Windmax H8 Troubles

[btbcomp]

Hello everyone. I have a Windmax H8 24v wind turbine, and original windmax controller. Also have an Air-X 400 12v turbine.
Today I decided just to check on my system to see where things were and noticed my Windmax is only pushing about 5amps at 24v and my Air-X(which is 20feet closer to the ground) is pushing 28amps at 12v in the same wind. The windmax is turning it's heart out today at 20mph winds with gusts of 30+.

Any suggestions of things to look at, this is a grid tie system been thinking of moving from controller to a rectifier/dump load instead of having to use batteries on the H8. But until then be nice to get things working properly.

A bit more info.

Wire from Windmax is 10AWG 45ft run to top of tower from charge controler, 5ft run to batteries using 10AWG.


Hopefully it's not"You bought a windmax" because I have 3 of the H8 and 2 of the H5 turbines left to put up.

[Cariboocoot]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't know the Windmax H8 personally, but it should be a 900 Watt turbine, correct? Does it have any Amperage rating like "30" on its specs? It should. At that level 50 feet of 10AWG would be choking off a lot of power (about 13%) but it should be doing better than ~120 Watts.

Has it ever worked, or is this a new install?

It is possible something isn't set up right, so I guess we'd need more specifics regarding the controller, battery bank, and inverter in question.

[btbcomp]

New Install,Stand corrected using 8AWG out to the turbine had to go into basement to double check. Batteries are 2X260Ah@25amp Trojan Deep Cycle T-1260Plus wired for 24V with no load on it currently(everything running off the Air-X until i can figure out whats going on).
Amperage rating I don't see on the turbine as per manual each AC Phase has 30 amp breaker and the DC side has 60amp 24v breaker. So thats all I have to go on there. The charge controller is as pictured.

[btbcomp]

New Install,Stand corrected using 8AWG out to the turbine had to go into basement to double check. Batteries are 2X260Ah@25amp Trojan Deep Cycle T-1260Plus wired for 24V with no load on it currently(everything running off the Air-X until i can figure out whats going on).
Amperage rating I don't see on the turbine as per manual each AC Phase has 30 amp breaker and the DC side has 60amp 24v breaker. So thats all I have to go on there. The charge controller is as pictured.

Forgot to say, Been draining the batteries by hooking a 15 amp load on them for 30-45minutesminutes to see charge rate from turbine.

[Cariboocoot]

Here's the thing; without an external load the batteries may not need any more than 5 Amps to replenish. Your 15 Amp load for less than an hour isn't even a 5% depletion of battery capacity.

I'll suggest that you: A) make sure you have an alternate charge source available just in case; B) disconnect and secure the turbine (so it doesn't free spin and come apart); C) connect your 15 Amp 24 Volt load to the batteries for four hours; D) reconnect the turbine and see what charge rate you get.

A wind turbine charge controller must have some sort of dump load connected so that there is a place for power to go when the batteries are full. Otherwise it will either spin free or whatever sort of braking system it has may activate to prevent it from doing so. In either case you won't get a good picture of the power output.

Only my opinion, but battery-based GT wind systems aren't the best idea. For wind powered GT going direct to grid is much better; less to go wrong and always a place for the power to go.

[btbcomp]

Drained the batteries down to 14V of the 24V, charge rate only 5amps still. I'm going to have to climb a tower when these winds let up I think. Also will be investing in rectifier/dumpload setup for grid tie instead of this battery/controller/dump load setup.

[niel]

your batteries are dead and most likely damaged. if your present arrangement is not charging your batteries then you need another arrangement.

[Cariboocoot]

Why did you drain the batteries down to 14 Volts? Did you mean 24 Volts? That would be 50% discharged (as low as you want to go) for a 24 Volt set. If the batteries are no good (not operating in the 25 to 28 Volt range) then they're dead like Niel said. There isn't anything that will charge them then. If they went to 14 Volts after running the 15 Amp load for 4 hours as I suggested, they shouldn't have. Either they aren't 260 Amp hours or they are defective (chronic undercharging leading to reduced capacity through sulphation for example).

[btbcomp]

Batteries are new, I put grid 1200W grid tie load on them which brought them down to 14v (7v each battery) over night. They are coming back up fine, first time i ever brought them down that low usually i only allow each battery to drop down to about 10v and that's not very often. Where the turbine is not working properly i usually have no load on them ever until i can figure out whats going on.
The Air-X System is still working find put it on the batteries today to bring them back up as well.
Same problem when running Ultra-Caps instead of batteries on the Windmax (28v bank).

So in short the same battery bank on the Air-X takes a 30 amp charge no problem, as soon as i hook the Windmax H8 back up it only puts in 5amps when i switch back to the Air-X immediatly 30amp in same wind.

[Windsun]

Your batteries are 140 amp-hours, not 260.

By taking them down so low (7 to 10 volts) you have probably already voided the warranty, and may have damaged the batteries. They should never drop below 11 volts minimum.

If you are getting 30 amps out of the Air-X, then you probably have a problem internally with the H8, not a wiring problem. Are you sure it is a 24 volt version?