Thomas Allen Schmidt's posts

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/

For a start, try; Average, Annual, and Flat plate tilted South at latitude. This web site reflects a "fair" assessment of the the number of hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module. Expect a little less if anything.
Keep in mind that this South is solar South not geomagnetic South and each region has a different degree of deviation from magnetic South.

Does anybody know of a web site with charts showing degrees of deviation from geomagnetic South?

"Do you think that in the future there might be ways devised to use low power production with a grid tied system for us city folks?"

"I have 2kw of solar panels on the roof but I have run out of space."

Is this a trick question? You have two thousand watts of photovoltaic modules producing on average around six kilowatthours each cool, sunny day and you want to know if in the future there might be a way to wire this into the grid?
You do know about grid intertie inverters dont you?
Since you have access to build on your roof then must certainly have access to build on your main or sub. electrical panel. Unless of course the local jurisdiction has taken precedence over the matter. It would seem odd though if they issued you a permit for the PV array and it passed inspection but would not allow grid connection. I am little confused.

Bill,
it sounds like you have got your mind made up.
I can only explain to you how I would "configure" a system of this size. Of course it would help to know if all of the loads are AC or DC but not necessary at this time. Typically the way I calculate this allows for some inverter inefficiency's.
To size a remote PV system I typically use yearly averages.
650 watts a day equals 238,000 watts a year. If you were paying $0.09 per kilowatthour for this it would cost you a grand total of $22 a year.
Anywho, you need to know the number of hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module in your region, so go here and have some fun.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/

I would choose - average, annual, and flat plate tilted south at latitude. I am going to guess that this number is 2 hours. So to get 650 watts a day in just 2 hours you might need at least a 325 watt PV array. For a battery bank, divide the 650 by a nominal battery voltage like 12, 24, or 48, I am going to use 12 which will give us 55 amp hours. For the sake of longevity and a certain amount of autonomy as well as some inverter inefficiencies multiply this by 5 for a total of 275 amphours of storage. Of course as with most other things in life, "your mileage may vary."

Uh, well Robert, Natalie, and anyone else reading this, before you go and rent the movie, or whatever, you should know that its main story line is not really solar oriented. Its main story line is about an escaped convict/murderer. Its especially not for the squeamish or faint of heart.

As for other Sci-fi movies with RE... Its pretty much the same. Through out the movie you get glimpses of RE stuff but thats really not what the theme of the movie is. Kind of like in Star Wars. You see all kinds of futuristic stuff but the story is really about two androids.

Word.

I started this by looking up the definition of the word "city."

1 - A large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts.
2 - An incorporated administrative district established by state charter.
3 - People living in a large densely populated municipality.

Reacuring words here would seem to be; large, densely populated, and administrated or delibarate.
To answer your questions, I wish I could. Cities, like a lot of other intentional structures, are/were built with an established infrastructure which, in and of itself does not lend itself to retrofitting new infrastructure in very cost effective ways.
Next would the word large. the phrase "a small city" might be considered an oxymoron, like "jumbo shrimp" or "pretty ugly" so this in and of itself would dictate large systems for whatever purpose.
 Logic would dictate that the intention begin with a renewable and sustainable infrastructure. So with that in mind, I would say that yes, there is a future for cities built with RE in mind. One that comes to mind is methane production from human waste, both sewage and garbage, that in turn fuels microturbine electric generators, that also provide heat for many uses.
And then there is the homo sapiens, commonly referred to as people. We all know the rest of the story from here. After all, an Ape is not going to be reading this with any comprehension. Maybe Ape descendants.   

Hi Natalie, I think there might be a little confussion in terminology. I am not sure I know what a "solar generator" is. I have seen a thing in a Si-fi movie (Pitch Black) that could be construed as a "solar generator" but other than that I would tend to think you mean what is commonly referred to as a photovoltaic (PV) module. They are even called "solar panels" at times but that can be misleading too because the same term can apply to a solar thermal panel for heating air or water.

Building a PV module can be tricky. Growing the Silicon ingots that PV cells are sliced from even more so.

