I have a version of this it has been aloft for 2 years and 5 months with no issues in the 12 volt charging configuration which produces 200watt from 10mph constance breeze. I have yet to have it in the 24volt config 400watt The only part of the system I would do different is... invest in deep cycle 2 volt batteries
It is physically impossible for a turbine of that tiny diameter to make 200 Watts in a 10 MPH wind as any wind turbine person can tell you. There is very little power in a 10 MPH wind. :)
@@EyeAmAwakeEyeAmAware 6 x 2 volt = 12 volt array deep cycle batteries like those found in fork lifts and the like if one 2 volt cell goes down or goes bad it is easily replaced rather then the whole array.
If you want to heat something, use solar thermal. basically lots of black rubber garden hose and a water tank. much more efficient than solar panel or wind.
I built a beer can heater years ago. It has rows of cans painted black with a hole down the middle of each row. Built as a thermoplane it raises inside temp. by fifty degrees on a sunny day and creates it's own airflow so no fan required. It fits in one of the windows to my den and slopes outside at an angle perpendicular to the height of the sun for maximum efficiency. Each fall I put it in the window and remove it each spring. It likely provides a good portion of my day time heating in my home and only blocks the lower ten inches of the window. Cost around fifty dollars to build and I've used it year after year. For a greenhouse it would be a good heating addition during the daytime.
@@live.life.simple. Invite a bunch of friends over or a few construction workers. Mine uses around 120 cans. It's made from foil faced styrofoam with a greenhouse corrugated panel to hold in the heat. It's a double layer with the lower layer pulling in indoor air and the upper layer returned the heated air into the house.
The 400W rating IS accurate. I tested it by hiding behind it, making sure to keep it between me and my wife as she yelled at me for buying it. It hit 400W just before the blades flew off, sticking in the ceiling and floor. I might try again with a beefier unit. I plan to mount it on a retractable pole above the bed, maybe tell her it's a ceiling fan. I'll lower it into place as she snores all night. I plan to do a grid tie system, and with the money I save, I can buy one of those cheap 'cornoavirus' plane tickets and make my escape....wish me luck.
Better to have the wind blow the blades off at you than to have the wife throw the blades at you. So you still had a win situation, sort of. And if the wife kills you before you have to pay child support that's technically a win also. Mostly.
Someone else had done a test with different wind turbines, it was chinese version that could deliver what it had promised. All 3 other American brands couldn't keep up with their promise. The brake is for when you have higher wind speed.
The reason that that turbine is not putting out 400 watts is most likely it's location. It needs to be up 50-65 ft to get clean air and it will be at its optimum. Too much turbulent air down low! Check the video from Missouri Wind and solar..Jeff does a great job explaining this.
Had one similar to this on my yacht without charge control. One windy night on a mooring it blew all electrics including new fridge unit and solar panels. $18000 worth of damage. Make sure anything you buy has charge controller like one featured here.
if you MEASURED 10amps then you were GIVING it a 10amp load (thats how you measure amps) so it was actually generating a load of 190w Considering you have it bolted to your second story balcony that is actually pretty damned good. you really want it out in the middle of the field or HIGHER than your roof line. it needs "clear skies" ie no wind obstructions. 190 watts from your balcony is pretty impressive. sadly its not $540 on amazon. hopefully that $249 price will come back now and then because I want one now :-)
Please be honest with us and do a video of when it breaks soon as you have a window over 50 miles an hour the charge controller will fry your alternator coil and at that point you can just throw it in the trash has a new coil cost $300 from China. You need to buy American-made turbines with local support and since I use a Delco car alternator as the base part for the generator you can get nuts and screws and even housings at your local auto parts store in case the tower falls in the casing cracks or you lose a part due to vibration. I had one of those and it lasted three months before the charge controller tried to stop the turbine and it kept on spinning anyhow since the wind was 50 mph plus and I watched the whole thing go up in smoke.
My dad has a 400 watt turbine at his camp house on the river and it was hit by a tornado a couple years ago. All it did was rip the blades off of it. We just put new blades on it the other day and its still generating over 14 volts in a 15 mph wind and the brake still holds it when the batteries are full. Hes had the turbine now for around 8 years total and still works.
@@markyrocks69 190 amps at 110 volts is 20.9 kw, at 12 volts it is only 2.28 kw, and wiring able to carry 190 amps looks similar to car battery jumper cables.
It might perform better in a place where the wind is directional and not turbulent. Near trees, constructions and the floor. Wind will form swirls and turbulence patterns even in a perfect laminar flow in a wind tunnel. That's undesirable.
Lock washers are actually useless, they add nothing to the system and do not actually apply more pressure that is applied by the bolt. Also they dont provide any additional resistance to backing off. Properly torqued the bolt will hold itself. The ONLY ways to lock a nit or bolt is to safety wire, cross pin or locktite.
Are you putting a no-load voltage measurement with a non-related current measurement? If the 10 amps was into the battery, then it's probably at something more like 13 volts which is 130 watts. I suspect that it's "internal controller" is little more than voltage or current limiting to protect the generator and its associated internal rectifier. You might be better served to connect a 20 amp MPPT solar controller between the generator and the battery as it will convert available power from the generator to the proper voltage for the battery as needed. Except in coastal areas and some very specific "windswept plains" areas, there are not a lot of locations in the US with enough wind to be useful. Check the maps here: windexchange.energy.gov/maps-data?category=residential for the wind in your state 30 meters above ground. .
if you add some solar panels you can really make things with between the wind and panels together. also add a second battery and watch how much energy you use. be conservative.
Well , at 9.2 volts this thing aint gonna charge a 12 v battery , better to get some 6 volt batteries and charge them in parallels and use them in series .
@@infintemall8129 The channel utuberlars suggested is in GERMAN it's his language and has nothing to do with automaxx windmill. He has made his own, regards
With the annoying background music, I wasn't able to tell if the noise I was hearing was the turbine. Is it dead silent like it's supposed to be, or is that rubbing noise the turbine?
Hmmm. I'm not getting this. I wonder how you came out on this. But 190--load or no load is 190 watts. 19 volts seems high. If it's doing 10 amps then there is a load by definition. I expect 400 watts is kind of a perfect condition. And you did say you saw the current at 20 amps at one point. That's pretty good. How did you come out on this?
Good for you. MY dream to live off the grid and away from the city. ONce my daughter is off to college, IM doing it, with or without my wife. sorry Honey.
You can get a custom nose cone to push the hub diameter out and and force more wind into the blades. This reduces your cut-in wind speed, making the windmill spin at lower wind speeds and faster at higher wind speeds.
Researching blade diameter for the output you want, is the best way to spot the lies in ads, but my one even lied there too, claiming 1.5m diameter, but also claimed it was double its actual true weight. Forgotten now, but think 1.2kw in moderate wind, would need something like 4m diameter minimum, and a big copper wound generator will not be light. Mine is still running, with 2 equally cheap car wide angle led spot lights mounted on its pole, and max's at 8.4 amps at 12 volts in a gale, which light up the backyard nicely on such occasions, which is all its good for(garden ornament) .
