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GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127

Posted: 09:25am 03 Dec 2007

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Hey highlander, I have no problem with your post.

I just think that if someone comes to a forum looking for help and the problem is solved then that member should acknowledge all those participants in the forum who helped, especially those who described almost exactly what the problem would be and probably saved down the track expense. I do not expect to solve all problems [I certainly limit my participation to areas I am well versed in, or interested in]. I may just sit back and watch in future.

I am sorry Gizmo, but this sort of thing rubs me the wrong way.

Gordon.

become more energy aware

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 09:25am 03 Dec 2007

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Hi Mark,

I have not been up there to put the wind turbine up.
I am planning to go up to Dereel near Rokewood there this weekend to help with putting the turbine up and set up the battery pack and the regulator and the inverter.

My brother in law is picking me up in Friday I think(hope) so that I can help him with the erection of the mast with the turbine on top.

I will also suggest that he buy a PL40 as the controller for wind turbine and when we get the solar side bought then we will also buy a PL20 for the solar panels.

The PL40 has a capacity of 40 amp that will handle the wind turbine and the PL20 has a capacity of 20 amp.more than enough for a set of solar panels.

I will take some more pics of the installation both as it is now and when the new installation is finished.

I also greatly appreciate all the help and information that I got from all the various members on the forum.

EricEdited by ericvr 2007-12-05

limited greenie

GWatPE

Senior Member

Joined: 01/09/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 2127

Posted: 09:41am 03 Dec 2007

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Hi ericvr,

your ears must have been burning.

I will leave it at that.

Gordon.

become more energy aware

Highlander

Senior Member

Joined: 03/10/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 08:35am 05 Dec 2007

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Hey Eric,
I think you'll need some concrete for the mast foundation, make sure you buy some before you get up there. And a few slabs, don't expect to have it all done in one weekend.

especially if there are any nagging bitches around.

Hey Gordon, take it easy mate, I'm sure it was just an oversight, an easy thing to do considering the picture I posted.

Mark

Central Victorian highlands

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 08:40am 05 Dec 2007

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Hi Mark (Highlander)

The foundations is already in and has been for a week, and no I do not drink beer only port and red wine, but not when I am working.
And there are no nagging females around.

I will have some pictures to post on Monday or Tuesday.

Regards

Ericvr

limited greenie

Trev

Guru

Joined: 15/07/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 676

Posted: 01:38pm 06 Dec 2007

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Ericvr,
My understanding is that you would only need one PL regulator to do the job that you have been describing. You select the PL to suit the solar and use a PLS2 and shunt to control the wind generator, up to 250 amps.

Check out the Plasmatronic websitefor details.

Trev @ drivebynature.com

Highlander

Senior Member

Joined: 03/10/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 07:42am 10 Dec 2007

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Thanks Trev, once again very helpfull.
I took this from the pl website

Just to confirm my understanding of it, the L- is an adjustable set voltage on the unit. Which triggers the relay and thus the dump load. Is that right?
If so is the pls2 required if no logging is needed?

Central Victorian highlands

Trev

Guru

Joined: 15/07/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 676

Posted: 01:02am 12 Dec 2007

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Highlander,
L- voltage is set as part of the regulator system voltage setting. Yes you are right, the L- is used to trigger the relay for dump load.

Used this way the regulator function settings are also changed so the L- switches on only when the batteries are fully charged and is no longer available as a load outlet.

You are correct, if you are not wanting to record wind data, then no PLS2, shunt or WY cable is needed.

Trev @ drivebynature.com

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 01:44am 12 Dec 2007

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Hi Trev and Highlander and anyone else,

Thanks for the info.
I have looked at the PlasmaTronics website and downloaded all the information that I thought necessary, including some not necessary, I have made up a folder with all the information I have so far read, downloaded printed outand collated.
I hope to go up to Dereel to install the system before Christmas.

Again thank you for all the help so far from every one.

Have a safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year

Eric van RhijnEdited by ericvr 2007-12-25

limited greenie

Highlander

Senior Member

Joined: 03/10/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 06:53am 12 Dec 2007

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Thanks Trev

I'm gunna buy one of them.

Central Victorian highlands

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 02:25am 24 Dec 2007

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Hi all,

Firstly, A very big thank you to all who have assisted me and given me idea's on this and othere associated sites of The Back Shed site, that I have browsed.

I was planning to go up to my Brother in Laws place before Christmas but due to his work commitments we were unable to do this and we have had to put off the installation of the 1 KW 48 Volt wind generator.
It will now have to be in the new year but that gives me time to fine tune the monitoring unit.

