Dan Lenox
2nd June 2008, 15:57
All,
(5/29) About a month ago a buddy of mine and I attempted to raise the blades onto the wind turbine at the top of my 70' freestanding tower. A number of technical glitches prohibited us from accomplishing this task. Believe me after that day I certainly had both 'tower envy' for those with tilting towers, and secretly wished that I had gone solar.
While I really like the aesthetics of the free standing tower, it provides me with challenges that those who have tilting towers never have.
Recently I completely rewired my tower (making it far better than original), put up a long Kellem wire grip onto my cables, made my davit crane better, added eye bolts on top to clip onto, replaced my C40 with a Tristar TS60, completed all wiring, among many other tasks.
Let's just say that I have become quite proficient at climbing my tower, and I understand a lot more now about inverter back-end systems than when started.
Up till recently I had to wait till the weekends to perform any work on the tower/turbine, but problems of weather/wind/logistics I have not been able to get the blades and tail up onto the turbine. It is always windy here and that along with the non-tilting tower have provided many obstacles.
Last Thursday the weather report finally was kind to me and we had next to perfect weather with only 3-4mph winds. So I took the opportunity to try to get things operational here.
First up were my blades and tail sections onto the turbine. The stator was shorted so that the rotors could be turned but would inhibit the blades from rotating. With the stator shorted you can turn the rotors, it does not turn easily but this gave me the ability to align the rotor to the holes on the hub.
Here is a picture with me threading the nuts onto the threaded rod that holds the blades onto the turbine. I used lock washers, lock tite, and double nutted each stud:
482
Once the blades were on the brake actuator was engaged to positively keep the blades from rotating, and the guide rope was removed.
Next up was the tail this was a little more difficult as the lift point was a little bit off on the tail. The lift point should be slightly off center and away from the tail vane so that it can be put onto the yaw bearing easily, my lift point was on the side towards the tail vane making it slightly difficult to maneuver. But eventually I was able to man-handle it and get it onto the pivot point.
The next picture shows that the lift point was too far out and was also a reach for the winch as well:
483
Once the crane was lowered the gentle wind rotated the turbine to point into the wind, I was cautious and made sure that I did not get in the way of it swinging. The crane worked *very* well and I am quite happy with how it performed.
Next comes Murphy's law again - the telescoping tower stub. When we connected the winch and attempted to lift the stub it would not move. As it started to lift I could see resistance from the lower mounting plate.
Last fall prior to having the crane lift the tower into position the stub was checked out to ensure that it could rotate in the mounting collars, if it can rotate, the it can be telescoped. I suspect that since the tower was lifted by the top mounting plate that the alignment of the collars got 'tweaked' a bit. I put a long bar through the pin hole and tried to rotate the stub, but it would not move.
Hind site being what it is I believe that I should have made the lower mounting plate with the collar separated - instead of welding them together. And then using some L's on the collar and bolted them through the top of the plate would have been the best solution. The mounting bolt holes could be slotted to allow the collar to be shifted and easier to get/keep aligned. Experience really does make a difference in these small design and construction details. While I really like the aesthetics of the free standing tower, it provides me with challenges that those who have tilting towers never have.
At this point I had been on the tower easily 4 hrs and was getting tired so decided to call it a day.
I believe that what I need to do is loosen up the bolts that hold the mounting plate to the tower and align the collars. A job for another day!
Here are a couple of pictures of the tower with the completed turbine mounted:
484485486
(6/2) OK the weather gods were with me again, perfect weather with just a hint of a wind. Murphy is still around - but I beat him today - and got the telescoping stub raised! In climbing the tower early this morning I realized that the lower mounting plate could not be removed for modification since 1/2 the lattice braces are located on the inside of the tower structure. So instead I loosened the bolts that held the lower mounting plate in position and when I got the winch mounted into place and gave it a try, this time it worked!
In my working with the design that I have I found one thing that repeatedly came back around - forgetting to design in allowances for things like hooks. It has been a close call on a couple of occasions (sometimes by inches) and I barely squeaked by with enough room or height.
But it all finally came together for me today and I got the wind turbine raised and into operating position.
Here are some of the pictures that I took from various angles:
487488489490
481
In the next week or so I can finally get the turbine operational and get some electricity generated and data accumulated.
Once I can get my transfer switch installed between my electric meter and my main panel I can push any 'extra' power generated back into the grid.
