Yesterday, my husband noticed that it was windy but the wind turbine was not moving. He called Rodney and he came out today. They found three things that were wrong:
1) The Yaw break was burned up. Apparently it had been permanently on for the last two months, but this break will not be used until we get the new controller card.
2) There were some loose connections on the Yaw relays.
3) The a power supply needed to be moved in order to get more ventilation in the head.
It was impressive that Rodney came the next day after we called him. We are about 3 hours away from him. Hopefully, fixing these things will also help to reduce the power needed to run the turbine.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
September Stats are in . . .
The combined Inverters made a 357KWHs !
Now the not so great news . . . The wind turbine again used up a lot of power. Our total wind production was 83KWH. This is the power left over for our personal use. We're hoping to do even better next month with the wind stop setting increased.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
New settings and info on power use
We had a surprise visit from Parker from Redriven Tuesday. He made some adjustments and explained some of the settings so we'll use less power in low winds. He also hooked up the inverters so they will show in WindView. (more on that later) Below is a picture of how the wind settings are now. Also, the units of measurement, definitions of what they mean, plus why that are set that way.
Parker told us that when we get the new controller, the break which now takes a lot of energy to remain open (off) will use less power to stay open. Now with the old controller, we are using full power to keep the break off. This means we'll see some energy improvements when we get he new controller. Maybe we'll be able to run the turbine next August without paying the grid for power.
Max wind = 30.0 mph ( Changed from 25 mph) When the wind value from the Anemometer exceeds this speed, the system will automatically go into “OVERWIND” which shuts down the system. It shuts down by turning 90 degrees out of the wind and stops the blades via a contactor on the AC 3-Phase side in the controller.
Max time =When the Anemometer reads a wind speed LESS THAN “Max Wind” for the “Max Time” value (10 minutes) the system will restart. This allows the system to stay out of the wind in an OVERWIND condition as long as it sees 30mph+. The timer starts once the wind comes down below the “Max Wind” setting because if the system gusts back up above 30, it will continue to maintain out of the wind and shutoff. The logic is, if the wind stays down below the “Max Wind” setting long enough (10 minutes as predicated by the Max Time value) then the system is good to restart without the threat of an OVERWIND situation. OVERWIND is the only Automatically restarting fault condition. Max time means that when the Anemometer reads a wind speed LESS THAN “Max Wind” for the “Max Time” value (10 minutes) the system will restart. This allows the system to stay out of the wind in an OVERWIND condition as long as it sees 30mph+. The timer starts once the wind comes down below the “Max Wind” setting because if the system gusts back up above 30, it will continue to maintain out of the wind and shutoff. The logic is, if the wind stays down below the “Max Wind” setting long enough (10 minutes as predicated by the Max Time value) then the system is good to restart without the threat of an OVERWIND situation. OVERWIND is the only Automatically restarting fault condition.
All inverters low = 200 - This setting is not used
All inverters high = 250 - This setting is not used
All inverter high timer= 5 seconds This setting is not used
The inverter controls are set in the Inverter
Min Voltage = 250 V When the controller sees a value greater than 250 volt being produced from the Turbine, it says “I’m over producing and the turbine needs to turn slightly out of the wind”. This setting correlates with “Turn Out Degrees and Turn Out Time” settings from Yaw Control Settings page. (see picture below)
Max Voltage = 295 V
Once the AC Peak exceeds 295 Volts (Max Voltage setting) for 2 seconds (Turn Out Time setting), it will rotate 15 degrees (Turn out degrees) out of the wind. This will be seen on the controller main screen because the “Desired Orientation” direction indicator on the top right side (green arrow clock type thing) of the controller will say 165 or 195 degrees, indicating that the turbine no longer wants to be 180 degrees relative into the wind, but rather at a 15 degree off-set. The turbine will continue to turn out at 15 degree intervals as long as it continues to see AC volts >295. The system will wait 20 seconds (see pic below -Turn hold) between each attempt to turn farther out. That way it has a chance to see if the change in orientation has allowed the turbine to make 295 volts or less. see Min Voltage for more detail
Regulation window = 20 Volts is a setting that dictates to the controller when the turbine should be sending voltage to the dummy load and how much. When the turbine starts to over produce power (anything over Max Voltage) not only will it turn out, but it will send some voltage to the Resistive Load to aid in slowing the turbine down. Reg Window basically means that in a window of 20 volts from Max Voltage (in this case 295-315), the turbine will send 0-100% of the power being made to that Resistive load. So for instance, if it was 5 volts over 295 volts, 5 is 25% of 20, so it would send 25% of the power being made to the resistive load.
