To fuse or not to fuse...

[Salisburytree]

I have a 400 watt wind turbine, I will be lucky if it produces anywhere near that but I'm putting it up anyway as it might do something!

My question would be to fuse or not to fuse?

The charge controller has a brake function, so if I was to fuse between turbine and controller and say I blow a fuse, well there's going to be no way of braking the turbine and plenty of breaking?

I'm still in the process of setting up a solar system and I now know it is wise to add fuses everywhere, so im throwing the same caution and probably common sence towards the turbine venture.

Any help on the question would be great!

 

[Salisburytree]

if its of any use, here is the spec sheet...

 

[OzSolar]

But it will produce 400 watts at least once so still you have to treat it that way.

An easy approach is to go one wire size larger than than than the turbine, or solar array or generator can produce then no fusing is required to protect the wiring*. This is how I've designed and built of off grid power systems for decades and not one problem ever.

*But at the end of day protecting your system against what the batteries can dump back into your branch systems if something goes wrong is really what you need to be designing for.

 

[Salisburytree]

But it will produce 400 watts at least once so still you have to treat it like that way.

An easy approach is to go one wire size larger than than than the turbine, or solar array or generator can produce then no fusing is required to protect the wiring*. This is how I've designed and built of off grid power systems for decades and not one problem ever.

*But at the end of day protecting your system against what the batteries can dump back into your branch systems if something goes wrong is really what you need to be designing for.

Yes of course, I would fuse/protect it against its max output at 400 watt.

Is that common practice with these turbines then to save interfering with the brake function?

Really not getting a whole lot of information from Google, it seems the most don't bother with any protection this side of the charge controller

 

[pollenface]

I never used a fuse on my wind turbines.

 

[Sean Very North]

The charge controller has a brake function, so if I was to fuse between turbine and controller and say I blow a fuse, well there's going to be no way of braking the turbine and plenty of breaking?

Unless you have mechanical means of slowing/stopping the turbine then a fuse between its output and it's only means of braking will indeed run the risk of out of control overspeed, which is never a good thing in what will no doubt be a very structurally weak design.

 

[Salisburytree]

I will check if the hybrid inverter is internally fused.

The turbine isn't anything special, just an eco-worthy model I was given. I dont think I could trust it without some protection, the emphasis on protecting your system from fire with solar is huge. Wind turbines it seems not ?

 

[Salisburytree]

Rather than start a new thread, I thought maybe wise to add this here...

Could anyone shed any light onto why it states in my 400 watt turbine manual that I need 10mm wire for a 12v system and 2.5mm wire for a 48v system, all seems backwards or am I the backwards one?!

Iv ordered a load of 4mm cable for my 700+ watts of solar panels and was hoping this would be more than enough for the turbine.

 

[Salisburytree]

manual stated specs

 

[Salisburytree]

Wing it and hope for the best then ?

 

[time2roll]

If the wire has the ampacity of full current by a decent margin..... skip the fuse. What could it protect from?

 

[time2roll]

Could anyone shed any light onto why it states in my 400 watt turbine manual that I need 10mm wire for a 12v system and 2.5mm wire for a 48v system, all seems backwards or am I the backwards one?!

More voltage = less amps = smaller wire. 2.5mm

Lower voltage = more amps = larger wire. 10mm

 

[Salisburytree]

Okay would it be sensible to run my batteries at 24v with 4mm cable no fuse?

 

[chrisski]

I never used a fuse on my wind turbines.

I’d love to see a thread on some of these projects. So little is shared about successful wind turbines for individuals when compared to successful solar projects for individuals.

Seems to me making usable solar power long term is a no-brainer when compared to trying to get a small scaled wind turbine power long term, with most wind projects seeming like people give up before they get to the long term.

I go to Fieldlines.com for a forum on wind projects By individuals.

 

[time2roll]

Okay would it be sensible to run my batteries at 24v with 4mm cable no fuse?

Can't say I fully understand the system but 4mm should be good to 25 amps at 24 volts is 600+ watts
So on the surface I would say yes this is fine.