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=1169

Hope this helps. One other item that might be of intrest follows. Think of it in a smaller scale as one of those table top Christmas ornaments, the one thats a whirlygig automaton with candles burning under a horizontal propeller.

http://www.enviromission.com.au/index.htm

Assuming that you have allready reached an apogee where the energy efficiency of your home is concerned, think in terms of, offsetting the electric needs of a particular appliance or the perhaps the gas or oil needs for heating, which ever may apply.
If electric energy, take for example the refrigerator. Lets say it consumes on average over a year, 150 watts in 24 hours. In your region you have an average over a year of, 3 hours of full rated power from PV in 24 hours. That would be, at minimum, a 50 watt PV array.
Remember these figures are an average and they are only an example to demonstrate the math.
Typically, small systems as in the example I gave do not exist anymore. At one time a company called Solarex made PV modules with a built "microinverters" and some folks might just plug it right into a wall receptacles. Not Code legal (National Electrical Code) but it happened.
Oh, by the way, Solarex which was a subsidiary of the American Oil Company (Amoco) sold out along with Amoco to the British Petroleum company (BP) who also produce PV modules. Next thing you know Shell Oil, General Electric, almost everybody is making PV modules. Then they proclaim that there is a shortage of raw materials for making PV cells and the price of PV goes through the roof. Smells fishy to me.
Sorry 'bout that. I got off the subject. I guess you can tell, I am not happy with the PV industry right now. Back to the subject...
You know, the widespread utilization of electric energy by human beings on the planet Earth is only about 100 years old. Beginning with the likes of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse. In retrospect, human beings have lived on the planet Earth for more than 7,000 years. No matter what your religion teaches, you cannot disagree with these facts. This means that for over 6,900 years, human beings did more than just survive on the planet Earth, the flourished, without the utilization of electric energy.
Now look at us today only after 100 years with it.
 Oops, there I go again.
I am going to sign off now. Best of luck to you Paul. If you truly want minimum watts, then just turn it off!

Without agreeing or disagreeing I would like to point out that with any renewable energy device designed to harvest the energy of motion in nature and convert it into electric energy, geographical location and local terrain as well as ambient weather conditions can all have an effect on power production. Which in turns has an effect on cost effectiveness concerning the RE device. This doesn't rule out desire of course. Just common sense. If you live nextdoor to a large body of water with a high drop in elevation but you just got to have a windgenny, then by all means indulge, but if your looking to "squeeze" the most RE out of your Ben Franklin's then be very critical of your personal site evaluation.

Its been printed that a general "rule of thumb" for windgenny's is that the bottom of the swept area of the blades should be no less than 30 foot higher than any object within a 500 foot radius.
 This is because those objects within 500 foot create turbulent air, which reduces power output, as opposed to a more consistant smooth flow of air, that creates higher power output.
 Then you have to sept outside that "circle" and look at local terrain at a half mile as well as the trees. It would help to have an elevation map for this evaluation.
 As an example, where I live the trees are in the 75 foot range in my yard. So right there, that means a tower no less than 115 foot, but at the same time we live on "bottom land" where at one quarter mile radius the terrain goes up in elevation anywhere from 25 to 50 foot with those same 75 foot trees.
If that wasn't enough, when I look at the national data for average wind speed for the region of the U.S. where I live, we are in the 0 percentile on a scale of 0 to 7 (7 being best) and this stretches over three states.

When I add all of this up into dollars and cents I would have bought a very expensive tower to support a windgenny that will only produce an appreciable amount of power when there is a windy storm. The majority of the year it would just sit there, like one of those concrete yard Gnomes. You know, the one hunched over with the sheepish grin on its face.
Unless you have "money to burn" I would suggest being very critical of your site evaluation before purchasing any RE.

