I am one of those unfortunate people who tend to ask for advice after they've already decided what they're going to do haha. I usually make a plan and see if anyone can talk me out of it. Thanks for the sub! Hoping to get the channel monetized and every hit counts!

And I dig your channel! We've got three acres around us that we're hoping to actually get some small scale farm stuff going on this year. We'll definitely go through your stuff for ideas and inspiration!

Sounds like me in the garden, keep pluggin' away at it and your channel will get there. Takes some time these days but I suspect you'll get there before too long!

So can you use a wind turbine + wind controller with a solar micro inverter to get a on grid array?

Do you like the performance of the wind turbine?

Thank you for watching! I'm working on an updated board right now and am hoping to have that up and running this evening or tomorrow.

@@ToysforWatts - Aw, cool! Looking forward to seeing. My approach is similar to yours - as simple as possible, but without doing anything stupid or possibly so. I'm thinking just turbine, rectifier, meter, grid tie. If I may ask, what is the green thing on the left for? I think I kind of missed it.

I'm hoping to have a go at cutting my shop off this year!

You'd need an SMA sunny island type of master inverter, then also you could add the micro inverters which would back feed the AC into the sunny island or equivalent.

Hi! That green thing is a dump load resistor. A suitable resistor is going to vary depending on the operating voltage of your turbine. What equipment are you working with?

It's crossed my mind, along with resistors and a few other tricks but they all burn power to do the job. Right now I'm working on splitting the system up into a 24v assembly and a 48v assembly. Then the 48v bank I'll run one inverter all each side of the bank (only pulling 24v...which is not a great idea but theoretically should work). I've posted a few updates on the board recently. I'm about to have to go through and redesign it again, but this is close to the current configuration: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aMtxddthqtLZemQ.html

Yes, correct

You must an idiot if you think this is a nice setup, do the world a favor and take up gardening or sewing.

@@truthexposed9916 = GFY

No you really need to use all like-rated batteries! I need to make a video just for that. My poor little batteries aren't for storage and have been beat up so much that all they are anymore are resistors to help keep the turbines under control. If you have different amp hour ratings you're going to tank the lowest rated batteries really fast and then the higher amp hour batteries will be damaged from having to charge the lower batteries AND run your standard load. You want your battery banks to be as balanced as possible.

If you're referring to the AC wattage meter they're only read one direction and, by default, it'd be consumption. You actually have to open it up and switch the leads around on the inside to read how much power you're sending back to the grid.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d7WYZrequ6fIk6s.html

I've tried a couple different iterations, including a few attempts without using batteries. Without the batteries the voltage spikes way above the inverters high limit and they don't load the turbines up very well. Through my different experiments I've found the best way to go about is from the perspective that the turbines charge batteries and batteries run inverters.

If you were going to use capacitors youd need back flow diodes for the turbine

couple things to keep in mind is that these kinds of inverters are not super highly thought of...they're not UL approved and if your house burns down you'll probably lose your insurance money (if applicable) if it's even suggested they caused the fire...that kind of thing. Second, ehh it works as a kind of dump load but they're not very efficient and I blow one up about once every three months. If you can get a better inverter you are absolutely better off going that route.

Unfortunately the inverters are polarized and cannot be run in series. If you look at some of my later (particularly some of my latest) videos you'll see how I dealt with the voltage situation. It all works much better now.

Ahh charging the batteries when they need it but when they are fully charged flip it over to the grid. Nice

The batteries are for voltage regulation only. Just something to add resistance to the feed so that the inverters don't go crazy. This is not a good way to go if you're trying to store the electricity.

@@ToysforWatts Can it still save power for later use? Does the system have you connected to an outside network? thankyou

My system does not store power. It is a total loss setup. My batteries are low capacity and there are only a few of them. If they were larger batteries and were not on a live connection to the grid via the inverters they would store some power, but not a lot.

If the turbine is already stopped then we're talking 75+ miles per hour to make it move when shorted out. Shorting it out would not a great idea if it's already fully spooled up and the wind is pushing in the 50's or higher. I've shorted my i1500 out a few times in 20~40 mile per hour winds and it struggles to stop, but does stop.

