Wiring solar panels and wind turbines together in the same system

Wind turbines and solar panels can complement each other nicely - times with low wind speed are often times of good sunlight and vice versa! However, if you want to use both wind turbines and solar panels to charge the same battery bank, then you will have to use a regulator that is able to handle both solar and wind inputs. Alternatively, you can use one regulator for the wind turbine, and a seperate one for the solar panel.

The Rutland HRS503, HRSi and HRDi regulators can accept both solar panel and wind turbine loads. For larger systems, the Morningstar Tristar regulator is an excellent choice. It has the ability to divert excess power into a dump load, such as a water heating element - so no need to waste power when the batteries are full!

Wiring the Rutland or Tristar regulators is simple - just connect the input terminals of the regulator to the output cables from your wind turbine and solar panel, and connect the output to the battery.