subject: Wind Power Turbines Used With Batteries [print this page] Wind Power Turbines Used With Batteries Wind Power Turbines Used With Batteries
With rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, more people want to know their options for alternative energy. For many people in the right areas a wind energy turbine may be a good resource. This article will focus on wind power turbines and there use with battery banks.
Everyone would love to be capable of producing their own energy, and even creating excess to sell back to the utility. For those with deep enough pockets, and the right location, grid tie systems can become reality.
The drawback of grid tie systems is the expense of the equipment, engineering, and professional installation costs, as well as the red tape involved with utility company compliance. These constraints put this type system out of reach for most people.
A lower cost alternative is a standalone system with a battery bank, and removing something from the grid. This can be accomplished for under $500.
The most basic system consists of a wind energy turbine, a charge controller, a 12volt deep cycle battery, a dump load, and a 12 volt appliance or light.
If the wind energy turbine is a DC generator it can be run directly to the charge controller. If it's a permanent magnet alternator, it must be run through a bridge rectifier to convert the energy to DC first.
The wind power turbines energy is used to charge the battery through the charge controller. The charge controller protects the battery from being over charged by diverting the energy to a dump load when the battery has become fully charged.
The wind energy turbine must be under load at all times. This protects it from over spinning and damage from high voltage. The charge controller diverts the excess energy to a dump load that converts the excess power into heat.
The dump load can be a coiled resistor, an electric iron, or a hot water heating element.The lowest cost device to run off 12 volt wind power turbines is lights. You can start with a few and add more until you reach what your wind resource will handle. This is a good way to determine the capability of your resource.
12 volt compact fluorescent lights are a good light to use because of the low wattage they use to produce the same amount of lumens as a higher wattage incandescent light.
The only drawback to them is the mercury they contain. If they break they can contaminate the area they were used in. Also they need to be disposed of properly at the end of their life cycle. LED lights may be the best low wattage light source. They are more environmentally friendly and have a longer life span. The color spectrum they produce isn't as natural, but strides are being made in that area.
As you can see from this article, wind power turbines and batteries, may be the easiest, lowest cost entry point, for people with wind resource to gain control over a portion of their energy needs.
