How to Connect a Homemade Wind Turbine to a Battery Bank

Obtain or construct a charge controller. A charge controller is an electrical system that monitors the charge in your batteries to prevent the battery bank from becoming overcharged and damaged. Commercially built charge controllers are available for purchase. Many are built into the same box as rectifiers or AC to DC converters. If you have experience in electricity and wiring, you can construct your own charge controller. Your constructor will need to be constructed with an automatic switch that will dump power to a dump load when the battery bank is fully charged.

Connect your battery bank to the charge controller. You will need to use deep cycle batteries with your wind turbine. To properly connect your battery bank to the controller, connect the positive and negative feeds from two different batteries. For example, in the row of batteries in your battery bank, connect the positive feed from the top battery to the controller and the negative feed from the bottom battery to the controller. This will ensure the charge is more evenly distributed through all the batteries.

Connect a dump load to the diversion port on the charge controller. When the battery bank is fully charged, the controller will dump surplus power to the dump load. This is necessary to prevent the wind turbine from becoming too noisy or from destroying itself, since a wind turbine cannot operate safely on an open circuit.

Hook up the wind turbine to the charge controller. Once the wind starts blowing, your turbine will move and begin to generate electricity that will charge the battery bank.