Quote from: Nearings Fault on Sep 13, 2023, 08:08 AM

Quote from: 18hammers on Sep 12, 2023, 08:08 PM

Quote from: Nearings Fault on Sep 12, 2023, 10:19 AMI've come across a great deal of these systems that get built up over time. I would for sure say it's time to change out the inverter to at least a 24 volt unit. Your cabling and breaker costs alone would make it worth while. 24 volts would take care of most of your issues even allow you to keep your prized C60PWM ( also my first controller) controllers in play. The PWMs are fine on the 230 watt panels though not great for lithium as they relied on the lead acid battery to regulate voltage.  Your lithium can get thermal run away if you push too much voltage at it. Having said that the under load voltage of the 230 watt panels works well for the bulk settings of most 24 volt controllers. I have a contact in London Ontario area that rebuilds and trades in used inverters. I recently traded in a vintage Trace DR 12 volt unit a client had kicking around and they used it towards a 24 volt magnum MS (also a great inverter). 24 volts allows you to do easier dump loading which on a system your size would help a lot. As soon as the arrays went above 1200 watts the higher voltage inverters became the norm. Not so much for the inverting as for the charge controller, cabling and disconnect costs. I still do some 12 volt but mostly in the mobile or cabin realms.
Cheers, NF

Yes, I have been thinking of making the jump to 24 volt. So many issues though, I have and I kid you not at least 6 great inverters I have picked up dirt cheap over the years, I have heavy duty 12 volt chargers, multiple. I would have to wind a new stator for the wind turbine. It is hard to make changes when things are mostly working fine but I suspect the jump to 24volts may be in the future or I am thinking about having both a 12 volt and 24 volt and just switch between them as needed. I don't know what I am going to do.

so the first thing I would say is is the turbine worth it? Most of them don't produce squat. I would suggest you try to log it because what usually happens with those small turbines is their controllers can only do bulk charging as they are usually a pwm married to a dump controller set to a specific voltage. The problem with that is when put up against a large solar array on an mppt charger their target voltage is immediately met by the solar and they default to dump load. Next would be they do not charge lithium well as they needed the lead acid to regulate their voltage or again default to dump. If I was you and you have your heart set on keeping a wind element I would do it differently. 1) find a small so so 12 volt lead acid pack that the wind turbine charges exclusively. 2) hook on one of you C60 pwm and set it up as a load controller (they do that) feed the output of the 12 volt separate battery to a voltage converter and charge the lithium battery bank with it at its perfect voltage. It works, I've seen it done on a micro hydro with the same problems 12 volt turbine, to charge a 24 volt lithium... when you switch to 24 volts all those competing charge controllers will not fight each other so much so you can leave your arrays plugged in year round. You then dump load like crazy for hot water, ac, grow lights whatever and boost your virtual battery bank that way. Cut down your Genny time...
Some random musings.
Cheers,  NF

In regards to your first question, Hell no, not worth it from a economic sense. I would never advise anyone to get one, Solar is pretty much a home run hit by itself without a wind turbine being needed. Now having said that there are some people (ME) who enjoy the technical aspect of putting a wind turbine and supporting system together. My cost are already sunk on this, sunk roughly 15/16 years ago (before NEO prices went stupid) Not Just Sunk on the one up and flying but on the parts for a second much larger one, half way built.
 I have logged the data on it for the last 3 years in Winter, It is only allowed to spool up in winter, Nov, Dec, Jan. Over the last 3 winters, from memory 900 watt hrs a day average one winter, 1.2kwh a day another winter, and 1.1kwh another winter, with the highest produced power in one day was 5.5 kwhrs.
 That unit is running atop a 62 foot tall tip up tower. This unit is built to the specs of Otherpowers 10 foot diameter dual rotor, with a slight change in blade design. While I do have a good working charge controller I built for it, I found it unneeded, so I am running commando Its not been a problem. If the batteries are full up I just short the 3 phase and leave it off for a day.