The main advantage to coupling batteries with a connection to the grid through a GTI is having electricity in the event of a power outage. As with other grid connections, you can also reduce your utility bill by generating some of your own power. There are also some drawbacks to batteries. They eventually wear out lifetime is related to usage patterns and storage , they contain a variety of toxic chemicals, and charging and discharging batteries reduces the overall efficiency of the system.
You also have to carefully consider which type of battery is appropriate for your system. When you are tied into the grid, your meter runs backwards whenever you are producing a surplus of energy. This is called net-metering, which is summing the kiloWatt-hours kWh you are drawing from the grid and subtracting the kWh you are giving back to the grid. This reduces your utility bill because whenever you are producing your own electricity, you are saving the amount you would otherwise be spending on that power from your utility company.
The downfall of this option as compared to batteries is that you don't have storage capacity. The advantage is that you don't have any batteries to worry about. If you are giving back more power than you are using e. Utilities across the world and across the U. If you want to go this route, you will need to contact your utility company to find out if and how much they will pay you for surplus electricity.
You can find some basic information about how utilities in various parts of the U. You also may have heard about renewable energy certificates RECs as a compensation mechanism for the wind-energy you are producing. Making money by selling the renewable attribute of the power you are producing is a complicated process that varies dramatically from state-to-state. You can read some of the basic ideas behind RECs here. For your consider, we have compiled a few reviews from our Community Forum members.
We attached Member names to specific reviews so you can contact the reviewer directly if you have questions. Although this list is not exhaustive, it is a compilation of the GTIs mentioned most regularly by our most active Forum members.
That would sell. Did we miss anything? Want to share your GTI experiences? Email us or post on our Community Forums! There are two types: Stand-alone or Off-grid and Grid-connected.
Stand-alone, as the name suggests, is a completely off-grid system supported by batteries that maintain the energy supply when there is insufficient wind. Grid-connected is when the electricity supplied by the wind is supported by the main grid to fill any voids created by intermittent wind; a disconnect switch is used in this case instead of batteries. Grid-connected systems can be practical if the following conditions exist:.
In the end, if all the legal requirements are met, the major decision maker is usually economic considerations. So there needs to be a careful evaluation and the sections that follow are purposed to help. Evaluating energy needs is one of the first steps for system design. For any wind energy system, be it off-grid or grid-connected, we have some components in common: A wind turbine, tower, concrete foundation for the tower, and cable connections from the turbine to the equipment room.
The sizing and selection of this equipment will vary based on your energy needs. Using energy projections for your specific situation, you can then decide on what size turbine is best for you. The average yearly energy consumption of a normal household 4 members in the US is around 12, kWh, which is almost the highest in the world.
It is considerably less for other countries like India, where it is about kWh, and changes from place to place. For reference, see this data chart:. When assessing specific energy needs calculate manually or via an energy auditor. Next, evaluate your capacity factor. The capacity factor is the average power generated, divided by the rated peak power. This varies by location and is needed to size your turbine large enough to meet your needs.
Since wind is an intermittent source of energy, it cannot power the turbine at optimum level all the time, so the design sufficient to meet your needs is contingent upon this capacity factor.
For reference, a 1. How are these calculations made? There are some interesting videos on instructables, wikihow, as well as Youtube. See our resources section for examples. If you are considering making your own wind turbine, or want a preliminary estimate of the expected performance of any equipment not listed, use the following formula:. The first option offers more customer support from the company. Self-installation offers significant savings and a hands-on understanding of the turbine.
Prospective owners can discuss the options available with manufacturers to decide which method best suits their budget and technical skills. Approach buying the equipment as you would any major purchase. Obtain and review product literature from several manufacturers and research those you want to pursue, ensuring they are recognized businesses and their parts and service are available when needed.
Determine the warranty length, what it includes, and ask for references of customers with installations similar to the one under consideration.
Ask system owners about performance, reliability, maintenance and repair requirements, and whether the system is meeting their expectations. Be very careful with the machine and only select a self-delivery option if you have previous experience moving heavy items.
Remember, safety is primary and money secondary. Intelligent placement of your wind turbine is important to maximizing its function. It is important to site the generator far enough from the cliff to avoid turbulent wind. On ridge tops, wind compresses as it blows over the top of a hill, increasing the wind speed. With proper placement, you may be able to use a shorter tower. The general recommendation though is no tower shorter than 33 feet 10 m.
It is also important to follow the general rule that the tower be at least 20 feet 6 m above any surrounding object. Coastal or lakeside usually offers very strong prevailing winds. In the case of coastal, winds typically blow most from the ocean, so it is very beneficial to install your wind generator as close to the coastline as possible. Trees and taller structures can be downwind from the wind generator.
