Home
JAQForum Ver 24.01
Log In or Join  
Active Topics
Local Time 18:42 10 Jul 2025 Privacy Policy
Jump to

Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.

Forum Index : Windmills : Ultra simple grid interactive inverter

Author Message
nweeks

Newbie

Joined: 22/01/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 36
Posted: 11:29pm 01 Apr 2007
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

Well, not an inverter exactly.

My dad once had a novel idea for a dummy load for a combination hydro/wind setup.

Obtain a largish 4 pole squirrel-cage AC motor, and a similarly sized DC motor that will run from your battery bank(12, 24 VDC, etc).

Put a circuit breaker on the mains side of the AC motor to detect when the grid goes down for maintenance.

When excess power is available, fire up the AC motor, which will start spinning the DC motor. Start ramping up the drive voltage to the DC motor, until it tries to spin faster than the mains driven one.

Pour all the excess power you can get into the DC motor, and see the wattmeter fly backwards!

Sure, each motor is only 80% efficient, but if the power's going to waste anyway...



Nigel Weeks
nweeks at karbonit dot com
 
davef
Guru

Joined: 14/05/2006
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 499
Posted: 09:08am 02 Apr 2007
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

And possibly electrocute the linemen trying to restore your power system!

Reading about approvals for commercial grid-tied inverters is in order.
 
nweeks

Newbie

Joined: 22/01/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 36
Posted: 10:53am 02 Apr 2007
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

Unfortunately I was on a roll from the 'new 36 pole stator' thread, and forgot to mention that we'd covered safety concerns there.

Sorry all.
Nigel Weeks
nweeks at karbonit dot com
 
Print this page


To reply to this topic, you need to log in.

The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia.
© JAQ Software 2025