I have had an unfortunate relationship with a German supplier of these EXACT LOOKING and RATED wind gens. The ones I purchased were rated for Marine applications and all had the internal 'brake' to prevent burnouts etc (yes, rated 400W). Professionally installed with the test brake proven, they burnt out within weeks, replaced under warranty, they burnt out within six weeks( at 0.2 miles offshore) again...the company admitted there was a problem and supplied a diverting 'dump load' which was professionally installed and indeed the excess power was diverted until the battery bank was depleted and the generators burned out AGAIN in moderate/high winds...these gens cannot handle the power they are made to generate....I have seen a documentary about people living 'off-grid' in the Shetlands, talking about the storm that blew their generator up, guess which gen it was and where it comes from?. Be wary, be told! Conor, Marine Navigational Aids Engineer
@@live.life.simple. I believe the product was called Air X Marine 24v also referred to as the Air Breeze, they were supplied by Sky Stream Energy (.eu) and appear (to me) to be identical to the one you show above...is there a LED in the tail that flashes to indicate the unit operating mode? I don't know the mother company but I suspect a strong composition of 'chinesium' in it's manufacture.... Your question caused me to go through my records and I WAS WRONG to suggest they burned out supplying power (they are actually pretty good at that), the problem is when they go into self regulating mode either because the upper volt limit is reached OR because the wind exceeds a certain speed. We fitted a diverting 'Dump Load' (Morning Star?) but that could never solve the internal 'high wind speed' brake and the generators burned out again...not a pretty situation; customer p'eed off, me p'eed off, local agent p...etc etc. This was circa 2010/2011 and maybe the problem has since been solved (might be a good idea to establish date of manufacture for your unit)? I would DEF recommend a dump load (Morning Star?) and that needn't be wasted energy either; consider a low voltage element to heat a water tank? THEN thermostat THEN Dump Load...... I hope this info is useful to you. I attach below one of many emails regarding the problems we had, absolutely no reason that you might want or need to read it ....unless you're very bored! Regards, Con In all it's glory... from me; Hello xxxx, further to our recent phone conversation and discussion of the provision of external Load Dumps /regulator circuits for the Wind Generator sites in xxxx Port, I can add the following....... Initial reports (and events) suggest the failure of one or both Wind gen units (again). I will visit and inspect both sites to confirm, hopefully this Thur/Fri 13-14 Jan 2011 or very soon thereafter. My initial reaction to fitting external Dump/Regulator is positive BUT I have a very genuine concern that this WILL NOT provide a complete solution for the following reason; The unit as described in the Product Sheets and Product Manual not only 'Brakes' or Regulates at the upper voltage levels but it ALSO 'Brakes' in high wind speeds. IF the unit failures are due to the inability of the Internal Regulation Circuitry to withstand/short the Coil output over time (which is a design error, lets face it) then a carefully selected and set external regulator can indeed 'dump' the excess power BEFORE the internal circuitry is engaged at close to battery capacity levels.... HOWEVER, this does not account for the 'High Wind Speed' regulation, which I am reasonably sure may persist for prolonged periods on any site; As described, the Wind Speed Regulation SHOULD be a 'separate mechanism' from the high voltage threshold, (this is presented as an ABSOLUTE, ie. the unit 'brakes' above a certain wind speed, the implication is that it hasn't necessarily approached High Voltage Levels), therefore, an external Reg/Dump will not be engaged and the initial problem will persist.....and the units will fail again............. The above is reasoned speculation balanced with observation and experience......I would hope to eliminate the speculation and propose a way forward...... Firstly; I will copy this e-mail to Port of xxxx Authority. Secondly; I will attend on site, report findings and/or remove the Gens for return as appropriate. Meanwhile, I would hope that you will address the issues raised with the Manufacturer and also review the previous failures on site against any 'other' known issues. Thirdly; I will await your input and discuss with Port of xxxx. I cannot speak for the customer, but for myself I would say the choices are twofold; either accept that a properly engineered solution is probable, practical and provided in a timely fashion, OR.... .........Reject the Wind Gen units as 'unsuitable to purpose'......such subsequent actions as they may take, given the recorded failures and investment of 'man-hours' to attend......one can only speculate...... That's it, we are all 'sick of' the failures in xxxx and a solution is required; we had one, if only the Wind Gens performed as specified. Regards (more like regrets), Connor Mc Grath Principal Engineer ATON Services Ireland
+Con McGrath - The idea of shorting the generator's output in high winds to "brake" the turbine is crazy on its face. It is a sure guarantee to burn out the generator windings. It reminds me of a comment I once read in a DIY wind power book about the old Wincharger units that used an airbrake mechanism attached to the rotor which would deploy by having two revolving flaps mush into the airstream, slowing the rotor by aerodynamic drag. The author compared it to applying the brakes on a car while keeping the accelerator depressed. What is needed is both a manual and automatic means to *furl* the machine--something that is totally missing from these units. Ah, well, nothing like reinventing the wheel.
I installed a similar 400W model from another mfr at an off grid cabin. I used a guyed pole attached to a large hinge at the base. I can lower and raise the pole with a winch. Took about 6 months for the turbine to break in. In strong gusts, I will briefly get 2-300 watts, but usually get around 50 watts in a moderate breeze. Works great at night when no power is coming in from solar panels.
i bought a 6 blade 1.5 meter dia unit, claimed to be 1400 watts. But on unpacking was only 1.1m diameter, and a fraction of the weight i expected. So spun it up with an allen key in its shaft (no blades) with a 1100 watt power drill on high speed. Best loaded reading i got was 9.7 amps at 13..8 volts.(supplied controller, and halogen lamps as load) In actual use even in a storm, it never turns that fast, mostly in a good wind, the best it ever steady outputs is 3- 4 amps(peak gusts 6amps) I Would never buy anything without an output warranty now. (if its cheap, its unlikely to be good) Read up about diameter actually needed for a given output, you need big blades for any useful amount of power.
We ran the old Airex 40 watt alternators 17 years ago on our remote broadband towers, what a waste of money at that time for the power generated. And noisy, similar size blades and folks could hear them running a mile and a half away [of course we were on top of hill above everyone] one thing about wind power, it needs to be 20 to 30 feet ABOVE any obstacles within 200 meters, preferably gr8r distance, which is why the old timers towers were often 85 to 100 feet tall on the plains states. For warming AND cooling year round, dig into the earth about 3 meters deep you will find a constant temperature, using PVC drain pipe in trenches [providing enough land to lay several pipes side by side 400 plus feet] and a blower, the constant temperature will allow for tropical fruit to be grown in the northern climates! Yes more spendy than a wind generator, but it works well. Have an awesome time with experimenting, it is how we all learn!!
I know your a man and men never read the instructions. But never let the windmill free-wheel without a load on it, as it will burn out the regulator. If you have to switch batteries then you have to stop the windmill from turning. Hitting 19 volts you have already fried the regulator
To see 400 watts you need to have a 20 amp load. Watts are a product of amps load times volts. No load = no watts. Amps aren't pushed, amps are drawn by load creating watts.
Great point! I never even thought about that, but my charge controller only shows the amps as they are drawn(on the battery amps), not what is in the batteries. This is after the batteries are full of course.
Wind turbines for full output are rated from 65 ft for straight line winds with no rotor thats why it says up to 400 watts. Poor placement will effect the output.
@@techlab-gi1uz rule of thumb with wind turbines: 4.5-6m means from peak of home NOT the ground. Lol Amateur mistake. Ex: if u have a 2 story house ur windmill needs to be 4.5-6m above ur 2nd story to catch prevailing winds.
@kcotte59 that is true, but HAWTs don't work well in turbulent air. In order to catch a nice smooth stream of air, you need to get up above anything that might create turbulence, such as a house. If you can get a steady 10MPH at 4ft. great! No need for a huge pole. You'll greatly increase your chances at 4.5-6m above the house though.
In my my neighbors backyard she installed a 12x10 shed two years ago with that shed now in the backyard. The turbulence of the wind is much greater. We now hear howling and get snow drifts we never had before. So I can see why you would want the turbine up above the structures in that area
@@revanmandalore4407 The gobment has a map showing the average wind speeds/direction in your area. They also specify clear air, meaning no ground obstructions that create turbulence, reducing wind turbine life and efficiency.
Wind generators are so over-priced. This guy paid $650/KWh of energy production. That, on top of how inefficient wind generators are, it really isn't a good investment unless you live in an area where wind is fairly stead y all year around. Montana, Nebraska, and other open areas where the wind blows pretty regular, that's one thing, but these are simply a waste of money for most of us.
When I was in my 20s I worked for employers that wanted me to enrich them and wanted to retire. In my 50s as I got closer to real retirement I began to think. What will I do with my time? I can't stay in my house watching the paint dry. Then I found a cause. Move the planet off fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. Now I work away happily on things that matter and could care less about retirement. The key is to do something meaningful that you enjoy. Good luck with your work.
@@mattbruns239 I have a small consulting business and help people to move their homes and buildings off fossil fules and onto renewable energy. The key is heat pumps and solar panels for space heating and domestic hot water. My website is buildingsciencetrust.com
I myself would parallel the break switch with a electronic relay (inside the break switch housing case) controlled by a micro controller with sensors tapped into the AMP reader, So it would switch on/off the breaks for me depending on my logic.
Probably needs to be installed higher up. The Ideal height is at least 65 feet (yes I really mean that 20m/65F) which is terrifically high and you need some serious gear to get it up that high. But you did get some decent speed out of it in the demo. Probably best to track the current with properly configured wind turbine charge controller as it charges into the battery (the battery load will be the load). But you are probably right - the windings and field strength on these cheap things generally are way lower than required to produce the rated capacity at the rated RPM. Keep in mind though that rated capacity is at the MAXIUM recommended speed. So if you know the max RPM you spin it up artificially (with a power drill etc) to the max and then read off the power from the charge controller. You will probably find it is well short of the rated capacity.
I use to work in the Solar Industry. If I use to use any Chinese equipment, I use to assume that it will perform only 50% from it rated capacity. e.g. if I had a 200 watts Solar Panel, I use to consider that I should be happy if it gave me 100 watts. That way I was never felt disappointed!
The battery is the load for the windmill as it's effectively a battery charger. When you turn on the the lamps you are putting load on the battery, not the windmill. You can't measure amperage without a load. The current you're measuring is the load, the work being done is the charging of the battery.
I like to explain it this way. The energy has nowhere to go if the batteries are full and there is nothing to consume the power: hence no load. If there is no load, there is no wattage because V * I = W. So voltage can be present without load and current will not be flowing.
In my experience with wind vane self-steering sailboat units, I learned that a wedge shaped (v-shaped) tail fin is much more stable than a flat tail fin. The wedge prevents hunting while pointing directly into the wind because there is pressure on both sides of the wedge which keeps the wedge from wandering. Place a tab on one side of the wedge fin to achieve torque speed control. This reduced hunting will reduce gyroscopic precession stress on the bearings and on the blades. It should also increase the average power produced because of reduced hunting. What say you to that?
were you able to do any smoke studies on the wedge to see how far back the turbulence starts? you can see it on flag poles (wind speed factors) usually around the end of the 3 foot flag. i ask this as that turbulence will also affect the (apparent wind in sailing) but also the self seeking wind vane. i appreciate that observation of yours. my degree is in green energy and the wind turbines i know are all computer controlled and turned, held in place by brakes if needed. i kayak, but i would love to have a 30 foot off shore brig
You need to take some classes in electronics! The unloaded volts means nothing!power is the voltage times the amps at that time not the unloaded volts times what they said it will put out! It is the volts times the amps at the time it is putting out that amps. Next you will never get much out of that with it there. It needs to be in clear air, away from things. The air going around the house slows the air down and puts strange air currents in it. I noted some strange sounds form it when it was moving fast, not sure if it is because of the air currents or if it has a problem.
