Man do these blades work a lot better the the old black platic ones that come with it. I never did like the looks of them but it was a good deal when I bought the whole setup. Now I would like to have a bigger generator on there. The tower is Rohn 25g @ 60 feet. I winch it up with a hinged base. I wanted to end up with 70 feet but 60 was scarry enough. 50 feet seemed ok and I might go back to that when I get the trees cut down.
Awesome, 60 ft tower, man you rock ! Did you notice the increase in available wind after you got up that high ? What turbine are you using and which blade set. Can you also post some photos on your hinged base, please and how do you raise lower ? do use a winch , vehicle or what. ? murray
So you know we want stats ..Running a battery bank or using GT's? What kindof out put have you seen?Do you have a anemeter on it somewhere so you can see output for different speeds? :ugeek:
Ok for starters I live in Maryland and we are not really known for wind BUT i live in the mountains about 1400 feet above sea level so it helps also in a wooded area so I need hight to get above the trees.Its a hornet PMA I got from ebay. It was a good deal to get me going but have now learned better. I am using the 5 blade hyper spin blades now. I was at 50 feet with the black plastic blades that come with it and could hardly ever get it to spin. the new blades really woke this thing up though. So did the extra 10 feet help get more wind? not really sure because of the new blades. What I did notice is that the air is not as turbulent. It will stay facing the wind a lot better. I still have a couple trees that I am not above (tall pine, poplar and spruce) they will be coming down soon. Right now I am just charging a battery. My original plans were to charge a bank but now I am thinking more to GT. To bad I got the 12v version cause its hard to find a GT to work with them. I was just checking this morning and hit up to 5 amps to the battery. I dont have an anemometer out there yet. It was a wireless weather station or new blades so I chose the blades. Weather is calling for 10mph with gust to 30mph and I am no good judge of wind speed. hinge plate, I have attached pics of the plate. beings the tower is up I only have them closed. Its (2) 1/4" plates for top and bottom. The hinge is 3/4" black water pipe. The hole inside is just over 9/16" and I could not find any bolts or solid rod that was 9/16". I am an auto mechanic and when I got to work from buying the pipe I was looking around and found some rear axel U-bolts that were the right size. Cut them up and they are now my hinge pins. makes it kinda nice to take the tower down then pull the 2 pins and take it apart. I do use a winch to raise and lower it. 50 ft. went ok hooked to my 1 ton truck. raising this one a friend had my truck so it was hooked to an S-10 pickup. I have to say I did drag the truck sideways on gravel about 8"s before the tower started to go up. The winch is a reese 2000lb from walmart. It did struggle and I had to stop 2 times because of the thermal shut down. I guess its time for a bigger winch. If you look at the first picture you can see a 4x4 with some 2x4s sticking off the top of the play set. thats kinda my gin pole. I have a pieces of pipe bolted in there to run the cable over to get better hight. Hope I answered everything if not let me know I would be happy to help.
Wow thanks.In the future if you get a windy pma try taking some stats while running a 24 volt system.I am seeing the 12v clamps just as the blades start to spin good then the load slows them down. I have a new 20.5 volt GT coming and I plan on setting up another mill to dump dc into the same batteries. I have a feeling that I will see favorable readings on a windy pma..I hope so, best I am getting is 10-64w in 10+mph. No clue how big the gusts are. With a smaller sprocket I did see 125w in 30 mph.I was expecting maxing out the pma. .BUT after doing alot of readingmost mills are comenned to run at 24-48 volts..Some of the bigger home ones charge old forklift batteries. There is better transmission effiecincy( Line losses) with higher volts but need lower rpm motors...ALOT more copper and Magnets..Look at the ginlongs($850-1500w)A foot around coils and tons of magnets that swing just inside of the coil.
Well I would have to say that I am very disappointed!!!!! I really wish I would have found windy nation before i bought my PMA. If anyone is thinking of buying a delco alternator PMA dont waste your money. I have mine hooked to the grid and for several times this winter we have had windy days of 20-30mph with gust up to 50mph. I have tried every combination that I can think of with batteries as buffers and as dump loads but the best I have got is .17 KWH in a 25 hour period. I think total since I have had this up I might be at 1.5 kWh so @ 9 cents per kWh I have saved about .14 cents not hardly worth it. with wind chills of -7 today it hard to sit out there and watch it but I did catch it once when a gust come along strong enough that I could hear the blades howling 60 feet away. I can tell you that they have to be spinning very fast to hear these blades. I quickly looked at the meter and it was @ 26 volts. If it takes that kind of rpm to hit 26 volts then I have a piece of junk in my eyes. I guess after Christmas I will have to start saving my pennies to get a windy. maybe they will have a kW out by then who knows. hope this helps anyone thinking of buying a delco converted PMA.
dlm ..... It's hard to believe your power numbers are that low. 0.17 kWh in a day is like just 7 watts continuusly, and on a windy day? Something doesn't add up. Even for a car PMA that is piss-poor. Did you ever measure the power just into a battery?
yea tell me about it. I know it can put out power. I have seen up to 210 watts out of the GT onto the grid. I did have it hooked straight up to a battery when I first had it up and it seemed that it just took so much to get it over 12v to charge the battery. same with the grid tie. it starts at 10.8 v and times I can watch this thing spin away but not get to input voltage. As of this morning I am at 0.25 Kwh in 35 hrs. And we are still under High wind warnings.
Is this a 12V generator, as those do take a lot to get over 12V? Most people use a 24V generator and it gets to 12V earlier. Is it DC off the generator? There could also be some killer line losses if the wire size is not right.
Yes it is a 12v generator. I know I messed up there. It is also dc out of the generator. I am running 6 gauge wire from there. Its a 80 foot run so I would expect some voltage loss also. I just thought it would have done better. I was thinking of just hooking it up to 2 6v deep cycle batteries charging them then wire to 12v and let the grid tie suck out what it can and start over again till I can afford a windy generator.
Hate to cause more work. You could bypass the diodes and use a rectifier at the shack. It should help the output on the Delco unit. If you are not using the internal regulator. Tie on to the wires from the fields and run it straight to the shack and a rectifier. You will be able to use the one from the alternator.
Here is the link to buy the kit to change them over. http://www.missouriwindandsolar.com/3_P ... rsion.html
I would think that 6 gauge wire would be sufficient for the volts and amps coming from a DC Delco. It might not be worth the effort to change it over to AC. I will tell you that when we started out many years ago, we tested several PMA's. We did not go with Delcos for a variety of reasons but mainly because their power output in realistic wind speeds (6-30 mph) is poor. I
Agree on the Delcos. The roadside is littered with buyers conned into buying 400+w Delco units only to see 1-2 amps and occasionally 5 amps (60 watts) in heavy wind. If you live anywhere where it snows, they pack with blowing snow eventually, stopping them cold until Spring, and usually are destroyed when thawed out. They are not designed for direct exposure to heavy dust, freezing rain, or blowing slow. They may last a while but eventually the weather will kill them. Usually within a year. A total waste of money.
Yea I agree just its to late since I own one. LOL Just have to wait till after Christmas to start saving some pennies. We just started to get some snow here so I hope it dont destroy it. I would like to use it maybe for some other testing after I get a windy.