Ah yes, temptations. If only the means to make electric energy were as readily, and affordably, available as the means of consuming electric energy. An idea that has always kept my intrest is this. What ever consumes electric energy in reverse can produce electric energy. Think about the basics. A water pump powered by an electric motor/ running water drives a turbine spinning an electric generator. A fan/ a windgenny. Light/ photovoltaics. Heat, cold, the list goes on and on. Your computer!...
It may take a little ingenuity, but you'll come up with something. In the meantime here are some websites to ponder over to get those bio electric brain juices to flowing.
www.otherpower.com
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/index.html
http://www.essex1.com/people/speer/elect.html
You most likely have heard of Albert Einstein and his famous mathematical equation, E=mc2. E meaning Energy, m meaning mass, c being celeritas(the speed of light), and 2 represents squaring a number. In this case the speed of light. 1,079,252.848.8 km/h.
Basically what all of that means is that mass and energy, energy and mass are one and the same at the speed of light squared or 1,164,786,711,642,915,661.44 km/h.
At that speed simple items such as a screw driver or a frying pan could have enough energy in them power a city. If the entire electromagnetic spectrum were a football field, that portion of it that is visible light would be a single blade of grass.
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/rs/back/spectrum/
Your probably wondering why I am giving all this type of information. You just want to run a pool filter pump. There have been times when all it took for me to have an understanding of a thing, was to here someone state in just a certain way. Like 3 way/4way switches on a lighting circuit. All it took was to here someone say "you can have as many 4 way switches as you want as long as there is a 3 way switch at each end." From then on I could wire up these switches without any problem. I hope something I have written or maybe something at one of these websites will affect you the same way. Who knows, you may even have an original idea that no one has thought of before. The potential is there.

We are talking about electricity and electricity is all about the math.

Typically it all starts with a load assessment. You need numbers; Amps, volts, watts, hours, and for photovoltaics - longitude and latitude.

Working with the only numbers you gave us I will have to guess at the rest. 1000 watt inverter at 12 volts nominal.
I will guess at your region and say that the number of hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module is 4.
1000 / 4 = nothing less than a 250 watt PV array.
If this 1000 watt load is on for an average of 8 hours in 24 then - 8 x 1000 / 12 = nothing less than a 667 amp-hour battery bank.

When I say "nothing less than" I mean nothing less than! With any battery bank its best to stay within the top 20% of a 100% fully charged bank for a degree of autonomy and longevity of battery life. (Amp-hours times 5.) Since everyday is not a cloudless sunny day with absolute certainty, the best bet is to double the minimum of the PV array.

Keep in mind I guessed at a lot of these numbers. You can narrow it down I sure. Welcome to the world of photovoltaic battery charging!

Its all in the math. Well, and the pocket book.
1000 watts at 12 vdc equals 84 amps.
Wow! You could just about weld steel with that.
In south Florida you get an average of around 5 to 6 hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module annually.
So, 1000 watts divided by 5 equals nothing less than a 200 watt PV array. More would be better! Say a 400 watt PV array.
As for battery storage. We know that a minimum of 83 amps per hour is needed. If lights burn for a yearly average of 10 hours per night then we have a minimum battery capacity of 830 amp hours at 12 vdc.
At bare minimum 200 to 400 watt PV array, 830 to 1000 amp hours at 12 vdc battery bank.
Anything less than this and you will not be satisfied with the system. Of course if your on the grid then grid power can make up the slack. Don't skimp on the wire size though. As with any low voltage system including accent lighting do line loss calculations and when in doubt always go to the next size up.

Or you could just add the PV array with a grid tie inverter to your existing grid service. No battery replacement needed and you can add more PV array as time and or money allows. Just size the inverter for future expansion of course. Good hunting.

Um, this might be a little off subject but bear with me please.
True sinusoidal alternating current polyphasic electricity is 3 dimensional and can only be produced by a rotating force.
Imagine a Slinky toy stretched out to various distances.
What inverters do is produce an electronic simulation of that "sinewave" that winds up being a whole lot of steps. Imagine a spiral staircase.
With that in mind you might find this place intresting.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/index.html

In particular AC and DC generator action.

