I bought a wind PMA and blade set from Windy Nation over a year ago. It's been a bit of a learning curve, but I have a working system that provides my homes' lighting and TV. It's been working for 6 months with no problems. I have a 3 phase charge controller and a small bank of solar panels, and together have not had a day without enough power to run normally. I would not have posted this without it working well. I did have some setbacks along the way, as you can see by what was left of my first blade set after a tower failure. The PMA survived the fall, very tough! I installed the larger blade set and had a good increase of amps in lower winds. I would like to thank Windy Nation for the products that got me started down the path of energy independence. In case you were wondering what SBO stands for on the tail sail, it means SCREW BIG OIL! I would like to thank them for the inspiration. Thanks again,mark99
Mark, Great pictures! What blade set did you ultimately end up with? 28" or 35"? Does the tail furl? Any extra pictures would be great. BeachBum
I started with the 28 inch set. Those are the blades on the wall above battery bank in my garage.I tried the 35 inch the second thme and noticed an inprovement. It does not furl. I played with that for a while but was losing too much power, it would turn out of the wind too soon.I ended up with the best results centered on the bearing assembly plate.I have several more pictures ,what part of the construction are you intererted in? mark99
Hi Mark, I'm still battling the connection at the slip ring. What type of protective box did you construct around that area? Also I'm trying to make out on your picture your pipe connection to the frame assembly. Can you describe the equipment you have on the cart? Did you make your own controller? Post all the pictures you like. Did you find the larger blades to perform better in low wind conditions? What part of the country do you live in, and how is your wind speed? Lastly, do you have any data on how much power you have been able to produce with your turbine? Thanks, BeachBum
I did not use slip rings on my wind mill. I drilled the shaft to bring the wire to the PMA.I did a lot of reading about this and there were two schools of thought on this.Please don"t misunderstand me I think the slip ring setup is cool but I was going for something a little more simple. I also had this set up for about 6 months before my tower came down and the cord was not twisted at all.[attachment=2:2dffoyeq]new windmill 047.jpg[/attachment:2dffoyeq][attachment=1:2dffoyeq]new windmill 049.jpg[/attachment:2dffoyeq]The battery storage system has a charge controller that allows the batteries to charge to 13.2 volts [this is adjustable] then it switches to the electric 12 volt heater to keep a load on the windmill.This keeps the windmill from over speeding. It also has an imput for solar panels so they can both charge the battery at the same time. It is only rated at 300 watts but I have had no problems with it. It was a kit from www.oatleyelectronics.com K241A.It did have to be soldered together. The other items were the 2000 watt inverter[room to grow] to feed the house lighting circuit, a volt meter and an amp meter. As far as hard data all I have was something to measure wind speed [Don"t ask me to spell it ] and my amp meter.With the solar panels disconnected I was getting 1 to 2 amp increase in 10 to 12 mile an hour winds.I live in Connectcut, with open corn fields all around.I hope this helps. Two years ago all I knew about windmills was they looked cool. The learning has been a blast!
Mark, I've been pondering whether I should use the slip ring or not, based on the fact that I will need to protect the connection from the ocean elements. I too, thought that simple might be better because our coastal winds are almost always from the east. How did you connect your inverter to your "house lighting circuit"? Thanks for sharing your experience. BeachBum
BeachBum, I just wanted to make sure that you understand that the windmill can turn freely into the wind. The 2 and1/2 inch pipe hold a set of bearings, the outer race of the bearings is held in place by the pipe. The inner race of the bearings hold the shaft that has the hole drilled in it to allow the wires to attach to the PMA. The pictures were not that clear.
Inverter tie in to the house, I have spent hours typing this part and keep getting dropped so I guess I not fast enough .The short version is from the inverter plug to a 15 amp fuse.Then to a GFI.This goes to a 20 amp double pole double throw relay.The relay has 120 volt coil that is fed from the inverter. When the inverter is off the lighting is fed from the grid. When the inverter is on it powers the coil of the relay and ties in the inverter power to the lighting circuit.
