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Forum Index : Windmills : My project - please help!
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| Scoop Newbie  Joined: 04/12/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4 |
Hi guys - I'm after a bit of advice on my own project I am trying to get off the ground. I am somewhat out of my depth particularly with the electronics. I've got a hobby that is seriously out of control! So - I have built a custom mount that allows 2 Fisher Paykel stators and rotors to be used on one axle. Using the newer type of axle (female at end) and the older type of axle (male at ends), you can connect as many F&Ps onto the same axle as you want. You could in theory have a 1km long turbine but not particularly useful. My plan is to screw one older style axle, into one newer style axle, and have a 4 stator turbine. I want to put my turbine (HAWT) in a fairly windy part of Victoria. I'd prefer to make most of my power at lower wind speeds but have the ability to make power in higher wind. Will be feeding into battery bank. Battery bank will be feeding to grid. I purchased the book from Eco Innovations to get my hands on all of the test results for the 100, 80, and 60 turbine (42 pole), and its really quite good data. My problem is I want to use a newer 36 pole stator in my design to avoid cogging, and there is no data on this stator or its different rewiring configurations. I have been told that rewiring into 7 phase is a waste of time, you should just use the 36 pole stator with the 36 pole hub. I should also say that I have easy access to stators and have the luxury of using whichever type is the most suitable. So I have a few questions... For anyone familiar with the EcoInnovations stuff, I cant understand how when he refers to the stator rewiring options as Series/Parallel, Parallel, or Series, how that relates back to how the rewiring options that are stated commonly in Backshed literature. It is messing with my head! Does anybody know anything about the 36 pole stators, in particular how each wiring option would perform at a given RPM, and where the cut in speeds are? There is so little info out there. Or information about which of the other stators the 36 pole matches best so I can make some wild assumptions about the data I have? I cannot decide whether to have a charge controller between my turbine and my battery bank. As far as I can tell there will be no disadvantage letting my battery lock the turbine voltage, and when battery voltage = 14.4 Volts dumping to a dummy load off the battery. Will I get more power using a controller? To feed the grid I am planning on using a residential solar PV inverter (more available, more competitively priced). I figure the battery power will be nice and clean, and should be no problem for an approriate inverter to feed to grid, and probably wasting a lot of money on features I wont be using. There will be a voltage switch to switch the batteries on and off. To get to appropriate voltage for inverter, plan on putting batteries in series to get up to required voltage. Most inverters operate between 120 and 700 volts input. Does all of this sound correct? I have heard that if I want to grid feed I will need to get RF compliance - but I've checked this, and its if you manufacture and sell - and I don;t intend to sell. Anyway - Is there anyone out there that is grid connected that can tell me more about this? Thanks in advance - Jeremy |
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yahoo2 Guru  Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
have you had a look at the 7 phase section under F&P smartdrive in the contents section? I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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Greenbelt Guru Joined: 11/01/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 566 |
Hi Scoup; This Link is on the Back Shed web site Wiring the F&P Stator -------------------Cheers, Roe Time has proven that I am blind to the Obvious, some of the above may be True? |
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Don B Senior Member  Joined: 27/09/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 190 |
Hi Jeremy, and welcome to the forum. You seem to be doing your homework, which is good, as the more you do, the more sense things will make. Hopefully, some of these comments will help. If you want to make (and hopefully use and maybe export) any serious amount of power, then 12 Volts is a poor system choice because of the high currents (and resultant Voltage drops)involved. You should be looking at at least 24 or 48 Volts. As you note, there are grid tie inverters that work on even higher voltages, but these are an unnecessary complication and hazard unless you are dealing with power quantities in excess of 1 kW. Wind turbines will always tend to have a lower useful generating wind speed than the wind speed at which they will start. This is because the turbine blades are deeply stalled until they start to rotate. I think that there is a side-bar to the wind turbine column that explains this in more detail. Cogging is a mixed blessing. It is what you get when you have iron in the alternator's magnetic circuit. While cogging makes starting more of a problem, requiring higher starting wind speeds, it does not involve any really significant losses once you can get your turbine rotating. Looking after your batteries does require a charge controller. What the controller does is back off the charging current to hold the battery voltage at around 14.5 V as they become fully charged. The battery actually needs to be held at this level to become fully charged. Without a controller, the available charge current might force the battery voltage above 14.5V, resulting in gassing, water loss, and greatly reduced life. Alternatively switching the charge off just as the voltage reaches 14.5V (or whatever the appropriate Voltage is for the battery temperature) will result in the battery not ever being properly charged - again shortening its life. Keep reading - it all helps. Regards Don B |
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