We have had a week of high winds here with a blowing snow storm. Winds were sustained at 35 mph on Wednesday and 25 mph on Thursday. Gust reached 45+ mph. I have my 2 gennys, a 30v Ametek and the 24v Indiana. Both were putting out about 15.5 volts with 3 batteries hooked up. The battery voltage was about as high so I installed a 50w 12 volt light to bring it down. (I haven't got my controller working yet and I didn't check open voltage). The amp reading for the Indiana was at 7 to 8 while the Ametek was at 3.5 to 4. (These readings were after I let the multimeter settle from its initial high reading). I figure that is about 186w. If you remember I have a 2 bladed prop on the Ametek and spins much faster than the 3 blades on the Indiana. Both are about 5.5' in diameter.
The PVC blades have held up fine. The 2 blades set does make a lot of noise but it is not loud enough to bother anyone. You can't hear it in the house. Although the blades are working fine I believe that they could be working better. Speo might be right with his wood blades. I would have expected more volts at 30 mph.
I highly recommend the Indiana to anyone building a genny. Lots of power at slower speeds and much safer. The Ametek will spin at lower wind speeds but it does not take that much more to spin the Indiana.
How often do you expect high wind speeds in your neck of the woods?
I'd think you'd want to aim for gathering the bulk of your production from median wind speeds. Does the Indiana provide superior output at the median wind speed?
This is not a usual condition although we normally have periods of high winds. BTW I checked my weather station and I had a gust at 53.9 mph.
My goal has been to get good power from winds under 10 mph. The Ametek spins in 1-2 mph winds. The Indiana out performs the Ametek at winds where it will turn. So if the startup wind speed is at 5 mph for the Indiana than both will produce the same voltage but the Indiana will produce almost twice the amps. Todays winds are around 12 to 15 mph and they read about 12 volts. I didn't check the amps.
I am almost always getting around 6 volts from the Ametek and I was looking at a 6v to 12v booster but have been advised against it.
I have the turbine connected in parallel. I got 3 of the cheap Harbor Freight multimeters and connected one to each turbine in front of the diode and one to the point where they come together to the batteries. I am reading turbine output out of the two and battery charge from the third. None of my readings then would be open voltage. I have checked open voltage and it is much higher as you would expect. Open voltage on the Indiana is higher than the Ametek but I haven't quantified it so I don't have a accurate report.
If there is a light wind the two in front of the turbine will read below the third which is reading the battery voltage (its been at about 12.64 volts). I am using a battery with a bad cell as a voltage regulator until I can finish my contoller. It is working pretty well. During the period of very high winds the battery did get over 15 volts but as soon as I put a load on it it dropped to 13+.
High wind performance
Posted - 09/02/2008 : 17:27:32