If I could get 150W out of that I would be thinking that's great! that would be 10A in other words 10Ah if the winds were steady - that would be a nice addendum to my solar. But I don't think it can do that
I bought one similar to this and had an issue with the slip ring assembly unthreading inside. I ended up drilling a hole in the side of it and threading the hole for a set screw to keep the slip ring assembly from unthreading and it worked fine after that.
One you didn't have the wind turbine high enough, you didn't balance the blades, And it probably wasn't at max wind rating for the turbine. Your not going to draw 400 wats all day every day because the wind isn't blowing 21+mph every day all day.
Very good video. Thanks. The best way how o measure the power of wind turbine is the same as for solar panel. Wind turbine power output is slightly exponential. To do power review is the best to measure the power at different wind speeds. Thus you must know the wind speed when ou are doing the measurement (at solar panel it is sun light intensity). Then at that specific wind speed, measure the PV characteristic of the wind turbine. Measure voltage at different loads by using two multimeters 0.1A, 0.3A, 0.6A, 1A,....10A, 12A,... these values might be your choice and draw PV characteristic of the wind turbine. Measure it quickly while the wind speed will not significantly change). As a load you can use powerful reostat which will hold 10-20A load or lot of light bulbs, which will be connected parallel to load. Then from your measurement find the peak of the power (current * voltage) at the current wind speed. That is the actual power of you wind turbine at that win speed. As stronger the wind is as more peak power you will measure on PV characteristic, so repeat this measurement at stronger wind or weaker wind. Then you can publish the table of the maximum power of this wind turbine at specific wind speed. That publishes 400W might be output for hurricane wind speed, not for average wind speed in urban or rural are. That is the trick of the manufacturers.
Depending on the wind speed for your area, a three blade may not be suitable if wind speed is say below 15 mph. Changing to a five blade may help capture more wind. 2. Did you read the specs on the turbine? the 400 watts is given at 28 mph ( i saw the specs) Did not see you mention the wind speed just saying "the wind picked up". What was the wind speed? #3. If you connect the battery to the turbine, The battery IS the load. Non-commercial small turbines are used to charge batteries not run things connected to it directly. 19 volts and 10 amps is good to charge batteries. . You are still some improvised product tester who doesn't understand fully the science. Read some more. is 2020 and you still haven't learned crap.
the problem with wind turbines? You need steady, strong winds. Any turbine I've looked at worth anything needs at least 12mph wind. I don't have that in my area. Not to mention you need a lot of height to maximize any wind effect you have, plus unobstructed 'tower fall' area 360 degrees around tower by many local codes. In plain English, if your tower falls in any direction, it must not be able to hit power lines, structures, roads, etc.
I noticed in the video (about a year old now) you said the installation was temporary. Got it. I hope your permanent installation was a good bit further from the house or frequently occupied areas. I've seen a number of turbine blades rapidly disassemble and they are quite dangerous. Brakes can and do fail in high wind. Also, the higher you can mount the better the wind. Hope your machine is doing well.
You don't understand how a turbine is made or what it is... A turbine is just a dc motor, they are made to offer a specific hp and operate at a specific wattage, A turbine can only operate to it's limit and after that it's not going to produce any more energy just like a 1 horse motor is not going to put out 2 HP, it will burn out if you push it past it's limits! The turbine has a brake to limit it in high winds, 400 watts is not very much wind, about 20-35mph. You don't want to operate it in gusty high winds, but normal wind around 17 - 20 mph it should produce around 300 watts, his turbine looks good and is made the same as all the rest of the 300-400 watt turbines, probably in the same Chinese shop as all of the rest of the American turbines...
They exaggerate the output because all the other wind turbines lie about their capacity too. I worked in the industry for years and company policy was NOT to disclose test results. It's like the 1000 watt stereo amp that runs off your car battery. BS.
@@bingosunnoon9341 Actually the 1000 watt car amps are max rated @ 2 ohms , so they are 1000 watts with 2 ohm speakers, they are not going to work with an 8 ohm speaker, in fact your 1000 watt amp that is rated for 2 ohms would be 250 watts @ 8 ohms and 125 watts with 16 ohm speakers. 400 watts of electricity is not exactly a lot, it is the max that the turbine will produce... It's not a big number or anything to brag about, it's just the max output rating... Meaning that if your in 35 MPH winds or 70 MPH wind your turbine will only produce 400 watts, but like solar panels your not going to be collecting the max 24/7 or even 6 hrs a day, you might get a steady 15 mph wind that only produces 200 watts.
How about an automotive alternator with the diode bridge altered to flow only AC? The average alternator peaks at ~1700 RPM, and you can install an external voltage regulator to boost the voltage up to around 17 volts. An alternator can pump out 130 Amps.
Thats why welders and jumper cables have such thick cable. Some welding machines are only around 12v but theyre at least 90 amps or more and using 14 gauge extension cord will burn in half in less than a couple seconds or catch on fire if you try to jump your car off with it
Why would you want ro take the diodes out and produce AC only to have to rectify it again to DC to charge a battery ? And whats with the 17volts ? 🤔 BTW an alternator produces 3 phase AC before being rectified & regulated... 🙄
Not sure how you took your readings, but... If you shorted out the turbine to take the amp reading the volts would be about zero. While you are taking the volt reading the amps are zero. You must take the readings at the same time with two meters. Otherwise, Loved the video
It looks like it needs a charge controller external so it does not overcharge the battery, and that putting a buck/boost inverter on it with a 14.5v output you would be set.
This is correct, over 13.8v, the battery will eventually sustain damage. Ideally, you need a MPPT charge controller (the most efficient) ***nice location!!!!
I will completely agree that this turbine will not easily produce anywhere near 400 watts, your math and loaded/unloaded commentary are not technically accurate. Unloaded would be with no battery or electrical load connected. But, don’t try that because in a brisk wind that machine will go crazy fast. Technically with a battery connected the wind generator is “loaded” and that is what it is designed to do. I have a lot of experience with small wind and solar on cruising sail boats and off grid homes over the last 20 years. The products available these days are far better than were around even just 10 years ago. That’s a good thing. Keep up with your work. Better to keep this topic live.
A short while back, when I was checking into wind turbines, I remember that states can have wind maps. The maps tell you the average wind speeds in a given area, can't remember if it was for each month. Additional helpful information was the suggested height to catch said wind. Most poles should be a minimum of 30 ft, and much taller to capture wind, especially higher than surrounding buildings and trees. Maybe that is a partial reason for it's poor performance? Thank you for the informative video, as always.
any way you could do a break down of the numbers? like in a week it produced X watts and that would cost X at a rate of X per watt and if this happend it would take X weeks to pay for the tubine (ROI), just found your channel out will definitively check it out, also have you thought of setting up a windturbines and solar panel farm? I saw the land you have, maybe build a fence around it and it might be able to make a bunch of passive income and lower your cost of livng, anyways just some video ideas
I like the ideas. My cost of living is pretty minimal right now. The really big chunk of land is not my unfortunately. I have built up quite a bit of passive income in the last 10 years allowing me to retire next year. I would love to be able to do that though!
I appreciate the review of the wind turbine. I am running 8 100 watt solar panels and I have been thing about adding two wind turbines. I quit buying anything from amazon. They will sell you anything to make money.
Great insight into the build just subscribed and it’s a nice compact turbine I also have built a homemade 650 watts wind turbine, a treadmill motor turbine and a little but powerful ametek 30v turbine and built 2 diy solar panels, be careful in high winds one of my first turbines blew up 😕and now have only 2 wonderful turbines working daily 😊it’s very satisfying watching those things working, keep up the good work buddy 👍
It makes no sense to say you are measuring Volts and Amps simultaneously for an unloaded turbine. Best to connect it to the battery. THEN measure Voltage & Amps. This turbine seemed to have difficulty reaching an open Voltage higher than the battery Voltage, which is necessary for current to flow so the battery can be charged. You can measure Volts for an unloaded turbine, which will be overspeeding due to being unloaded, giving a deceptively-high Voltage reading. Beyond that, unless a circuit is completed, how can Amps flow? If you connect the +/- output wires, you have loaded a turbine as high as you can load it by short-circuiting the output, which is the same as braking it. Obviously if the two wires are connected together there can be no Vo9ltage between them. When it comes to wind energy, not too many people know the first thing about it. Thanks for the video. That cracked spinner is a harbinger of things to come when it gets into a real wind. Hope you can find all the little pieces! :)
When choosing a wind turbine, consider three things: The rated wattage, the _rated wind speed_ , and, most important, your local seasonal wind conditions. This model says its rated wind speed is 28 mph, which means it needs 28 mph winds to reach the rated 400 watts. How often do you see 28 mph winds in your area? If the average wind speed in your area is half, you get roughly half the power (it's not really a linear relationship, but it's close enough for guesstimates). In this case, we'd need to know the average wind speed for the winter heating season in his area, and the average wattage needed to heat the greenhouse (harder to calculate than the wind!). If you putt a wattmeter on the heaters on a typical 24 hr period, that's a good number to start. Say the average wind speed is 14 mph - that means under ideal conditions, we'd get about 200 watts, average, from the wind turbine. 200 watts times 24 hrs is 4.8 KW-hrs. Lets say you have a 1000 watt heater. You monitor it for a day and find out it uses 10 KW-hrs. This shows you need at least an 800 watt wind turbine to take over almost all of the heating load during _average_ conditions. A 1000 or 1500 watt unit would be better to compensate for multiple days of slow or no wind. Of course, you'd have to run the same calculations with real numbers to get what you want.
