Could not afford 7FT TLG Power Class blades so I decided to stack Boast Buster blades I had on top of those 8ft blades I made. I is doing better but will take some time to test. Put them on Dec 20,2011 . I did this to see how much more I can get without spending anymore money. Laugh all you want about it.
Got some wind today. Gusts to 30 mph a few times. Guess I finally hit the sweet spot. I so HAPPY........ Most watts I have EVER SEEN !!!!!!! That blade change was great. Now it powers right up the power band. No more stalling. Would give video today but need to buy batteries. Also just updated my monthly production stats.
Cool. They laughed at the Wright Brothers initially too, so don't be embarassed by any crazy ideas you try. How did you get these to balance? Speaking of cameras/batteries, you can get some lightly used "2009" $250 cameras on eBay for like $20-$30 these days with rechargeable batteries. I've been looking for one with an intervalometer (interval timer) to do time-lapse captures of my solar tracker(s) performance as well as to capture my GTIs' power displays over the course of a day. You then take the readings from the images and plot the data in a spreadsheet to measure overall performance. It can also act as a "poor-man's" way to develop a power curve for a turbine if you capture the watts display and the wind speed in each frame, say once every 5 minutes over the course of a windy night. With enough data points you soon can plot a curve of watts vs. windspeed and use that as a baseline as you make improvements.
I tried to balance them with the rig I made a while back. But had vibration after I did it. So I used a cheap plastic lawnmower blade balancer and I have alot less vibration now. I get like a cogging growl out of it at low rpm. As the speed picks up it is hardly noticeable. The power curve that I found for the 600 on aliexpress is real steep from 15 -25 mph. That is why I decided to try adding the other blades. As far as charting will try to do when I can.
Latest Update !!! After making numerous changes and going thru some wind readings here. I have found that the turbulence at 10-20 ft off the roof it is really bad. Since lowering the turbine to roof level I am getting better results. I also had to tie the tail down because the wind gusts are folding up the tail during gusts and when it comes back down. It spins the turbine around and by the time it faces the wind again it is gone. The best I could find out about that little turbine is that it is a HIGH RPM model. At 35 mph it is at 450-500 watts while the 500 was only giving 300-350 watts. The 600 is about 50-75 watts lower than this. I did get 600 watts out of it a few times at 45 mph. So I have come to the conclusion that if you have turbulence you are better with a high rpm model than a low rpm model. Overload system is working like a champ so far. Here are some pictures of the new mount I will be changing the old one to in the near future. That old one since I tied the tail down is doing alot better. I actually got 2.45 Kwh out of the wind turbines the other day. More than double of what I have gotten in the past. For the bearing I had to order a Teflon sheet for $8.00 and cut a washer out with my dremel. The pipe on the plate is 2 inch sch 80 pipe. It fits with just a little play over the 1.5 sch 80 pipe. The old bearing setup would not stay tight and transferred noise down the pipe real bad. The other turbine with this type of mount has not made a sound since I put it up on the roof. So this is about all I have to report on now.
Another fun day here. Came home to 20-30 mph winds and all the watt meters were on 62 volts. All the GTIs had the red leds on. Relay was dumping on and off alot. I unplugged everything till the power was back up to 125 volts. Crossed my fingers and plugged everything back in and it all still works.
I just took the 500 watt apart it was up for a year. Thought everyone would like to see how well they hold up.
Well BAD news. Using pipe for the wind turbine yaw bearing is a No-No. I was getting clanking sounds from the turbine. Had to pull it down and checked the pipe and found out the water pipe is not round it is slightly egged shaped. Pounded it as straight as I could and cut slots and re-welded to shrink the pipe. If you are going to build a mount go with steel Dom tubing like I did on my last wind turbine mount. water pipe is too much hassle. - Also I am putting a picture of the bungee straps I used to hold the blocks on my solar. They have only been out in the weather for about 1 year. Guess I will have to find something else for the job.
I edited the post. The new mounting for the old wind turbine that I showed in one of my last posts. I made the yaw bearing setup from two pieces of iron black water pipe.
Also just so everyone knows. The wires coming out of the Windy Nation PMA you have to cover up. I did not and after I took it down I noticed that the wire covering was brittle and falling off. My new solar panels are being held up at customs in Calif for a week before they will be sending them out. I ordered four 145 watt panels to add to what I have now. Five blade 80 inch windgrabbers will be here tomorrow to get ready to replace the three blade one I have on the Windy Nation PMA now.
The Windy Nation PMA is a 2nd generation PMA that this happened to. I have the other taped up and heat shrink on it. Also I put heat shrink and tape on the Windy Nation 500 watt when I put it back up because of the insulation cracking.
NEW 145 Watt Solar panels are in. Will be awhile before I can put them up. Here are a few pictures for everyone. Voltage is Open Volts of the panel as measured.
Started putting panels up on roof. 6 hrs up on roof at 90 degrees. Could call it close to a heat stroke and bad exhaustion. Only time off that I had to try. The rack is made from 2 inch extruded aluminum angle from Lowes. Home Depot has it too. I made the roof mounting angles from 3 inch extruded aluminum angle. Was going to bolt all the panels down. After mounting the rack to the roof. I figured out it was not possible. Without adding a hinge to make bolting easier. So I have to cut 2 notches in the side of the rails so I could insert a wrench in from the side to make bolting down the edges easier. Just on the outside panels. I ordered the 3/16 clip nuts and 2 inch allen head bolts to make edge clamps for the rest of the panel installation. Also waiting for silicone to dry in junction box. Will be a week or two before I finish. When finished will post more photos. (UPDATE) 10/23/2022 That combiner box I made is still up and working. With no problems.
Good job Tom! Glad to see you made progress on getting the panels up. Watch that heat stroke, serious business, especially when on a roof ... drinking lots of water and wearing a wide brim hat helps. At least you know they'll be getting some sun there. What type of panels are those? Best of luck in all, hope the rest of the installation goes smoothly.
