Why why why does my wind turbine not spin

[texasjames]

This is going to sound rediculous.....i bought a brand new 400 watt wind turbine and set it up. The thing NEVER turns. I can very lightly push it with my finger and it rotates just fine. But up on the pole it never turns. He's a video of it in heavy winds:

Will not spin

suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

It looks like you have it nestled in an area where it doesn't actually get much wind, or where the wind is so turbulent, it never drives the turbine.

They need to be installed at least 30' above ground and outside of the influence of structures, trees, etc.

 

[OzSolar]

Wow.... @sunshine_eggo nailed it.

You could unhook the wires, cap them off an reinstall it, then see if it spins.

I have a similar wind turbine at my place. Didn't even bother to run wires to it but it is in a wide open area. It spends most of it's time struggling to even be decent wind vane let alone spin. But to be honest I really enjoy watching it spin when it does so it was $115 well spent.

During some super high wind days I've driven my 36v golf cart up next it and played around with charging 2 of the 6V batteries (12v) and the most I've even seen it do for more that a few seconds was 3 amps but even that's limited to 20 seconds or less. Every once in a while it would hit 7 amps but that was less than a second.

 

[SeaGal]

I suspect the power supply you have connected it to is not powerful enough to get it to rotate

 

[Hogheavenfarm]

the proximity of the roof is causing turbulence. I have the same issues, and a taller mast is in its future. Placement should not be near any buildings, Mine is between two barns, so I use the funnel effect of the wind between the buildings to spin it, but that only works for winds coming from the south or north, a strong westerly wind wont budge the blades at all. Your sloped roof is deflecting wind from that direction and 180 degrees from that as the wind builds up and over the building, higher than your turbine.

 

[OzSolar]

I suspect the power supply you have connected it to is not powerful enough to get it to rotate

During my days of early utility scale wind it was not uncommon to "motor" them during the ribbon cutting ceremonies if there wasn't enough wind. True story.

 

[texasjames]

another really dumb question....
After your battery is charged and you disconnect it....what happens with the energy being produced by the turbine with no load connected?

This is going to sound rediculous.....i bought a brand new 400 watt wind turbine and set it up. The thing NEVER turns. I can very lightly push it with my finger and it rotates just fine. But up on the pole it never turns. He's a video of it in heavy winds:

Will not spin

suggestions? Thoughts?

 

[Solar Guppy]

another really dumb question....
After your battery is charged and you disconnect it....what happens with the energy being produced by the turbine with no load connected?

For wind, you need what is called a dump load, otherwise, the blades can over rev and destroy the unit.

Likely not an issue for your installation though.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

For wind, you need what is called a dump load, otherwise, the blades can over rev and destroy the unit.

Some have brakes as well. IIRC, shorting the output leads together notably limits the top speed of the turbine.

Likely not an issue for your installation though.

 

[labeeman]

another really dumb question....
After your battery is charged and you disconnect it....what happens with the energy being produced by the turbine with no load connected?

The same thing that happens when you do not plug in any thing in the wall socket.

 

[OzSolar]

For wind, you need what is called a dump load, otherwise, the blades can over rev and destroy the unit.

Likely not an issue for your installation though.

I believe that turbine and many others are a clone of the original AIR 403. 400 watts 3 blades.

Their literature did state that they didn't need a dump load due what they called "acoustic speed limiting". I may not be getting the wording exactly right but what it meant is that at high wind speeds the blades could deflect enough this spoiling thier lift which made them really noisy. Noise = energy being dumped

My little turbine has been running for months not hooked up to anything. I guess we can't upload videos here but I've got a 3 second video of it spinning wildly with those trees in the background bending way over.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

The same thing that happens when you do not plug in any thing in the wall socket.

Not necessarily a good analogy. The load on a wind turbine limits the speed of a wind turbine. In high winds, without a dump load or rotor brake, the wind turbine can overspeed.

Extreme example:

 

[texasjames]

Some have brakes as well. IIRC, shorting the output leads together notably limits the top speed of the turbine.

