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lost the wind genny today


By Birdmmjb, Section Diaries
Posted on Tue Jan 29th, 2008 at 09:22:25 PM MST
30 to 35 mph winds

The wind today has been very hard today.  After some very strong gusts I decided to tie the blades of the windmill.

I waited for a calm moment and turnd it out of the wind and tied the rotor down.  While doing this I noticed stress cracks in the blades half way up on all three blades.  I am not suprised as the blades looked likc a cone flower when the wind was really whipping.  I was seeing 18 watts from the mill for sustained times today.

So I'll be shopping for new blades and a better furlling system before letting the mill run again.

The wind also took one of the solar panels off the rack.  No harm done but I cant belive that its blowing this hard.

Dorthy, I think we may be in Kansas.

Jan from very windy Arkansas
lost the wind genny today | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Warrior on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 02:58:56 AM MST
(User Info)

Some thing similar happened to me a few days ago. We were having gust at around 30 mph. I woke up that morning to see that somehow the bridge rectifier I had bolted to the frame of the windmill was gone so basically it was running unloaded; the tail had also fallen down but the machine was still tracking the wind.

All of a sudden a big gust came and the prop revved up amazingly fast, a fraction of a second later a loud bang!!! The blade with the lead ballast ripped itself from the hub and flew away; the machine, still turning heavily unbalanced started jumping and fell off the pole. It all happened right before my eyes!! It was pretty awesome!!

I didn't find the blade the flew off, but I did find the bridge rectifier.

I was lucky this was a small 5 foot machine and no one/myself got hurt.

Lesson learned: build it like a tank!!!

Warrior
Warrior__ "Why can't Murphy's Law be used to my advantage??"



Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by elvin1949 (elvin1949@yahoo.com) on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 08:23:32 AM MST
(User Info)

Jan
 If i remember right you have metal [AL] blades.
I would carve a set of wood blades and not have
that problem again {wood can take the high winds}.
 I am glad it was not any worse.It could have came apart and ruined everything.
 I know what you mean about the wind.We had 35mph with gust above 50mph.I am south of you {same storm}
 later
Elvin


Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Birdmmjb on Wed Jan 30th, 2008 at 04:14:37 PM MST
(User Info)

elvin, my blades were of some sort of plastic they came on a mill I bought off e-bay which never produced any power so I repalced the generator and shortened the blades to better match the new generator.

I was really pleased at the power I was getting with the new motor and blades just before it all went south.

Funny you should suggest wood blades as this is what I was thinking about on my way home this afternoon.

Jan

[ Parent ]



Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by elvin1949 (elvin1949@yahoo.com) on Thu Jan 31st, 2008 at 02:24:52 PM MST
(User Info)

Jan
 "Sorry" I didn't go back and look,thought they were metal.
 Wood really will work better and not give any trouble. They are not hard to carve.
,Dan has a page on carving them.
 Storm is over {new one} tornado watches all morning but sunshine now.Got to go see what all i have left.
later
Elvin

[ Parent ]


Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by Birdmmjb on Thu Jan 31st, 2008 at 04:25:54 PM MST
(User Info)

SUNSHINE..... you have sunshine what does that look like????

Jan

[ Parent ]



Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by elvin1949 (elvin1949@yahoo.com) on Fri Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:27:47 AM MST
(User Info)

 Kind of like a big yellow basketball.
later
Elvin

[ Parent ]


Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by ghurd on Fri Feb 1st, 2008 at 01:09:57 PM MST
(User Info)

I remember my grandparents mentioning something about it.
I figured it was a myth.
G-

[ Parent ]


Re: lost the wind genny today (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Birdmmjb on Fri Feb 1st, 2008 at 01:26:41 PM MST
(User Info)

I have sunshine, after what seems to be weeks of rain and fog we have sun.  The batteries are up and I'm on RE power using the computer.

I love it.

Jan

[ Parent ]



lost the wind genny today | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial)
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