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Old 05-29-13, 08:12 AM   #1
nexsuperne
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Default Hornet sc60 wind turbine on clear blades

I have recently fitted one of these to replace my 48 volt 1kw Futurenergy turbine. Results so far are better than the FE unit, even though the swept area is smaller (60 inches vs 72 inches). I think this is down to a non-furling tail and less cog resistance on the generator. There are 10 clear hornet polycarbonate blades on this, which eliminate shadow flicker completely. To stop them becoming a giant magnifying glass, a mist coat of grey primer spray paint was applied to the back of the blades. The SC60 has put out over a kilowatt in a 35mph wind, and because the turbine starts making power at just 60rpm, it makes some power in the 10mph winds. The SC60 is charging my 48 volt system and was chosen with the 10 blade hub as most of the time the wind is in the low speed 15-45mph range. It has been known to hit 75mph, but only in bad weather. I have a 'watts up' meter connected to it as a crude data logger. I will go down the usb pc monitoring route, as I already have the pc tracking all power use from the grid.
The manufacturer has had his turbine flying in 100mph+ winds with no problems. These are designed to spin the blades at 2000rpm, but the generator will run at 18,000 rpm!

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Old 05-29-13, 09:28 AM   #2
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Do you have any pictures of the new turbine? Sounds like its working out quite well.
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Old 05-31-13, 01:57 PM   #3
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Default Clear blade pictures

Turbine pictures.

This is mounted on my roof, which is a 3 storey building. One side has nothing in the way, as it is towards the river. In winter, when the solar output is low, the wind comes in from the river at anything from 15 mph to 75 mph. Spring winds are fairly constant at 25 mph. The rest of the time the solar makes way more per day, but then that's the beauty of a hybrid system. It is all supported on 2" scaffold tube with heavy duty rubber naval engine mounts, which make a huge improvement to the generator cogging noise that would normally be transmitted through the structure.



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Old 05-31-13, 02:33 PM   #4
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Looks really cool haha.

How much power does the turbine normally make in ~25 mph winds?
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Old 05-31-13, 03:25 PM   #5
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Quote:
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Looks really cool haha.

How much power does the turbine normally make in ~25 mph winds?
Roughly 800 watts
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Old 06-06-13, 08:02 AM   #6
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Looks great, thanks for mentioning the rubber mount(s) keeping the vibration noises low inside the structure. I was curious about that.

I live in an area with poor wind resource, but if we had the wind resource, I'm sure something like this could easily be done after about 5 years of arguing with the naysayers for permission to do something as extreme as this.
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Old 06-06-13, 08:46 AM   #7
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Average wind speed in the United States is 11mph a good site is 13mph.

Swept area is the collector size because once the turbine is spinning moving air doesn't sneak between the blades, it just goes around them if there is to much energy being extracted.
The advantage of more blades is higher torque in low wind for things like pumping water.

If you removed half of your blades I'm pretty sure you'd see your power output increase.
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Old 06-06-13, 01:10 PM   #8
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Can you give us some pics, details and sources for your naval mounts? Sounds like a great way to eliminate the noise problems with a structure mounted generator.
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Old 06-12-13, 03:56 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland View Post
Average wind speed in the United States is 11mph a good site is 13mph.

Swept area is the collector size because once the turbine is spinning moving air doesn't sneak between the blades, it just goes around them if there is to much energy being extracted.
The advantage of more blades is higher torque in low wind for things like pumping water.

If you removed half of your blades I'm pretty sure you'd see your power output increase.
I will try that tomorrow. I can run either 2,5 or 10 blades with this hub and still maintain balance.
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Old 06-13-13, 08:53 AM   #10
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Wax those clear plastic blades with automotive wax/protectant like Meguiar's Gold Class to keep them looking like that. Most people don't realize that car wheels and plastic lenses need UV and surface protection just like the paint does. Ever notice how many cars with plastic headlights have fogged/yellowed lenses?

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