Recently I took pictures from the top and stiched them into two panoramic 180 degree images, they can be seen at:
http://www.briery.com/wind_turbine/images/panoramic_view_sm.jpg
http://www.briery.com/wind_turbine/images/panoramic_view2_sm.jpg
Dan Lenox
(5/29) About a month ago a buddy of mine and I attempted to raise the blades onto the wind turbine at the top of my 70' freestanding tower. A number of technical glitches prohibited us from accomplishing this task. Believe me after that day I certainly had both 'tower envy' for those with tilting towers, and secretly wished that I had gone solar.
While I really like the aesthetics of the free standing tower, it provides me with challenges that those who have tilting towers never have.
Recently I completely rewired my tower (making it far better than original), put up a long Kellem wire grip onto my cables, made my davit crane better, added eye bolts on top to clip onto, replaced my C40 with a Tristar TS60, completed all wiring, among many other tasks.
Let's just say that I have become quite proficient at climbing my tower, and I understand a lot more now about inverter back-end systems than when started.
Up till recently I had to wait till the weekends to perform any work on the tower/turbine, but problems of weather/wind/logistics I have not been able to get the blades and tail up onto the turbine. It is always windy here and that along with the non-tilting tower have provided many obstacles.
Last Thursday the weather report finally was kind to me and we had next to perfect weather with only 3-4mph winds. So I took the opportunity to try to get things operational here.
First up were my blades and tail sections onto the turbine. The stator was shorted so that the rotors could be turned but would inhibit the blades from rotating. With the stator shorted you can turn the rotors, it does not turn easily but this gave me the ability to align the rotor to the holes on the hub.
Here is a picture with me threading the nuts onto the threaded rod that holds the blades onto the turbine. I used lock washers, lock tite, and double nutted each stud:
482
Once the blades were on the brake actuator was engaged to positively keep the blades from rotating, and the guide rope was removed.
Next up was the tail this was a little more difficult as the lift point was a little bit off on the tail. The lift point should be slightly off center and away from the tail vane so that it can be put onto the yaw bearing easily, my lift point was on the side towards the tail vane making it slightly difficult to maneuver. But eventually I was able to man-handle it and get it onto the pivot point.
The next picture shows that the lift point was too far out and was also a reach for the winch as well:
483
Once the crane was lowered the gentle wind rotated the turbine to point into the wind, I was cautious and made sure that I did not get in the way of it swinging. The crane worked *very* well and I am quite happy with how it performed.
Next comes Murphy's law again - the telescoping tower stub. When we connected the winch and attempted to lift the stub it would not move. As it started to lift I could see resistance from the lower mounting plate.
Last fall prior to having the crane lift the tower into position the stub was checked out to ensure that it could rotate in the mounting collars, if it can rotate, the it can be telescoped. I suspect that since the tower was lifted by the top mounting plate that the alignment of the collars got 'tweaked' a bit. I put a long bar through the pin hole and tried to rotate the stub, but it would not move.
Hind site being what it is I believe that I should have made the lower mounting plate with the collar separated - instead of welding them together. And then using some L's on the collar and bolted them through the top of the plate would have been the best solution. The mounting bolt holes could be slotted to allow the collar to be shifted and easier to get/keep aligned. Experience really does make a difference in these small design and construction details. While I really like the aesthetics of the free standing tower, it provides me with challenges that those who have tilting towers never have.
At this point I had been on the tower easily 4 hrs and was getting tired so decided to call it a day.
I believe that what I need to do is loosen up the bolts that hold the mounting plate to the tower and align the collars. A job for another day!
Here are a couple of pictures of the tower with the completed turbine mounted:
484485486
(6/2) OK the weather gods were with me again, perfect weather with just a hint of a wind. Murphy is still around - but I beat him today - and got the telescoping stub raised! In climbing the tower early this morning I realized that the lower mounting plate could not be removed for modification since 1/2 the lattice braces are located on the inside of the tower structure. So instead I loosened the bolts that held the lower mounting plate in position and when I got the winch mounted into place and gave it a try, this time it worked!
In my working with the design that I have I found one thing that repeatedly came back around - forgetting to design in allowances for things like hooks. It has been a close call on a couple of occasions (sometimes by inches) and I barely squeaked by with enough room or height.
But it all finally came together for me today and I got the wind turbine raised and into operating position.
Here are some of the pictures that I took from various angles:
487488489490
481
In the next week or so I can finally get the turbine operational and get some electricity generated and data accumulated.
Once I can get my transfer switch installed between my electric meter and my main panel I can push any 'extra' power generated back into the grid.
Recently I took pictures from the top and stiched them into two panoramic 180 degree images, they can be seen at:
http://www.briery.com/wind_turbine/images/panoramic_view_sm.jpg
http://www.briery.com/wind_turbine/images/panoramic_view2_sm.jpg
Dan Lenox