it to a seperate battery bank and use that power when its windy.

Yes I was thinking about that. If I got one of those inverters I would like to switch across to my current inverter when voltage hits say 60v. Is that doable? What type of switch would I need?

I dount you could switch the inverter whilst it's pulling power , I may be wrong.

[makenzie71]

You can use a booster to try and pick the voltage up for the 2000w inverter but the thing won't be making any amps at that voltage...it'll be a wasted effort.

[pedro54]

You can use a booster to try and pick the voltage up for the 2000w inverter but the thing won't be making any amps at that voltage...it'll be a wasted effort.

Hi, I notice that you also have a i2000 and Sun GTI nice youTube channel . Do you connect the turbine directly into the GTI?  Mine seems to be spinning nicely but only managing low voltages 20 - 46v, it does get to a voltage that starts the inverter but at the moment not for long. Do you use anything before the GTI?

[makenzie71]

I'm afraid I can't offer much help with the sun gti...it has never worked right for me.  I'm currently running it off my batteries like a solar inverter.  The thing frequently resets.  When it was connected through the three phase inputs it would load the turbine up right away and never let it spool up to a proper load voltage and without it the turbines would just run away before the inverter could ever grab them.

[TerraSolis]

Hi Pedro,

I have the I1500 and a  deye hybrid (same hardware as the sunsynk). There is a much more straightforward and efficient way to get your 48V turbine on grid.

Simply have your turbine charge your 48V battery rather than connecting to the wind/solar inputs. You Really need a higher voltage turbine to connect via those and I can't imagine any advantage to trying to connect via a boost-converter - if anything, that sounds troublesome.

If it is the curve based maximum power point tracking you are after, you can get a charge controller that does this in charging your batteries.

You can then program your hybrid inverter to export when batteries are above a certain threshold etc.

[pedro54]

Hi Pedro,

I have the I1500 and a  deye hybrid (same hardware as the sunsynk). There is a much more straightforward and efficient way to get your 48V turbine on grid.

Simply have your turbine charge your 48V battery rather than connecting to the wind/solar inputs. You Really need a higher voltage turbine to connect via those and I can't imagine any advantage to trying to connect via a boost-converter - if anything, that sounds troublesome.

If it is the curve based maximum power point tracking you are after, you can get a charge controller that does this in charging your batteries.

You can then program your hybrid inverter to export when batteries are above a certain threshold etc.

Cheers, could you send me details of what you use to charge battery?

[pedro54]

Hi all,

My Istabreeze was spinning nicely today but was only producing 10 - 40w output.

My turbine is 150m from inverter is this the problem? Should I rectify at turbine and have DC down the line or is AC ok?

Is there a way of adding videos?

Peter

[TerraSolis]

Hi Pedro,

Currently I'm using the very basic IstaBreeze HCC controller and a morningstar tristar controller in load diversion mode. I plan to swap this out for either a morningstar tristar mppt 600V or a midnite classic 250V in order to program an MPPT cirve.

Regarding your low power gen, I doubt cabling is the issue here (and definitely keep the 3 phase AC in the cable run). I would imagine your bottle neck is at the other end (IE your load or inverter isn't drawing enough power even though more may be available to it).

[Andykb748]

Hi Pedro, I have almost the same setup and issue as you, Sunsynk 8.8 with 3 x 5kWh of their batteries and an i2000 istabreeze, which I also bought hoping to run it 'through' the inverter to control charging and export etc. I toyed with connecting it directly to one of the DC MPPT strings, as Sunsynk suggest, but decided to go down the AC route, hoping to connect it to the gen input, using something like the Sun GTL inverter. However, I realised the Gen input would not work so decided to simply go ac coupled and let the turbine and controller generate power to the CU and leave the inverter to decide what to do with the excess, when some is generated. Went ahead and got the Sun device last week, but bench testing also showed the voltage seems too low to start with, so not likely to get low m/s output that I was hoping would be 300 ton400 watts to run the household background.

What solution did you come up with in the end??

Thanks,

Andy

[pedro54]

Hi Andy,

I’ve just left it as is at the moment. I’ve not had much wind recently, but am planning on moving the turbine closer to the house.

Peter

[pedro54]

I did get this charge controller to connect directly into battery. But when we had the storm recently my turbine produced nearly  1000w 🙂 and it stopped working. So I’ve gone back to the SunGti for now. I will need to think of another at another charge controller to directly feed the batteries. Any suggestions anybody?

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[Andykb748]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for replying, I'd not noticed I'd not turned Notify on so hadn't seen it! Tried the Sun one with my electrician on the bench Sunday night and we couldn't get more than 250W even using a powerful drill to spin the i2000 all the way up to about 2000rpm. TBH the drill was struggling and starting to smoke, as if the controller was loading it up hugely, even though that didn't equate to any real power.

Did you ever manage to find out what the m/s wind speed gives what revs by any chance?

I've bought today a bridge rectifier and meter/shunt to bench test the i2000 form v slow to high speed revs, to try to fully understand the volt & amp output ranges.

Have seen a 4000w hybrid charge controller like the one you posted a link to on Aliexpress for about £250 but not clear what voltage range it supports either.. Thinking of using the above new rectifier etc to connect the turbine directly to one of my batteries and then sorting a separate discharge only Sunsynk paralleled to the exisiting one and using it's smart load function to activate a dump load if it can't output the 2kW to the house load/grid export.

Cheers