Graeme wrote: > > G'day, > > I am moving to a property in northern New South Wales in Australia that has a > 50m waterfall with a minimum water flow in excess of 3.5 litre / second. Our > power usage is estimated to be about 8kw per day rising to 12 when house > completed. > > Our initial house site will be about 900m from the bottom of the waterfall. > > I would like your comments of this proposed setup. > > hydrogenerator model M1/125 from www.platypuspower.com.au giving 240v AC > > transmission line 900m size ?? > > at house Xantrex Truecharge 40+i 40amp battery charger into 3 paralleled > Concorde SunXtender PVX-2120L batteries (total 759Ah) > > Connected to the batteries will be a Latronics LS-2012 2000 watt inverter. > > Depending on the voltage at the end of the transmission line I may run > household lights and always on appliances direct from transmission line. > > I have already purchased the battery charger, batteries and inverter. > > The M125 was chosen because of the 240v output and included controller and > dump > load ie self-contained with high voltage output. > > Cheers > Graeme
Graeme, I am familiar with the Platypus Power turbine (although not the particular model you mention), the Trucharge range of battery chargers and Latronics inverters. Even though my reply will focus on the Australian context I have decided to post it to the group, rather than to you individually, because I think it may contain some points of wider interest. You do not say how far below the waterfall you intend to place the turbine, so it is not possible to estimate what sort of penstock losses we should be considering, but for now let us assume, conservatively, that the net head at the turbine is 40m. At this head and a flow rate of 3.5 l/sec you can expect 750W from the turbine. This equates to 18kWh/day, however there will be considerable losses - the magnitude of these losses will depend on how well you manage the transmission and power conditioning parts of the system. I expect you will be just be able to sustain load of 8kWh/day, but not 12kWh/day. The key issue here is the battery charger (discussed below). Now for my detailed comments: 1. system voltage: The equipment you have bought, in particular the inverter, commits you to a 12V system and you may now not wish to change this. However, considering the power levels involved this is not a good choice. 24V would be better and 48V better still. You have chosen an inverter with a 2kW continuous rating. At full load, this will draw nearly 200A on the DC input side. This is a very large current for a 12V system and unless you are careful, losses in the cabling and fuses will be quite significant. If you intend to apply for a government rebate then you will have to comply with Australian Standard AS4502. Part 2 of this standard recommends that continuous DC currents do not exceed 120A. I don't know how strict they are on this point in NSW, but in Queensland where I operate, this recommended value needs to be adhered to. 2. battery Try and avoid parallel battery strings in a permanent installation. The reasons for this are well known and can be found in any text covering battery selection for renewable energy systems. This is particularly so in your case. If you try and draw 200A from a battery where each string has a capacity of only about 250Ah, then the slightest difference in resistance between the strings will cause one string to be worked much harder than the others. 3. battery charger Fortunately you have chosen a switchmode type of charger, which will be tolerant of input voltage and frequency variation and still be able to deliver it's nominated 40A. Even if it works at full capacity 24h/day it will be able to deliver at most 11.5kWh/day to the battery. A rule of thumb for battery/inverter systems is that the average power delivered to the battery should exceed the AC load by at least 30%, preferably 40%. So, with a 40A charger you will just be able to sustain a load of 8kWh/day, cetailnly not 12kWh/day. Regards, Max Enfield Planetary Power ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/RzSHvD/UOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
