Skystream 3.7

[fcfcfc]

Hi: Another one. I have a neighbor at 3 miles that bought a Skystream 3.7 which is grid tie. I go by his location many times a week and today I pulled over for awhile to watch his turbine. The wind today was in the 5 to 12mph range with occasional 20mph gusts. Anyway, it was stopped then slowly began to turn as the wind picked up. The 3.7 is suppose to start at 8mph according to specs.. It turned faster and faster and after about 10 seconds and I would guess 2 RPS rotation speed it came to an abrupt halt in about 1/4 sec. I watched for awhile and it did this every time. Again the wind was not real strong. My guess as to what was happening was that as it spun up the electronics was watching for a min voltage, then sync'd it and cut in the inverter at a min load, which was still to much for the low wind speed and the turbine just stopped. Does anybody have thoughts or experiences on this situation regardless of the brand of grid tie turbine..??..

[neilho]

Skystreams are having problems now, apparently caused by cold weather. Check the awea small wind yahoo group for more details.

Neil

[snowcrow]

  It sounds like the brushes are not making good connect with the slip rings, or some other opening in the circuit, and the electronic auto-braking is stopping it to protect the electronics.

  I have an Air-X that would do the very some thing!  The manufacturer stated that it would need to be run for approximately 60 - 100 hours under normal operating conditions for brushes and bearings to reach peak performance.

  I don't know how new your neighbor's Skystream is, but it may still be in it's break-in period, and that is most likely the cause of what are seeing.

Snow Crow

[fcfcfc]

Hi: I had sent a message to Skystream and they replied back saying they are having software issues... so anything is possible at that point I guess....

[JD7453]

I have never posted here but have been following these forums for quite a while. The Skystream's use of a slotless brushless alternator has really peaked my interest lately. They appear to be getting alot of recognition for their concept, which was developed along with NREL. Does anyone have any photos of the Skystream setup they can share?

Thanks,

JD

[akwindindustries]

I have a question. If you were watching your neighbors skystream and it seemed to have some problems.. why wouldn't you ask your neighbor? I would check to see who installed this turbine. There have been some turbines that have been installed incorrectly and possibly was wired incorrectly. I would ask the source and see what is going on with your neighbor's turbine, they may have your exact answer.

[JMaris]

I know this is a dead thread, but I was wondering if you ever talked to your neighbor? We are thinking about getting one of these and was wondering if anything was found out?

[Tritium]

I know this is a dead thread, but I was wondering if you ever talked to your neighbor? We are thinking about getting one of these and was wondering if anything was found out?

There was an ex skystream employee over at the Northern Arizona Wind and Sun forum that had some interesting things to say that you might want to take a look at before buying.

http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthread.php?t=4981

Thurmond

[JMaris]

WOW!!! That was a very interresting read! Back to the drawing board...

[Madscientist267]

Sick part is, I could change a couple of concepts (like references to specific equipment) so that it sounds like I was talking about my last employer, and I'd bet nobody would know that I was referring to a completely different company. And I wasn't in RE there...

This mentality is working it's way through commerce as a whole. Beef up on bean counters, forget what or why they are counting, and screw as many people as you can in the process. Customers, lower-in-the-chain employees... on and on and on.

Once a startup hears the phrase 'bean counter', it's days are officially numbered. Rest assured they are going to @*#$ everything up beyond all recognition before someone with their head screwed on straight and in enough power can stop the damage before the whole thing topples over on itself.

Sad, but true. Across the board. Nobody is immune.

Steve

[phil b]

I go by a business that has 6 Skystreams in a East-West line. I think they were all erected at the same time. The only time all of them are turning are in 45 MPH winds. Otherwise, two turbines are not turning on some days, two different ones are not turning on others.

[defed]

the only problem i have w/ the guy's rant about his former employer is, would he have come out and said all of that if he was still working there?  if he knew the same info, would he just go about quietly letting them sell them if they were still giving him a paycheck?  would he have quit rather than be a part of such a company?

what he says might be true, but it could just as easily be sour grapes.

i didn't read through ALL of the pages in that thread, so maybe this was discussed there.

[ghurd]

I read more than I should have.  My feeling was he expected the new owners to fix the problems instead of making them worst.
G-

[Madscientist267]

Pretty much what I got too -

Get them out the door regardless of issue, worry about fixing the problems that appear if someone should happen to mention one (which apparently was a regular thing), and tell the customer that it must be their fault that something is wrong with the system.

And when fault is admitted by the company, leave it up to the customer to fix by providing them with instructions (ie the drip-pan hole thing).

 

Steve

[clockmanFRA]

Education Education Education, True output, True costs |||

We have 2 3.7m Hugh P's designs and 2 years of data.

Interesting when i read this thread.

The Mrs works for a very large US based corporate company World wide, but she is internally bombarded with memos/newsletter about windturbines, local grid systems, etc, (basically the companies green credentials??). And because of her own green energy knowledge can and does give feedback.
Anyway Southwest are promoting their latest Skystream 3.7 which will be "more  than 74% efficient than the last Skystream". So i had to look at that, and give a brief report back to her.

I will not quote the whole report , re the old Skystream, but in brief "They reinvented the wheel with out looking what is allready out their and several design features are over complicated and will cause severe maintenance problems in the future". I also mentioned that a bunch of Engineers had been given loads of cash and come up with this, but being honset 20 years ago i would have designed and produced something similar.

But now older and wiser I look out their see what exists, works is simple and improve it. ...Electric cars, now that's another story.

Anyway as the other half said "I await their figures"

[mattg]

How encouraging that Skystream is listed on the MCS (is there a US equivalent?) approved list here in the UK...
So much for protecting the consumer.