So the turbine has hit over 350 watts. But you're not getting any energy production because the turbine is in a sheltered location on a short tower with turbulent wind thru the rotor. And unfortunately, that's one of the criteria for installing a wind turbine - to get the full potential from it it should be at least 30 feet above the highest obstacle within a 1/4 mile of it.
Also, taking wind readings from a nearby airport means nothing because airports are out in the open with the anemometer on a 10 meter pole. That is not representative of the wind you're getting thru your turbine rotor in a sheltered location in the trees. Although the local airport readings can be used as an indication of your local wind resource, you'd need to have your turbine located at the airport to actually use that wind unless you can get it up out of the trees where it is now.
So basically, you have seen the potential of the turbine when an occasional gust hits it. You have also seen how important it is to have a wind turbine in clean laminar air. If it was on a 90 foot tower it would more than likely be producing 250 watts continuous all day, with spikes over 400 on some of those windy days instead of just a burst now and then when some wind can get to it.
In conclusion on this thread, it was an educational experience not only for you (and admirable perseverance in not giving up after several failures, including a tower crash), but also provides great information for others who consider putting small turbines on short pipe towers in sheltered locations, that they just don't work. Sure, you can get some power from it, but nowhere near the full potential of the machine.
One of the key words with wind turbines is "wind". It takes wind to make one work. There is no power in light winds. Period. And this is why "low wind" turbines are a farce. Even big turbines do nothing but trickle charge a battery bank in light winds under 10 mph. My 3.5 meter (11.5 foot) diameter machines only produce 150 watts @ 10 mph. At 20 mph they are producing 1,080 watts. At 25 they are producing 2.0 kW. At 30 mph they are producing 3.1 kW running partially furled. Take those numbers and graph them on some graph paper and look at the curve you end up with. That will show you how important wind is in making a wind turbine work.
Thanks for a great and educational thread for all of us! You stuck with it and didn't give up when many others would have. Now all you need is a real tower to show all the other newbies what makes a wind turbine really work. We'll all be looking forward to the tower thread when you put up your new 90 footer
--
Chris
