Running wires in parallel to lower resistance?
Question:I am putting up a 12 volt wind generator and I'm not sure how close I can get it to the battery bank because I have some trees that are blocking the wind. I know that when people set up for concerts they connect several smaller extension cords together in parallel to enable enough current to travel to the their equipment. I guess they do this because the extension cord would be way to thick and heavy if it was just one heavy gauge cord. So my question is this. Can I do the same with direct burial wire? I was thinking that I would take some direct burial wire and twist the black, white, and ground together on each end. I would do this on two lengths of wire. One would be for the positive side and one for the negative side. My thought is that by doing this I would have much less resistance and be able to place my wind generator a bit farther away.
Answers:
Have you considered operating the system at a higher voltage? I'm putting a system together and decided to use 24Vdc. Higher voltage means current requirements are lower.
Larger wires or multiple parallel conductors will reduce overall resistance and power loss to charge the batteries.
Check out what I'm putting together on my web page...
http://members.rennlist.org/warren/wind.
The answer is simply "Yes". Good luck with the project.
You have some interesting misconceptions. But to answer your question, the only sure and effective way to lower the resistance for a set distance and voltage is to increase the gauge of your wire. (make it thicker)
Codewise, conductors have to be #1/0 or larger before you can parallel them.
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