I have it hooked to a small controller that came with the unit and the output from the controller runs to a car battery. I've tried it connected to the battery and also unconnected. The thing never, ever turns. Is it possible the controller is doing some kind of "brake"? I'm about to give up trying to get the wind to turn this thing.

 

[gotbeans]

Not necessarily a good analogy. The load on a wind turbine limits the speed of a wind turbine. In high winds, without a dump load or rotor brake, the wind turbine can overspeed.

Extreme example:

Brake failure. Almost none of these large scale wind turbines use diversion loads (other than dumping into grid and shutting down other power stations). It's very good for small turbines though.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I have it hooked to a small controller that came with the unit and the output from the controller runs to a car battery. I've tried it connected to the battery and also unconnected. The thing never, ever turns. Is it possible the controller is doing some kind of "brake"? I'm about to give up trying to get the wind to turn this thing.

Disconnect from the controller and see. I'm still sticking with a poor installation that prevents quality airflow to spin the turbine.

 

[texasjames]

Very windy today. I thought "at last....i'll see it spinning..."

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Very windy today. I thought "at last....i'll see it spinning..."

Why? It's clearly in horribly turbulent airflow installed at too low a height in a horrible location. It would probably perform better INSIDE the house as at least it's not getting periodically whipped around, and you can have fun spinning it by hand to generate some mW.

 

[Bluedog225]

Howdy neighbor.

There is only sadness in wind.

A single panel is going to dramatically outperform that turbine.

Day in/day out. No moving parts. Better in almost every domain.

 

[OzSolar]

Looks like it's spinning.... about the yaw axis. Sorry, couldn't help myself. That thing has got your number.

I'm going to tie a piece of fabric like that on mine and see how it acts when it's spinning. Good idea! It certainly does tell the story in your case.

There's a quote by Marcellus Jacobs saying something like his "wind turbines were so efficient at catching all the wind you could stand behind the rotor and smoke a cigarette". I don't think that's what your little turbine is doing.

The below link will take you to a great article on small wind.

Wind Power History: Marcellus Jacobs Interview​

 

[Steve777]

It looks like you have it nestled in an area where it doesn't actually get much wind, or where the wind is so turbulent, it never drives the turbine.

They need to be installed at least 30' above ground and outside of the influence of structures, trees, etc.

More than just that, the rule of thumb is 30' above the tallest obstacle within 200'. So it needs to be above the tops of those trees....

 

[Steve777]

I'd agree with OzSolar, looks like a clone of the Air403 turbine. Assuming it is, and that they copied all of the original's features, those AIR403's came in 3 voltages, 12, 24 and 48v; with the intention to be connected to a battery of that voltage. They had a built in charge controller, so no need to connect/disconnect it from the battery or add a charge controller or dump load. But a few things to be aware of:

Can't recall if that was one, but a few of those models from that company needed to have a load, their CC would fry itself if the rotor was turning with no load.

The Air403 used a unique blade design to limit power in high winds, the blades fluttered and stopped making power. Cleaver idea but VERY noisy.

I'd be sure it is connected to the right voltage battery, and one that needs some charging if you want to see its prop spin. But as said, in its current location you're not likely to be able to get much out of it.

 

[brandnewb]

My little turbine has been running for months not hooked up to anything. I guess we can't upload videos here but I've got a 3 second video of it spinning wildly with those trees in the background bending way over.

animated gif is what saved my day when wanting to show something rotating

 

[brandnewb]

This look more to me like a problem with the blades not being attached correctly. try reversing them. Things might be less grim.

as there is absolutely no reason for HAWTs to not spin in turbulent conditions. Sure they suck in those scenarios but some spinning should occur.

I think we should reevaluate the installation procedure.

 

[sak54895]

The old 403 had a charge indicator light , does this unit have one? If it's blinking green that means the unit thinks the batteries are fully charged and the controller has put the electro mechanical break on.
The unit itself is not high enough, it has to be well above the tree line.
Someone else suggested the blades could be on backwards. When Southwest made these they made the blades so they could only go on correctly, but who knows with the knock offs, I'd certainly check it out.
The problem with small scales wind has always been the tower expense. Using the 1/7th power law we'd always go as high with the tower as economically feasible