air-o-power 2KW

Hi,

I just registered. I'm very seriously considering a grid intertie
system that consists of an Air-o-Power 2000 W turbine and an
SMA Windy Boy 3300U. This is for a residential installation in
a very good wind area.
Any experience / recommendations / disclaimers about these units?

thanks,

Tom

Tom,

Since we have all remained silent about the Air-O-Power machine, I'm going to weigh in. I wish to make it clear that this is strictly my opinion. The turbine looks to be a North American label placed on a Chinese built wind generator. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that....however, this scenario does remind me of some of those Chinese-built, gray market estate tractors---where you wonder about service/support after the sale. For all I know, they may have a great network for obtaining parts--and a local service center if you had to send your controller/generator in for warranty work--for example. The Air-O-Power unit certainly has a Bergey look, making me wonder if XL.1's come from the same place. I do think that in many applications, the 40ft tower they sell as part of their system is too low. Towers that short often subject the turbine to turbulence.

If I were considering a grid-tied wind system---with a $16000.00 price, I would take a hard look at the ARE 110. That machine has a known, proven heritage....the AWP 3.6. I would think the folks at ARE have had a few years to fine tune this grid-tied system. Every review I have read about the AWP 3.6 grid tie system has been very favorable. I would expect the same from the ARE 110. At least in this scenario, you'd get local service and support. I think by the time you purchased the ARE tower, the difference in cost between the two systems would be pretty close. Let us know what you think.

[BB.]

And just a warning to look at over-speed control (don't self destruct in high winds), how long they will last, and maintenance requirements... Don't many of those turbines require to be taken down every so often (once a year or so?) to be serviced... If you have to rent a crane/rigger every time, the cost savings from would seem to be consumed by the ongoing service costs.

If you have no utility power, wind is a good option... But small wind and grid tie always seemed to be way on the wrong side of the cost curve.

Have you worked out the ongoing costs for a wind turbine? I am kind of curious--although I don't have the room to install one here in a city (or the wind either).

-Bill

[mctimoth]

Does anyone have info on the manufacturer of or a vendor for Trillium or Air-O-Power wind turbines? The vendor I used out of Canada, E-Mark Electric has closed shop. I got their 5KW turbine a couple of years ago as a newbie. It was a chore to erect but I got it done. So far it has worked pretty well but that has somewhat been a chore also. Currently the yaw control has broken and the nacelle is just spinning in the wind, luckily reversed. I will definitely have to tilt it down and do some gear repair so I am just starting the search.

Happy Holidays,

Tim

[Windsun]

Just going by Google, it appears that the company you bought it from was the only reseller in North America, but they may have also just put their own name on it.

E-Mark has been around a while, they used to buy a few odds and ends from us, surprised they shut down.

[WisJim]

Wisconsin has a program that is funded by many of the state's electrical utilities, called Focus on Energy. In order to get a rebate or cash-back reward for a wind system, a person must first have a wind site assessment done at they site of the proposed installation, and then they are eligible for a rebate based in part on the projected output of the system. Only generators that have a history of working, or new ones that have been studied and tentatively approved by the organization are elible for rebates. Air-O-Power and most other Chinese clones are not on the list. Most of them are junk, and few of them actually work. There are no 3rd party tests, monitored installations, or other reliable information available about the output and reliability of these machines. Save your money and look at the ARE110, as mentioned above, or maybe a Proven for more money. The ARE would be the one I would look at if I wanted to replace my existing machine with a new one. Proven and Endurance would also be on the short list of machines to consider.

[BB.]

Home Power Mag has a full sample issue up (in PDF) that has a large wind turbine article.

The also have a Wind Turbine Buyer's guide available for download too.

-Bill

[rip0545]

I would like to talk to you on your experience with air 0 power!!!
Doug Smith

[Just leave comments in thread or via PM. -Bill B. moderator]

[vicki417]

I'm located in Will County in Illinois - i purchased a 5KW Air o matic Wind Turbine from EMark Electric as well (about 1 year ago). We paid $12K for it and are asking $10K for it - it's brand new, the WindyBoy still in the box - nothing has ever been used .... anyone interested? We dont have enough acreage to put it up. Contact me if you are interested via email - vicki417@gmail.com

[EndOfTownFarm]

e-Mark Electric was primarily a company dealing in commercial motors, generators, and converters. They would design and spec systems and have them built in China. They had a decent reputation and were in business quite a while (since the 70's I think).

Their thought was that since they already had the generators, it would not be too much of a stretch to add the tower, blades, and controls to put a wind turbine kit together. THey aparrently offered 5, 10, 15, and 20kW models.

I was surprised to see that they went belly up last year, though I understand that they had a lot of problems with their wind generators. These things are brute force machines - nothing elegant about them. My 10kW generator weighs in at about 800 lbs without the blades. However, it came with two top-of-the-line SMA 6kW Windy Boy inverters, and there is nothing wrong with the 80' tilt-up guyed tower they supplied (except that it arrived well rusted from crossing the ocean on deck). The gin-pole and fittings left a bit to be desired and I had to buy new blocks (actually I fashioned my own from four 30,000 lb rated snatch blocks and some 1" shackles and 1" grade 8 bolts. The 1/2" steel guys are a bit overkill and were not long enough, so I ended up having to buy more cable and piecing some stuff together. My anchor points are all in good old Maine granite ledge, so the placement was one of opportunity - hence some are further from the tower than the minimum design specs.

For tilting up, I have a Mile Marker 18,000 lb hydraulic winch set up to run from my Kubota tractor hydraulics. It has a long drum (their military unit) with 220' of 7/16" synthetic winch cable rated at 22,000 lbs.

All is ready to go save one connection to the control box that is currently baffling me - I can not determine the purpose of the two terminals on the control box labeled "TO HOUSE" which is not mentioned in the literature.