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Hi Terry,
I could not
wait to finally tell you the windmill is now up!
As
expected, no wind to give me charge power, however solar has come to the
rescue for the moment. I have built up a hybrid systems and is wise to
do so in my area as sometimes it is dead still here but usually the
sun will be out on those days.
I did
however get a fright and thought I wired something incorrectly when all
of a sudden, my control panel had lit up the wind light indicating the
mill was turning as soon as I wired it into the controller. As it
turned out, there was just enough wind to light the control indicator
but not enough power to break over the battery voltage on the power
diode to start positively charging.
A friend of
mine who helped me erect the tower, rushed out and yelled out that it
was actually spinning up and seemed to be following path of my
anemometer so in fact was working fine. Hitting the brake switch on the
controller confirmed the circuit worked a treat and brought the mill to
a stop in about one second.
Perfect
start... Come on wind! :)
Anyhow, all
I can say at the moment is after many weeks and much effort, I have now
built my bird and set it to fly. All I need now is a nice windy day to
come to produce some power. According to our weather forecast for the
next week, Thursday and Friday has 'Windy' forecasted and looks to be
the days I will start to see how things go. :)
As I
promised, I have attached a few pictures of my system you are welcome
to post as you please along with any information i have so far provided
in this email.
When I have tested it for a while, I
will be able to give you some good data on how the system is
performing and any updated news I may find in that time.
I have all confidence that these blades
will be perfect for this windmill once the wind picks up as while I
have type this email, I just witnessed my load current being reduced
by nearly an entire amp for a short period of time as a small wind
gust passed overhead. Checking my anemometer, average over 12
seconds was only 6kph so this thing will produce.
I wish to thank you again for your
support and interest in my home built generator.
Also another thing I wish to say, the generator looks professional
and just fantastic up there with those blades. Over the road seeing
them spin up in the dull dusk light behind my array of
antennas brought on a huge smile of satisfaction just like a kid
getting his surprise ice-cream.
Below I
have made a list which gives you an idea of my system layout and what it
will be used for:
Purpose:
Radio Communications Hybrid Solar / Wind System and emergency lighting
system.
The Wind
Generator:
Ametek 30V
DC motor.
Rotor: TLG Tri-Nando MM
Frame: Home
built from angle iron, black steel tubing and a 'Ford' tension pulley
off a motor for a yaw system that yaws in as little as 1.5 - 2kph
breezes. The tail is of a furling design similar to published in some
of Hugh Piggotts designs. It is just in case we get a lashing and need
just a little governing and stress relief of the mill in a storm.
The entire
contraption is pole mounted up from a flat section of roof on a two
story house - approximately 45 feet or higher. I will have to work this
out, but it looks dam high from over the road!
Solar:
BP 12V
50W solar panel.
Regulation:
Plasmatronics PL20 for solar panel and is configured to shunt regulate
the wind generator in hybrid mode.
PLS2 to
read and store wind generator charge and also capture data on outgoing
loads from the battery banks.
Wind
Generator Controller II
Home built
box to give visual indication on what mode of power is being supplied to
the bank, current supplied real time from the wind generator and
indication of when the PL20 is diverting or dumping power to a dump load
circuit.
Storage:
Deep cycle
flooded cell - 12V @ 90AH capacity.
Power
outputs:
Direct 12V
output from bank to power radio equipment and low voltage lighting
plus a small 300W power inverter to produce 240V AC mains power when
required.
Cheers
Terry, I will keep it short and give you a quick update on performance
probably in a month from now.
Have a
great day, Kind regards
John from
Melbourne, Australia
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