I have all but been flat out accused of not being "forward thinking" when it comes to renewable energies. If that means that I cannot be easily spun into a sugary dream of cotton candy renewable energies technologies, then I am guilty.
I suppose its the lack of practicality of the cost of retrofitting in some cases, more so than the technology itself.
400 acres you say? Has to be detoxed and clean too? (Were would the toxins be relocated to?) Then the rebuild can start? I would imagine being a self reliant island it would need quite a bit of that 400 acres for such things as; water distillation, sewage treatment, electricity production, hydrogen gas production or methane from sewage, growing fresh produce, and unless colonized by vegans, livestock pasture, then of course a place to store these things, and least but not last housing for the Homo sapiens.

Don't get me wrong I like the idea of it! Look at how long the Amish have withstood the test of time! It would seem that these type of endeavors usually start with a dream by one or more people. What happens if the dream becomes corrupted? Wait, thats not a fair question. How about I ask it another way? Does that land have any spirits? Have you asked those spirits for direction in this endeavor? Or being manmade, is it completely void of any living natural spirits?

I hope these questions do not deter you from your dreams. I would like to see such an island stand up to the tests of time and set an example (God willing) for the rest of the world. A positive note: you have over 7,000 years of human history to draw data from. I would like to close with a quote from Albert Einstein,
"Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble."

Ohm's law.
Its never to early to learn math! We marvel at our children when they learn to speak their first word, even so when they first count to ten. Even when they can perform more complex mathematical calculations such as the Pythagorean theorem!

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/OhmBio.htm#Ohm%20law

As you may already know, Ohm's law simply stated is that;
watts / volts = amps, or, amps x volts = watts, and so on.

What I like to do when calculating a PV/battery system is to take the load in watt hours for a 24 hour period and divide by a nominal battery voltage. I'll chose 12 vdc nominal. 17,640 / 12 = 1,470 amphours. I would then multiply this 1,479 x 5 = 7,350. That multiplier of 5 keeps the load over 24 hours within the top 20% of battery charge giving you about 3 maybe 4 days of autonomy (no Sun.)

Then to size the PV array take that same 17,640 watt hours and divide by the number of equivalent full rated charge hours.
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/

 For this example I will use 4 hours. Yours may vary.
17,640 / 4 = 4,410 watt PV array.
So altogether we are looking at a 4,410 watt PV array charging a 7,470 amp hour battery bank at 12 volts nominal.
Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Wait til you see the price tag. Welcome to the world of Photovoltaics!

Lets go back to your figures of 7.1 amps
and 700 watts. 700 / 7.1 = 98.6 volts
700 x 24 =16,800
120 volts x .35 amps = 42 watts
42 x 24 = 1008 for a total of 17,808 watt hours or 17.8 kWh.
If you were to by this at the national average of $0.09 per kWh it would cost you $1.60 a day.

Obviously there has to be a compromise some where. Could we eliminate the batteries and just let the PV array run your system during sunny days? Maybe find a more efficient ;12, 24, or 48 vdc pump and UV system? Somebody is bound to make them.

I sure didn't see that.
So basically its advertised ratings are just like all other charge controllers, if its a MX60 its good for 60 amps of PV input. If its a C40 its good for 40 amps of PV input. This would include the 156% correction factor to satisfy the NEC and UL notion that a PV module can exceed its rated short circuit amperage under specifically occurring natural weather phenomenon.

So the FlexMax 80 has a UL listed rating for a total of  80 amps input with the 156% added in, from a PV source.

If I were to subtract the 156% from 80 that would be 51 amps total of short circuit ratings for a given set of PV modules wired at any given nominal voltage?
Or another way of saying it, the total of the PV source should not exceed 51 amps of short circuit ratings? By the same token, a C60's total PV source would be limited to 38 amps.

Does this look right?

I've got to say that if this is all correct its really over kill where the charge controllers are concerned. I can agree with that 156% where wire size and the disconnects before and after the controller are concerned but not when a charge controller has its own built in overcurrent protection!?

I have yet to find anything about this though in the NEC.

