Hello to all my renewable friends,
I just thought of an idea a couple months ago about using a MeanWell Dc to Dc converters to harvest power from my turbine. The Dc to Dc converter takes a voltage range from 13 to 72 volts with varying current levels and coverts it to a stable voltage (48 v -60 v volts) that you set using a potentiometer on the converter. If the voltage coming in from the turbine approaches 72 volt ceiling for the converter a relay kicks the output directly through the charge controller. When the voltage from the turbine falls below the ceiling voltage of the converter the relay shunts the turbine power back to the DC to DC converter. Today was my first test day with wind speeds of 0-9 MPH and it was a total success. Today with wind speeds of averaging 5 mph I was rectifying 24 volts dc and I was getting 54.5 volts at .1 amps from the converter. A lot of people would not consider this an achievement but considering that I am not getting any useful energy from my turbine until around 10 MPH means that I should see a huge increase in output from my turbine. Taking smaller voltage and current and converting and scaling them to a specific voltage or voltage range through the converter has allowed me to harvest wind energy today that otherwise I would not have been able to do. Thanks for reading. I am curious to see if anyone else has tried this or not. Please respond if you have any input to make this better or if you have questions.
Im sure it would work to some extent. I once was in a pinch, and used a $2 DC converter on a liitle electric fence 10W panel and UPS battery. Set it to 13.6V, walked away and left it. Wsa still working a year later.
However its very unlikely to find anything close to a max power point.
And... youd also need to see what happens during a gale... could be exciting! Magic smoke material.
The DC to DC converter is not a cheap one. It's a MW1000SD-L and has an input voltage range of 13 - 72 volts. When the turbines output gets to 70 volts ia relay will disconnect the converter and run straight from the bridge to the classic. I plan on buying the high input model MW1000SD-H to handle the rest of the 72 - 132 voltage range. This is totally experimental and there is not much wind here much of the time. I figured a more consistent 54.5 volt output to the classic with varying current would be better. If this is not so please explain. Maybe I should use the controller in straight solar mode or something like that. The next windy day I will experiment with other modes.. Hopefully with no magic smoke...
Somehow I think you will lose power trying to do this......Why you ask?........the Classic is a DC-DC buck converter optimized to do just this. The mean well is a buck converter optimized to a stable voltage.....it doesn't know about MPPT sweeping to get to the maximum power point.
Basically using a volkswagon engine to get more horsepower out of a corvette?
Save your money for something else......Just my too cents
David
Quote from: tecnodave on May 20, 2016, 11:08:42 PM
Basically using a volkswagon engine to get more horsepower out of a corvette?
David
What David said!
Perhaps more like using a lawn mower engine to power the 'Vette.
Tom