James LeBlanc

Greetings fellow permies. I am having difficulty with my electric system and soliciting advise from anyone with more knowledge and experience than I. Currently I am running a coleman 440 hva charge controller with a 12 volt system. I have a 5000 watt inverter by aims and 8 6volt batteries in a series/parallel configuration. I had been running 10 seasun solar panels that are 185watts each. The system was working fine until I connected two 1600watt wind turbines. What follows is a brief description of the difficulty presented: the battery charge would not go above 12.3volts regardless of the amount of wind or sun available. When the turbines slowed to a stop the battery charge would decrease without a load on the system other than what the inverter and charge controller would draw under normal operation. Upon removing the turbines from the system the solar panels resume working fine as before operation with turbines. I have also configured the system without the panels and encountered the same issues. I am at a loss of ideas on how to get my electric operating properly. Anything at this point will be welcome.

Here we are neck deep and loving every minute of farm living. Goats, hens, rabbits, and Guineas keeping us busy in between house building. We are very well known by all of the neighbors as we are doing things in a manner outside of the norm but so far the responses are very positive. Thanks for all the well wishes and all advise is most welcome.

We are in Southern Illinois about 20 min south of Harrisburg near the Little Lusk Camp Grounds.

My family and I have found a good piece of land in Southern Illinois with 4 spring fed fresh water springs. We've begun the process of preparing the land for our home and the farming we wish to do. We hope to be up and running in a few months if all goes well. If anyone wants to give us good wishes or good advise it is more than welcome.