18' Wincharger Hybrid - 2430 Watts - 22 MPH

[Dave B]

We had consistant winds here yesterday for a few hours of 15-20+ MPH with a peak gust measured at my site of 31 MPH. Great day for logging data and I also observed partial furling at near 22 MPH and 2430 Watts output. The graph shows consistant data points confirmed many times over during this period of good wind. Made 5 gallons of water pretty hot in short order with  3  120 volt 1500 watt heating elements. Next up is to plumb my pre-heat tank. Lots of torque with these blades, the load was connected direct with no switching. Took about a 10 MPH wind for several seconds to bring it out of stall then even with the full load it accelerates quickly with any increase in wind speed. 2430 watts was at 180 RPM. Sorry this earlier graph will be missing from my previous post now, I accidentally deleted it when I added this one. Updates to follow.  Dave B.

[Dave B]

Whoops, forgot the graph !! Here we are.  Sorry, Dave B.

[harrie]

Looks great dave. How are you measuring voltage on your three phase AC? I meter AC before the rectifiers, but I think I can only use two of the leads? Im surprized that the blades would leave stall at all when wired unswitched to the three elements, but it sounds like it will work OK for you. How big of a preheat tank are you going to use? Keep up the good work, and thanks for shareing.

[Dave B]

Harrie,

  Thank you for the comments. I am measurung voltage directly across any one of the 3 heating elements. I am running 3 phase wild AC direct and each phase is  wired to a seperate element. I have logging software  and meter which is running independent but at the same time as my Weather Wizard is logging wind speed and direction etc. I scale the 2 to be able to overlay the graphs and it gives me a very accurate picture of the performance of the system for any given period of time. The graph is just a very basic summary of the data I have collected so far. These figures are conservative as RPM lags wind speed in turbulant conditions. More consistant winds above 20 MPH will allow me to log more accurate top end performance, I would guess at this point that 2500 Watts would easily be reached in a constant 20 MPH wind.  Furling seems to start to spill air around 22+ mph and at slightly less than 3000 Watts. These blades really grind out the power and for 18' I am  limiting them to a well mannered 200 RPM besides. Check out the blades at Dave Moller's website he's just started up here http://royalfabrication.com/index.htm  Time to plumb my tank, it's 50 gallons and will be in series with my current 40 gallon. I appreciate everyone's comments. Dave B.  

[Gary D]

 Dave, I've been following your pre-heat posts and have a few questions.

 A while back I calculated my 80 gallon waterheater needed about 17 Kwh to raise the water temp from ground to 130 or so degrees F. With a 3000 watt element, that's about 6 hours...

If you have slightly lower ground temps. and raise to 150F., you might need 20 or so Kwh.

Have you thought of a separate air or water resistance dump when the elements reach the temps you set? During the fall, winter, and spring months there will/ might be times that you need to dump the extra power to not blow the waterheater safety.

 Looks like you may offset all/ most of your hot water needs once you integrate your setup! Just trying to see what you have planned for the days that winds stay steady in the 20 to 30 mph. range, happens even hidden in Souhteastern Pa. here...  :-)  Gary D.

[Dave B]

Hi Gary,

  Yes, I have given this much thought. On the nice occasions when the winds blow as you say and 50 gallons can reach temp. limits over night or less I will be automatically switching each element to another equal load. I plan to run upper thermostats on all 3 elements that will allow independent switching to divert the load based on temperature. My pre-heat tank will have the upper and lower elements and my third element will be the lower element in my standard 40 gallon tank. The upper element is on a timer to the grid and of course it's own thermostat. The diversion loads will probably be air base board type heaters. I draw hot water every day and looking at average wind speeds 50 gallons should work well for pre-heating, even just sitting at room temp. instead of out of the ground at 55 degrees is helpful. Everything will be safe to let it run but it's nice to know I can shut it all down completely too for testing, the big storms or times I'll be gone. Thank you for your comments, all are welcome.  Dave B.