Green 1kw wind turbine in Northumberland

[StBarnabas]

Adam
I haven't forgotten you. Still want to pop up and look at your turbine. May give you a bell over the next few weeks. Should you wish to see my PV system etc. you are also very welcome.
Sean

[Eleanor]

Hi Adam, I'm not entirely sure but when we bought ours (still in tin shed  ) we were advised to stick with the 1.8m blades. I think there were some problems getting the fibres into the blade tips during the injection moulding process. It may have just been a temporary issue and they've probably sorted it now. It wouldn't do any harm to check them as I can't help thinking that turbine manufacturers in general tend to understate the preventative maintenance checks we should be doing.
Do you have a rough idea of what the 3m curve looks like ie watts at 5, 10, 15 m/s? 

[Adam]

Adam
I haven't forgotten you. Still want to pop up and look at your turbine. May give you a bell over the next few weeks. Should you wish to see my PV system etc. you are also very welcome.
Sean

No prob you are welcome anytime 

Eleanor, i did have an idea what the curve looked like but my weather station is broken at the moment if you read some of my previous posts then they may give you an idea

[Adam]

My turbine's grumbling  Was told by gordon 6mths ago that they had problem with bearings failing prematurely and he gave me a spare set and told me to change them, as you can guess i forgot 

Been grumbling at low wind for about a week so today with the weather calm & sunny and some spare time i decided to take a look.

Anyone with a eagle eye will spot my collie pup

These blades have been running nearly a year thankfully all seem's well.


The bearing nearest the blades was dry and rough athough not yet collapsed but not far off and clearly marked on the bearing "CHINA"  but they have lasted 2yrs the bearing's i replaced them with are SKF
The only problem i had was getting the generator apart, the magnets are so strong i needed a press

All back together and generating again, chucking out 500-600w as i'm writing this

I installed a kwh meter 11mths ago after the inverter i have now used 1100kwh's the house is only occupied on an evening or occasionally when we are off work and if there's no wind the inverter is off, most of the power is absorbed by the batteries and the dump load so i hope i'm doing ok? 

[Eleanor]

Adam, nice dog but is it qualified to drive a tractor?  Glad to hear it's all going well. Mindy has been up a couple of weeks with the 1.8m blades but there hasn't really been any wind over about 5 m/s 

[Adam]

Excellent news Eleanor!!

You have any pics? Carefull those 1.8m blades can chuck out over 2500w in a good wind just make sure you can deal with it

[Eleanor]

Oh, just one or two pics  Looks a bit like yours really. We ended up buying the box they supply which shorts out the windings at every possible opportunity and means that in theory we can operate without dump loads (very wasteful of course and not to be continued  ). It's useful from the point of view that the red button stops it dead and the green button starts it up again. There are some issues we need to sort out but overall very pleased 

[billi]

eleanor  we are getting closer and closer to my vision i had a few years ago  

should ad a waterturbine into the picture  now  , cause i am grown up  

[AlanM]

hi Adam,
Am curious why the 1.8 m blade set can push out 2500w while the 3m set comes just below 2000w. With the larger swept area, what else is limiting the power of the 3m set?

apologies if it is a stupid question,

Pleased you are having success with this turbine

Still intending to use a miniwind for my power once i finish the house

Alan

[Eleanor]

Billi, I haven't forgotten and the picture is on my wall. It's my "Blueprint for Renewable Energy" 
Suppose I should clear off to my own thread 

[noelsquibb]

Billi

how come your trees have grown up vertically yet the stunted shrub under Eleanors  blades of doom, has grown sideways ? 

[Eleanor]

I think it's known as artistic licence. Ni, Noel how dare you refer to our most prized tree as a "stunted shrub" 

[Adam]

hi Adam,
Am curious why the 1.8 m blade set can push out 2500w while the 3m set comes just below 2000w. With the larger swept area, what else is limiting the power of the 3m set?

apologies if it is a stupid question,

Pleased you are having success with this turbine

Still intending to use a miniwind for my power once i finish the house

Alan

It's not a stupid question, the 3m set bend in high winds giving it an arodynamic brake, a loud buzzing sound mine cut in at around 1500watt a bit soon but it really gives piece of mind when the wind blows as most of the time i'm not there 
Apparantly gordon is stiffining the blades so the brake cuts in higher winds giving more power.

[Eleanor]

Adam, how much generator hum do you get? 

[Adam]

Adam, how much generator hum do you get? 

Depends what mood it's in