200 watt wind turbine on tiltover crankup mast

[Peter.N.]

I originally bought a 500 watt turbine but it was to heavy for the proposed mast, so I changed it for the  200 watt type which was much lighter and had a potentially greater average output, as 200w at 6 M/s is considerably more than a larger one would give at that windspeed.

I bought the mast, which was originally for amateur radio use, from ebay at a very reasonable price, the base is encapsulated in a cubic metre of concrete, it should have a metal sleeve around it so it can be removed if necessary, but being secondhand this of course was missing, so I bound the base of the mast with thick polythene sheet to prevent the concrete sticking to it.

To fit the turbine to the mast I cut a couple of feet of the top section of the supplied mast and slid it inside the top of the sliding section and secured it with the two existing bolts, or rather a couple of slightly longer ones, I replaced one winch and refurbished the other to make sure it was safe. The whole thing works very well, you can raise or lower it in about five minutes, very usesful as I have already had to do it several times

The performance of the generator has exceeded my expectations, we have only had light winds here for the last week or so, in fact at ground level it was hardly perceptable, although not charging all the time it has on occaision reached 12 amps which a 24v is the maximum rated output of 300w.

The mast is about 20' high in its closed position, raising to a maximum of about 30', I have only had it up to about 27' -28' as the power cable is to short to raise it to its full height . When I first raised it to 20' I was quite surprised that it actually charged occaisionally as the windspeed was very low, when I raised it to 28' the output increased by about 50%! Judging by the improvement in directionable stability the air is obviously a lot less turbulent at that height.

Its only been up a few days so cant give any long term results but going on what I have already experienced I suspect it will be giving near maximum output during the winter months. I may need to guy the mast as I we have not experienced any strong winds yet but its completely stable with the present level.

The electrical system is 24v with araound 150 ah capacity, it was never intended to be sole supplier but only an emergency system, I have a couple of 1kw UPS inverters and a 3kw 48 volt one, this I bought because one of the primary concerns was that it would power the well pump, the 1kw ones don't have sufficient power to start it, the 3kw should run it OK but not on 24V, I need a heavy changover switch to alter the battery configuration, any suggestions?

Peter

Photo's to be added when I have shrunk them!

[Peter.N.]

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[Peter.N.]

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[Peter.N.]

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[Peter.N.]

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[dhaslam]

Looks good.   These smaller wind generators are far more practical  than big ones rated at 10ms and more.  Conditions you hardly ever get even  in an open location.        It would be better to lower the generator before a storm rather than stay the mast because the wind is more likely to damage the blades than the mast. 

What voltage does your  3kW UPS need?  The smaller ones  work off 12 or 24 volt batteries  and only produce half of the rated output on battery power.  The water pump isn't a very practical  use of home generated power  because it is intermittent  may cost more to set up than you would make in savings.      I am planning to use the existing UPSs in the building instead of inverters  so that there can be easy switch over just by cutting the mains supply to the individul UPS, something that can probably be automated.     The first items I would  power would be circulation pumps,  computers, TV and  perhaps fridge.   

[Peter.N.]

Yes, I came to that conclusion after studying the output characteristics of all the turbines I could find, this 200w one is the best I have seen, in fact as I said, it was actually giving 300w yesterday when the wind at ground level was negligable, but we are surrounded by field hedges, I would suspect that the wind at 30' was around 15 mph.

The 3kw UPS is 48v, I only ever intend to use it in an emergency, but I need a heavy DPDT switch to series all the batteries. For emergency use I can switch the output of the inverters direct into the house mains - we do actually have electricity here but only since about 1968, we have been in the house since 1970.

[Billy]

Hi Peter,

You'll be using the quiet blades then,    or have you done the strimmer cord mod on the leading edge?

In the end I fitted the propeller blades and they are super quiet.  I did try an un-stayed mast for a bit but it was a bit wobbly when the gusts hit but even a bit of pre stretched rope is good.  I use an old telegraph pole now.

I do like the tilty windy mast though, 

Billy

 

[Peter.N.]

Hi Billy

Don't know about this blade mod, enlighten me. The noise level is not to bad at the moment, its about 50 yards from the house and you can't hear it with the windows closed.

I did try balancing the blades by getting them all exactly the same distance apart, but the hub doesn't seem to allow you to do that, as soon as you tighten the bolts the blades are pulled into the shape of the recess, doesn't seem as though they are designed to be adjusted. It runs very smoothly anyway, just a little rattle if the wind suddenly changes direction, that's the top section of the mast rattling against the inside of the lower section.

The mast is pretty stable, the bottom section is about 4" square and the slidable one 3" in diameter, all steel.

Peter

[Billy]

I think this works to get to the Backshed.

http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/articles/ChineseBlades.asp

Interesting articles me thinks.

Your mast is somewhat more substantial than mine, much stiffer.

When the wind blew with the original blades nothing grew or lived within five hundred yards, including Mrs B.   

Billy

 

[Peter.N.]

Yes, very interesting, had a quick look but will go back later and study in depth.

[biff]

good luck with your turbine peter,
          its good to start off with a smaller more managable turbine and then move up the scale as you gain experience. you will more than likely find that your ups 48voltx 3000kva is actually 2.25kw,thats still a lot of poke. balancing the blades is everything,there are some very good posts on that same issue on here.i know that once you get going you will aim for a bigger turbine.
        your tower is good. you will be able to lower it quickly to protect it from the storms.a few friends of mine have exactly the same turbine and have nothing but praise for it.their controllers are housed in grey boxs with kettle element type dump loads which get red hot in high winds.i myself have had a close call when my old controller (same type) failed and the turbine took off out off sight untill i managed to get it lowered.(exciting).
   the larger turbines,2kw x 120volt can come with low speed blades,spare inverters were almost impossible to find but now with the recession the r300xr is readily available and dishes out 2.7kw from its 120vdc. then there is the hydra symetra again 120vdc with its stackable power modules, up to 8kw, both these types are double conversion and can perform all kinds of tricks.
       again, good luck peter,
                         biff

[Peter.N.]

Hi Biff

Thanks for the info. I did originally buy a 500w turbine but as I mentioned it was much to heavy. This model looks as though it ought to be capable of delivering more power, is its output determined by the windings? A car alternator of that size can provide a killowatt or more. This one certainly has the best output/windspeed ratio I have come across, do you know if they do a higher output version?

Peter

[Justme]

A car alt would be spinning at 3-10,000rpm to do that sort of wattage. You turbine would self destruct long before it got anywhere near that.

[biff]

hi again peter,
         the max rpm is around 400 and you need to be holding on tight to better 280watt.the blades are exellent but flap about when the controller is braking and the turbine is furling so balancing is of the outmost importance. the hub is cast iron and a few have been know to suffer hairline fractures which never showed up under the magnifing glass.thousands of these blades were made with the holes out of line with the hub mounting holes,about 5mm in most cases.bodges were performed which had the blades well seated in the socked of the hub in sealent and then torqued up under the clamps  the with the excess sealent coming up the holes and being wiped off.worked well.
 the lump is exellent and with a bit of care will give years of service.
      you just have to find the right inverter for it(300watt max) and get it running a small tv,charging laptops,mobile phones, and just to be that little bit independant.the experience in invaluable.
                   biff.