When selecting a small wind turbine, there are a few things you need to know before bolting one up to your house. The lower the voltage system you are running, the less amps the wind turbine will pump out. There are a TON of folks on ebay swearing by their PMA turbines being the most powerful, but in reality, there all pretty much the same. Though some may have a better design than others, the overall output may be the same.
Let's use a battery charging system for example. Most commonly used system voltages are 12, 24, 36, & 48v. Most home experimenters are using 12v systems because of 12v being the most affordable and parts can be purchased from pretty much anywhere from Walmart to your local auto parts store. If you basic OHMS LAW, a 500w turbine will clearly not put out 500w if used on a 12v system.
If you do the ohms law math - volts x amps = watts, you will see a way different number.
Unless you live inside of a permanent hurricane, your normal average wind-speed, blade size/length & pitch, and number of blades will determine your overall RPM of your turbine.
Lets say you have average wind speed of 12mph. You are using a 4-500 advertised watt PMA turbine with 35" blades in 3 blade configuration. You are charging 12v batteries. You are only going to see up to 60 watts (which will charge a battery) and may be inefficient to charge larger battery banks. If wind is your choice of alternative energy, you may want to go with a higher voltage system, or multiple low voltage turbines.
A low wind PMA that hits 12v at about 130 rpm, running a 35"x3 blade configuration yields approx 5-10 amps max. Cut in speed is about 2mph. If the blades config was 24"x3, the cut in speed would be higher - maybe 6-7mph, but output would be about the same if not a little less.
Im not the greatest writer, so I hope this sheds some light on the subject. Im happy to answer any questions.
I'm interested in alternatives, but I always seem to get lost in the math...
ReplyDelete-Meaning, how much "usable" power am I going to make from a basic system you described?
With only 1 small turbine? the answer would be - Not Enough! Your average entry level "AirX" turbine made southwest wind power has an advertised rating of 400 watts. If you were charging a couple batteries combined rated @ 250aH, this would be ok. If you were charging a large bank 1000+ aH this thing wouldn't make a dent unless you lived on top of a mountain or on the beach.
ReplyDeleteFigure it this way - take 10x 100w light bulbs.
You would need 1000w to power all 10 of them.
With 12v sys- you would need to produce 84 amps to keep things running smoothly. Now with a larger battery bank, you can trim that down to about 30-40 amps. You'll be lucky to see 5-10 amps from that one turbine running at 12v.
Now if you were to run a 24v system, you would only need to produce approx 42 amps to keep thing running smooth (about 15-20amps with a larger batt bank). The higher the system voltage, the less amps you will need, and less heat will be produced, etc. It just runs better!
You really need to do the math before you even think about purchasing equipment.
Look at your utility statements and see how many kWh you use per month and average them out. Then you have to think if you want to go with wind, solar, hydro, or all. Then you need to size out a battery bank (if you were to do an off grid application. How much stuff do you want to run from the renewable source? Do you want to do a grid tie? Then most importantly, how much do you want to spend? It has to be well planned.
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