Future energy PMG.

[Windshack]

Hi!!

Just wondering if anyone on here has used the future energy pmg to build there own turbine.

Cheers Phil

[DamonHD]

I did, but it was cogging too much for my feeble wind and VAWT attempts.

Rgds

Damon

[Hilltopgrange]

I had 6 of them over a 5 year period all running as HAWTS.

The first one was the complete turbine kit that they sell with their version of a furling tail or to be accurate it was a non furling tail and burnt out in less than a week. To be fair they did replace it with out any arguments.

 The other 5 where mounted on yaw tubes with furling tails that i re sized and adapted from Hughes 8ft plans. These machines worked quite well for what they are. But it was a constant job nursing them, failures where many and often. Some examples follow

The bearings are Chinese in origin and made from play dough /putty
The casing is aluminium and corrodes badly inside and out.
There are no seals or gaskets to stop the ingress of water that causes the wound iron core to rust to the point that it swells and seizes in the rotor.
The output wires pass through the centre spindle these corrode through very quickly and puts  the turbine into runaway mode with no way to stop it (not funny)
The whole pmg and blades hang on a single m16 nut that eventually shakes loose allowing the turbine to tilt down causing a blade strike on the tower or allowing the turbine to literally fall off the tower.
The end plates are held on with “stainless steel” cap screws that rust!

Most of the problems are quality related and are easily fixed if done from new. Its a few years since I had these so maybe they have changed the design! they used to claim these where designed and built in the UK! mine all had quality control stickers on and in them printed in Chinese.

I am in a very wet and windy corner in the UK so maybe it was just to extreme for them and not a fair test.

If you do buy one fit new bearings, real bearings like SKF etc, paint it inside and out replace the 3 output wires and seal the shaft with silicone and set it to furl at 500w. They claim 1kw and it will give you 1kw and more but not for very long. Keep an eye on the forecast and shut it down before a gale hits it.

As I said things may have changed, above is just the experience I had with them, I eventually worked out that it is much easier, cheaper and more fun to build axial flux machines. AFs have break downs as well but if you built it you can fix it. I have never had an AF machine run away or explode into a thousand bits, I have had a couple of burn ups but its easy to wind a new stator.
 
Sorry if its not what you wanted to hear!
If I can help further just let me know.
Russell

[Photon]

Russell,

Thanks for the info and experiences with above PMG. I purchased one a few years with the idea of incorporating into hughs plans. I abandoned this as I found it too difficult to modify.
Perhaps it's better suited for coupling to a stationary generator (another future project)

thanks and hi everyone, I've been reading posts for a few years.

Ross 

[Windshack]

 Cheers Russell

Not really what i wanted to here!!!

I currently work servicing large 2.5MW turbine's and kin of have the bug!! I live in a urban area where there is not much wind but i am experimenting for in the future when i hope to live somewhere in the countryside.

I have a 48v Battery bank made up with an inverter, I have made up a the AC/DC rectifier unit and purchased a future energy pmg.

The wind here is no good so i was hoping to use the pmg along with some sort of stationary engine/motor. I don't think i would need a charge controller if i can stop and start the engine/motor at 56volts.

I welcome peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers

Philip

[Hilltopgrange]

Hi Philip
              that wind bug will slowly take hold to the point of addiction! you have to keep building bigger and bigger to satisfy the thirst for power.

If you hook the F.E. PMG to an engine you will need to keep a very close eye on the temperature as it will get hot quick with no wind to cool it. You will also need to limit the output or it will burn out quicker than a match.

You could machine holes in the end plates and force air through it with a fan ducted from the engine, that should help a lot. I would limit the output to about 300w to start with and monitor the internal temperature very closely, you can always step it up a bit at a time.

Before you run it at all change the bearings and loctite the screws.

Did you buy the rectifier from F.E.? they will only honour the warranty on the pmg if you use their bridge rectifiers. They are standard metal can 35a bridges but cost about 10 times the price of standard ones! They sent me 2 free sets, the first set because the first pmg they sent me had a dead short in the stator and the second set a week later when the the replacement pmg burnt out.

FYI I bought an electric bicycle conversion kit for my sons bike, when I opened the package low and behold the wheel motor was almost identical the the F.E. pmg. The only difference was the outer rim of the motor was drilled for spokes and the stator shaft came out both sides.
The biggest difference between them was the price the bike kit was under £50

This was a few years back so maybe they have changed.

Best of luck with it anyway and keep us updated.


Russell

[Hilltopgrange]

Hi Ross
             Welcome aboard (another addict in the making lol)
Do you have the F.E. blades for the pmg? if so the mods to Hughes 8ft plans are pretty straight forward. Just scale down the tail length and area for a 6ft blade, leave the offset for the alternator the same as the 8ft plans and weld a plate to mount the stub of the F.E. PMG 16mm from memory. That about covers it,

I think I have 1 or 2 of the yaw tubes with the hinge and mount for the pmg knocking about the workshop. Where are you located? I am in Northern Ireland UK if you want one let me know I will have a plunder through my scrap heap/stock pile I seem to remember seeing it recently-ish  Its yours for free if you want it. I don't have a tail boom for it just the main yaw tube.

If you don't have the FE blades I don't think you could safely fit wooden blades to it the spindle would never carry the wieght. I tracked down a cheaper source for the blades once upon a time, they turned out to be identical to the originals but half the price, I cant remember the name of the company of hand, they had them listed as industrial cooling fans.

If you want the yaw bearing/tube drop me an email to hilltopgrange  at  tesco  dot  net (fix the obvious) it should be postable within the UK.

Russell

[Hilltopgrange]

Hi Damon,
                 did it cog very badly? they do cog a bit but only slightly and it never prevented start up but then hurricane Hilda blows here most days lol. Im just wondering if yours was maybe shorted, the 3 wires that come out the end of the spindle get nipped and short out between phases. Just a thought!
Russell

[ghurd]

FYI I bought an electric bicycle conversion kit for my sons bike, when I opened the package low and behold the wheel motor was almost identical the the F.E. pmg. The only difference was the outer rim of the motor was drilled for spokes and the stator shaft came out both sides.
The biggest difference between them was the price the bike kit was under £50

they will only honour the warranty on the pmg if you use their bridge rectifiers. They are standard metal can 35a bridges but cost about 10 times the price of standard ones!

Great info there!
They honour the warranty on an over-priced £50 PMG only if you paid £50 too much for the bridges.
G-

[DamonHD]

Hi Hilltopgrange,

The cogging wasn't huge IMHO, but then (a) I didn't know it was cogging except for my reading here at FL and (b) I've never played with a decent non-cogging stator/PMG so I can't really tell you how bad it is.

The PMG is sitting unused on my shed shelf here in London, lonely.  I'm just not going to have the wind here to make use of it.

Rgds

Damon

[Photon]

Ha Ha 

it seems there is a few of us with these PMG's still in boxes......

Cheers for offer Russell (sent you PM)

Ross

[DanB]

I have to wonder why so many people are keen to hook these small PMA's to engines.  The losses in the field of a fast spinning conventional alternator are very small - and they are easy to regulate.  The losses in a PMA, unless it's specifically designed to run with a known load, at the rpm that the engine is going to run it at - can be huge.