Wherever placed, a wind turbine must also have a clear path for the wind and machinery to perform efficiently. Turbulences are stronger close to the ground, diminish with height, and are generally created by obstacles. Wind speed also increases with height.
The general rule, as previously stated, is to install a wind turbine on a tower at least 20 ft above any obstacles within ft. Keep in mind though that large obstacles will affect wind patterns even if they are farther than feet away. Smaller turbines typically go on shorter towers than larger turbines. A 1 kW turbine is often, for example, installed on a ft tower, while a 10 kW turbine will usually need a tower of ft.
Careful analysis and consideration are recommended if considering mounting wind turbines to small buildings that people live in because of the inherent problems of turbulence, noise, and vibration.
When choosing your location, keep in mind the process of erecting your tower too. The three basic tower types to consider are tilt-ups, guyed lattice, and freestanding. Most tilt-ups are made of pipe or tube and require guy wires for support.
They are assembled on the ground and raised into position with a winch or tow vehicle. For turbines with a rotor diameter of 12 feet or less, this tower is usually the lowest-cost option. Guyed lattice towers are constructed on the ground and raised with a crane or assembled vertically, one section at a time, with a process known as stacking.
These towers are primarily used for turbines with rotor diameters less than 25 feet and are the lowest cost fixed-tower option. Freestanding towers fall into two categories: self-supporting lattice and monopole. The self-supporting lattice tower is usually assembled on the ground and raised with a crane.
These towers are typically used for turbines with a rotor diameter of 20 feet or more and require a fairly large foundation, making this option fairly expensive. Monopole towers are available for most turbine sizes and tilt-up versions are becoming more common.
Although many people prefer the aesthetics of a monopole, these towers require the largest foundation of all and are usually the most expensive option. Towers, particularly guyed towers, can be hinged at their base and suitably equipped to allow them to be tilted up or down using a winch or vehicle.
This allows all work to be done at ground level. Some towers and turbines are easily erected by the purchaser, while others are best left to trained professionals. Anti-fall devices, consisting of a wire with a latching runner, are available and are highly recommended for any tower that will be climbed. Avoid aluminum towers because they are prone to developing cracks. Towers are usually offered by wind turbine manufacturers and direct purchasing is best to ensure proper compatibility.
Again, exercise caution when mounting wind turbines on top of homes. Larger residential-home wind turbines vibrate and transmit noise to the structure on which they are mounted. This vibration can lead to noise and structural problems with the building. Mounting on the rooftop can also expose the generator to excessive turbulence that shortens its life.
Small wind turbines make noise, but not enough to be found objectionable by most people. A typical residential wind system makes less noise than the average washing machine. This is because most residential-sized wind generators are direct-drive devices with few moving parts. Unlike the utility-scale turbines used in wind farms, they do not have high-speed transmissions.
Thus, most of the sound that comes from a residential-sized wind turbine is aerodynamic noise caused by the blades passing through the air. Noise levels of most modern residential turbines measures close to ambient noise levels under average wind conditions. It is audible if you are out of doors and listening for it, but not any noisier than your average refrigerator. As a side note, small wind turbines do not interfere with TV reception.
In very general terms, homes within a few kilometers of a large wind development that have TV aerials pointed towards the turbines are likely to be at the highest risk. There is a common misconception that digital TV is immune to interference from wind turbines, this is unfortunately not true.
In general though, turbines with small diameters are unlikely to have effects on television and radio reception. If this occurs it is likely to be highly localized and technically easy to overcome. For a better understanding of wind energy, this section outlines the basic system components and an explanation where appropriate of these component differences for grid-tied and off-grid systems. In addition to the above list, wiring, grounding, and other miscellaneous parts are included in the system, though we do not elaborate here on those components.
Wind Generator aka: Wind Genny or Wind Turbine : The wind generator is what actually generates electricity in the system. Most modern wind generators are upwind designs blades are on the side of the tower that faces into the wind and couple permanent magnet alternators directly to the rotor blades. Three-bladed wind generators are most common, providing a good compromise between efficiency and rotor balance.
Small wind turbines protect themselves from high winds governing by tilting the rotor up or to the side, or by changing the pitch of the blades. Electricity is transmitted down the tower on wires, most often as three-phase wild alternating current AC.
The output is then rectified to direct current DC to charge batteries or inverted for grid connection. Tower: The wind generator tower is often more expensive than the turbine. In support of this and as stated earlier, site wind turbines at least 30 feet 9 m higher than anything within feet; double this or even more if the object is a major land feature. The three common types of towers are tilt-up, fixed-guyed, and freestanding.