Is OutBack trying to be misleading?
When sizing the electrical for a PV source circuit for example; wire size, disconnects, fuses, and this includes, but is not limited to, the charge controller, the NEC (National Electrical Code) dictates a correction factor of 125% of the short circuit rating of a PV module at STC(Standard Test Conditions.) Before this the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) dictates 125% of that same rating. Typically a correction factor of 156% is used to cover both of these. 125% X 125% = 156%.
An example: A PV module has an Soc. rating of 7.56 amps and you have ten such PV modules wired in parallel/series for a total of 37.8 amp Soc, at 24 volts nominal. Multiply that 37.8 X 156% = 59 amps.
There is another NEC correction factor for ambient low temperature but I am not going into that one at this time.

OutBacks claim is a Maximum output of direct current of 80 amps continuous. They do not give a maximum input from the PV source circuit with the 156% correction factor. They do how ever give some figures to that regard but in a very strange way.
1000 watts at 12 volts nominal?
I mean all I have to is divide 1000 watts by a particular PV modules Vpm or what I like to call its "working voltage" and that should give me the maximum number of PV modules I can put on a FlexMax 80 once I do a little more math.

Example: Here are the ratings of a Kyocera KC130TM;
17.6 volts at max. power
8.02 short circuit amps.
1000 / 17.6 = 56.81
56.81 / 8.02 = 7
So 7 - KC130TM's would be the maximum number one could place on the FlexMax assuming a 12 volt nominal battery bank.
I am sure there is a good reason for doing it this way but it sure does seem kinda like being made to "jump through hoops" if you know what I mean.
I suppose I could just divide the 1000 watts by the rated wattage if the PV module I might be using and get the same answer.
1000 / 130 = 7

Can anybody clarify this?
Is this math right?

Here is a web site in your home state Emmy. They might just be able to do more then just answer your question! Lets hope so anyway.
The Infinite Power of Texas.
http://www.infinitepower.org/

Hello Steve.

While trying not to sound to pessimistic (out of respect for our host) the best advice I can give you is to, shop around!
Renewable Energies (RE) is a sellers market, as opposed to a buyers market (unless one happens to be "filthy stinkin rich") and where Photovoltaics are concerned its all premium priced and (to use the expression loosely) a  freeforall. Its maddening. Here are a couple of sites that show the very wide swings out there.

http://www.pool-heat.com/pv/pvlist/pvsolarex/pvsolarex.htm

Look particularly at the Solarex MSX 77. This PV module is no longer in production. Solarex was a subsudairy of the American Oil Company (AMOCO) which, as you may know, sold out to British Petroleum (BP) which also produces PV modules.
The MSX 77's are very similar to the following PV modules.
Except for the price and warranty.

http://store.altenergystore.com/Solar-Panels/51-to-99-Watt-Solar-Panels/Power-Up-BSP60-12-60-Watt-Solar-Panel/p3995/

In all my "shopping around" things of this nature, where as this is one of many extremes, are a commonplace occurrence.
The PV market is just another one of many markets in the world today that cater to those that can afford very large quantities of there product. Please do not let the PV industries banner of saving the planet Earth from certain doom be your only decision when buying into solar. They, just like the rest of us, have belly buttons too.

Pity about Earth.

Its been written that the overall cost of providing electricity via PV to an offgrid home is comparable to the cost of living on grid over a lifetime. Of course even in this there are variables such as how remote the home is or how much it would cost to extend the utilities to the home from the grid. What about large loads such as; pumping water, heating that water, cooking, refrigeration, heating the home, cooling the home. It can get tricky to say the least.
 Luckily we do not have to invent the means to have these things without all of the energy we use today. All we have to do is look back at how our predecessors lived. Of course the biggest obstacle there is in the fact that worldwide there are 6.7 billion people now, needing those samethings and those old ways just will not work on that scale. Or will they?

General George Washington lead the Continental Army to war, so that America could have its independence from Great Brittan (King Georges tyranny). Did Gen. George Washington have all of this energy we take for granted today at his disposal? I think not, and yet here we are today dependent on other nations for energy. Dependent on energy.

 When I read the words energy independence I relate this to being independent from energy. Not independent from one nation or another that is providing us with their energy resources.

