Wind Turbine - 3 Phase-AC to DC

[owen_a]

Hi,

I have a 300-400w wind turbine which generates 3-Phase AC @ 12v 33.33Amps Maximum. The wires are colour coded Red, Black, Blue. I have a 3-Phase AC to DC rectifier which can handle up to 1200v @ 50A.

Currently I have it connected like so; Red, Blue, Black.

I'm wondering, does it matter which order they are connected to on the rectifier? If so, which colour, in order, do they connect to on the rectifier?

At the moment its rectifying the AC to DC, and it has powered a 12v halogen bulb @ 3A.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Owen.

 

[psparky]

It shouldn't matter which order you put them in.

If you look at the three phase recifer picture it becomes real obvious that it won't matter.

Look at the 2nd picture on this link, the three phase rectifier.

http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/08-09/Hydrogen_Buffering/Website Power Conditioning.html

The recitifier just always sends the positive part of the sin wave over the load. The average of all that is the DC voltage. Actually, on your normal sin wave the average of all that is the DC voltage as well, just in a standard sin wave the DC voltage will average out to be zero!

 

[owen_a]

Ah I see. Thanks for the reply! I was just curious; I was over complicating things again.

 

[psparky]

It will make a difference in conventional AC motors however when fed by three phase. (standard wiring with no rectifer involved.)

When you wire the motor, it will either turn clockwise or counterclockwise.

To reverse the direction, simply swap any two of the line wires.

But again, in a three phase DC rectifier, not going to matter.

 

[Windadct]

In general no - the lower power AC/DC converters have a basic rectifier, that is not affected by the phase connection. Still it should be spelled out in the rectifiers manual. If it is a home made unit a schematic will be helpful.

 

[psparky]

Ah I see. Thanks for the reply! I was just curious; I was over complicating things again.

Hey just curious...how big is that wind turbine...and do you have a picture of it?

 

[psparky]

In general no - the lower power AC/DC converters have a basic rectifier, that is not affected by the phase connection. Still it should be spelled out in the rectifiers manual. If it is a home made unit a schematic will be helpful.

So you are saying that if you hook up one of those 500 foot tall, 500 Mega watt wind turbines you should probably check the wiring diagram?

Probably not a bad idea! :)

 

[Windadct]

http://www.semikron.com/dl/service-support/downloads/download/semikron-datasheet-skiip-3614-gb17e4-6duw-20601138 - and this is only one phase of ~ 3MW. .. Max today is around 5-6 MW per turbine, not 500MW - BTW

 

[owen_a]

Hey just curious...how big is that wind turbine...and do you have a picture of it?

Sure. Today in the UK, its REALLY windy, so this thing is flying around.

This is the wind turbine - http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/251320008073?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE&skus=Output:12V&varId=550270984212

And this is the rectifier - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008R50M9Y/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[Windadct]

What is the bulb for? It is using almost 10% of your turbine power.

 

[owen_a]

What is the bulb for? It is using almost 10% of your turbine power.

It was just to test to see if it works, which it obviously does. I haven't had time to drill the holes into the wall yet to mount my controller (when I get one) etc, so that's this Saturday job. As for now, its just on an open circuit connected to nothing... Which is a shame, all that power right now could be used lol.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

Nope, order of the phase wiring doesn't matter.

After having tasted some success, you may wish to go further by squeezing more efficiency out of you rectifiers. A 1200V rectifier is costing you on the order of a 2 to 2.5V drop from a 12V source. Ouch, that's a lot of power lost!

By purchasing (6) STPS3045FP schottky rectifiers, mounting them to a heat sink (such as a Wakefield 401K), and soldering them to form a 3 phase rectifier, you'll easily cut this voltage drop to about 1 to 1.2 volts. You're still loosing some power, but it's roughly half the loss you had with the previous bridge.

The very easiest way to make use of this power is to either have a load that doesn't mind the variations in wind, or store it away in lead acid batteries. You'll want some way to disconnect the batteries once they're charged.

Mike

 

[owen_a]

Hi mike,

Thanks for the reply! I didn't know I was losing that much, ouch indeed! I'm going to get myself a charge controller for about £42 - just so I can charge this leisure battery up. That's until I can buy a bank of deep cycle marines.