Building a Wind-Powered Power System: A Journey of Discovery and Trial

I had always been fascinated by the idea of harnessing wind power to generate electricity, and I decided to take on the challenge of building my own wind-powered power system. I started by designing and building an AC to DC converter output, which would be the first component of my system. However, things didn't quite go as planned when I shorted the output, causing the wind generator to turn at a much slower pace or even stop altogether. This was exactly what I wanted to avoid, so I needed a solution that would optimize power production.

To achieve this, I needed a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) tracker, which is essentially an electronic device that optimizes energy output from renewable sources like wind turbines. Luckily, I found a suitable MPPT tracker online that could handle 12V and 400W of output. After unpacking it, I was pleased to see that it looked similar to my old wind controller, making it relatively easy to integrate into my system.

Next, I hooked up the MPPT tracker to my battery and wind generator, attaching a current clamp to monitor the output. However, even with moderate winds reaching 6m/s, which is considered a common wind speed in my area, the generated voltage was only around 15V DC, resulting in a very low short circuit current of 700mA. This was disappointing, as I had expected more power output from my system.

To understand what was going on, I decided to hook up the MPPT tracker to my lab bench power supply and test its performance. To my surprise, it did work as an MPPT charger, but only with voltages above 15V. This meant that my wind generator would need to produce much higher voltages than expected, which was not feasible at my location.

Before starting any modifications or repairs, I wanted to gather more information about the performance of my wind generator and MPPT tracker. I acquired a new wind generator, hoping it would perform better under various conditions. The original wind controller that came with it had a statement claiming that it worked well with low wind speeds, which sparked my interest.

When testing the new wind generator, I was pleased to see that it performed better than expected. At wind speeds of around 3m/s, the generator produced slightly higher voltages than before, and once the wind picked up to around 4-5m/s, it reached peaks of up to 15V DC. Although this resulted in only around 1.5W of power output, which is still relatively low, it was a significant improvement over my previous setup.

However, these tests reinforced my initial conclusion that wind generators are designed for higher wind speeds, making them less suitable for locations with lower wind conditions. This realization led me to consider alternative approaches, such as modifying or replacing the existing generator, or even developing my own low-wind speed power converter. The cost, time, and effort required to set up a wind-powered system were significant, but I couldn't help feeling that there must be a better way.

In the end, after testing various components and configurations, I had to come to terms with the limitations of wind power in my area. In around 95% of cases, using a wind generator was not worth it due to its high cost, time-consuming setup process, and requirement for significant wind speeds to generate meaningful power. Despite this conclusion, I hope that others will find inspiration in my journey and explore alternative solutions for harnessing renewable energy.

As I conclude this article, I want to acknowledge the importance of innovation and experimentation in overcoming technical challenges. While building a wind-powered system was not without its setbacks, it taught me valuable lessons about perseverance, problem-solving, and the limitations of technology. I hope that my story will encourage others to pursue their own projects and discoveries, even if they don't always lead to the desired outcome.

