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Bluey
Newbie

Joined: 31/12/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 7

Posted: 08:03am 31 Dec 2008

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I have a question which I cant find an answer to,

When my new windmill is ready to set up and lets assume I have sorted out the furling and tail weight and all the rest of the mechanical stuff, it will be sending current down to the ground, now there are numerous setups on the web all showing how to wire up the rig all very nice and understandable until you see the dump load usually a little rectangle with dump load written in it which brings me to my question.

How can I make a dump load before I know much load I need to dump, will I have to wait for my maximum wind speed then where do I measure the current.
Looking forward to hearing an idea or two,

Blue.

Gill

Senior Member

Joined: 11/11/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 669

Posted: 10:13am 31 Dec 2008

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G'day Bluey,
Good to have you join the forum. I hope we, the members, can resolve or advise on all problems with building your first wind gen. Of course it is always an inspiration to see the odd progress report of the project under way .

For the dump load, the variety of dump loads in use is as varied as the members themselves. For myself, I prefer a bank of 50 Watt quarts halogen down lights. They are simple, easy to get (purchase from supermarket) easy to replace, and the bank can be added to quite easily should my generating capacity increase.

In reality a builder of a wind gen will have some indication of expected performance enough to select an approx dump load as the prop that has to be built gives an indication, add to this other inputs such as solar and/or hydro and you're set. No need to be exact. Though a little more is considered better than a little less.

Circumstances/conditions also plays a huge part. If you live off grid and to a budget it may be that, like me, you never get to dump any excess power. So don't plan elaborate dump load systems to power other functions if you live in a low wind area or consume more power than you produce. As good as that seems in theory, in reality, it may be wasted effort. On the other hand, additional constructive use of dumped energy may be a good idea if your consumption is small and your location is windy.

was working fine... til the smoke got out.
Cheers Gill _Cairns, FNQ

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