Chris W facts, so basically if you have low winds say no more than 10 MPH wind just have 2-3 wind turbines that are for low wind so you can get 2-3 times that power, so for low wind speeds 3-10 MPH I’d get 3 200 watt wind turbines that can effectively run at that wind speed and still push in 600 watts of power, combo with solar panels you now have effective offgrid power to watch tv run a fridge washer, etc rtc
@@realtruth1448 What you're saying is essentially true. The issue is the trade-off for getting power from lower wind speed is size. Sure you can design a turbine to get some power from 5 mph winds, but it's going to be relatively large and costly for the amount of power you get, and it won't work well in higher winds. Those huge wind towers dotting the countryside aren't there to impress - their size is a trade-off of output power versus cost (total cost, including maintenance, transmission lines...). These small wind turbines are great, because you can do your own maintenance for very little cost, and if you can't repair them you don't beggar yourself replacing them. There is an old adage among wind turbine aficionados you might want to keep in mind: Every 10 feet in height adds about 5 mph average wind speed. I'm not sure how accurate it is, number-wise, but it is certainly true that average wind speed increases with altitude. So where five feet off your single-story roof might barely turn the blades, a 30-40 foot tower could give you consistent power. Also, keep the turbine 10 feet (3 meters) above any nearby obstructions. Placing it so close to his house, and apparently lower then the roof peak the way he did, will definitely cut your power output.
Chris W if you know a certain area rarely or never gets high wind speeds getting a 200 watt turbine, 3-4 of them you’re producing 600-800 watts which in combo with solar panels can more than enough produce power offgrid and live exactly the same as ongrid with lower maintenance also there’s small wind turbines that start turning at 3-5 MPH wind and can handle up to 50-60 MPH and 50-60 MPH would only hit that area if tornado or hurricane hits which you wouldn’t have to worry about if you pick nice area, the trade off is better, just have to know the weather and climate of your area, from my future offgrid home It’s never colder than 20 degrees F and never hotter than 95 degrees F and the winds rarely are over 20 MPH, also it gets cloudy during a 4 month period 75% of the time during that 4 month period that means my solar panels plus 3-4 200 WATT wind turbines can effectively provide me power year round without high maintenance or anything of that sorts, I can watch tv have wifi fridge washer dryer etc etc and still have power left over,
Chris W building a two story house, the point I will put turbines will be nearly 25ft off the ground which they will catch efficient wind, plus very simple and easy maintenance on a 200 WATT wind turbine because they’re small and low priced you can get an elite 200 WATT wind turbine for a little as 100$ and it works like a charm... if you want top of the line it’s still not running you more than 300$, boom 4 wind turbines 200 watt for 400$-1200$ and they’ll last for decades... simple and effective, going offgrid in Canada because the United States is going to shit
@@realtruth1448 Nice! Free power is always a good thing! I have a bunch of relatives in northeastern NY, 20 miles from Canada (south of Ogdensburg, if you know it), and that's cold enough for me, thanks! I moved to the southern US for a reason! :-)
I have one rated 300W, but only reaches full power when the wind is at or above 13m/s (29.1 MPH). Supposedly begins to charge at 3m/s (6.7MPH). If you check the min, ave and max wind velocities for your area, you'll see most places WILL NOT have sufficient average wind speed to even START charging, let alone reach full output, except for the occasional high-speed gusts of wind... I always needed an auxiliary battery charger just to run my marine radio in RECEIVE mode! I'm looking for a model that reaches full output around 4.5-6.7m/s (10-15 MPH), if they even exist! Any tips will be appreciated...
The Controller is built into the unit. 15 volts is the nominal output on the load side of the controller and 19 volts is probably no load maximum as set in the controller. Its more than possible for the wattage output to continue climbing while maintaining 15 v output since the unit was just not going fast enough you probably be able to get 400 watts out of it in perfect conditions (constant 50mph winds I guess)
I have a MUCH LARGER 3 BLADE and it will not come close to what you say your unit does.. finally gave up on the wind stuff.. went solar. a lot better but still needs a lot of tweaking.. not really cost effective short term . long term TBD.. in a couple years.. not holding my breath though.. just saying...if I could come up with a way to run my generators, for free, that would be great. not holding my breath on that either!
Ummm, don't you have to connect your actual load....(e.g. this heater you want to run), and measure the voltage UNDER LOAD to get your power output. Devices like these are HIGHLY non-linear, so you can't just extrapolate like you did in your calculation.
tarstarkusz they are actually great junk to have around your children. I have set up three wind turbines. All with parts from China and all work very well. In fact I have a Chinese hybrid controller and it works great. And I agree with the load part. And you will get bigger amps and watts with big long wind storms. It’s like the hose example. Once the hose fills with water and the pressure gets going it can peak out. And jump. So they have to say the highest so you can protect with the breakers and align everything. But in significant wind storms it will peak if you watch your logs.
From the height of those trees you are down in the turbulence from them.. The wind speed will be deceptive in that the turbulence doesn't deliver its power in one direction. You need to put it up above those wind breaks to get full efficiency. Among those trees you need solar panels or a higher tower.
I have a version of this it has been aloft for 2 years and 5 months with no issues in the 12 volt charging configuration which produces 200watt from 10mph constance breeze. I have yet to have it in the 24volt config 400watt
The only part of the system I would do different is... invest in deep cycle 2 volt batteries
Why 2 volt?
It is physically impossible for a turbine of that tiny diameter to make 200 Watts in a 10 MPH wind as any wind turbine person can tell you. There is very little power in a 10 MPH wind. :)
@@EyeAmAwakeEyeAmAware 6 x 2 volt = 12 volt array
deep cycle batteries like those found in fork lifts and the like if one 2 volt cell goes down or goes bad it is easily replaced rather then the whole array.
4:54 You didn't just put the unprotected wires through an unprotected freshly drilled hole in a metal pipe, did you? Shocking.
@@EyeAmAwakeEyeAmAware rrr
If you want to heat something, use solar thermal. basically lots of black rubber garden hose and a water tank. much more efficient than solar panel or wind.
cool thanks for the tip. I'll check it out!
I built a beer can heater years ago. It has rows of cans painted black with a hole down the middle of each row. Built as a thermoplane it raises inside temp. by fifty degrees on a sunny day and creates it's own airflow so no fan required. It fits in one of the windows to my den and slopes outside at an angle perpendicular to the height of the sun for maximum efficiency. Each fall I put it in the window and remove it each spring. It likely provides a good portion of my day time heating in my home and only blocks the lower ten inches of the window. Cost around fifty dollars to build and I've used it year after year. For a greenhouse it would be a good heating addition during the daytime.
Very cool! I will see what i can come up. I guess i'll have to come up with a way to empty some beer cans🤣
@@live.life.simple. Invite a bunch of friends over or a few construction workers. Mine uses around 120 cans. It's made from foil faced styrofoam with a greenhouse corrugated panel to hold in the heat. It's a double layer with the lower layer pulling in indoor air and the upper layer returned the heated air into the house.
Seeing this first time 2021, luv it
thank you for the video, I almost bought this to add to my grid but for 190W I might as well spend more for a panel.
A turbine and solar combo would be best
@@live.life.simple. will have to look into it
My small turbine lost a blade in a storm- We never -ever found it!
The 400W rating IS accurate. I tested it by hiding behind it, making sure to keep it between me and my wife as she yelled at me for buying it. It hit 400W just before the blades flew off, sticking in the ceiling and floor. I might try again with a beefier unit. I plan to mount it on a retractable pole above the bed, maybe tell her it's a ceiling fan. I'll lower it into place as she snores all night. I plan to do a grid tie system, and with the money I save, I can buy one of those cheap 'cornoavirus' plane tickets and make my escape....wish me luck.
You might need that plane ticket if your wife reads this comment.😉
This made my day.
Better to have the wind blow the blades off at you than to have the wife throw the blades at you. So you still had a win situation, sort of. And if the wife kills you before you have to pay child support that's technically a win also. Mostly.
I mounted my wind turbine to my wifes forehead. I never run out of power for my lights but she does suck out all of my energy
😆
Someone else had done a test with different wind turbines, it was chinese version that could deliver what it had promised. All 3 other American brands couldn't keep up with their promise. The brake is for when you have higher wind speed.
The reason that that turbine is not putting out 400 watts is most likely it's location. It needs to be up 50-65 ft to get clean air and it will be at its optimum. Too much turbulent air down low! Check the video from Missouri Wind and solar..Jeff does a great job explaining this.
400 Watts? Keep dreaming.
Had one similar to this on my yacht without charge control. One windy night on a mooring it blew all electrics including new fridge unit and solar panels. $18000 worth of damage. Make sure anything you buy has charge controller like one featured here.