While browsing through various posts I saw how someone made up a current shunt out of a piece of threaded rod, very ingenious, as you can then fine tune the resistance real easy to calibrate the meter. The same person also used digital meters and a small DC-DC isolated converter from a computer network card. I used a couple of digital LCD meters (A$ 4.99 + A$ 10.oo postge) and DC-DC converters from "Asia Engineer" that I found on E-Bay quite cheap, they have various voltages and current capacities if you ask them.

Sorry there are no further pictures of the installation but the outside of the monitor box has not changed. just some internal tidying up of the wiring.

A happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and happy wind and solar generating to all.

Thank you

Eric van Rhijn

limited greenie

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 09:35am 12 Jan 2008

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Hi All,

First of all Happy New Year to all.

Well finally I got up to the "Farm".
it was a couple of very warm days (30 degrees plus)in Dereel, Victoria near Ballarat where the farm is.
We finally got the Windmill up and going after I put the blades on back to Front and it did not want to turn, so we turned the blades around and it worked. but it still needs a fair amount of wind to make the wind generator charge the batteries.

We still have to change the tail around as my brother in law put them on upside down. ( No assembly instructions on how to put the whole lot together).
The only instruction was for the balancing of the prop, (only making the blades equidistant).

All went well the blades were balanced to within the 5 mm as recommended by the manufacturer and we raised the generator again, we used an old tank stand to assist with the raising and lowering of the contraption, we used a 1.5 ton excavator to raise and lower the mast, worked well with some strapping to hold things in place during the operation.

Here are some photo's of the installation

Here are the 1 KW and 500 watt wind generators, 1 KW is on the left.

This is the 1 KW wind generator with the tank stand.

Here is the battery bank all batteries are 88 Ampere hours making a total of 480 Amp/hours at 48 volt.
Some serious current capacity. Connecting cables are 7x7x34x0.12 mm or 4 gauge.

This is the controller and the battery monitor box which shows net amps in or out.

This is another shot of the controllers.

Here is a shot of the (now redundant the green box is the 24 volt one) 24 volt rectifier box with the controller for the 48 volt system, I checked the 24 volt box and found that there is no control at all from the 24 volt box.

by the way does any one know where we can get a 3 or 4 sided antenna tower of about 10 or 15 meters high? we need to go up higher to overcom the effects of the trees.Edited by ericvr 2008-01-13

limited greenie

Highlander

Senior Member

Joined: 03/10/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 11:31am 12 Jan 2008

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Looking good

I probably wouldn't worry about the tail being the wrong way up, unless it looks unstable. It's only there to point it to the wind.
Your brother will hate to hear this but those trees will badly effect the performance of the mills.
As you know in Vic we mainly get winds from the s/w and north/sw combination in summer, so you may have to trim the trees accordingly.

Have you hooked up the inverter? I'm assuming so as you have an inverter current of .7amp on the meter, how is it performing?

Great to see another r/e setup operational.

Central Victorian highlands

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 11:46am 12 Jan 2008

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Hi Highlander,
yes we have hooked up the inverter and it is working fine. My brother in law is up there at the moment, and yes I noticed that the trees affect the performance but he had the hole dug and filled in with concrete before I got there otherwise I would have suggesed a diffetent location. But that will have to wait until a later date. The inverter runs the fridge TV and the lights without any problems, were not sure about the fridge but when I checked the power consumption it was only abot 200 to 220 watts when the compressor was running. so he is very happy, but I do not know how long the batteries will last, so we are going to supplement the wind generator with a set of 200 watt 24 volt solar panels later on as they are much more expensive than the wind generator, which he got from A+ Imports in Wendouree (near Ballarat) he also has a 5 KVA diesel generator as a back up and the inverter is basically a UPS so that when the generator is running it will charge the batteries, and then when you turn of the genset the UPS takes over.
but it takes about one second for the cahnge over to take effect and the UPS to come on line so it is not a no-break system.but that does not matter in this situation. still looking for a three or four sided tower 10 to 15 meters high.

Thanks for your positve comments

Hope you had a good and quiet New Year

ericvr

limited greenie

sPuDd

Senior Member

Joined: 10/07/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 251

Posted: 02:26pm 12 Jan 2008

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G'day ericvr,

Those 48V ebay inverters are stated to have a 15mS
changeover time. Looks like that feature may not have
made it to production

Nevermind. I'd say that
a few people are curious how long those units will last.

Your setup looks good for someone who has been keen
enough to give it a go

sPuDd..

It should work ...in theory

Highlander

Senior Member

Joined: 03/10/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 266

Posted: 10:33pm 12 Jan 2008

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G'day Ericvr,
can't help with a tower. Put a request in the wanted section and keep an eye on ebay.

That's a bummer about the lag time, what's the draw when nothing is running from it.

The gold coloured fuse box at the bottom left looks good, where did you get that?

Looking dry over there, have you noticed the rabbit population drop?

