MPPT + Regular Charge Controller

[Dame.n.Jess]

Can a wind turbine with internal MPPT controller be hock into the wind terminals on a regular charger controller (that does my solar and wind) or do I need to upgrade my charge controller to a MPPT as well?

Damien

[noelex 77]

It is better to connect the wind generator directly to batteries (with appropriate fusing etc), bypassing the solar regulator. The solar and wind regulators will work fine in parallel. In series ( feeding the wind generator output via the solar regulator) there is some danger that the wind generator will be upset when the solar regular disconnects the batteries (which is how it regulates). MPPT or not on the solar regulator does not make any difference.

[noelex 77]

I presume you want to feed the output of the wind generator through the solar controller so you have a read out of total current and AHrs in. Unfortunately you will need to install a separate battery monitor to do this, although there are a small number of solar controllers that will accept the output of an external shunt (so the wind output does not go through the controller, but is still measured and displayed by the controller)

[Dame.n.Jess]

So to clarify further. The charge controller I currently have is not MPPT. It can handle 600w total input (200w of solar and 400w of wind).

I blew up my wind generator and I'm considering getting a larger wind genny (550w) however this would be to big for my current charge controller.

The 550w turbine has an internal MPPT controller and hence if it's possible to hook the new genny direct to the batteries (with required fuses etc) and leave the old controller to just look after the solar, I would like to look at this.

Alternatively if that idea won't work I will just replace the turbine with another 400w model and connect it into the original charge controller.

Damien

[cwyckham]

Yep. No problem with using the internal wind generator's controller and the solar controller together. Just hook them both to the batteries. There were some great discussions on this a few weeks back