Sept 2020 Amazon seller price is 399.00 plus 140.00 for shipping, WHAT A RIP OFF.
if you MEASURED 10amps then you were GIVING it a 10amp load (thats how you measure amps) so it was actually generating a load of 190w
Considering you have it bolted to your second story balcony that is actually pretty damned good. you really want it out in the middle of the field or HIGHER than your roof line. it needs "clear skies" ie no wind obstructions. 190 watts from your balcony is pretty impressive. sadly its not $540 on amazon. hopefully that $249 price will come back now and then because I want one now :-)
thanks
👍
Please be honest with us and do a video of when it breaks soon as you have a window over 50 miles an hour the charge controller will fry your alternator coil and at that point you can just throw it in the trash has a new coil cost $300 from China. You need to buy American-made turbines with local support and since I use a Delco car alternator as the base part for the generator you can get nuts and screws and even housings at your local auto parts store in case the tower falls in the casing cracks or you lose a part due to vibration.
I had one of those and it lasted three months before the charge controller tried to stop the turbine and it kept on spinning anyhow since the wind was 50 mph plus and I watched the whole thing go up in smoke.
My dad has a 400 watt turbine at his camp house on the river and it was hit by a tornado a couple years ago. All it did was rip the blades off of it. We just put new blades on it the other day and its still generating over 14 volts in a 15 mph wind and the brake still holds it when the batteries are full. Hes had the turbine now for around 8 years total and still works.
But not all turbinea are created equal just like anything else these days. Some crap cars last forever and some nice ones even blow up in a month.
Thanks. 190 amps doesn't sound like much but you have to keep in mind that it will be going into your batteries for hours each day so it will add up.
190 Amps is alot, enough to power my whole house
@@markyrocks69 190 amps at 110 volts is 20.9 kw, at 12 volts it is only 2.28 kw, and wiring able to carry 190 amps looks similar to car battery jumper cables.
@@loskop100 190 amp wire needs to be 4/0 which is way bigger than battery cables. I know life is hard but the OP comment was a typo.
It might perform better in a place where the wind is directional and not turbulent.
Near trees, constructions and the floor. Wind will form swirls and turbulence patterns even in a perfect laminar flow in a wind tunnel.
That's undesirable.
Lock washers are actually useless, they add nothing to the system and do not actually apply more pressure that is applied by the bolt. Also they dont provide any additional resistance to backing off. Properly torqued the bolt will hold itself. The ONLY ways to lock a nit or bolt is to safety wire, cross pin or locktite.
Are you putting a no-load voltage measurement with a non-related current measurement? If the 10 amps was into the battery, then it's probably at something more like 13 volts which is 130 watts.
I suspect that it's "internal controller" is little more than voltage or current limiting to protect the generator and its associated internal rectifier. You might be better served to connect a 20 amp MPPT solar controller between the generator and the battery as it will convert available power from the generator to the proper voltage for the battery as needed.
Except in coastal areas and some very specific "windswept plains" areas, there are not a lot of locations in the US with enough wind to be useful.
Check the maps here: windexchange.energy.gov/maps-data?category=residential
for the wind in your state 30 meters above ground.
.
I will check it out! Thanks
if you add some solar panels you can really make things with between the wind and panels together. also add a second battery and watch how much energy you use. be conservative.
Well , at 9.2 volts this thing aint gonna charge a 12 v battery , better to get some 6 volt batteries and charge them in parallels and use them in series .
So you got a mini pos instead of a large pos... Wind generator with moving parts is a nightmare. Throw it out. No moving parts bro.
The smaller the wind turbine the higher the COST per kWhr generated !
@3:15 Or just use nuts with nylon inserts that lock without washers.
You might want to consider using nylox nuts or double nutting the bolts to keep them secure.
Absolutely, thanks for the tip!
Nice... My windmill was a bit expensiver but it is allready working for years. ...
Which model do you have?
@@live.life.simple. ista breeze 500, look at my channel
@@utuberlars But it's in German?
@@infintemall8129 The channel utuberlars suggested is in GERMAN it's his language and has nothing to do with automaxx windmill. He has made his own, regards
With the annoying background music, I wasn't able to tell if the noise I was hearing was the turbine. Is it dead silent like it's supposed to be, or is that rubbing noise the turbine?
good info looks good!
TLDW: 190W w/no load.
Wondering if you used a single wire 100amp alternator ..hooked it to those blades.with pully system ..if youd get better results ..
No ...
I think NY has a wind tax...so I need to pay the State Wind tax so they can take best $ care of things for me. :)
WHAT!!!WIND TAX!?!? How the hell does that work
@@lweendohamusankwa1786 wind tax air tax thumb tax. NY is the Tax State :)
What should be the battery capacity for a solar street light of 12 v 15 w to light for one night that is 12 hours?
You need it on a pole higher then 8ft lol. Mine is on a 20 foot & I my peak watts is 398
For sure. Just a temp setup👌
I would have liked to see how you hooked up to battery and got AC.
DC-to-AC inverter
YOU DAMM RIGHT RETIRE EARLY SO YOU CAN ENJOY THE BASIC:S OF LIFE TRUST GOD FOR ALL THINGS
Less is often more. It makes you appreciate what is important. Thanks for your comment
Ordering one just for decoration.
😂
EQUASION IS (P OVER i X R SQUARE)? WHERE P IS POWER I CURRENT AND R IS THE RESISTANCE SQUARED I DO BELIEVE...
Thanks and love the lamp!
At first I thought explaining a lock washer was remedial. But with all the Gen-Z's around your right on. Good video !
a nylock would probably be better but would probably also need explain ing.😂
a nylock would work better, but another explanation would be required.😁
Hmmm. I'm not getting this. I wonder how you came out on this. But 190--load or no load is 190 watts. 19 volts seems high. If it's doing 10 amps then there is a load by definition.
I expect 400 watts is kind of a perfect condition. And you did say you saw the current at 20 amps at one point. That's pretty good. How did you come out on this?
Thank you for this Video
Good for you. MY dream to live off the grid and away from the city. ONce my daughter is off to college, IM doing it, with or without my wife. sorry Honey.
😂
So painful noise when the video is sped up... :)
You can get a custom nose cone to push the hub diameter out and and force more wind into the blades. This reduces your cut-in wind speed, making the windmill spin at lower wind speeds and faster at higher wind speeds.
Great tip! I'll look into it.
If that is only possible power its ok, with mppt charge controller you can get 100-200 watts at 12v i think
Chewbacca in the background at 7:06
The expectations are too high so would not purchase but thanks for saving me money
My pleasure, thanks for watching
Surely 19 volts at NO LOAD means 19 volts at zero amps ?!?! how do get 10 amps with no load?
Cool video. I have a question in the background I kept hearing a bunch of clattering I hope that wasn't the wind generator.
The noise was from the broken nose cone. It would not typically make that noise, just a hum when it gets wound up.
Researching blade diameter for the output you want, is the best way to spot the lies in ads, but my one even lied there too, claiming 1.5m diameter, but also claimed it was double its actual true weight.
Forgotten now, but think 1.2kw in moderate wind, would need something like 4m diameter minimum, and a big copper wound generator will not be light.
Mine is still running, with 2 equally cheap car wide angle led spot lights mounted on its pole, and max's at 8.4 amps at 12 volts in a gale, which light up the backyard nicely on such occasions, which is all its good for(garden ornament) .
I have had an unfortunate relationship with a German supplier of these EXACT LOOKING and RATED wind gens. The ones I purchased were rated for Marine applications and all had the internal 'brake' to prevent burnouts etc (yes, rated 400W).
Professionally installed with the test brake proven, they burnt out within weeks, replaced under warranty, they burnt out within six weeks( at 0.2 miles offshore) again...the company admitted there was a problem and supplied a diverting 'dump load' which was professionally installed and indeed the excess power was diverted until the battery bank was depleted and the generators burned out AGAIN in moderate/high winds...these gens cannot handle the power they are made to generate....I have seen a documentary about people living 'off-grid' in the Shetlands, talking about the storm that blew their generator up, guess which gen it was and where it comes from?.
Be wary, be told!
Conor, Marine Navigational Aids Engineer
Do you know the name of the mother company?
@@live.life.simple. I believe the product was called Air X Marine 24v also referred to as the Air Breeze, they were supplied by Sky Stream Energy (.eu) and appear (to me) to be identical to the one you show above...is there a LED in the tail that flashes to indicate the unit operating mode?
I don't know the mother company but I suspect a strong composition of 'chinesium' in it's manufacture....
Your question caused me to go through my records and I WAS WRONG to suggest they burned out supplying power (they are actually pretty good at that), the problem is when they go into self regulating mode either because the upper volt limit is reached OR because the wind exceeds a certain speed.
We fitted a diverting 'Dump Load' (Morning Star?) but that could never solve the internal 'high wind speed' brake and the generators burned out again...not a pretty situation; customer p'eed off, me p'eed off, local agent p...etc etc.
This was circa 2010/2011 and maybe the problem has since been solved (might be a good idea to establish date of manufacture for your unit)?
I would DEF recommend a dump load (Morning Star?) and that needn't be wasted energy either; consider a low voltage element to heat a water tank? THEN thermostat THEN Dump Load......
I hope this info is useful to you.
I attach below one of many emails regarding the problems we had, absolutely no reason that you might want or need to read it ....unless you're very bored!
Regards,
Con
In all it's glory... from me;
Hello xxxx,
further to our recent phone conversation and
discussion of the provision of external Load Dumps /regulator circuits
for the Wind Generator sites in xxxx Port, I can add the
following.......
Initial reports (and events) suggest the failure of one or both Wind
gen units (again).
I will visit and inspect both sites to confirm, hopefully this
Thur/Fri 13-14 Jan 2011 or very soon thereafter.