Central Victorian highlands

ericvr

Newbie

Joined: 24/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 37

Posted: 11:00pm 12 Jan 2008

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Hi Highlander,
I have looked on Ebay but there are none vailable in Aus, but I will keep an eye open for that. When there is no load on the inverter the current drawn is approx 0.5 to 1 ampthe ampo meter measures in whole amps only as it is a 200 amp max amp meter.
The gold colored fuse box I got from Jaycar, it was a discontinued model that was used for car amps and it has 2 x 50 amp fuses in it and two 20 anp fuses that are 4 AG size. I got it out of their specials box for A$ 29.50 but the normal price was A$ 45.oo.
The lag time is not really a problem unless you are watching TV but then you would not let a diesel genset run out of fuel!!!!!
It is reasonably dry over there but a couple of miles down the road there is an underground spring that makes the ground look green.
Here are a couple of shots.

This is my brother in Law asembling the nast

This is a view from the South of the farm the wind mills are on the right hand side.Edited by ericvr 2008-01-14

limited greenie

luchie

Newbie

Joined: 13/04/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 3

Posted: 02:25am 13 Apr 2009

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ericvr said High Highlander,

Thanks for your interest.

My Brother in Law bought the wind generator from a firm in Ballaarat, A+ Imports, it is from China but looks well made. He bought a 500 Watt 24 Volt unit from Nighting gale Electrics in Spencer Street West Melbourne.
He also bouhgt a 3500 watt Inverter from A+ Imports but the Inverter died and he took it back to A+ and they suggested the 48 Volt 5000 Watt inverter en a 48 Volt 1000 Watt wind generator, with a controller.

Later on he wants to put up some solar panels (160 or 200 watt ones) but they are still to expensive.

He is located in Dereel near Rokewook south of Ballaarat.

When I get to his place I will take some photo's of the installation and post them on the site

He wants to go and live up there and needs enough power to run a fridge and a freezer as well when he is up there during the weekenda at the momentso I calculated that at the moment thewind Generator will be OK for the time being but in the summer he does not get that much wind so he will need to supplement it with a generator and Solar. I have been looking at Solar trackers as well but they tell me that they still have some problems with it locking up so you have to be there to reset it and that is not really satisfactory. as he is not technologically savvy.

I have also looked at regulators and the best one seems to be the Plasmatronics PL20 but they are expensive.

I have spoken with "Energymatters" from South Melbourne and they have 24 volt panels of 160 to 180 watt at A$ 3390 per set so that gives you nearly 350 watts of solar power. They put out about just over 5 amps. But it is expensive.

the regulators are about A$ 300 for the PL20 and A$ 400 for the PL40. The PL20 can handle 20 amps charging current, so enough for most small installations.

I also bought a Power meter from Maplin in the UK but I have noticed that Jaycar now has power meter too now and you can use that to see how much power an appliance uses.

I got two travel adapters to convert the UK plugs to the Australian plugs.

007

luchie

Newbie

Joined: 13/04/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 3

Posted: 02:32am 13 Apr 2009

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ericvr said Hi Trev and Highlander and anyone else,

Thanks for the info.
I have looked at the PlasmaTronics website and downloaded all the information that I thought necessary, including some not necessary, I have made up a folder with all the information I have so far read, downloaded printed outand collated.
I hope to go up to Dereel to install the system before Christmas.

Again thank you for all the help so far from every one.

Have a safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year

Eric van Rhijn

hi eric iv got the same modle chinese 500watt 24 volt 26 amps wind generator but i have lost the manuals that were in pdf format. would you possibly have a copy or have access to copies of the two manuals that come with this system if so could you email them to me omulti@hotmail.com if you could you would be doing me a great service. thanks johnathan

007

electricme

Newbie

Joined: 14/01/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 5

Posted: 12:09pm 29 Sep 2009

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Hi all

I have been reading all the posts here on this forum and might I say how interresting they all are.

Ericvr,
why not make your own 3 leggard mast, I have done this myself about 5 years ago and it is still in one bit after it had a fall during a very bad storm, I just repaired the tail fin and wound it back up again.

I made my tower from 3/4" waterpipe that was thrown out in the local dump. Bracing takes care of any flexture.

Horozontal bracing I used 3/4 pipe, I flatened the pipe ends about a 3/4 inch back from the ends to make it easier to weld a better joint.

I can see you may be familiar with farm machinery, I used the grain auger lifting principle to raise or lower my whole mast, I use a small hand powered boat winch to do this chore.

It is bacilly a tall "A" frame, the bottom has second hand green garbage wheely bin wheels, as the winch pulls the wheels towards the tower base, the tower raises upwards from the horozontal position.

I am able to lower this mast by myself also.

Hope this helps you, ha ha, I came on this forum to ask for your help, but got side tracked lol, I will make another post shortly of my energy needs.

jim

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