Over voltage = 350V Over voltage will shut down the system into an “OVERVOLT” fault, 90 degrees turn out and shut down the blades. The logic here is that “at 350v production, we have not been able to turn out far enough, and we are sending 100% of the power being produced back to the resistive loads to act as brakes, and we’re still over producing, we need to shutdown”. The system will shutdown and display an OVERVOLT fault and will not restart until someone manually restarts it using the E-Stop button.
Min Voltage = 250 Volts When the turbine turns out due to being over Max Voltage, for instance lets say its at 165 degrees, a 15 degree off set, when the turbine comes down below 250 V for the “Turn In Time” value from the Yaw Control setting page (see below), it will turn back towards the wind 5 degrees, which is the “Turn In Degree” value. The logic here is that “We’ve turned out due to over production, but now we are under producing because we are below 250 V so it must be safe to come back into the wind.” It will continue to turn back into the wind as long as the Voltage remains below 250V until to comes back to 180 degree orientation.
Max frequency = 30 Max Frequency measures revolutions, but it’s based on the AC Sine Waves coming from the turbine rather than blade rotations as you might assume. Basically, this does the same thing as Max Voltage. If the turbine sees rotation over a frequency of 30, it will begin to throw power again to the Resistive Load. There is no reg window for this setting, so it goes from 0-100% based on the gap between Max Freq and Over Freq. This acts as a secondary safety behind the braking it does based on voltage production.
Over frequency= 38 If the turbine ever hits a frequency of 38, it will go into an “OVERSPEED” fault and shutdown, 90 degrees out of the wind, blades stopped. This is also need a manual restart.
Phase balance= 50V This measures the difference in voltage between the phases. I believe that when there is a difference of 50 V between any two phases, the system shuts down and indicates that one of the Phases may be bad.
UPS restart = 120 second. Restart is used when there is a battery backup system (I don't have one) . If there is a grid failure, normally everything will shut off. Controller, Inverters, everything. The system won’t make power, but it won’t be able to turn out of the wind and change that orientation as the wind direction changes. With a Battery Backup system, the controller would still receive power, and be able to continue to turn the turbine to maintain a 90 degree off set orientation. The UPS Restart would say that it needs to see grid power for 2 minutes, it knows power is back and will restart the turbine.
Parker told us that when we get the new controller, the break which now takes a lot of energy to remain open (off) will use less power to stay open. Now with the old controller, we are using full power to keep the break off. This means we'll see some energy improvements when we get he new controller. Maybe we'll be able to run the turbine next August without paying the grid for power.
Here are the definitions of the Wind settings.
Thank you Parker for helping all of us understand what the settings mean
Start wind = 6 mph that means when the anemometer shows 6 mph the start timer will start counting
Start time =60 seconds this mean the anemometer must show 6 mph for a count of 60 seconds to before it starts to hunt for the direction of the wind. The yaw motor will kick in and move the head to the right position. Moving it prior to that value is not worth the power it takes to move the head head with the yaw motor.
Stop wind = 5 mph this means that if the wind = 5 mph the stop wind counter will come on. We had this at 1 which meant it was always hunting.
Stop time =300 seconds. This means if the wind is below 5 mph for 300 second or 5 minutes it will stop hunting for the wind direction.
Max wind = 30.0 mph ( Changed from 25 mph) When the wind value from the Anemometer exceeds this speed, the system will automatically go into “OVERWIND” which shuts down the system. It shuts down by turning 90 degrees out of the wind and stops the blades via a contactor on the AC 3-Phase side in the controller.
Max time =When the Anemometer reads a wind speed LESS THAN “Max Wind” for the “Max Time” value (10 minutes) the system will restart. This allows the system to stay out of the wind in an OVERWIND condition as long as it sees 30mph+. The timer starts once the wind comes down below the “Max Wind” setting because if the system gusts back up above 30, it will continue to maintain out of the wind and shutoff. The logic is, if the wind stays down below the “Max Wind” setting long enough (10 minutes as predicated by the Max Time value) then the system is good to restart without the threat of an OVERWIND situation. OVERWIND is the only Automatically restarting fault condition. Max time means that when the Anemometer reads a wind speed LESS THAN “Max Wind” for the “Max Time” value (10 minutes) the system will restart. This allows the system to stay out of the wind in an OVERWIND condition as long as it sees 30mph+. The timer starts once the wind comes down below the “Max Wind” setting because if the system gusts back up above 30, it will continue to maintain out of the wind and shutoff. The logic is, if the wind stays down below the “Max Wind” setting long enough (10 minutes as predicated by the Max Time value) then the system is good to restart without the threat of an OVERWIND situation. OVERWIND is the only Automatically restarting fault condition.