My initial reaction to fitting external Dump/Regulator is positive BUT
I have a very genuine concern that this WILL NOT provide a complete
solution for the following reason;
The unit as described in the Product Sheets and Product Manual not
only 'Brakes' or Regulates at the upper voltage levels but it ALSO
'Brakes' in high wind speeds.
IF the unit failures are due to the inability of the Internal
Regulation Circuitry to withstand/short the Coil output over time
(which is a design error, lets face it) then a carefully selected and
set external regulator can indeed 'dump' the excess power BEFORE the
internal circuitry is engaged at close to battery capacity levels....
HOWEVER, this does not account for the 'High Wind Speed' regulation,
which I am reasonably sure may persist for prolonged periods on any
site;
As described, the Wind Speed Regulation SHOULD be a 'separate
mechanism' from the high voltage threshold, (this is presented as an
ABSOLUTE, ie. the unit 'brakes' above a certain wind speed, the
implication is that it hasn't necessarily approached High Voltage
Levels), therefore, an external Reg/Dump will not be engaged and the
initial problem will persist.....and the units will fail
again.............
The above is reasoned speculation balanced with observation and
experience......I would hope to eliminate the speculation and propose
a way forward......
Firstly; I will copy this e-mail to Port of xxxx Authority.
Secondly; I will attend on site, report findings and/or remove the
Gens for return as appropriate. Meanwhile, I would hope that you will
address the issues raised with the Manufacturer and also review the
previous failures on site against any 'other' known issues.
Thirdly; I will await your input and discuss with Port of xxxx. I
cannot speak for the customer, but for myself I would say the choices
are twofold; either accept that a properly engineered solution is
probable, practical and provided in a timely fashion,
OR....
.........Reject the Wind Gen units as 'unsuitable to
purpose'......such subsequent actions as they may take, given the
recorded failures and investment of 'man-hours' to attend......one can
only speculate......
That's it, we are all 'sick of' the failures in xxxx and a solution
is required; we had one, if only the Wind Gens performed as specified.
Regards (more like regrets),
Connor Mc Grath Principal Engineer ATON Services Ireland
+Con McGrath - The idea of shorting the generator's output in high winds to "brake" the turbine is crazy on its face. It is a sure guarantee to burn out the generator windings. It reminds me of a comment I once read in a DIY wind power book about the old Wincharger units that used an airbrake mechanism attached to the rotor which would deploy by having two revolving flaps mush into the airstream, slowing the rotor by aerodynamic drag. The author compared it to applying the brakes on a car while keeping the accelerator depressed. What is needed is both a manual and automatic means to *furl* the machine--something that is totally missing from these units. Ah, well, nothing like reinventing the wheel.
I installed a similar 400W model from another mfr at an off grid cabin. I used a guyed pole attached to a large hinge at the base. I can lower and raise the pole with a winch. Took about 6 months for the turbine to break in. In strong gusts, I will briefly get 2-300 watts, but usually get around 50 watts in a moderate breeze. Works great at night when no power is coming in from solar panels.
i bought a 6 blade 1.5 meter dia unit, claimed to be 1400 watts. But on unpacking was only 1.1m diameter, and a fraction of the weight i expected. So spun it up with an allen key in its shaft (no blades) with a 1100 watt power drill on high speed.
Best loaded reading i got was 9.7 amps at 13..8 volts.(supplied controller, and halogen lamps as load)
In actual use even in a storm, it never turns that fast, mostly in a good wind, the best it ever steady outputs is 3- 4 amps(peak gusts 6amps)
I Would never buy anything without an output warranty now. (if its cheap, its unlikely to be good) Read up about diameter actually needed for a given output, you need big blades for any useful amount of power.
It's now $400 on amazon, People must have bought it cause they always jack up the price when something gets popular. Supply and Demand.
We ran the old Airex 40 watt alternators 17 years ago on our remote broadband towers, what a waste of money at that time for the power generated. And noisy, similar size blades and folks could hear them running a mile and a half away [of course we were on top of hill above everyone] one thing about wind power, it needs to be 20 to 30 feet ABOVE any obstacles within 200 meters, preferably gr8r distance, which is why the old timers towers were often 85 to 100 feet tall on the plains states.
For warming AND cooling year round, dig into the earth about 3 meters deep you will find a constant temperature, using PVC drain pipe in trenches [providing enough land to lay several pipes side by side 400 plus feet] and a blower, the constant temperature will allow for tropical fruit to be grown in the northern climates! Yes more spendy than a wind generator, but it works well. Have an awesome time with experimenting, it is how we all learn!!
I know your a man and men never read the instructions. But never let the windmill free-wheel without a load on it, as it will burn out the regulator. If you have to switch batteries then you have to stop the windmill from turning. Hitting 19 volts you have already fried the regulator
I have known several people who have tried to make use of low end (
To see 400 watts you need to have a 20 amp load. Watts are a product of amps load times volts.
No load = no watts.
Amps aren't pushed, amps are drawn by load creating watts.
Thanks for the info!
Great point! I never even thought about that, but my charge controller only shows the amps as they are drawn(on the battery amps), not what is in the batteries. This is after the batteries are full of course.
Exactly. Amps are drawn by the load. No load, No amps.
@@kenbarnett9415 lol batteries don't have amps "in" them per se. what the actual fuck are you talking about?
@@Claymore1977 I broke open a car battery the other day and all the amps fell out.
I Skipped the toys and went for real power. Twin 2kw turbines and 8kw of solar. It was cheaper than getting a line installed.
Wind turbines for full output are rated from 65 ft for straight line winds with no rotor thats why it says up to 400 watts. Poor placement will effect the output.
Each wind gen should have a mount height requirement. Mine says in the manual 4.5 to 6m, which is 15 to 20 Feet.
@@techlab-gi1uz rule of thumb with wind turbines: 4.5-6m means from peak of home NOT the ground. Lol
Amateur mistake. Ex: if u have a 2 story house ur windmill needs to be 4.5-6m above ur 2nd story to catch prevailing winds.
@kcotte59 that is true, but HAWTs don't work well in turbulent air. In order to catch a nice smooth stream of air, you need to get up above anything that might create turbulence, such as a house. If you can get a steady 10MPH at 4ft. great! No need for a huge pole. You'll greatly increase your chances at 4.5-6m above the house though.
In my my neighbors backyard she installed a 12x10 shed two years ago with that shed now in the backyard. The turbulence of the wind is much greater. We now hear howling and get snow drifts we never had before. So I can see why you would want the turbine up above the structures in that area
@@revanmandalore4407 The gobment has a map showing the average wind speeds/direction in your area. They also specify clear air, meaning no ground obstructions that create turbulence, reducing wind turbine life and efficiency.
Wind generators are so over-priced. This guy paid $650/KWh of energy production. That, on top of how inefficient wind generators are, it really isn't a good investment unless you live in an area where wind is fairly stead y all year around. Montana, Nebraska, and other open areas where the wind blows pretty regular, that's one thing, but these are simply a waste of money for most of us.
How do you get Amps (current) without a load when current = voltage divided by resistance (load)?
The meter is the load
When I was in my 20s I worked for employers that wanted me to enrich them and wanted to retire. In my 50s as I got closer to real retirement I began to think. What will I do with my time? I can't stay in my house watching the paint dry. Then I found a cause. Move the planet off fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. Now I work away happily on things that matter and could care less about retirement. The key is to do something meaningful that you enjoy. Good luck with your work.
you are right. sometimes it takes an entire life to figure out what is important (happiness).
So what is it you do then
@@mattbruns239 I have a small consulting business and help people to move their homes and buildings off fossil fules and onto renewable energy. The key is heat pumps and solar panels for space heating and domestic hot water. My website is buildingsciencetrust.com
👌
happiness is key. glad you found your path
I myself would parallel the break switch with a electronic relay (inside the break switch housing case) controlled by a micro controller with sensors tapped into the AMP reader, So it would switch on/off the breaks for me depending on my logic.
And also the brake?
What's the price I need one
@@willysigei4414 0
Probably needs to be installed higher up. The Ideal height is at least 65 feet (yes I really mean that 20m/65F) which is terrifically high and you need some serious gear to get it up that high. But you did get some decent speed out of it in the demo. Probably best to track the current with properly configured wind turbine charge controller as it charges into the battery (the battery load will be the load). But you are probably right - the windings and field strength on these cheap things generally are way lower than required to produce the rated capacity at the rated RPM. Keep in mind though that rated capacity is at the MAXIUM recommended speed. So if you know the max RPM you spin it up artificially (with a power drill etc) to the max and then read off the power from the charge controller. You will probably find it is well short of the rated capacity.
I use to work in the Solar Industry. If I use to use any Chinese equipment, I use to assume that it will perform only 50% from it rated capacity. e.g. if I had a 200 watts Solar Panel, I use to consider that I should be happy if it gave me 100 watts. That way I was never felt disappointed!
I completely agree. It's not just solar panels, it's that way with most everything chinese made!
There was a new material invented about 30 years ago called Chinesium. It is only slightly different from pure shite.
Spring washers are useless. If you don't want the nuts to undo, use nylock nuts.
The battery is the load for the windmill as it's effectively a battery charger. When you turn on the the lamps you are putting load on the battery, not the windmill.
You can't measure amperage without a load. The current you're measuring is the load, the work being done is the charging of the battery.
I was going to point this out as well.
