Charging a LiFePO4 battery with wind power

January 23, 2024 Julian OH8STN battery power, charge controller, Disaster, Education, Genasun, Grid Down Communications, Ham Radio, LiFePO4, off-grid ham shack, oh8stn, Power Queen LiFePO4, Preparedness, Solar Power, Solar Power for Ham Radio 0

In this video, we charge the Power Queen 12.8v LiFePO4 batteries powering the off-grid ham shack using a vertical axis wind generator. Also covered are the various methods of charging our solar battery storage, when there is no solar power.

Update 29APRIL2024

Since so many people are interested purchasing the wind turbine. I decided to post the links here.

The wind turbine is called ElvWis II 190-watt. It is made in Germany and available on eBay.

Disclosure: The link below is an affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an eBay Partner commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
https://ebay.us/IQ26u8 (#sponsored link)

The challenge with the 190W ElvWiS II ALUMINUM Vertical Wind Generator has always been finding a proper charge controller for 4s LiFePO4. Although the Genasun works, it has no method of putting a load on the wind turbine, once the batteries are full. This will lead to the turbine spinning out of control and destroying itself.

Change of plan. I have decided to use this wind turbine to “charge” a DIY sand battery. The sand battery would use my wind turbine and solar panels (when the my storage is full), as a dump load for a sand battery. The sand battery would be used to augment the diesel heater, currently providing heat for the off-grid ham shack.

This is all just thoughts on a piece of paper for now, so bare with me.

Testing the Genasun and ElvWis wind turbine to charge LiFePO4 batteries

On Monday 22 January 2024, we had a sudden rise in temperatures at KP25QC. With the higher temps came gusts of wind averaging 10m/s – 22mph. Not really a massive wind storm, but strong enough to test how effective the wind generator is when connected to a Genasun GV Boost charge controller for 4S LiFePO4 batteries.

Charging LiFePO4 with a wind generator

This post just ties everything together. The Wind Generator, the Genasun charge controller, the Power Queen batteries, and our ability or inability to charge our solar storage with the wind.

Take battery storage seriously

The most important aspect of the off-grid ham shack is its battery storage. The more watt-hours of battery storage one has, the longer one can “wait-out” the grid being down.

Genasun charge controllers for ham radio
Installing a vertical wind generator on a ham radio tower

If you’re interested in building your own off-grid ham shack, consider starting here: Building your off-grid ham shack blog: https://oh8stn.org/blog/2023/12/21/building-an-off-grid-solar-powered-ham-shack/

A look at the oh8stn off-grid ham shack
Adding an additional 1280 watt hours to the off-grid ham shack

Related posts:

Product links:

Power Queen LiFePO4

Power Queen offers a range of LiFePO4 batteries for off-grid use. These batteries are available throughout the European Union, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In fact, you can get a 5% discount using JULIANOH8STN while shopping on their various websites.

Use discount code JULIANOH8STN

Power Queen made the “Building an off-grid ham shack” project possible. Please show some love.

Power Queen selection for off-grid ham radio

Genasun USA & Europe

Genasun in North America and Europe offer discounts to my viewers and readers.

Use coupon code “5forOH8STN” for both regions.
North America: https://sunforgellc.com/genasun/
Europe: https://genasun.eu/

Food for thought

When a storm hits and the grid goes down, getting power back becomes a high priority. High winds, lightning, ice, or heavy snow can all contribute to power loss. The loss of grid electricity nay become more than the annoyance of not being able to turn on a light, radio or television. Often, the loss of grid power has serious repercussions affecting heating, refrigeration, hot water, storage of medicines, and the ability to charge critical communication gear.
As we begin understanding the causes of power loss, we must make efforts to understand what steps to take to keep our secondary power systems running. Both are necessary when preparing for potential outages, and responding effectively when they occur.

73
Julian oh8stn
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Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

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