AWP36 and Wind Machine's 101 was ( DC Pumps [RE-wrenches])

[hugh piggott]

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At 9:23 pm -0500 1/7/01, Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar wrote:
>Thanks Hugh,
>
>If you don't mind I have a couple of basic questions.  No hurry to answer.
>And Bob Ellison emailed me a electronic AWP brochure.  Looks like a nice
>machine.

It's pretty basic.   Simple.
See also http:www.scoraigwind.co.uk/african36
I've measured the power curve again this year, and the machine I 
tested lives up to the one on the website.  Beware of the rather 
fanciful power curve in circulation with multiple voltages though.  I 
am not sure what it is based on but it is likely to lead to inflated 
expectations.  Use the '24 volt' curve.

>
>Just what would a reliable wind machine be? As it "generally" pertains to my
>area in Missouri.  No need to get to specific just paint with broad strokes.
>No salt air, average wind speed of 12ish mph and plenty of thunderstorms.

Sounds a bit like Africa where it is mainly used.  I don't know much 
about lightning - it is rare here, but I know that it can play havoc 
with diodes in Africa.  After fitting protection, the best solution 
seems to be to make them easy to replace.

>Minus the occasional tornado we don't often see gusts much over 30 and in
>the last year we had some pretty good windstorms where we had maintained
>winds hitting 60-90 mph.

That should be no problem.  It furls well.

>
>In my area how would the AWP do.  What needs maintained?  What wears out?
>Field serviceable? Other things a novice should look out for.

I have installed 6 locally in the last 2 years.  One needed a blade 
replaced.  The blades have suffered from a design fault (rough copies 
of my wooden blades made by someone who did not understand the 
stresses).  That has been remedied, and a new manufacturing process 
(resin transfer with improved airfoil and proper structural design) 
is being set up.  Might also improve the performance.

Other than the blade cracks, the only problem has been with the 
alternator rear bearing on one machine which failed prematurely 
(after 18 months).  I replaced it in an afternoon.

Further down the line, I could see problems with the tail hinge 
wearing out and needing some welding after 5 or more years of high 
winds. In practice the hinge pin moves on the lugs and not on the 
bushes, so the lugs will wear out.

Greasing would help but I doubt if it'll get done in many cases.

I would recommend leading edge tape on the blades.

I'd use a Trace C-40 for charge control, the African controller is 
crude (like most).

Americans seem to hate the lack of sliprings, but if you hang a good 
length of cable, 3 single conductors, inside a tube tower, then 
twisting really is not a problem.

It's a slow, quiet machine.  Peak power is not stupendous, but energy 
output is solid.  I use one awp36 plus some 500Wp of pv for my 
home+office+workshop and we seem to have plenty of power to dump.   I 
have not run a generator since early February.

I hope you have as much satisfaction from it in the USA as I do here. 
Keep some spares handy in case of problems.  It's cheap enough, for 
what it is.  And easy to live with.
-- 
Hugh

http://www.ScoraigWind.co.uk

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