Can I use a solar regulator to regulate a wind turbine?

Just having a look on your website for wind turbines and regulators etc. You suggest that you can connect up to 100W of solar panels into the wind turbine regulator in addition to the turbine itself.

Does this work the other way? ie. Can I plug a wind turbine into the solar regulator I already have?

I'm fairly sure the answer to this is no, from my memory of wind turbines they actually produce AC voltage by induction, is this still the case or do they now produce DC voltage direct?

Yours realising just how long ago it was that I last looked at electronics!!!

Neil

Hi Neil,

You're right that it's not a good idea using a solar regulator for a wind turbine - but it's for slightly more complicated reasons! Yes, turbines do produce AC by induction, although in fact it's normally rectified in the turbine itself so it's usually unsmoothed DC that comes down the wires. The problem is more to do with what happens when a regulator senses a battery is full. Most solar regulators will simply open circuit, which is fine for a solar panel. But an open-circuited wind turbine will spin freely, which is bad news in strong winds. So a turbine regulator is usually designed to short-circuit the turbine, which slows the blades down.

Also, solar regulators might not like the relatively spiky DC from the turbine compared to the very smooth DC from a solar panel.

Having said all that, you might get away with it in places that aren't too windy - but it's not really recommended by the professionals! You are likely to shorten the lifetime of your wind turbine.