I do not consider myself a "George Washington" of energy independence. If there is such as person I would gladly stand at his side though.

I will say it here and now. If the people of this American nation want to be independent of the other nations of this world for their supplied energy. Then the people of this American nation will need to be independent of supplied energy both foreign and domestic. If there is an enemy in this, its our own selfish desires for energy.

Where there is a will there is a way.   

One quarter horsepower, I did not know that. There would be a question of endurance as well.
This may be getting a little off the subject but, if one were able to marry the heavy steel flywheel generator technology to all of the stationary exercise devices, the kWh's out would continue for a time after the exercise routine. Brilliant idea Mitzi C.

I stepped out for just a minute to research this idea of yours and found this.
http://www.kronosport.com/

As I researched this idea, I became aware of the fact that its not an original idea.
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments_bicycle.html
(check the links at top of this site)
Could it be that this is "the day the music died?" I mean potentially there could come a day when every conceivable arrangement of notes has been thought of (possible but not probable) as well as every idea to be thunk, has been thought of. But luckily, like loosing the energy of our Sun, we are confident that this will not happen for billions of years.

So far I have not found where anyone has married the heavy steel flywheel to a stationary exercise device. We still have variations on a theme! But there is still that age old question, one that will last until the end of time, "who will fund the project?"

http://pepei.pennnet.com/display_article/285430/6/ARTCL/none/none/Energy-Storage-Systems-Get-a-New-Spin/

Could it be that the Ancient Egyptians had the right idea way back when for us today? Think about the potential of thousands (millions  maybe) of people going to work each day, working out on all of the various exercise machines, generating electricity, gaining personal health and fitness (and possibly the physique of an Ancient Greek), while getting paid!
Health, wealth, and clean renewable electricity. Whats else could one ask for? Mitzi C. your a genius!

Well? Who's ready for a little exercise? Ooohh, what is that? Moaning and groaning I hear? What if you were getting paid? What if you could have the figure of a Greek god or goddess? Or the endurance of an Ironman triathlete? Who knows, maybe even a better sex life, ehh? Wouldn't it all be worth it? And, you would be getting paid!

But who to fund it?

As long as you know John D. that my words are not an attack on you as some might be persuaded to believe.
But the whole electric power infrastructure (including RE,) well now, thats a different story alltogether.
As an example. One of the arguments that I have heard for using RE from the RE community is how "we are paying for our energy (IE; coal, oil, nuclear) out of more than one pocket."
If the cost of RE is so high that it means a civilian might have to rely on the government by way of tax incentives or just flat out welfare (in its many guises) in order to utilize RE at home, or that industrial and commercial corporations can get government funding for large RE projects, and even the RE industry getting government funding for R&D, then being a tax payer in the USA and a utilizer of RE technology, am I not paying for RE out of more than one pocket as well?

James C., I realize that this bulletin board is for the promotion of RE. That we would all like to keep an "upbeat" fervor regarding RE. But I refuse to believe the RE industry is an Innocent little lamb in this whole energy mix picture. By being persuaded to utilize clean RE in an attempt to save the planet (and for some, make a profit) might not the people of Earth be getting something of a subliminal message of sorts to keep consuming more and more energy (resources?) E=mc2 means, simply put, energy and mass, mass and energy are one in the same at the speed of light squared.

Prices speak louder than words.

Argueably, people from the not so distant past did not live as long. It could be said that they paid a high price by not having the energy technology we take for granted in our present time. But it would appear that it is the Earth that is paying the price now. If one takes a look at the time line of when energy use become utilize by the mass's and the population explosion starting only 100 years ago we can see the correlation. All of this energy we take for granted today is little more than a raft on the open sea and that raft is becoming grossly overloaded.

I fear that we humans have forgotten the value of sacrifice. We look back at people from the past and learn sacrifice to be the death of ones best livestock or a virgin to appease some God or another when it could be that all we have to do in our time on Earth is to turn off a switch or push a stop button.

