Intelligent Charge Controller ICC Karasouli


The Intelligent Charge Controller (ICC) from Karasouli is a new wind turbine charge controller designed for use with 12V battery bank with a wind turbine rated at up to 45 Amps, or for a 24V battery systemand 24V battery bank with a wind turbine rated at up to 25 Amps.

ICC Intelligent Charge Controller for wind turbines from Karasouli

The ICC is fitted with three connections – one for the wind turbine input (DC only, so after rectification), one for the battery bank, and one for the dump load.

ICC monitors the charge state of the battery bank and sends the output from the wind turbine generator to the battery bank when it can be charged safely and to the dump load (e.g. water heater) when the battery is already fully charged and/or would be overcharged if connected to the turbine during very strong winds.

Dual output ICC Intelligent Charge Controller for wind turbines in a marine environment

A dual output version (pictured above) is now available for marine usage for connection to both the starter battery and to a leisure battery. When ICC detects that the starter battery is fully charged, it will then charge up the leisure battery, however it will keep testing the starter battery and will divert charge to it if its voltage level starts to fall. If both batteries are full then the generator will be diverted to the dump load.

Configuring the Intelligent Charge Controller

ICC comes with a USB memory stick installed. By unplugging this from ICC and plugging it into a computer, a collection of variables can be set by the user in a configuration text file: the upper and lower battery voltages for battery one (and battery two if you have the dual output version) which depend on the type of battery used, and the emergency shutdown voltage to protect the batteries against a damaging high voltage surge. This USB stick configuration is a unique feature of this product which makes configuring the system particularly simple.

Configuration file for Intelligent Charge Controller - set battery voltages etc

The second use of this memory stick is datalogging (if you purchase a datalogging version of ICC). A second file stored on the memory stick is used to set the date and time of the internal clock of ICC; then if datalogging is turned on in the configuration file, at user programmable intervals the voltage of battery one and battery two (if using a dual output version) is recorded as well as the charging current in Amps coming from the wind turbine (if the wind turbine performance logging version is used). When a battery is being charged, that information is also included in the datalog.

Datalogging file from ICC intelligent wind turbine charge controller

The logged data is stored on the USB stick in a CSV (comma separated values) file which can be viewed and graphed with Excel or any other spreadsheet application by plugging the USB stick from ICC into a computer and downloading the log file.

More Information

The latest Intelligent Charge Controller user manual (PDF) is available to download by clicking here.

At the time of writing (June 2011) the Intelligent Charge Controller is available to purchase in three single output versions for land use:
ICC2A – Fully Configurable Turbine Charge Controller for £64.95.
ICC2B – as per ICC2A with charge state datalogging added for £74.95.
ICC2C – as per ICC2B with turbine performance datalogging added for £104.95.
All prices listed are inclusive of VAT and with free UK delivery included.

The dual output marine version of ICC is available here for £148.

For more information, or to purchase one of these Intelligent Charge Controllers, click here to visit the Karasouli website.