If you’re going to run your home, cabin, or garage off-grid, you are going to need some way of having power. Enter Solar and Wind. This project goes over the building of a complete off-grid power generation system that can harness the clean and green renewable energy of the sun and the wind.
STEP 1 : BASIC CONNECTION IN A SOLAR PANEL SYSTEM
Here is the basic rundown of the system. We go from sun to solar panels, there is no limit on how many solar panels we can put. It goes into a charge controller, it helps the solar panels create really efficient electricity to be pumped into your battery bank. The charge controller also makes sure that the batteries are being charged correctly and stay at optimum. So solar panels to charge controller, and then that goes directly to your battery bank. The other source of renewable power is wind. The wind turbine is connected to a stop switch that goes into your battery bank. In some cases, in between, you can put up a wind turbine charge controller.
STEP 2 : CONVERTING DC POWER USING AN INVERTER
The next step is converting the DC power to AC power with an inverter. The inverter basically converts the power to make it usable for your home. The inverter also has to be sized appropriately. From inverter to breaker panel which spreads the power out throughout your house through your light switches, wall sockets. From breaker panel straight to your house or cabin.
STEP 3 : SIZING YOUR SYSTEM
The next step is sizing your system. The battery voltage is going to determine what type of equipment you are going to be buying, and how you are going to be wiring your battery bank. So if you go with a 12-volt system, then you are going to want to make sure that your solar panels are wired up correctly for 12 volts. Even when you go with a wind turbine, you are going to want to make sure you buy the correct wind turbine for your battery voltage. So everything has to be sized appropriately so that you can collect as many energies as efficiently and then you can draw that power out.
The golf cart batteries in my system are 6 Volts. I have 6 of them wired in parallel, and in series to give me a 12-volt battery bank. The control panel box consists of my charge controller, voltmeter, and 2 ammeters for both readings both solar and wind power amps.
STEP 4 : CONNECTING THE SOLAR PANELS
Four 12V Solar panels, every 100 watts are wired together. All the positives are connected to each other and all the negatives are connected to each other. The wiring goes straight into the control panel.
STEP 5 : BASICS OF A WIND TURBINE SYSTEM
The wind turbine used here is also 12V. The 3 Phase connections from the turbine go into the bridge rectifier. The negative connection from the rectifier goes straight to the batteries, the positive goes to a junction box that connects the turbine and the inline fuse and 50amp breaker. The negative of the inverter goes into the negative of the batteries, positive to positive. The Romex wire from the inverter goes into the breaker panel in the house.
STEP 6 : THE WORKINGS OF A PERMANENT MOTOR ALTERNATOR
The Permanent Motor Alternator turbine stands on a 6-foot pole. We have these two steel pipes that go down into the ground, three feet. There’s another piece of steel that runs across here that’s welded together, and it’s in the bottom, and then we poured concrete over it to anchor it. Three tie-down points are connected to the turbine to keep the pole steady from rocking around, especially in high winds. So that way, when the blades turn, the bearings don’t get worn out prematurely from wobbling. The Permanent Motor Alternator (PMA) used in this turbine consists of 2 shell casings, two bearings, a rotor inside, and a stainless steel shaft.
The tail of the turbine is made from a sheet metal cut to look like a fin. It is attached to a steel pole. This is further connected to the PMA alternator.
The 11 blades of the turbine is attached to a hub and a pulley through a steel shaft. The belt is connected to a secondary pulley which is connected to the Permanent magnet alternator. The wire from the PMA is connected through MC4 connectors to the control panel.
Image Credits : Modern Off Grid DIY