Thats great John D. Congratulations.
I know my first reply was a bit sarcastic. I meant for it to be.
Sometimes I forget that its not as easy of a transition for some folks as it was for myself. You see, I lived off grid without any electricity whatsoever for over twenty years only recently utilizing photovoltaics. So maybe you can see that my criticism it not aimed at you personally. My philosophy in this matter is simple, The electric power utilities... Who needs em?

Have you every considered going off grid?
Where you are at John D., its at the edge.
Why not take that leap of faith?
Where you land will only be where millions of people have already been for thousands of years before us!

Just go to that main breaker or main fused disconnect, reach up, grab the toggle or handle firmly, and move it into the off position. It may not be easy. There will be the invisible forces of commerce pulling your hand back trying to stop you, but you have the spirits of your ancestors John D., for generations that go all the way back to the beginning of time itself. They can give you the strength and wisdom to overcome the powers of commerce that would enslave you to those behemoth generators spewing out its toxins into the air we breath, the water we drink, and the Earth we live off of.

First of all I would like to say contact Xantrex with your question. Nobody would know better than those that engineered this product.

I believe the answer you are looking for is on page 20 of the owners manual.
Under the "Operaring Mode Jumper" header.
In parenthesises after "Charge Control."
(PV Charge Controller or Diversion Controller)
The key here bring the words "or Diversion Controller."

Going by deductive reasoning reading skills and not first hand knowledge of using a C60 charge controller with a wind genny as the power source, I would say that the jumper would be set in the PV charge control mode but your wind gennys source circuit would not pass through the C60, instead it would go to the battery. Then a "dump" load circuit form the battery would pass through the C60 to a heater element of some sort as an example.

Now took a look at page 24. It tells of LVR and LVD. It would appear as though you would set the low voltage reconnect (LVR) limit of the C60 higher in order to connect the "dump" load and the low voltage disconnect (LVD) lower in order to disconnect the "dump" load. It sounds upside down I know.
look at the pictures in figure 2-11 on page 24. Notice the differences in the voltages?
Its a shame that they can not just spell it out for the installer who may or may not have deductive reasoning reading skills. I am not even so sure myself, so again contact Xantrex.
As for the low/high settings only you know where to set them because of the potential that you engineered into your wind genny and your regions wind speeds of course.

I would set the equalizing mode to manual. As far as how the positive and negative "land" on the terminals...
Take a look at figure 2-21 at the top of page 39.
This is pretty much self explanatory wouldn't you say?

Please, fogive me if I have "step on the toes" of your ego. Only trying to help. No harm done then? http://www.criticalthinking.com/company/articles/deductive-reasoning-skills.jsp

In the beginnig there was light.
http://www.jracademy.com/~jtucek/science/what.html
A place to start,
http://www.essex1.com/people/speer/elect.html
Things to see along the way,
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html
Landmarks and natural wonders to awe,
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/java/index.html
Rivers to cross, mountains to climb,
http://www.plasmas.org/basics.htm
and to bring all back home,
http://www.crystalinks.com/kabala.html

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstien

Wow! To think that, starting not much more than about 100 years ago and for thousands of years before that time, the people of Earth did not even know what a electric bill was. My, how we have grown.

After Re reading these posts I am left with another question. "Do great minds think alike or do they think for themselves?" Whats more, and this is not an original thought of mine ether, "who decides which is real and which is an illusion?"

Dear, Human Race
My thoughts about this so called "energy crisis" humans have created, can be compared to riotous, and the inevitable panic in a mob, where people will blindly trample other people to death under foot or crush other people to death against barriers, and if an individual survives, delude his or her self into believing all is OK. History is full of these events. This is only one of many atrocities the human race is capable of.
If we believe that energy will set us free and that there is a cause to believe that there is not enough energy then what is to stop us from doing whatever it takes to be free. When will there ever be enough?
Electricity from nuclear energy or photovoltaics is still electricity. If I can learn to live without electricity, then I am not dependent on either one for my freedom from...... What? What is the threat? What are we running from that makes us utilize electricity? Death? Life? Do any of us have a clue?
Or are we just moving along with the mob!

