Generator/Power Management

We are using a Permanent Magnet Alternator (PMA) that was donated to us by John Husbands, along with an external rectifier and charge controller.

This is a modified automotive alternator purchased off of an online supplier. They replaced the internal electromagnet with a permanent magnet which increases efficiency from 50% to over 90%. This is important because the size of this turbine is already very small.

The supplier is reputable and uses american made parts for rebuilds.

We even found that they used Dielectric grease for there connections which is very important for anti corrosive purposes. Any electrical connectors subjected to outside environments should be properly treated with this substance.

This is essentially a battery charger that will divert the load to a motor/resistive heating element/dummy load/etc. when the battery reaches a full charge. They claim it is 99.5% efficient which is very nice. It has an adjustable peak voltage adjuster which is also very important because it allows the use of a variety of battery types. We will be using a normal wet style lead acid battery found in cars, boats, etc.

You can see the automotive grade relay sticking out of the weather proofing.

That is a credit card for dimensional purposes.

This is an external rectifier that will be used instead of the PMA's internal unit. The physics behind using an external rectifier is to send the higher voltage A/C over a longer distance to reduce power loss from the 20+ feet of wire. Underneath all the heat sinks are diodes arranged to convert A/C to D/C that will then be fed into the charge controller.

6 diodes can be seen through the grating here.