@@ToysforWatts sooo helpful thanks .. I should be getting my video up soon I'm in the final stages of standing it up

The inverters don't care what the voltage comes from, the trick is staying under their voltage limit. The inverters I prefer cap out at 45vdc, if you try to run them at 45v, though, they overheat. You can NOT exceed their operational voltage. Almost every one of these inverters I've seen people blow up, they blew up because they ran too high a voltage to them. Every one I have blown up has been because my sytem failed and hit them with much higher voltage than their rating. My system only supplies tehm with 24~30vdc.

@@ToysforWatts so with good battery hooked up, does the inverter just supply its Max watt rating till the battery's go flat? I have 4 power jack to repair that I never ovevolted, they just seem extremely fragile. Do the batterys, even if bad regulate the input voltage to the inverter? As it looks like you have a shared line on batterys, rectifiers and inverter.

I'm pretty pleased with it overall. It has some quirks that must be overcome, but it has been the best watt per dollar producer I've put up. It has been a pretty solid 2kwhr/day producer over the last week and we have not really had a great deal of wind.

@@ToysforWatts www.aliexpress.com/item/32901856370.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.4.c8477baesgw1VN

You "can"...and I really want to stress the emphasis on the "can". Batteries help keep the voltage under control. If you have a turbine that peaks outside of the maximum input voltage of the inverter, anytime the wind is strong enough to hit that peak the inverter lets go and the turbine will over-spin. If you want to run direct from the rectifier to an inverter you need to get an inverter that has a maximum input voltage higher than the turbine can produce, or you will need to use a dump load controller to brake the turbine any time that maximum voltage is surpassed. For example, my inverters all peak at 55vdc, but my 700w turbine will produce close to 65vdc in a strong wind. Direct connecting the turbine to the inverter is okay in steady wind, but if a gust pushes my voltage above 55vdc the inverter stops loading the turbine. It spins up very fast and doesn't come down until the wind stops. To prevent this from happening is the only reason I have batteries in place.

@@ToysforWatts I appreciate your reply and that what I previous think. But I havent get success (in the same range voltage) to connect the APSystem microinverter.

You need an appropriate load diverter...something that will disconnect the batteries from the turbine when voltage gets too high (wind is too high). Water heater elements or even just a large string of incandescent bulbs, anything that can suck up that high wattage in the event of an over-voltage situation

@@ToysforWatts Dear sir, can I get the your Whatsapp number? Because need the more details from you, thanks. This is my Whatsapp number +6585994048 if cannot find 006585994048 I am Raja, thanks

Yes especially back when I started I just relied on the load and batteries to keep things under control. It worked okay with a small system.

It's a dump load resistor. It was set up inline with the incoming feed on the 500 watt turbine because it was believed that, just maybe, the reason it wasn't reaching charging voltage was because it needed a higher resistance on the load end. It basically simulates having another battery in the mix. It did not work.

@@ToysforWatts www.aliexpress.com/item/4001033698513.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.50.619b4e0b4QOauo we also have this kind of controller with dump load

@George Knowles I wish I would of done that. Thanks

Why did it stop your journey? Can't you do it with smart meter?

@@evergladescreations9641 I lived at my mothers house at that time and they had just upgraded meters. I do have another 2.5kw system for an off grid build. The other reason was we had low rates so ROI was not worth it. My current rate is under 8 cents after all fees. I use around 2000kw so let's say monthly $160 in power. Let me run some numbers 3kw system x 6hrs x 365 = $525 in perfect conditions. I think the inverters were around $100 for 600watt units back then, so on inverters it was around $800 because I would run them around 400 watts each. The inverters would fail quickly making my ROI longer. Today we have better choices.

@George Knowles we didn’t have a choice in MI

@@cutweldngrind x as mart meters in MI made everyone’s bill go up using the same amount of power.

Thanks for the warning. I keep a pretty constant eye on temperatures, though, and even when these inverters are kicking out 1000w they're only moving 3~ish amps. The rectifiers can get VERY hot but the inverters and power cables stay just slightly higher than ambient temperatures.

Forgot to mention my GTI is a 12V rated one.

My batteries are hooked up three in series, two series in parallel. It's arranged for 36v. You will need batteries to regulate your voltage. If your turbine only has two leads it's very likely already rectified and putting out DC voltage. Do you have a link to where you purchased it?