Sincerely yours; Trampled Under Foot
PS. Pity about Earth huh?

You may remember this advertising slogan from not that long ago. "You got peanut butter in my chocolate." "No, you got chocolate in my peanut butter." This was the TV commercial for Reese's Peanut Butter cup's for those too young to remember and the only reason I even bring it up was because it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw these two items...
http://www.climatewell.com/index.php
http://www.toad.net/~jsmeenen/recovery.html
Perhaps one day, these two great ideas might come together and compliment each other in one product.

I could be wrong but...
It would not be feasible to retrofit a hurricane proof PV module array of that size to a flat roof of (wood?) construction, but you probably already knew that or at least guessed it. That angle of an array that size would make a big difference. The flatter it is the easier to make hurricane resistant, but there is still the upward pull on such a large area caused by the differences of air pressure above and below the surface caused by wind speeds. The same principle that makes airplanes fly. In the case of an airplane wing the top has more area than the underneath, this cause the air on top to flow faster causing a pressure difference creating lift. The hurricane is whats causes the higher wind speeds resulting in pressure difference and lift, not to mention, once the hurricanes eye has passed the wind blows in the opposite direction.
So I would guess that the trick would be to have a way of equalizing pressures above and below the PV module array and this would have to work at variable rates and from all directions. If there is an awning company near you the builds structural awnings, chances are they have had to comply with winds speeds up to 90 miles per hours both in construction and attachment. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Bernoulli

When did written history begin for human beings? Maybe with drawings on cave walls and such. Drawings, telling the story of a hunt for fresh meat. Maybe a crude written language of hand prints. Each hand print being slightly different and having a different meaning.
One does not have to look that far back into human history to know how humans lived without electricity.

It was during the 1890's decade; Benjaminn Harrison was our 23rd president, http://americanhistory.about.com/library/fastfacts/blffpres23.htm
 Dwight D. Eisenhower was born, Grover Cleveland was president when the Hawaiian Kingdom was (illegally) being occupied by U.S. troops, Theodore Roosevelt was Governor of New York. The United States declared war on Spain.
I could go on and on, but its all there! Written down somewhere just prior to the decade I mention above. how human beings, people just like you and I lived without electricity, Not that long ago, at least I don't think its become ancient history yet.
A long way from the drawings of the hunt for fresh meat though!

I tried those 8-D truck batteries, they are not worth the trouble. At best when brand new they might have around 100 amphrs. of storage but that quickly goes away as it is deep cycled.

Wow! 12- 130 watt modules in Puerto Rico? That should be good for some where around a 10,000 watt hour day. At;
12 volts = 800 amphrs.
24 = 400
48 = 200
Whatever voltage is used, personally, I like to size the battery bank so that the needs are within 20% of the total capacity. In simpler terms, if my watt hour needs over a 24 hour period are 200 amphrs. I just multiply that times 5 for a total battery capcity bank of no less than 1,000 amphrs.
Since you know the PV array size you can go with that. Just pick a voltage and do the same math based, not on what your needs are but what your array can produce in one day, but its better to use the needs for this.

Its been said that older batteries and newer batteries should not be mixed especially if they are not the same brand and capacity. If possible use your existing bank for a dedicated load such as a fridge or something and "slice off a piece" of the array to maintain that bank. Again using the 20% factor. This is important for battery bank longevity. If a deep cycle battery bank is shallow cycled it will generally last longer.
I have had some success with a bank of the golf cart batteries. Trojan T-105's to be exact. 2007 marks the 7th year of service we have gottin from them. They are beginning to diminish though. Whatever battery you use, size by this 20% factor and maintain a constant vigil on their; water level, cleanliness(NO CORROSION), and charge in/charge out. A Bogart TriMetric monitor helps immensely with that last one.

Just a small piece of advice. Think about the future, especially if you have a family. You know how they grow and its so easy to come up with ways to use power when you have it. Its not as easy to maintain that power supply. Just look at the world we live in today and the "energy crisis" that has developed.