Yes...and since the battery is almost charged fully...your current load decreases.
I like to explain it this way. The energy has nowhere to go if the batteries are full and there is nothing to consume the power: hence no load. If there is no load, there is no wattage because V * I = W. So voltage can be present without load and current will not be flowing.
In my experience with wind vane self-steering sailboat units, I learned that a wedge shaped (v-shaped) tail fin is much more stable than a flat tail fin. The wedge prevents hunting while pointing directly into the wind because there is pressure on both sides of the wedge which keeps the wedge from wandering. Place a tab on one side of the wedge fin to achieve torque speed control. This reduced hunting will reduce gyroscopic precession stress on the bearings and on the blades. It should also increase the average power produced because of reduced hunting. What say you to that?
All great ideas. I appreciate the tips!
Thank you
Arf?
Hey,nice tip.thanks.
were you able to do any smoke studies on the wedge to see how far back the turbulence starts? you can see it on flag poles (wind speed factors) usually around the end of the 3 foot flag. i ask this as that turbulence will also affect the (apparent wind in sailing) but also the self seeking wind vane. i appreciate that observation of yours. my degree is in green energy and the wind turbines i know are all computer controlled and turned, held in place by brakes if needed.
i kayak, but i would love to have a 30 foot off shore brig
You need to take some classes in electronics! The unloaded volts means nothing!power is the voltage times the amps at that time not the unloaded volts times what they said it will put out! It is the volts times the amps at the time it is putting out that amps. Next you will never get much out of that with it there. It needs to be in clear air, away from things. The air going around the house slows the air down and puts strange air currents in it. I noted some strange sounds form it when it was moving fast, not sure if it is because of the air currents or if it has a problem.
Yep.. 150watts was my best guess when you unpacked it.. 400watts would need to be a much bigger unit with bigger blades...
If I could get 150W out of that I would be thinking that's great! that would be 10A in other words 10Ah if the winds were steady - that would be a nice addendum to my solar. But I don't think it can do that
I bought one similar to this and had an issue with the slip ring assembly unthreading inside. I ended up drilling a hole in the side of it and threading the hole for a set screw to keep the slip ring assembly from unthreading and it worked fine after that.
One you didn't have the wind turbine high enough, you didn't balance the blades, And it probably wasn't at max wind rating for the turbine. Your not going to draw 400 wats all day every day because the wind isn't blowing 21+mph every day all day.
Thanks foe your comment cory
Typical marketing. It will produce "up to" 400 W, meaning it won't go over. But you can be sure it will be under... Way under!
Very good video. Thanks. The best way how o measure the power of wind turbine is the same as for solar panel. Wind turbine power output is slightly exponential. To do power review is the best to measure the power at different wind speeds. Thus you must know the wind speed when ou are doing the measurement (at solar panel it is sun light intensity). Then at that specific wind speed, measure the PV characteristic of the wind turbine. Measure voltage at different loads by using two multimeters 0.1A, 0.3A, 0.6A, 1A,....10A, 12A,... these values might be your choice and draw PV characteristic of the wind turbine. Measure it quickly while the wind speed will not significantly change). As a load you can use powerful reostat which will hold 10-20A load or lot of light bulbs, which will be connected parallel to load. Then from your measurement find the peak of the power (current * voltage) at the current wind speed. That is the actual power of you wind turbine at that win speed. As stronger the wind is as more peak power you will measure on PV characteristic, so repeat this measurement at stronger wind or weaker wind. Then you can publish the table of the maximum power of this wind turbine at specific wind speed. That publishes 400W might be output for hurricane wind speed, not for average wind speed in urban or rural are. That is the trick of the manufacturers.
I calculate ~32 MPH wind for 400 watts output ...
You should include your INVERTER WATTS AND BATTERY BANK HOW MANNY AH CAPACITY BRO
No inverter, he's running an all dc system.
in this case his battery won´t load because the output voltage of the turbine is lower than the battery voltage
Depending on the wind speed for your area, a three blade may not be suitable if wind speed is say below 15 mph. Changing to a five blade may help capture more wind. 2. Did you read the specs on the turbine? the 400 watts is given at 28 mph ( i saw the specs) Did not see you mention the wind speed just saying "the wind picked up". What was the wind speed? #3. If you connect the battery to the turbine, The battery IS the load. Non-commercial small turbines are used to charge batteries not run things connected to it directly. 19 volts and 10 amps is good to charge batteries. . You are still some improvised product tester who doesn't understand fully the science. Read some more. is 2020 and you still haven't learned crap.
You ask to much of youtuber.
the problem with wind turbines? You need steady, strong winds. Any turbine I've looked at worth anything needs at least 12mph wind. I don't have that in my area. Not to mention you need a lot of height to maximize any wind effect you have, plus unobstructed 'tower fall' area 360 degrees around tower by many local codes. In plain English, if your tower falls in any direction, it must not be able to hit power lines, structures, roads, etc.
LOL, heating a greenhouse work a 400 watt turbine.
You'll probably need 3kW 24/7.
But hey, it's a start. Thanks for the review! 😊
I knew this video would be FUN.
I was really just trying to charge a battery to run a heat lamp for a few hours a day. Just enough to take the chill out of the air.
I noticed in the video (about a year old now) you said the installation was temporary. Got it. I hope your permanent installation was a good bit further from the house or frequently occupied areas. I've seen a number of turbine blades rapidly disassemble and they are quite dangerous. Brakes can and do fail in high wind. Also, the higher you can mount the better the wind. Hope your machine is doing well.
My turbine lost a blade- We never ever found it! (two years now)
bro the wind mill is restricted due to your hight of the wind mill you need to put it about 30 to 60 feet hight
What if it was installed on an RV? When you drive it would blow the hell out of that thing! Lol!😀
10 of these in parallel might be useful, otherwise, no.
400 watts in a hurricane, just before it disintegrates
You don't understand how a turbine is made or what it is... A turbine is just a dc motor, they are made to offer a specific hp and operate at a specific wattage, A turbine can only operate to it's limit and after that it's not going to produce any more energy just like a 1 horse motor is not going to put out 2 HP, it will burn out if you push it past it's limits!
The turbine has a brake to limit it in high winds, 400 watts is not very much wind, about 20-35mph. You don't want to operate it in gusty high winds, but normal wind around 17 - 20 mph it should produce around 300 watts, his turbine looks good and is made the same as all the rest of the 300-400 watt turbines, probably in the same Chinese shop as all of the rest of the American turbines...
They exaggerate the output because all the other wind turbines lie about their capacity too. I worked in the industry for years and company policy was NOT to disclose test results. It's like the 1000 watt stereo amp that runs off your car battery. BS.
@@bingosunnoon9341 Actually the 1000 watt car amps are max rated @ 2 ohms , so they are 1000 watts with 2 ohm speakers, they are not going to work with an 8 ohm speaker, in fact your 1000 watt amp that is rated for 2 ohms would be 250 watts @ 8 ohms and 125 watts with 16 ohm speakers.
400 watts of electricity is not exactly a lot, it is the max that the turbine will produce... It's not a big number or anything to brag about, it's just the max output rating... Meaning that if your in 35 MPH winds or 70 MPH wind your turbine will only produce 400 watts, but like solar panels your not going to be collecting the max 24/7 or even 6 hrs a day, you might get a steady 15 mph wind that only produces 200 watts.
very true indeed
😆
How about an automotive alternator with the diode bridge altered to flow only AC? The average alternator peaks at ~1700 RPM, and you can install an external voltage regulator to boost the voltage up to around 17 volts. An alternator can pump out 130 Amps.
Thats why welders and jumper cables have such thick cable. Some welding machines are only around 12v but theyre at least 90 amps or more and using 14 gauge extension cord will burn in half in less than a couple seconds or catch on fire if you try to jump your car off with it
Why would you want ro take the diodes out and produce AC only to have to rectify it again to DC to charge a battery ? And whats with the 17volts ? 🤔
BTW an alternator produces 3 phase AC before being rectified & regulated... 🙄
@@carlcox7332 nope... 🙄
@@peterfitzpatrick7032 Not to convert to DC, but use the AC.
@@peterfitzpatrick7032 An automotive alternator can only produce ~ 17 volts.
Not sure how you took your readings, but... If you shorted out the turbine to take the amp reading the volts would be about zero. While you are taking the volt reading the amps are zero. You must take the readings at the same time with two meters. Otherwise, Loved the video
It looks like it needs a charge controller external so it does not overcharge the battery, and that putting a buck/boost inverter on it with a 14.5v output you would be set.
This is correct, over 13.8v, the battery will eventually sustain damage. Ideally, you need a MPPT charge controller (the most efficient) ***nice location!!!!
I will completely agree that this turbine will not easily produce anywhere near 400 watts, your math and loaded/unloaded commentary are not technically accurate. Unloaded would be with no battery or electrical load connected. But, don’t try that because in a brisk wind that machine will go crazy fast. Technically with a battery connected the wind generator is “loaded” and that is what it is designed to do. I have a lot of experience with small wind and solar on cruising sail boats and off grid homes over the last 20 years. The products available these days are far better than were around even just 10 years ago. That’s a good thing. Keep up with your work. Better to keep this topic live.