@@ToysforWatts No I picked it up used, and have no info at all about it. It was mounted on a camper trailer, so I got all the wiring and regulator with it. The GTI I have is rated up to 18v at 1000w. I wasnt sure about having a battery in the mix but it seems like its the way to go. I always thought that the GTI would try and pull as much as it could out of the input, so was warey about putting a battery in the mix. I have a big deep cycle 12v battery. The regulator has 12v input, battery, and output connections. Been years since I have tinkered with this. Had a few GTI's that blew and I had to repair them. Have had them all ready to go, just no motivation to experiment. After seeing your setup it looks just right. There will always be naysayers, but if it works, it works. Everything I have seen about wind turbines has three wires, so you may be right about it being rectified already. The regulators for solar panels have the same setup, just this one is an oldy. It is working, just no way to measure the power at the moment. Waiting on a meter to arrive, similar to what you are using. Good old China post! I will let u know how it goes. Cheers

Before hooking anything up and having a go at it I suggest hitting up the fieldlines forum with some pictures of what you got. Those guys will be able to give you some good info on how you should go about it. I'm willing to take risks with my stuff because I don't rely on it and don't have much invested in it...it's not the best way to go if you need it to do work for you :) www.fieldlines.com/index.php

Capacitors have come up a few times in conversations, as well as just running resistors and sacrificing some heat to keep the turbines under control, but so far my attempts at either have been failures...with capacitors they were expensive failures to boot. I hate the batteries because I'm literally only breaking the poor things, but so far it's been the most economical and simplest way of keeping it under control.

lograste conetar el generador eolico con un inversor de solar?

In my situation the resistor was an attempt to get the 500w turbine to spool up a little faster. Adding a 1ohm resistor between the rectifier and the battery will simulate having another 12v battery in the mix. My system runs at 36v which I believed to be a little low for that particular turbine (turned out in the end that there was nothing that could help that turbine). Generally you'll see these resistors used as dump loads...most people will run a relay that will switch the turbine over to the resistor to add a load once the batteries are topped off. Wind turbines don't produce a steady, even voltage. all of mine, for example, will run 60+ volts after the rectifier. yes in the right wind your turbines will only produce 13v but what about when it gets really breezy? The resistors and relays keep turbines from burning up and batteries from being damaged.

The voltage output from the rectifiers will vary greatly. Much higher than 14 volts

That's a great question! The answer is that charge controllers are only good for people who like their batteries :D. Since I'm using grid tie inverters for load my voltage is less of a concern...I just need to keep it between 22 and 50 volts DC. If I were charging batteries I would absolutely have to have a charge controller to prevent over-charging them. My batteries are only in place to help keep voltage smooth and under control.

@@ToysforWatts but voltage more than 13.5 can't affect the battery?

I'm running my batteries in series. In this video they're in a 36 volt configuration. My inverters were running the bank down to 22v and the turbines were running them as high as 60v. It was absolutely damaging my batteries. If you're storing energy and want your batteries to last a long time you must have a charge controller.

@@ToysforWatts thx it really helped me lot

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bcWDq9OqzsDeYWQ.html Just check it out I'm trying to build my own windturbine coz I don't have much budget

Make no mistake, bigger wire will always be better...but when it comes to "what's best" and "what works" you'll get a pretty wide range of variance. If the turbine output overpowers the wire it'll act like a resistor...you'll lose potential, things getting hotter than they need to, etc. If your run is short and/or output is lower you can get away with smaller wire but you'll need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too hot. My turbines are small enough and/or the runs are short enough that I can mostly get away with 10 and 12 gauge solid wire.

@@ToysforWatts i may try that, romex is much cheaper than stranded wire.

What kind of turbine are you looking at running and how long of a wire run are you going to have between the source and load?

@@ToysforWatts one of those cheap 400 watt China turbine for 135.00 going to go about 70 feet long.

