catastrophic de-comissioning

[Ralph Day]

Hi all

My xmas surprise was a non functioning H80 wind turbine. Once it became light enough to see, I was shocked to see what was there...or rather what was not there.

I think it's truly done now. The rotor can was repaired in the spring, then the pivot bushing in the fall. Too much maintenance!

Ralph

[Rob Beckers]

Nasty surprise Ralph!
I suppose Santa didn't put a new turbine under the tree for you this year? :blink1:

Is that second picture a blade root that tore off the hub (taking part of the hub with it)? Looks pretty definitive.. If the blades are still good you could make up a new hub plate, put them back on. At least until you find a replacement turbine.

How many years did you get out of it?

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

Hi Rob
The turbine went up in Sept of 2004. Bearings 5 years later, this past fall bearings again. Also beefed up the pivot pin and bushing (SWWP garbage).

Household insurance is replacing the turbine, disconnect and controller with a Bergey XL and Midnite Solar controller. I like the maintenance requirements for the Bergey, repack the bearings in 8-10 years. Sounds like a much better built unit than SWWP. Werner, in Bancroft wind and solar sounded surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

I'm going to replace the top 20 foot section of tower. It's been flexing and straining for 10+ years, so for $150 for pipe and paint it's time.

Not looking forward to doing turbine and tower work in the cold, so i'll have to see if it's a spring job. A warm day would do it, provided thetre's not snow and ice covering everything (cables, couplers etc).

Wish me luck.

Ralph

[Rob Beckers]

10 years out of a SWWP turbine is probably not a bad deal.. In particular if your insurance foots the bill for a replacement.

Not many small turbines left on the North American market that are worth considering; people often ask me for recommendations for a small turbine. Most of the time I tell them to put more solar panels up (there's not much wind around here anyway, and at today's prices even for off-grid it usually makes more sense to invest in more PV vs. a small wind turbine). For small turbines the Bergey XL.1 is about the only one left that I hear good things about (some bad things too, but overall the good seems to outweigh the bad), and that's what I recommend most of the time.

If anyone has recommendations for a quality turbine in the 300 - 600 Watt range please let me know. That's a popular category (mainly because they don't require such a large investment in money). I don't know what to tell or recommend people at this time.

Ralph, you may be able to do the work in winter this year: No snow around here right now (a first!), and next week once again has +8C in the forecast. It's been very mild so far!

-RoB-

[Brian McGowan]

I won't make a recommendation but I will say that the one I put up almost 5 years ago seems to be doing well. It is just a simple GM alternator with a Neo permanent magnet core instead if the electromagnet it would normally have. I got it for about $300. There really is nothing to go wrong with it. I haven't had it down since I put it up. I call it the sledgehammer of wind turbines. It is not elegant or fancy. It is an alternator with blades on the front. Nothing more.