I have a 3 phase AC wind turbine that is directly connected to 3 pieces of same ligthbulbs. here is the picture (http://img232.imageshack.us/f/photol.png/)

. I'm wondering how should I compute for the power generated by the turbine.

 

Obtaining a measure of both voltage and current across a load will give you power. Power is the product of those measurements.

 

do I need power factor or √3 (squareroot) ?

 

If you have a True RMS meter, you will get the real voltage and real current through each bulb. Multiply them for real power.

A non True RMS meter will give a close voltage if the input is an undistorted sine wave (which yours is), you can do the same math.

You only need to worry about 1.404 and 0.707 when converting between peak and RMS or vice versa.

 

You can always go through a full wave rectifier and deal with DC.

 

You can always go through a full wave rectifier and deal with DC.

This would work if it was filtered. Would need to be cautious on what voltage caps to get. Make sure you get caps rated for over the Peak Value.

I'm guessing this test is to get an idea of the voltage and power the windmill outputs, a home made one, is this correct?

 

hello hello,

As per above, you need to calculate the power through each bulb by V x I. You then need to sum the three measured power levels.

If the bulbs are the same type then you could make an assumption for turbine power as 3x the power measurement for one bulb.

Bulbs are non-linear loads so you can't use the bulb power rating. Bulbs will fail very quickly if you apply more voltage across the bulb than the rated bulb voltage (very easy situation to occur with a wind turbine, and can lead to ugly consequences as the turbine is then unloaded).

Ciao, Tim