Advice sought on H175 / Whisper 3000

[Usman]

Hi everybody,

I am intending to purchase a H175, previously known as Whisper 3000 from SouthWest Wind power. I wanted to share experience with someone who knows about this turbine and recommend if it would perform as envisaged by the manufacturer.

My application is 48V battery charging in a solar hybrid set-up.

My questions:

1. -Any information on credibility of the KWH produced per day, month & year. The sales brochures say that the unit would produce 538 KWH per month in 5.4m/s (12mph) average wind regime. Is that realistically achievable with two bladed 15 footer rotor diameter/4.6meter?
   
2. -My second main concern is on reliability, as the installation would be on a 100ft high mast self supporting monopole, 3 segmented tower and installation of the tower & turbine by a 42m/50-Ton crane is going to be as much as 50% of the cost of the turbine. So, no easy tilting down tower or ladder to climb up the tower, access the turbine and service it.
   
   

I have an impression that it wouldn't need any servicing, adjustments or check ups for years after installation, is that correct? If not, what should I realistically expect from servicing point of view?

I hope someone could advise on that.

Thanks, Usman.

[Flux]

Try Michael Klemen's site

http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/klemen/index.htm

He is in a good wind area.

Flux

[DanB]

From what I have heard, it is not their most reliable machine.  Unless it's changed a lot, it's a 2 blade 15' diameter machine that runs at a pretty incredibly high TSR (I believe it's rated output happens somewhere around 800 rpm!

Much the opposite of home built machines, when 'commercial' wind turbines fail or customers are unhappy you hear about it, when its successful you don't hear much.  I've heard of several failures with the H175 - one very recently in Nicaragua, and the customer was not happy with the installers - or SW windpower.  But again - you don't usually hear much from happy customers.

I get the impression that they may be fine so long as it isn't an extreme wind site, but it is a 'light duty - fast running - inexpensve wind turbine' - often you get what you pay for I guess.

[Flux]

That's my impression as well, that is why I thought he ought to look at Klemen's experience in a high wind area.

Reasonable low wind machine, but Whisper it certainly is not, I think it gets rather noisy in high winds.

Flux

[youngre]

Usman,

I would be considered a satisfied user.

I purchased a Whisper 3000 used from a man in New Mexico.  He lived in the middle of a ring of mountains, and the machine appeared to have had little wind exposure.

I have the unit on an 80 foot tilt-over tower, and it has been in active use for 3 years.  It was offline last summer for 2 months after a nearby lightning strike damaged the controller.  A new controller was installed in mid-August of 2007 which tracks the kWh produced, and it is reading approximately 5,800 kWh since that time.  However, we live in a high wind area.  I live in sight of a USDA wind research station that told me that our wind speed is 14.3mph at 30 feet, and my tower is much taller.  

I have taken the unit down every 6 months to service it, and, each time, I have found loose bolts on the unit and often bolts missing or sheared off which attach the turbine to the tower.  Presently, the nose cone was blown off, and I am waiting for a still day to lower the tower and replace it.  I would consider 6 months to be an appropriate time frame for evaluation of the turbine, so your concept of a crane is not very feasible.

In light winds, it makes a soft, pleasant whispering sound, but, in high winds when it furls, it sounds like a helicopter.  We live on 12.5 acres, so this is no problem, but I would hesitate to have this unit up in a close residential setting.

I am planning on installing a Proven 6kW which I have already purchased.  This machine appears to need much less maintenance.  It weighs 1000lb.  Many people refer to these machines as "heavy metal".  I have been pleased so far with my used Whisper 3000, but, if you are in a high wind area and must use a tower which will not tilt, I would recommend a "heavy metal" machine.

John

[10 Years]

This comment is over 4 years after your question but other folks will still come to this page so I thought I would offer my experience.

The wind turbine normally attaches to the pole by about a 3 inch pipe protruding from the bottom of the wind turbine that inserts into your tall pole (in your case 100' feet up in the air). There are 3 bolts that hold this in. With a 15' blade span, you can imagine how much force there will be on these 3 tiny bolts 1.5" from the top of your pole with wind turbulence. They do shear off or fall out. There are only 3. I would check these every three months and not wait 6 months. All three of the bolts sheared off on mine and the head fell 42' (broke the blades).

I modified mine by extending the mounting pipe 2' long at the bottom of the turbine and put a long bolt through the outer and inner pipes at the end of the 2' pipe so that the unit cannot wiggle and walk upward like the 3" one can and does. I know of others that lost their wind turbine due to the sheared off / fallen out little mounting bolts as well!

Another thing that I would do before installing the turbine is to have the back plate (square) inside of the stator (where the magnets are glued to) welded by a professional welder. The original 4 tack welds - one at each corner - will work harden and crack. This will cause the the rotor to walk right out of the stator and make another mess. Mine did. I didn't notice that these were only tack welds until they were broken. There was next to no penetration.

If you want to quiet the blades down, epoxy a strip of fishing line or weeder eater line 2" from the leading edge of the blades on the back side. (You may have to rebalance your blades if you do not do each blade exactly the same.)

If you do those three things to the Whisper 3000 before you ever put it into service, I think it will give you many, many years of trouble free service. I wish someone would have told me.

I find the spring and shock absorber that allows the blades to move out of the wind under high winds really hammers the system. I replaced the two blades with 3 blades (because my original 2 blades broke on the first fall and the blades from the factory were very, very expensive). I also put a steel strap across the hinge so that the turbine no longer folds back out of the wind. It has survived a 106 mph wind fine.

I hope this helps anyone