Its coming in tomorrow from Amazon. Just subbed,

I've actually updated this board quite a bit since this video and now all the cables are routed loosely "behind the scenes". I've replaced them with shorter cables when possible, and I know cable length will yield some loss, but when we're dealing with such small percentages of such small outputs it's not the worry. I'm having to expand this assembly yet again and I'll do what I can to make the bigger ones shorter and more efficient...losing 5% of a 200w turbine's output doesn't hurt as much as losing 5% of a 3000w turbine's output.

I plan on changing turbines around so writing on the board itself wasn't a good option but it has occurred to me to maybe glue some velcro to it with removable name tags! It'd also let me be dramatic with the failed turbines...I could post a video throwing their name tags away!

Hey and thanks for watching! I hope to get this channel monetized at some point, which will let me do some bigger and more interesting stuff...every watch and subscription helps!

sure but they cost three times as much and you can only have one turbine on each. I also have a three phase input inverter, though, and so far I have not been impressed with it.

It's honestly something I've never heard of doing. My immediate concern would be voltage regulation on the output side of the capacitors. Do you have a link to a capacitor you would consider worth looking into? I'll try and source some material on using capacitors instead of batteries.

@@ToysforWatts You dont need voltage regulation per say, that is holding the voltage close to certain voltage. Rather, you just need to keep the voltage below your grid tie inverters max input voltage, and just as important have the combined capacitor bank voltage rating higher than your max expected voltage. To prevent prevent the voltage from ever exceeding your maximum rated voltage you can use zeiner diodes to drain excess power preventing overcharging the capacitors. Solar grid tie inverters are designed to work over a range of voltages so you dont need to hold the voltage to a specific value. The higher volts they see, the more current they will pull bringing the capacitor banks, voltage down. It will self regulate assuming the grid tie inverter is rated to output more power than what your three generators can collectively produce. I'll get back with several circuit simulations for passive capacitor balancing and over voltage load dumping. But I'd like to know what is the max input voltage for your grid tie inverter?

@@kreynolds1123 That's the trick...the maximum voltage from these turbines can exceed 60v, but my grid tie cuts out at 45v. I might has a hard time finding capacitors that would work in that scope because sometimes they'll be hit with very small amounts of power and other times they'll be hit with a lot of current. Which, really, it may not be that big of an issue...my knowledge of capacitors is pretty much limited to the literal and mechanical "how they work". Capabilities and what you can do with them is in the realm of mystery for me. If I use diodes to bleed off excess power I feel I might be expelling more power than I'm delivering to the inverter. I am all ears, though :)

@@ToysforWatts "Can exceed 60v" is that 60vAC line to line, or 60vDC after rectification? What voltage is your battery bank? it will help me better simulate this in a circuit that i can share

If they're free wheeling both the 700 and 500 turbines will hit 60~61dc. My current battery bank is arranged in a 36v configuration.

You will need to run a hybrid charge controller to accept both inputs, then batteries for voltage regulation, then to your inverter.

@@ToysforWatts Thanks for the reply.. Okay, so we don't use the built in PV/Turbine input? But the controller would stop charging the batteries when they are full, it means there won't be any power supply into the GTI to use directly for home Grid. You know on hybrid GTI if we use the build in input and when the batteries are full the power would be switched directly to supply GTI output. Batteries are only standby for electricity failures, that's we don't need many batteries and save costs.

If you have a hybrid controller you connect the panels and turbines as the manufacturer suggests. The output of the controller will then go to your batteries. If you build a system like I have shown in this video it is total loss...everything goes to the inverter, the batteries are only there for voltage regulation. If your system is power your home or appliances and you're simply looking to sell the excess back to the grid, then you would simply run the grid tie inverter connected to your dump load. Once your batteries are full, instead the system dumping the excess power to resistors, it will send it to the grid tie inverter.

@@ToysforWatts First, Yes I'm looking into selling the excess power back to grid so I have to maximize the power using PV and Turbines for day and night power production. Second, I would need the smart Grid Tie Inverter that can accomodate 3 power sources (PV, Turbines & Battery back up) in one GTI. My only problem is that I couldn't find such GTI on the market for PV & Turbines all together with battery support. So I'm looking for information of how to combine them without any problems. Your suggestion of using Dump loader I think won't work with PV, because the Dump loader as far as I know is meant for limitting the over charging of a turbine due to instable voltage when a turbine is rotating too fast. So Now we have in the market as follows: 1. GTI with battery (With UPS function, with built in either Solar or Turbine input only. 2. Hybrid Charge Controller with Dump Loader (For the turbine instability voltage only) to combine both PV & Turbine power. Then, of course I can't input the hybrid Charge Controller into the GTI input. I can't connect the controller ouput to the battery either, because the battery input would only work when electricity is down on the grid otherwise it doesn't input the hybrid GTI (UPS function). So?? I'm confused with this problem.

