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Forum Index : Windmills : grid tie inverter for windmill
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member  Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
Does anyone have recomendation for a good low watage grid tie inverter (500w) for use with a F&P 60s model? I have been looking at some on E-Bay that have built in dump load controller. Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
wow, I thought I'd get at least a few suggestions.  Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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mac46 Guru  Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
Xmaswiz, I've been off line because of wet phone lines...go figure huh. I personally don't know squat about grid tie, so sorry. Hopefully someone in the know will help you with this. ....Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
looks like that will be the case with most, cept maybe some folks from China, or Europe.  Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| mac46 Guru Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
Xmaswiz, I would think that someone from the US would be comeing by soon and see you'r post....maybe, All I have read or herd about the smaller grid tie inverters is that you should stay away from imported ones...I guess they don't work for very long before troubles start to happen with them. This is something I have'nt paid attention too , so I could be way wrong...sorry I can't be of more help. ....Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
I've have started hearing some better comments on the newer models comming out of China now. They are starting to beef them up a bit more, and not over rating them as much. biggest thing I have noticed is when they advertise something like a 500w unit, they don't show till you read the specs on it that it was really a 400w or 450w unit with surge capacity for 500w. I also have noticed that there is fewer bad comments on the combined dumpload units. After my iniatl test with one, I was thinking of using the dump section to charge a battery tied in parallel with another grid tie unit.  Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
if the battery is a bad idea, then a regular resistive load with another grid tie attached to it. Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| mac46 Guru Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
Xmaswiz, Like I said ...I don't know much at all about these grid tie systems, I would think that you would need at least a battery bank, several, or multiple batteries, and was unaware that more than one grid tie system could be hooked up to a single service..."I'm just guessing here so don't take what I say about this seriously." Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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rissole Newbie  Joined: 10/05/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 15 |
Higuys , here's one. I haven't tried it myself but I got the info from another posting on this site, I believe some one this forum is using this one http://www.latronics.com.au/products/turbine-controller. http://www.latronics.com.au/products/turbine-controller Rusty |
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| smithy Regular Member Joined: 30/01/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 52 |
With the Chinese ones, you had better be good with a soldering iron, I've replaced a number of parts. Build quality is marginal. I also have a SWEA (very very good for 24V grid tie applications, and are made specifically for wind). I also have the Ginlong one which is really for higher voltages. Gee I seem to have a few of these things. What you (not someone else) need to do is look at what RPM and Voltage output you are likely to get and then work on a decent GTI that works within that range. GTI's don't tolerate over voltage at all, and you don't want the Mill spinning around pushing out Volts that don't hit the feed in levels of the GTI's. The feed in and max out Voltage levels are critical. Smithy "The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind" Bob Dylan |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Xwizz I have used the 14 -28 volt GTI on my system as dump loads and found the small ones 300 watt are unreliable due to overheating, I have replaced the original fan with a 4 inch one by cutting a hole it the top of the case and putting a heat switch on the transformer as the heat sensor in them is unreliable and causes the magic smoke to escape. I have some 600 watt ones as well that seem more reliable but have the same heat problem they do 500 watts to grid at 28 volts and cut in at 15 volts but insignificant power output. I also have a 1200 watt unit that works OK needs 28 volts though and needs a bigger cooling fan. All of them suffer from lack of capacitance on the input, with a 250000 mfd across the input it improves them and they run a bit cooler. I have a 470K resistor across the input relay to float the input caps as they draw a lot of surge current when turned on. They are cheap and nasty in the smaller sizes, and the batch that I got where obvious throw out ones as 6 out of 10 didn't work, these where the ones that where fiddled. The ones that had the quality assurance sticker on them where all OK, only one died and that was my fault as it got 100 volts input and let out the magic smoke. I have lots of spare parts and neat little cases for other projects, as my Dad said when we import from a poverty nation we buy ourselves into poverty. What I am doing now is to use a 5000 watt semi sine wave inverter and rectify the output it gives it around 320 volts DC then feed that into normal MPPT solar GTI. The other ones are used as dump loads. All this is connected to the battery pack 24 volt, set cut in at 27 volts and drop out at 25 volts, this system works for me but may be a bit complicated for a newcomer. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
Thanks all for your inputs, sounds like my best bet is to just go with the SWEA units, and add more GTI units as I grow the system. Bob what is the input voltage for the modified sine 500w inverter that you are rectifing to the solar GTI? Sounds interesting. and what is the spec of the cap you have on the other setup? Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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Fernbrae Newbie Joined: 06/10/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
Hi Gentlemen , have a look at the attached compasny , I have 2 of their 500 watt Grid tie inverters , hooked direct to solar panels , they work extremely well. They also offer a wind type inverter , have not tried this . Well priced and happy to deal direct . http://www.chinesegrid.com/ Living loving life always |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
I got a quote for a single evaluation unit, price was ok, except for shipping, which made it very expesive, and they are mostly the same units found on EBAY. If shipping had been at least half what they quoted I would have tried it. I am for now going the SWEA route, found a starter kit for $312 shipped and the SWEA has the dumpload in it. Good for initial tests Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| Fernbrae Newbie Joined: 06/10/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
Just as a matter of interest what price was quoted , and how much was the shipping ? I have not seen these inverters on Ebay , I beleive these are one of the better ones , mine have worked every day for about a year now. I think that if they are connected properly and used in accordance as per the instructions , then they won`t let out the magic smoke. Living loving life always |
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| Fernbrae Newbie Joined: 06/10/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
This is a picture of my set up 
Living loving life always |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
Fernbrae they quoted $250 for the unit, which was very good, but shipping was $175. I would still have needed to get a dump load of suitable size for it, and the warrenty was ok (1 year) but I would have to ship it back at my own cost to their plant and return shipping as well if anything did go wrong with it. They also required full payment by wire which I would not do at all)if they would have accepted an escrow, or even paypal I might have concidered it. I actually got the model to go fo from the beawindhog folks, so it sounded like it might have been a good unit. Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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| Fernbrae Newbie Joined: 06/10/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 7 |
Hi Xmaswiz, I paid USD$125.00 each for the two that I purchased, I was a bit lucky as I had them shipped to one of my suppliers in China and they came to me in a container with my suppliers order. They work well and have the anti islanding function , so will not fry a servicaman . Thats the only reason I purchased then . Warranty is the same , they also have just developed a waterproof inverter for connecting onto the panels at the rood area , 1x per panel like another system I saw in the USA .Looks interesting , but was expensive , I prefer what I have already . Their wind option looks interesting , but as you say requires an external dump load. Rgds Greg Living loving life always |
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| Xmaswiz Regular Member Joined: 14/04/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 69 |
wish I had connections like that out here, I don't even have good sources for scrounging stuff here, our recycling efforts here are too good. Santa Maria, CA. Noel |
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BobMann Senior Member  Joined: 30/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 134 |
Hello I have been working on this problem for my Tree Top Wind Mill. In one of my YouTubes you can see how my Mann Smart Drive smokes up the china ones. But I did fine a fix and have plan to build a controller with Steve to help the F&P ouners use the low cost China grid tie and make them last. Bob Mann |
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