Quote:
Originally Posted by aesmith
I know that regulators for small wind turbines vary the current drawn to hit the optimum power point for any given conditions.
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The wind turbines have to regulate the load otherwise there is a good chance the old propeller would stop rotating, they have to limit the load to the optimum for wind speed. The wind turbines probably have a wound rotor where the field strength can be adjusted, Funny thing is about wind turbines, they need to draw power from the grid to be able to generate power, maybe once they are rotating fast enough they can be self sufficient.
https://www.wemoto.com/info/regulator_rectifier
Also this
https://bikesamag.co.za/bsa/how-a-mo...em-works/6384/
In the first article the regulator bit is described as a 'shunt regulator' and in electrical terms 'shunt' means 'an alternate / parallel path' - ( in the south african article it says 'shunts excess current to earth - 0V) so it looks like the regulator is in parallel with alternator and 'shunts' any unwanted current through itself and dissipates it as heat (all energy ends up as heat). The most basic voltage regulation system consists of a resistor and zener diode ( a zener diode has a low forward volt drop but when it is reverse biased (positive cathode) they are made to have a fixed and very sudden 'avalanche' breakover at a fairly accurate voltage - the breakover voltage is altered by different doping of the silicon). The variable supply voltage is connected through a resistor to the zener and the 'regulated' voltage is supplied to downstream circuit from straight across the zener diode. If the upstream voltage rises the zener will divert any extra current through itself until it is drawing enough current to drop the voltage through the resistor to its zener voltage, if the downstream load varies and the current through the resistor changes the zener will attempt to keep the downstream voltage constant. You need a big heatsink on the zener as it dumps a lot of heat, I figure that the regulator bit on the RR works the same way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aesmith
By the way those LED bulbs linked earlier are actually 24W each, 48 for the pair. That's a typical figure that I've seen for H4 replacements. LEDs will be constant current so that power draw will be fixed irrespective of battery voltage. In comparison standard lights are 60/55W at nominal 12.0V so a pair on full beam will be drawing probably over 140W in reality. So nearly 100W different with the LEDs.
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That makes sense - about the same as my Phillips chipped ones (with no fan), I thought the fan may be drawing the other 48 watts LOL (big fan) - the Phillips ones draw about 20 watts but are 80watt equivalent filament light output.