Thank you. I understood that it turns. I was just saying that it appears we both share winds that are pretty consistantly in one direction, not changing all the time like folks in some areas. I appreaciate the time you took in your reply regarding the inverter question. Are you planning more projects, like solar, etc.? BeachBum
BeachBum, my son told me to try to write my lighting circuit in word and copy it to this page. It is a lot more detailed and I hope it works. I have beed in the trades for 30 years but computers not so much. I also found a pichture of my hub way back at the begining so I will send that also Take care Mark Inverter tie in to the house lighting circuit I started with a #12 gauge extension cord plugged in to the inverter. I then tied into a 15 amp fuse and then into a GFI. All of this is with in the first 5 feet or so. I then ran a #12 wire set to my home thought conduit already buried under ground. I went with #12 gauge wire because of the voltage drop due to the length of the run. One point I would like to make is some less expensive inverters [like mine] will read a lower voltage then they really are unless you use a true RMS meter like a Fluke. I went from 103 volts to 119 volts. Once inside the house I found the 15 amp breaker from my power panel that fed my lighting circuit. I tied in a double pole double throw 20 amp relay with a 120 volt coil. This relay is tied in a few feet out of the power panel but before any take offs for room lights. I put the relay in an over sized metal box with a cover for fire protection. I tied the lines going to the lights to the common terminals of the relay. I tied the normal closed terminals to the power coming from the power panel. I tied the power coming from the inverter to the normal open terminals. I also tied the coil of the relay to the power coming from the inverter. Be very careful not to cross polarity. What I mean by this is keep the neutrals wires on one set of contacts and the hot legs on the other set of contacts. Make sure the metal relay box is grounded. The best part about doing the tie in this way is you don’t have to turn any thing off or on. I have a timer on my inverter that turns it on at 4 in the afternoon and off at midnight. Any time the inverter is off the grid power is on. If the batteries get low and the inverter shuts off automatically the grid power takes over. I call this a wife friendly system. I would check with a local electrician or code official just to keep it above board.[attachment=0:1nvjp5t8]bearing assembly.jpg[/attachment:1nvjp5t8]
I just wanted to post a picture of my small solar panel set up. It was 3- 45watt kits from Harbor Fright tools. Watch the sales It makes them afordable.[attachment=0:8ohekybx]100_0074.jpg[/attachment:8ohekybx]
can you send info on how you set up / wired in your Volt & amp meter. also can you send some close up pics and more info on your tower to ground mount system. I see what looks like a swivel bolt but would like to confirm or read how it goes up and down. I also like what you are doing, especially on keeping it simple and it still works well. thanks,
murray2paddles, My volt meter came with one of my solar panel kits.It has an on-off switch on it so I leave it off because it draws power when it is on. Not much but why waste it.I tied it in at the charge controller out put to the batterys.You could connect it to the battery bank just as well,but it would be a good idea to put a switch on it to not draw power from the batterys when not in use. The amp meter does not draw any power when not in use.The volt meter hooks up to the + and _ terminals to the battery bank.The amp meter has to be able to handle all the current coming from the charging system.The + terminal coming from the charge controller ties to one terminal on the amp meter and the other terminal on the amp meter goes to the battery bank. You can use a car amp meter if running 12 volt system. Mine is a 0 to 60 amp meter but I would go with a 0 to 30 amp if you can find it. Check your local auto parts store.They also come with a wiring diagram.Just make sure you use at least a 10 gauge wire to handle the current .The volt meter does not need a large set of wires. You are right about swivel part of my pole.I added a extra cable to my anker stays so I could hook my comealong to it with out having to climb to attach it.I sent two pictures Take care Mark[attachment=1:31auo2j0]100_0084.jpg[/attachment:31auo2j0][attachment=1:31auo2j0]100_0084.jpg[/attachment:31auo2j0]
Mark, I tried to respond to your private message. Sorry if it didn't go through. Mostly it was a big thank you for all the great pictures and information. We appreaciate you sharing your experience and successful ideas. I too, have had some issues trying to write a well thought out reply or question, and accidentally nuked my own message. BeachBum