@@ToysforWatts I have no problem with Off Grid system in combining both because I can input all together with the Off Grid Inverters.

If I were storing the power then absolutely. However, the batteries are only there for regulation and they get trashed by the inverters. It's cheaper and a little more efficient than using resistors to keep the wind turbines under control. If you're going to run a wind turbine with an inexpensive inverter you have to have a battery or something in line to keep some kind of constant load on the system or the turbines will free-wheel any time the voltage spikes.

It's something that has been suggested numerous times but not a thing I have seen used successfully and the kind of capacitors that would be needed are pretty pricey. It's something I want to try at some point but due to the expense it's a little down the list of projects.

Sees bare connections placed willy nilly, non-ul approved equipment, electrical lugs bolted to wood...yells "you can't use solid wire with DC!" lol I assure you that DC has existed longer than stranded wire has.

Don't know what to tell you...this video was made prior to being monetized and was never set up for ads so it got hit with KZfaq's default scheme, but there's only two mid-role ad breaks (I just checked) plus pre/post ads. Ads longer than 30 seconds should be skipable by default, but I don't pick the ads. They're based on your own search history if you have personalized ads activated, or popular search/view hits in your area if you don't have personalized ads on. There's also an updated version of the video :)

@@ToysforWatts ask a friend to watch it and tell you how many and how long the adds are

No, it's really not. To be legal everything has to be hardwired and have lockable disconnects. If I ever get a point of permanency my system will be setup as such. As it currently is the entire shop is on an isolated single run lockable disconnect. Still not great, but lockable, isolated, and easily shut down remotely.

@@ToysforWatts You claim, "No, it's not really". Well, read your own reply ... "To be legal it must be hardwired." So, Is it hardwired"? No, it is not. Your setup really does *VIOLATE* the National Electric Code. Nothing in your reply, changes the fact that your system *VIOLATES* the National Electric Code. And your GTI is *NOT* even UL approved. Pull a permit and have your system *INSPECTED* by your local AHJ. Then you will learn all that you need to know, to install it per the National Electric Code.

And never go beyond 55 mph either

@@johnq8792 It's more like ... don't run red lights! It appears you do *NOT* care about the safety of your family.

@@MrSummitville He is a MORON, what you expect.

The return of investment will be pretty extreme on most of the turbines available out there, depending on how much you're charged for kilowatt hour. Here I am charged $.10/kwh...so it's really extreme. A few years ago I was being charged close to $.25/kwh so it was a little easier to recoup...but here, using my 700 watt turbine as an example with how much it has averaged per day over the course of two weeks, will generate about $12 a month worth of electricity. This makes the ROI on just that specific turbine 25 months. Then there's the "500" watt turbine (middle meter on the board)...that one was $115, and judging by how much it's produced over the last month it will generate about $.30 of electricity per month...so "only" 383 months to get my money's back there. So, no, if you're idea is to "make money" off this stuff...it's the wrong way to go for a fast return. The 700 watt turbines are about the best bang for the buck on eBay in terms of performance and even they will have a fairly long ROI. Trying to do a green setup is not a great way to make money...or even save money...and the way I'm going about it is about least efficient way to try and go "green". Remember, this is a hobby for me, not a lifestyle change.

@@ToysforWatts I did not ask about "making money" ... I asked about "Breaking-Even". You have $800, maybe more, invested so far. With more expenses to come. You must live in a extremely windy area to make $12.00 per month. Most people ( ~ 99% ) do not. You are claiming that your 700 Watt Wind Turbine will generate on average 4,000 Watt-Hours per day, every day x 365 days per year? So, you have 25 mile winds, for 6 hours, ( or equiv ) every day of the year? Who has that? That seems really, really, really high ...