TalkBaja.com » Baja Mexico Forums » Off-Grid / Solar, Wind or Generator?

We were given a wind turbine that a neighbor had installed on his cabin. They didn't get enough consistent wind like we enjoy? down at our place in baja. So now I have a big, heavy wind turbine, 5 blades, 3 wires coming out of the turbine and a controller box with what looks like a shrouded heating element. I managed to get our solar system setup but not quite sure where to begin with this thing. Any advice of how to install it into our present solar system would be highly appreciated.

Originally Posted by el rosario

We were given a wind turbine that a neighbor had installed on his cabin. They didn't get enough consistent wind like we enjoy? down at our place in baja. So now I have a big, heavy wind turbine, 5 blades, 3 wires coming out of the turbine and a controller box with what looks like a shrouded heating element. I managed to get our solar system setup but not quite sure where to begin with this thing. Any advice of how to install it into our present solar system would be highly appreciated.

wow. what a fun addition to your system. Sometimes the sound they make is a problem- so keep that in mind for your installation location. whop, whop, whop.

Any information on equipment?

Like: Manufacturer, Model numbers.......

Stuff like helps with being more specific, especially wire sizing....

The wind turbine produces 3 phase AC current, hence the three wires. It sounds like you got one of the models that comes with an all-in-one controller. From my experience those are cheap construction and unreliable. You'd be better off buying a separate rectifier (to convert the 3 phase AC to DC), diversion controller and heat sink. Wind turbines aren't like solar panels in the sense that you can't "turn them off". When they are spinning they need to send that current somewhere - to your batteries while charging and to a heat sink via the diversion controller if the battery voltage limit is breached.

Ebay is a good source...