Pardon if this is a naïve question, but the mention of hooking a turbine straight to the batteries makes me ask, why not just use a hybrid wind/solar charge controller?
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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Didn’t really occur to me that they exist; everything seems so focused on solar these days. But I’ll do some searching around.
I also am pretty stuck on grid tie at the moment, and grid tie AIO inverters are pretty cheap compared to piecemeal solutions. But perhaps that’s the flaw in my planning.
Ah, yes, I come at it from the boat angle, so I didn't think of the grid-tie AIO inverter being the cheaper option! It might be less expensive, then, to simply add in a wind charge controller. There's no issue with running two charge controllers in parallel to the same battery bank. They sense state-of-charge by voltage, so if one is running, the voltage is high and the other backs off. I think that makes the system slightly less effective, but probably not enough to notice.
There's no issue with running two charge controllers in parallel to the same battery bank.
That’s good to know, and definitely helpful, thank you! Somewhat obvious in retrospect. Just need to find the equipment…
Wind/solar hybrids are actually pretty doable! For your setup, look into MPPT charge controllers that support both - brands like Midnite Solar and Victron make controllers that handle wind+solar inputs. You'll need a rectifier to convert the AC from the turbine to DC before it hits the controller.
As a backup for critical loads, you might want a dedciated power station too - check out some options on gearscouts.com/power-stations to find ones with the best $/Wh value using LFP batteries. They're perfect for keeping essential stuff running during maintenance or outages.