cowb

Hi, I have (probably unwisely) acquired a nominally 600W VAWT which I have installed at a location where it spins almost all the time. However I am having difficulty actually getting any useable power out of it. When there was a gale blowing I managed to intermittently light a single 12V LED (2W or so), but most of the time even the small green LED on the rectifier/controller struggles to light. I am thinking that I am not matching the load to the wind turbine effectively. At present the load is a 15ohm 50W resistor mounted on an aluminium plate. It doesn't get warm and the green light on the controller box doesn't light. I have asked the supplier of the kit what kind of load the turbine is designed to drive (you see these things on boats, where presumably they are used to top up a 12v battery) but didn't get a helpful response. This is the kind of thing. It's actually quite well engineered mechanically but doesn't actually produce electricity. Any advice would be welcome.