A question of balance

[ZooT]

I'm building a new ametek based HAWT here, and really want to get this right the first time through.

In a perfect world,

Should the balance point be at the yaw bearing?

How much difference will it make if it's a bit in front of or behind the yaw bearing?

I understand that if it's too far off the yaw bearing will wear quickly, and it might yaw hard or not at all, but will a little difference in balance (maybe an inch or so fore or aft) cause a big performance hit?

[Flux]

As you are aiming for a very imperfect thing you can have perfection and balance it at the yaw bearing.

For more real things with furling to protect them you can't balance any of it without going to enormous complexity so you have to make a yaw bearing strong enough to take it and that's no big deal.

With the thing perfectly balanced it will steer into the wind with the smallest possible tail even if the tower is leaning a bit, but there is no real advantage and if it has a prop bigger than 4ft you are pushing your luck in a reasonable wind area with no furling.

Flux