UK wind worry

[tanner0441]

Hi

The UK is having some silly winds at the moment.

For two days my turbine has had the shorting link fitted, but still I have seen the blades turning faster than I would like, and the thing was furling even with the blades barely turning. I was becoming fed up with keep running outside to check things then after one enthusiastic gust I watched the turbine spin much faster than I would have liked and it kept turning. Then several sheet of metal came off the roof of a neighbours shed and the blades just kept turning not silly fast but enough to worry be about burning out, it's only 200W so the winding are not going to be more than needed.

I grabbed an old climbing rope and threw one end over the turbine, (sometimes 30ft high is good) I worked the rope into the gap between the turbine body and the prop hub, I then managed to get one end of the rope one side of a blade and the other end of the rope the other side of the blade. I pullled it out trapping the blade and tied it off to one of the guy fixings. The tail swung round by luck I had pulled the blades side on to the wind. The rope is 5000 pound and there is too little movement to worry about friction.

I can now spend my evening without worrying about over speeding and shedding blades.

Brian

[gotwind2]

Hi Brian.
I'm experiencing similar winds here, in North Shropshire - I think it is U.K. wide, 70 m.p.h gusts or thereabouts, higher in Scotland I believe.

I made a braking (shorting) switch for my little 200w test turbine and then lashed (tied) a blade to the turbine pole prior to any gales.
It's a shame not to make good power from such great wind - but for me, far less worrying, and less expensive should there be a failure.

I think even a shorted turbine could spin considerably in 70 mph winds IMHO.

[tanner0441]

Hi

I'm in Denbigh North Wales so not that far from you, in the Vale of Clwyd so in the right direction the wind is funneled the ten miles from the coast.  I bet the offshore turbines are paying for their keep...

I don't want any damage cause I am looking to sell the thing or swap it for solar PV.


Brian

[Hilltopgrange]

I know how you feel! I am also in the UK, N. Ireland and we have been getting hammered for 3 days now. My weather station recorded an 89mph gust in the early hours of this morning, the slates on the roof are rattling as I type! my 12ft and 16ft turbines are both shut down the 10ft is on the ground for overhaul so no real worries apart from flying debris.

I hate this weather, as far as power production goes it might as well be flat calm!
I am seriously considering rebuilding the 10ft machine just for very high wind days or maybe a little 4 footer, a couple of hundred watts would be better than nothing when its like this!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a lot calmer! we will see. It could be worse though look at what hit the guys down under 150+ mph is crazy.

Glad you got it secured, better safe than sorry.

Russell

[scoraigwind]

Strongest gusts we saw at Scoraig were around 33.5 m/s or about 74 mph.  It's been a while since we had decent storms like this!  So far no word of any damage to any of the local windmills.  That's lucky as I am now on my way to Dakar to meet up with Dan.

[gsw999]

down in cambridgeshire I have a couple of 25 year old  indiana 24v motors on 18 foot towers, with aluminium blades, none of this furling nonsense

[bob golding]

my turbine seems to be fine so far. highest gust so far 51mph. i upgraded the blade hubs from  plywood to 10 mm steel discs and  cleaned up and re balanced the blades a couple of months ago. it is running a lot smoother than it was. i also changed the bearings at the same time. batteries are full and the dump load is singing away all night long. highest we have had here was 84 mph a couple of years ago. that one  took out the stator and  stripped the rotor of most of the magnets as well. did a complete rebuild with larger rotors after that. i am  near lands end about  a mile from the sea.