Do you need blocking diodes when adding a wind turbine to your DIY solar system?

One of forum members, Ladyhawk, brought up a great discussion this week. And as always one members jumped right in and gave a priceless response. Where are you finding this anywhere else on the internet?

Ladyhawk ask....

If I add a wind turbine to my system, do I need to put blocking diodes on each one of my Harbor Freight solar panels? I had planned to hook my turbine up direct to a 12 volt element but have been told that it a bad idea due to stalling turbine, overheating wires, etc.

Member Hillbilly Gene responds....

Yes, you need at least two diodes if you add a Wind Turbine to your system.

A diode will “block” voltage if the voltage is more positive on the diode’s cathode side (bar side) than on its anode side (arrowhead side).

If the sun is out, and no wind blowing, you want the wind turbine diode to stop solar panel voltage from pushing current into the wind turbine.

If the wind is blowing at night you want the solar panel diodes to stop wind turbine voltage from pushing current into the solar panels.

The internal diode in the Harbor Freight charge controller stops battery voltage pushing current back into the solar panels if those panels have no diodes added, which is the way the Harbor Freight kit comes out of the box.

The solar panels can be shorted together at their outputs and two panel diodes removed to get to a two diode system, but doing so will then not stop the solar panels from pushing current into each other if one or more of the panels are shaded.  This Harbor Freight solar panel backfeeding was discussed here.

I would recommend using the four diodes, but for the best results I recommend a separate charge controller for the wind turbine.

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