What would you recommend for a wind and solar Combo for a boat
A short while back, when I was checking into wind turbines, I remember that states can have wind maps. The maps tell you the average wind speeds in a given area, can't remember if it was for each month. Additional helpful information was the suggested height to catch said wind. Most poles should be a minimum of 30 ft, and much taller to capture wind, especially higher than surrounding buildings and trees. Maybe that is a partial reason for it's poor performance?
Thank you for the informative video, as always.
any way you could do a break down of the numbers? like in a week it produced X watts and that would cost X at a rate of X per watt and if this happend it would take X weeks to pay for the tubine (ROI), just found your channel out will definitively check it out, also have you thought of setting up a windturbines and solar panel farm? I saw the land you have, maybe build a fence around it and it might be able to make a bunch of passive income and lower your cost of livng, anyways just some video ideas
I like the ideas. My cost of living is pretty minimal right now. The really big chunk of land is not my unfortunately. I have built up quite a bit of passive income in the last 10 years allowing me to retire next year. I would love to be able to do that though!
Have had one for 7 years. It has survived so far 4 hurricanes. have had to change the blades twice, but she's still going!
Good to know! Thanks
@Berry Swan - Where do live? What is the average wind speed?
Biggest myth: "lock washers" prevent screws from getting loose. Only thing which works is loktite.
Thanks for the tips! I really liked the vid: good speed, clear voice, straight to the point...that's what vids should be like. Good job!
thanks for watching
I appreciate the review of the wind turbine. I am running 8 100 watt solar panels and I have been thing about adding two wind turbines. I quit buying anything from amazon. They will sell you anything to make money.
Do you live where it is very WINDY?
@@vtorsi610 Not the majority of time. I have one wind turbine and now I am adding to my solar panels.
Ah dude I just purchased a "1000w" China turbine kit.... Bet she puts out like 100w 🙄
Music is way too loud, so it's really hard to hear what you're saying in the video.
Great insight into the build just subscribed and it’s a nice compact turbine I also have built a homemade 650 watts wind turbine, a treadmill motor turbine and a little but powerful ametek 30v turbine and built 2 diy solar panels, be careful in high winds one of my first turbines blew up 😕and now have only 2 wonderful turbines working daily 😊it’s very satisfying watching those things working, keep up the good work buddy 👍
I used an ametek motor on a garden windmill until my neighbors tree tore it down. What style is yours?
It makes no sense to say you are measuring Volts and Amps simultaneously for an unloaded turbine. Best to connect it to the battery. THEN measure Voltage & Amps. This turbine seemed to have difficulty reaching an open Voltage higher than the battery Voltage, which is necessary for current to flow so the battery can be charged.
You can measure Volts for an unloaded turbine, which will be overspeeding due to being unloaded, giving a deceptively-high Voltage reading. Beyond that, unless a circuit is completed, how can Amps flow? If you connect the +/- output wires, you have loaded a turbine as high as you can load it by short-circuiting the output, which is the same as braking it. Obviously if the two wires are connected together there can be no Vo9ltage between them. When it comes to wind energy, not too many people know the first thing about it.
Thanks for the video. That cracked spinner is a harbinger of things to come when it gets into a real wind. Hope you can find all the little pieces! :)
When choosing a wind turbine, consider three things: The rated wattage, the _rated wind speed_ , and, most important, your local seasonal wind conditions. This model says its rated wind speed is 28 mph, which means it needs 28 mph winds to reach the rated 400 watts. How often do you see 28 mph winds in your area?
If the average wind speed in your area is half, you get roughly half the power (it's not really a linear relationship, but it's close enough for guesstimates). In this case, we'd need to know the average wind speed for the winter heating season in his area, and the average wattage needed to heat the greenhouse (harder to calculate than the wind!). If you putt a wattmeter on the heaters on a typical 24 hr period, that's a good number to start.
Say the average wind speed is 14 mph - that means under ideal conditions, we'd get about 200 watts, average, from the wind turbine. 200 watts times 24 hrs is 4.8 KW-hrs. Lets say you have a 1000 watt heater. You monitor it for a day and find out it uses 10 KW-hrs. This shows you need at least an 800 watt wind turbine to take over almost all of the heating load during _average_ conditions. A 1000 or 1500 watt unit would be better to compensate for multiple days of slow or no wind. Of course, you'd have to run the same calculations with real numbers to get what you want.
Chris W facts, so basically if you have low winds say no more than 10 MPH wind just have 2-3 wind turbines that are for low wind so you can get 2-3 times that power, so for low wind speeds 3-10 MPH I’d get 3 200 watt wind turbines that can effectively run at that wind speed and still push in 600 watts of power, combo with solar panels you now have effective offgrid power to watch tv run a fridge washer, etc rtc
@@realtruth1448 What you're saying is essentially true. The issue is the trade-off for getting power from lower wind speed is size. Sure you can design a turbine to get some power from 5 mph winds, but it's going to be relatively large and costly for the amount of power you get, and it won't work well in higher winds.
Those huge wind towers dotting the countryside aren't there to impress - their size is a trade-off of output power versus cost (total cost, including maintenance, transmission lines...).
These small wind turbines are great, because you can do your own maintenance for very little cost, and if you can't repair them you don't beggar yourself replacing them.
There is an old adage among wind turbine aficionados you might want to keep in mind: Every 10 feet in height adds about 5 mph average wind speed. I'm not sure how accurate it is, number-wise, but it is certainly true that average wind speed increases with altitude. So where five feet off your single-story roof might barely turn the blades, a 30-40 foot tower could give you consistent power. Also, keep the turbine 10 feet (3 meters) above any nearby obstructions. Placing it so close to his house, and apparently lower then the roof peak the way he did, will definitely cut your power output.
Chris W if you know a certain area rarely or never gets high wind speeds getting a 200 watt turbine, 3-4 of them you’re producing 600-800 watts which in combo with solar panels can more than enough produce power offgrid and live exactly the same as ongrid with lower maintenance also there’s small wind turbines that start turning at 3-5 MPH wind and can handle up to 50-60 MPH and 50-60 MPH would only hit that area if tornado or hurricane hits which you wouldn’t have to worry about if you pick nice area, the trade off is better, just have to know the weather and climate of your area, from my future offgrid home It’s never colder than 20 degrees F and never hotter than 95 degrees F and the winds rarely are over 20 MPH, also it gets cloudy during a 4 month period 75% of the time during that 4 month period that means my solar panels plus 3-4 200 WATT wind turbines can effectively provide me power year round without high maintenance or anything of that sorts, I can watch tv have wifi fridge washer dryer etc etc and still have power left over,
Chris W building a two story house, the point I will put turbines will be nearly 25ft off the ground which they will catch efficient wind, plus very simple and easy maintenance on a 200 WATT wind turbine because they’re small and low priced you can get an elite 200 WATT wind turbine for a little as 100$ and it works like a charm... if you want top of the line it’s still not running you more than 300$, boom 4 wind turbines 200 watt for 400$-1200$ and they’ll last for decades... simple and effective, going offgrid in Canada because the United States is going to shit
@@realtruth1448 Nice! Free power is always a good thing! I have a bunch of relatives in northeastern NY, 20 miles from Canada (south of Ogdensburg, if you know it), and that's cold enough for me, thanks! I moved to the southern US for a reason! :-)
I have one rated 300W, but only reaches full power when the wind is at or above 13m/s (29.1 MPH). Supposedly begins to charge at 3m/s (6.7MPH). If you check the min, ave and max wind velocities for your area, you'll see most places WILL NOT have sufficient average wind speed to even START charging, let alone reach full output, except for the occasional high-speed gusts of wind... I always needed an auxiliary battery charger just to run my marine radio in RECEIVE mode! I'm looking for a model that reaches full output around 4.5-6.7m/s (10-15 MPH), if they even exist! Any tips will be appreciated...
A dab of lock-tite would also keep the nuts/bolts together.
Yes👍
The Controller is built into the unit. 15 volts is the nominal output on the load side of the controller and 19 volts is probably no load maximum as set in the controller. Its more than possible for the wattage output to continue climbing while maintaining 15 v output since the unit was just not going fast enough you probably be able to get 400 watts out of it in perfect conditions (constant 50mph winds I guess)
I have a MUCH LARGER 3 BLADE and it will not come close to what you say your unit does.. finally gave up on the wind stuff.. went solar. a lot better but still needs a lot of tweaking.. not really cost effective short
term . long term TBD.. in a couple years.. not holding my breath though.. just saying...if I could come up with
a way to run my generators, for free, that would be great. not holding my breath on that either!
good to know. Keep me informed on your results
Ummm, don't you have to connect your actual load....(e.g. this heater you want to run), and measure the voltage UNDER LOAD to get your power output. Devices like these are HIGHLY non-linear, so you can't just extrapolate like you did in your calculation.
10-4 thanks for your help
Do you really want this Chinese junk anywhere near your children?
tarstarkusz they are actually great junk to have around your children. I have set up three wind turbines. All with parts from China and all work very well. In fact I have a Chinese hybrid controller and it works great.
And I agree with the load part. And you will get bigger amps and watts with big long wind storms. It’s like the hose example. Once the hose fills with water and the pressure gets going it can peak out. And jump. So they have to say the highest so you can protect with the breakers and align everything. But in significant wind storms it will peak if you watch your logs.
From the height of those trees you are down in the turbulence from them.. The wind speed will be deceptive in that the turbulence doesn't deliver its power in one direction. You need to put it up above those wind breaks to get full efficiency. Among those trees you need solar panels or a higher tower.
It is still an over-priced piece of junk ...