Oct 12, 2009 12:25 am
Re: Wind Turbine amp draw?
hi max,
any chance you disconnected the negative line and saw that reading go to zero? we might expect a few mA back current flow, more likely down into the micro amps. 100 mA will be way over and i would confirm by the above test. i bet you don't have a problem.
i can offer this. for the first year or so of running these RE systems i was forever chasing ground loops and stray voltages and currents around with my DMM and these anomalous readings came and went with the weather/humidity/moon cycles? etc. tell ya, i just gave up worrying about them after a while and after reading about "long wire" induced voltages and measuring different spots on the chain link fence out back i found that these odd readings are not that odd after all.(especially with the cheap testing equipment i use).
not so sure if that helps at all other than in the early days it's hard to know just what your system is up to, whats "normal" and whats not. then after a while... you can just "sense" any trouble at a glance.
regards, dave
edit: max i wanted to add the reason i commented that "i bet you don't have a problem." is these diodes are mostly good or bad and not much room for anything in between. to really test it we should take it out of the circuit.