wind turbine problem

[sandyshore]

i have built a wind turbine, its connected to the old solar power system which has a box (not sure what its called) which shows that the solar power is charging the battery with two lights.

however the wind turbine does not light up the box, and therefore i reckon isnt charging up the battery, what am i doing wrong? how do i test if it works?

its blades set into a bicycle wheel, then into an alternator then wires into the box which i dont know the name of then wires to the battery

cheers!!

[dave45]

You will need at least a multimeter to check what is happening - cheap enough these days. get one and measure the voiltage when the turbine is working... solar panels measure around 18 volts when working but not connected. I'd guess that your turbine needs to squirt out 14-18 volts open circuit - does it?

Also beware using the solar charge controller if you don't know how it controls the load... smart solar controllers electronically short out the solar panels when the battery gets fully charged with variable intermittency. This could either a) destroy your turbine (its like putting the brakes on and off quickly and continuously and shakes your system to bits)
or
b) the shorting may cause an inductive high-voltage from the turbine to destroy the controller electronics
or
c) maybe both.

solar panels don't mind being shorted.. turbines do.

If its a dump-energy-into-heater-when-battery-is-charged type of controller you should be ok.

[dave45]

mmm - you say "alternator" - does this produce AC?

If so you will need to rectify it to DC with a heavy duty bridge rectifier before connecting up to the battery !! You should read Hugh Pigott's book Windpower Workshop!