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThis should work, right?Now this big thing here is a wind  generator I bought a while ago from AliExpress.I got interested in it and still am because even  though I now got solar power on all of my roofs which produce more than enough power  for my home during the day, it does not go so well with power generation during the night. But you know what I got here during the night? Often times quite a bit of  wind and one time even so much that my garden house got partly ripped apart. So even though this wind generator didn't get my thumbs up back when I initially tested it,  I wanted to give it another shot.Mainly because I feel like the culprit  could have been the given wind controller which I actually already got rid off and  also of course because this thing was not cheap and I desperately want some value out of it. So in this video let's set this thing up properly, do some better investigations  and hopefully find out whether such small wind generators do in fact work and whether  they are worth it?Let's get started!This video is sponsored by Keysight's upcoming oscilloscope, the HD3. And  sadly right now all I can share are these super close ups of the Oscilloscope which  look intriguing I would say. But if you want to know more then sign up for Keysight's HD3  launch event using the link below. It comes out on September the 4th and by signing up  you will be one of the first to see the new HD3 in action. I will see you there. Now let's start off with answering the question whether this thing really is a generator. And in case you are wondering a generator is basically a component that converts some form  of energy into electrical energy; in our case it is mechanical energy created by the wind. So by soldering an LED between all the 3 phases of this thing , we can see that all LEDs light up  as soon as we turn the rotor meaning we do in fact create electrical energy and  thus we got a generator on our hand.And did you notice that the three  LEDs didn't light up at the same time, but one after the other. The reason can be seen when we hook the three phases up to my oscilloscope. As you can see we are dealing with a three phase AC voltage here which  obviously is not yet compatible with a 12V DC battery or my 48V Solar Battery System. But don't worry because we can quickly solder up a SECHPULSBRÜCKENSCHALTUNG which  looks something like this as a schematic.When hooking it up to the three phases  then we basically create a DC positive and negative pole meaning we turned the  AC voltage into a more suitable DC voltage.But I am getting ahead of myself here because  we firstly have to properly mount this thing somewhere. For this purpose the generator came with this metal flange here that can  be mounted it to it using nuts and bolts.In the middle it also comes with a hole  through which we can insert a pipe that we can then somehow secure in the ground.And at first I was happy to find out that according to the product description,  the hole comes with a diameter of 25mm because for that size I could easily get a  fitting pipe in my local home improvement store.But after measuring it myself it is more like  29mm, meaning we should not trust this product page which by the way completely changed all of  its information since I made my initial video.And finding details about this specific model  is also pretty much impossible meaning I am on my own with my investigation here. But anyway; next I of course could get a 29mm pipe from a specialized store; but I didn't  like the idea of pouring some concrete for this thing only to later find out that it is useless. Luckily for me though my girlfriend wanted me to set up this rotary clothes  dryer for a while now which gets secured in the earth using such ground sleeves. There exists a plastic and a metal version and I actually went with the  plastic one because the pipes length can enter the sleeve a bit more with that one. So I determined a suitable spot, started digging and didn't get tired of it until I  got a 30 by 30 cm square with a depth of 40cm.Then I put 10cm of gravel sand in there,  compacted that down and started mixing up the first batch of concrete. After pouring it in, I inserted a plastic pipe into the sleeve,  pushed that contraption into the concrete and positioned it until it was level with all axis. Afterwards I mixed up more concrete, poured it in there and was basically done with my job here. After 2 days everything was hard enough and the cloth dryer fit wonderfully as well as  probably every pipe with a 50mm diameter which is exactly the size of metal pipe I got myself next. Now as you would expect this thing does not fit through the flange. But luckily for me I got this welding machine here sitting in my garage for 2 years now and  it should be able to do stick welding.So I positioned the pipe on top of the  flange and got to work which was actually my first time welding and  I feel like the result truly looks like it.But you know what, it seems to hold together  nicely meaning it was time to drill a hole into the pipe, push an extension cable in there,  hook that up to the generator wires, finally secure the generator to the pipe and ultimately  position this whole construction in the ground.All that was left now was getting some wind for  testing which I didn't have to wait long for because just a day  later I got speeds of around 3m/s.And yes; this thing spun beautiful  and as expected didn't have any problems to power my 3 LEDs, amazing. Well, not really because next we need a power converter that basically takes our 3 Phase  AC voltage and convert it into a suitable DC voltage to for example charge up a 12V battery. And no; my sechpulsbrückenschaltung alone is not the solution here because it only  converts AC to DC, leaving us with a pretty low DC voltage that can not be used for much. Instead we need something like a switching converter that can  boost or lower the generators voltage so that it can charge a 12V battery. While doing that it also needs to monitor the flowing current and voltage. Because if we would for example draw to much current which I simulate here by shorting my  AC to DC converter output, then the wind generator would turn way slower or even  stop and thus produce pretty much no power.So what we want is something in the middle  between max current and no current which gives us the maximum power meaning we need a maximum  power point tracker or MPPT tracker.And luckily for me I found a suitable  one online which does 12V and 400W.After unpacking it, it looked pretty  similar to my old wind controller.So next I hooked it up to my battery  and wind generator and put a current clamp on there to see how much current is flowing. And it seems like this wind speed was not enough because no current was flowing into the battery. But luckily for me, later the wind picked up to peaks of up to 6m/s which according to a wind  speed chart is a moderate breeze and I would say the most common wind speed we got around here. But sadly once again pretty much no current was flowing into the battery even though the  rectified voltage of my generator reached peaks of up to 15V DC and a short circuit current of 700mA. So to find out what was going on, I hooked up the wind controller to my lab bench power  supply and immediately realized that it in fact does work as an MPPT charger since it  does not overload my power supply here.But the bad news is that it only works  best with voltages above 15V which my wind generator will probably never reach  for a longer time period at my location.And no; mounting this thing higher up in  the air is not possible because that is simply forbidden here. Another solution though that came to my mind was rewinding the coils of the generator so that it  creates a higher output voltage just like I did in a previous video with a BLDC motor. But before starting such a tedious task; I wanted another reference point and thus got  myself another wind generator which this time was a bit cheaper, but still looked  pretty promising all put togetherAnd as a bonus I got my original  wind controller back which states that it works with low wind speeds. And after testing; it seems to also work just fine with higher voltages and this  time even some lower ones between 8 and 12V.But as you can see in this mode there is no  MPPT tracking integrated meaning with low wind speeds you can at best gather 1.3W of  wind power which is pretty much useless.But anyway it was time to go for a test  ride with this new generator and overall I got to say that it performed better. I mean at wind speeds of around 3m/s this thing spun nicely and created a  slightly higher voltage than the generator before.And once the wind picked up to around 4 to 5m/s,  this thing reached peaks of up to 15V DC and was even able to charge  my battery with peaks of up to 100mA.And I know that this is only around  1.5W of power which is once again pretty useless; but at least it is something. So all in all these wind generator tests were disappointing for me because I kind of hoped that  such speeds would create some useful power.But as it turns out these generators are  definitely made for higher speeds which makes me wonder whether I should next  try modifying them or even come up with my own low wind speed power converter.And to end this video I can now pretty confidentially say that in around 95% of  the cases using a wind generator is not worth it because of its cost, time to set up and required  wind speed to get any decent output power.And with that being said I hope  you enjoyed this video.As always don't forget to like,  share, subscribe and hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.