what you got?

[herewego]

So what various wind systems are people using and how has your system been working?  

[tanner0441]

Hi

I have a 200W chinese copy Turbine I live in a very poor wind area so it is disapointing, my solar works though, so I am selling my turbine system to fund more solar..

Brian

[herewego]

Did it ever achieve near the 200W that it was advertised as?  Seems the ratings of most are very questionable to say the least.  Was it grid or stand alone?

[ChrisOlson]

Got a 10.8 that's been making around 330 kWh/month and a 7.6 that's been making about 85-100 kWh/month.  Both turbines came from my shop and were built by me.  They've been working good, short of a runaway and stator burnout on the 10.8 footer that was my fault.

Pretty happy with both of them except for the 7.6, which my wife has named "Mona" because the generator moans in it all the time.  Actually it moans at lower rpm and sort of whistles at high rpm - noisiest generator I ever built.  I had problems with the stator nuts coming loose on it from the generator vibration.  I got stainless steel locknuts on the stator now and haven't had any more problems with the stator coming loose.

--

Chris

[DanB]

That's funny... one of my neighbors has a 7' turbine I built ... roof mounted (bad idea) that's also been named 'Mona'.

[bob g]

my original plan was for a fairly significant windgen, but because

of my fear of heights, and physical constaints i will probably be settling

for a windgen that can produce ~500watts in a 15mph wind, and do so reliably.

my main focus has been directed toward cogeneration, and more specifically trigeneration, (heat, cold, electricity) in the 7.5kwe class and achieve an overall

efficiency of greater than 80%.

got a ways to go but i can see the goal line.

end goal for the unit, 7.5 kwatt AC 120/240volt, or 5.7kwatt 48volt nominal, or 3tons refrigeration, or a combination of part of all three, and the recovery of 60kbtu of heat for domestic hot water and/or absorption chilling.

not exactly windpower focused, but some applicable crossover technologies.

bob g

[carbethhutter]

Hi 500watt chinkey job with 5 multi.wing blades .there real strong and quiet.Who buids or erects windmills without simonds nuts/nylock or/or a tube of lock tight.computters spelling and grammer are my real weak points.

[wooferhound]

I have 6 Harbor Freight solar panels and a 225 amphour battery. I use the 12 volts directly without an inverter. Mostly Lights and Fans plus some electronics like my Cable Modem. But it has been rainy cloudy for the last 2 weeks and the voltage got so low that I had to plug in a charger for it this morning. I have been trying to conserve too.

Planning to add a 200 watt genny this year soon, but it will only turn about 3 days a month here.

[RandomJoe]

I had a SWWP AirBreeze up for a few months this past year.  When the wind could get to it, it did surprisingly well.  On several occasions I saw the rated output from it.

But I'm in a Really Lousy Area, right at the base of a hill (would need about 60 feet of tower just to get to the top of the hill, which is three suburban lots down from me!), lots of trees, and capping it all my city has banned turbines (safety concerns - the lots are too small to really put one up properly).

I sold the turbine to a friend who lives nearby, he put it atop one of his ham radio towers, and it now whirs merrily along.  Except that it does have a tendency to stall itself out just when you are expecting lots of output (it doesn't furl, just electrically brakes itself in high winds).  Be nice if it had a furling option so it would continue to produce in those higher winds, but no it just quits producing altogether.

For now I satisfy myself with solar power.  1080W of Kyocera panels on the roof, and an Outback Power system in the garage, feeding an 880AH @ 12V battery bank.  Currently I have an inverter I plug the fridge into during outages, and run a few other things directly off the battery bank.  

Soon as the new Outback inverter arrives (in a day or two!) I'll be switching over to a 48V bank and running some new circuits in the house.  Many things will then be 24x7 wired to the inverter, so will automatically switch over to battery backup and be able to take better advantage of solar power during the day when the batteries are charged.

[Junkie]

I have two 13W Maplin Solar panels (same as harbour freight I think) and one 20W  mono-crystalline panel off ebay (puts out it's rated power). Not seeing too much power recent;y with all the snow and overcast days, but fortunately  don't rely on them for anything serious.