air-o-power 2KW

[guerrillasolarguy]

Hello all,
I am new to the forum and looking for information on this turbine. I have a customer who has one and we decided to help him make it work. It is a 3kw machine and it came with a 40' tower, controller, and windyboy grid-tie inverter. We sold him a 300 amp hour, 48volt battery bank, (2) 175w solar panels and outback power flexware 500 system with one off grid inverter.
The only way to hook up the windyboy was to trick it by hooking it up to the outback. The turbine produces wild 3phase 240v, the controller is a cheap little box with a few gauges on it that rectifies it to dc and has a built in load diversion. The load diversion is not really large enough to handle the output of the turbine in high winds and so the gauges melted and the when the batteries were full, the outback stopped accepting power and the windyboy blew up a few capacitors. Round one.
The only other way we could see to make it work is to get a whisper 500 controller and transformer (240-48v) and load diversion ($$$). Now the turbine will not startup unless you disconnect it from the transformer, let it free spin until the voltage gets up in the 100-200v range and hook it back up. It then begins to run and charge. Once it gets down below a certain rpm it will not startup again unless you disconnect it. I don't know what to do next.
Joel

[guerrillasolarguy]

Well,
The Air-O-Power machine is such that it requires constant attention. After starting it up in the morning, my customer returned at the end of the day to find his turbine had gotten really lonely and decided to 'jump'. The yaw shaft is still mounted to the tower. We had gusts of 50 or 60 mph that day and I guess we know what its 'survival wind speed' is. <60.

Joel

[niel]

sorry to hear that.

[Windsun]

Originally Posted by guerrillasolarguy

Well,
The Air-O-Power machine is such that it requires constant attention. After starting it up in the morning, my customer returned at the end of the day to find his turbine had gotten really lonely and decided to 'jump'. The yaw shaft is still mounted to the tower. We had gusts of 50 or 60 mph that day and I guess we know what its 'survival wind speed' is. <60.

Joel

That is why you won't find many fans of small wind here, especially the overseas manufactured stuff.

[BB.]

Just to be clear, you are talking about several hundred to near a 1/2 ton of metal dropping approximately 40-60 feet to the ground (and hopefully missing the home/structures and anyone that happened to be nearby?

It is always a good idea to put a wind turbine away from inhabbited areas--mechanical devices can fail.

-Bill

[audredger]

All this make me glad that the only fans I have hang from the ceiling!
Though I had a good wind site, bought a recording anemometer, was able to collect enough data, before the elk got tangled in the guy wire, to determine it was a good site to fly a kite or loose a hat...but not to generate power.

Having many years in the aircraft maintenance business, I question why no one has built a constant speed propeller for one of these? They are not all that complex and properly done would only require annual maintenance. Is it cost's or lack of knowledge on the manufacturing end?

[BB.]

Jacobs Wind Turbines have been doing variable pitch blades for 80 years or so...

www.wincharger.com/jacobs/index.htm

Notice the design uses a hypoid gear case that allows the very heavy DC Generators to be fixed mounted in tower, and only the blades, tail and transmission to yawing at the top of the tower. No sliprings, much less pivoting weight, presumably less stress and danger of falling parts (if designed/manufactured correctly).

-Bill

PS: This may be just a furling/overspeed feathering device--but it is better than 90% of the other small wind that is out there today in having several methods to control overspeed.

[Windsun]

Originally Posted by audredger

Having many years in the aircraft maintenance business, I question why no one has built a constant speed propeller for one of these? They are not all that complex and properly done would only require annual maintenance. Is it cost's or lack of knowledge on the manufacturing end?

Mostly costs. Small wind competes mainly against solar, and solar prices have dropped. And wind turbines don't have the economies of scale like something that sells in the millions does, so you end up with poor design, poor manufacturing, poor materials, etc in the race to the bottom.

There are a few decent small turbines out there, but those are not the one you usually see advertised on eBay and such places with far too much hype.

[audredger]

Cool Bill, I forgot about Jacobs. Old company don't see much press on them.

Windsun, Thank you!

It seems it takes hype to sell junk, quality sells itself.

[homeboy981]

I have a friend who has had this unit in his garage for 3 years. I may want to buy it or sell it for him (if someone is interested-email me).

The questions are...
1). Does anyone know where we can get parts?
2). Does this wimpy controller have sufficient current-handling capability? It does not weigh enough!
3). How is the best way to test a system BEFORE you spend $$$ erecting it? The yaw bearing does not turn, does it need to be connected first?

Does someone have some experience with this unit and the ACTUAL install for it.

Thank you in advance.
Mark