Towers must be specifically engineered for lateral thrust and turbine weight, and adequately grounded to protect equipment against lightning damage. Brake aka: Emergency Shutdown Mechanism : Most wind turbines have some means of stopping the turbine for repairs, in an emergency, for routine maintenance, or when the energy is not needed.
Others have mechanical braking, either via a disc or drum brake, activated by a small winch at the base of the tower. Still others have mechanical furling, which swings the rotor out of the wind. Mechanical braking is usually more effective and reliable than dynamic braking.
It does this by monitoring the battery bank—when the bank is fully charged, the controller sends energy from the battery bank to a dump diversion load. Many wind-electric charge controllers are built into the same box as the rectifiers AC-to-DC converters. But there will be some control function in the case of grid failure, and there may be electronics before the inverter to regulate the input voltage.
A dump load controller looks similar to this. Most wind generators should not run unloaded. They will run too fast and too loud, and may self-destruct.
They must be connected to a battery bank or load. So normally, a charge controller that has the capability of being a diversion controller is used. A diversion controller takes surplus energy from the battery bank and sends it to a dump load. In contrast, a series controller commonly used in PV systems , actually opens the circuit. A dump load is an electrical resistance heater, and it must be sized to handle the full generating capacity of the wind generator used.
These dump loads can be air or water heaters, and are activated by the charge controller whenever the batteries or the grid cannot accept the energy produced. Battery Bank aka: Storage Batteries : Your wind generator will produce electricity whenever the wind blows above the cut-in speed.
For off-grid systems, battery banks are typically sized to keep household electricity running for one to three calm days. Grid-intertied systems also can include battery banks to provide emergency backup during blackouts. These will usually be smaller than off-grid battery banks because they are purposed only for keeping critical electric loads operating until the grid is up again. Use only deep-cycle batteries batteries designed to be regularly deeply discharged using most of its capacity in wind-electric systems.
Lead-acid batteries are the most common battery of this type. Flooded lead-acid batteries are usually the least expensive, but require adding distilled water occasionally to replenish water lost during normal charging. Sealed absorbed glass mat AGM batteries are maintenance free and designed for grid-tied systems where the batteries are typically kept at full charge. Sealed gel-cell batteries are a good choice in unheated spaces due to their freeze-resistant qualities.
In fact, I'm suspicious of the green lights, since they blink in sequence even when there's very little wind, when I doubt there's enough for it to kick-in.
Which brings me to yet another question - can a Sun inverter be the power source for for a WN watt meter? Chris McCaffrey , Feb 1, Hey Chris no problem.
I like sharing what i can to help out. I will take you up on that beer if i ever come out that way. Furling is a saftey net for sure. I do not use furling on my turbines. If the dump load relay fries it is usually stuck in dump mode, then ya gotta go in and operate on that relay I just started running my WN on a 1 kw v GTI and I have yet to see it over volt up to 32 mPH winds. It comes close like in the 50 v range though. There is not a lot of detailed information posted on the regarding grid tie.
I have not tested for watts yet. Just getting started on that turbine. So far 1 w gti v and a 1kw v inverter has worked very well for it. I just not have clairified the full watts with that set up yet.
Again I use 2 w 48v dump coils for w at 48v. Seems to work perfect even for my 1 kw 24v Wind Max. Your inverter ,try putting a volt meter on it and see what it is getting on the dc side.
You may want to invest in a wind meter too. They will give you a good idea of what is going on and the data you need. WN watt meter Those meters are good for up to like 48 vdc battery charging or lower GTI voltages.
I hope this helps. It sounds like there's load the turbine groans and it is slower than when freewheeling. So my question is, where is the electricity going when the grid-tie hasn't kicked-in?
Plan is to buy one of the w inverters that kicks-in at Chris McCaffrey , Apr 21, Have a picture of your current setup? TomT , Apr 21, Doesn't seem like it is freewheeling to me, but that's just my gut from it groaning less and spinning faster when I have none of the 3 AC cables attached to anything. I've got to confirm the inverter I got is v, not Looks like the sell both. Sunapee Wind Turbine Wiring Diagram.
OK to make it easier to troubleshoot. First check for any voltage on dump load terminals. There should be none if not dumping. If there is voltage the dump Mosfets are shorted. If there isn't disconnect the GTI. If it is not spinning faster check out the rectifier it might have a diode shorted.
If it spins faster then it is something wrong with the GTI. Let us know what you find. Hi, Reading through these earlier posts from Larry I have a question.. Could the w be holding me down. Right now I have mph winds, looks to be spinning pretty fast. But I'm only getting w max Nothing like w or w.. Does the w make that much of a difference over the ?
Here are pics of my setup Quick observation.. I unplugged the w inverter and it allowed the turbine to spin faster up to v now generation w. You must log in or sign up to reply here. Show Ignored Content. Share This Page Tweet. Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now.
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