Wind query [RE-wrenches]

sunwise sunwise at cheqnet.net
Tue Feb 4 20:57:23 PST 2003


Greetings Allan,

What's the wind resource at the site?  How bout the solar (sorry, can't
remember where you're installing)?  While you have all the balance of
system equipment ready to fly a new machine, I'd be a little concerned
about investing much in a new turbine when one considers the tower
height.  50 feet is pretty low unless your surface friction coefficient
is really low (surrounding area is water, desert, or a big field that is
mowed short), and no structures taller than a mobile home within about
500 feet.

If you do have a really windy site and the site has some full sized
buildings or any trees, this could be part of the reason the Windcharger
blew apart.  Turbulence not only robs a machine of power, it can also be
pretty tough on the turbine mechanically. 

When I first read your post, I was going to recommend the African 3.6
machine (1,000 watts), very robust.  But with the larger rotor diameter,
you'd essentially be making that tower shorter.  I'd get a real wind
resource estimate (perhaps in part from the estimated annual generation
that the Windcharger was putting out), and then compare that
production/investment to simply putting the same dollars into more PVs.

Just my .02$US -- Kurt


-----Original Message-----
From: Allan Sindelar [mailto:allan at positiveenergysolar.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 9:13 PM
To: New wrenches posting
Subject: Wind query [RE-wrenches]

Wrenches, some wind advice, please,
    In 1998 we designed and installed a PV/wind/diesel stand-alone
system for a rancher in the eastern plains of New Mexico. He brought to
the design a depression-era 32V "Wincharger" two-blade wind gennie with
original controller that he had bought at a ranch auction, I believe.
This was not a Jacobs, and early on Windy Dankoff advised me that it
wasn't the Jake's quality. So I designed the system around a World Power
12-1600 EZ-Wire center for both wind and a small PV array. I did it this
way because 1) the controller and a governor adjustment allowed for
operation on a 24V system; 2) it provided a dump load; 3) I got
rectified DC out of 3-phase wild AC from the bird; and 4) I didn't
believe that the old bird would keep running for long, and I wanted to
give the client an easy way to replace the old bird with a modern unit
without redoing the rest of the system.

    All happened as expected. The unbalanced blades started coming apart
in a couple of years and eventually I heard that a part or two blew over
to the east 40. The client has asked for a quote on a new gennie. We had
originally specified the controller for a Whisper 1000, which is more or
less the Southwest Windpower H80. World Power sold the EZ-Wire center
without the bird, but SWWP doesn't want to sell the bird without the
EZ-Wire II (wind only) controller at a reasonable price. So, my
questions:
1. Is the H80 the best choice for this particular application? (good
seasonal site, adequate ~50' 4-leg freestanding tower, a dozen
5-year-old L16s showing signs of weakening) The client is on a pretty
tight budget.
2. If so, should we try to buy just the bird, haggling for the best
price we can get for the client, or should we use the EZ-Wire II
controller and a separate charge controller for the PV? (In other words,
is the newer wind regulator a major improvement?)

3. Is there a better way?

Thanks in advance for the collective wisdom, as usual.
Allan at Positive Energy


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