All inverters low = 200 - This setting is not used
All inverters high = 250 - This setting is not used
All inverter high timer= 5 seconds This setting is not used
The inverter controls are set in the Inverter
Min Voltage = 250 V When the controller sees a value greater than 250 volt being produced from the Turbine, it says “I’m over producing and the turbine needs to turn slightly out of the wind”. This setting correlates with “Turn Out Degrees and Turn Out Time” settings from Yaw Control Settings page. (see picture below)
Max Voltage = 295 V
Once the AC Peak exceeds 295 Volts (Max Voltage setting) for 2 seconds (Turn Out Time setting), it will rotate 15 degrees (Turn out degrees) out of the wind. This will be seen on the controller main screen because the “Desired Orientation” direction indicator on the top right side (green arrow clock type thing) of the controller will say 165 or 195 degrees, indicating that the turbine no longer wants to be 180 degrees relative into the wind, but rather at a 15 degree off-set. The turbine will continue to turn out at 15 degree intervals as long as it continues to see AC volts >295. The system will wait 20 seconds (see pic below -Turn hold) between each attempt to turn farther out. That way it has a chance to see if the change in orientation has allowed the turbine to make 295 volts or less. see Min Voltage for more detail
Regulation window = 20 Volts is a setting that dictates to the controller when the turbine should be sending voltage to the dummy load and how much. When the turbine starts to over produce power (anything over Max Voltage) not only will it turn out, but it will send some voltage to the Resistive Load to aid in slowing the turbine down. Reg Window basically means that in a window of 20 volts from Max Voltage (in this case 295-315), the turbine will send 0-100% of the power being made to that Resistive load. So for instance, if it was 5 volts over 295 volts, 5 is 25% of 20, so it would send 25% of the power being made to the resistive load.
Over voltage = 350V Over voltage will shut down the system into an “OVERVOLT” fault, 90 degrees turn out and shut down the blades. The logic here is that “at 350v production, we have not been able to turn out far enough, and we are sending 100% of the power being produced back to the resistive loads to act as brakes, and we’re still over producing, we need to shutdown”. The system will shutdown and display an OVERVOLT fault and will not restart until someone manually restarts it using the E-Stop button.
Min Voltage = 250 Volts When the turbine turns out due to being over Max Voltage, for instance lets say its at 165 degrees, a 15 degree off set, when the turbine comes down below 250 V for the “Turn In Time” value from the Yaw Control setting page (see below), it will turn back towards the wind 5 degrees, which is the “Turn In Degree” value. The logic here is that “We’ve turned out due to over production, but now we are under producing because we are below 250 V so it must be safe to come back into the wind.” It will continue to turn back into the wind as long as the Voltage remains below 250V until to comes back to 180 degree orientation.
Max frequency = 30 Max Frequency measures revolutions, but it’s based on the AC Sine Waves coming from the turbine rather than blade rotations as you might assume. Basically, this does the same thing as Max Voltage. If the turbine sees rotation over a frequency of 30, it will begin to throw power again to the Resistive Load. There is no reg window for this setting, so it goes from 0-100% based on the gap between Max Freq and Over Freq. This acts as a secondary safety behind the braking it does based on voltage production.
Over frequency= 38 If the turbine ever hits a frequency of 38, it will go into an “OVERSPEED” fault and shutdown, 90 degrees out of the wind, blades stopped. This is also need a manual restart.
Phase balance= 50V This measures the difference in voltage between the phases. I believe that when there is a difference of 50 V between any two phases, the system shuts down and indicates that one of the Phases may be bad.
UPS restart = 120 second. Restart is used when there is a battery backup system (I don't have one) . If there is a grid failure, normally everything will shut off. Controller, Inverters, everything. The system won’t make power, but it won’t be able to turn out of the wind and change that orientation as the wind direction changes. With a Battery Backup system, the controller would still receive power, and be able to continue to turn the turbine to maintain a 90 degree off set orientation. The UPS Restart would say that it needs to see grid power for 2 minutes, it knows power is back and will restart the turbine.
The Yaw Control Settings Menu
Sunday, September 5, 2010
46 KWH in one day!
September is off to a good start!
We finally had wind and we made 46KWH in one day!
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