My Windsave house mounted wind turbine.....
My Windsave going at a rate of knots with the wind coming straight at it across a field rather then from the direction of houses. These machines really NEED direct un-turbulent wind, if you are exposed to the wind, buy one! My Windsave replaces a smaller turbine I had on top of a 'wobbly' pole - shown in another video. It sometimes looks like it's standing still due to camera strobing -but notice the blade tips are blurred - its doing about 300/600 rpm), Took two guys, a day to install it, and away it went, whizzzzzzzzz!!:-)) A few Questions answered:- It's made in China. The Turbine itself outputs around 200-250v DC The turbine has to spin fast enough to produce 200v before the inverter cuts in and starts exporting power, so its spins at a rate of knots. It HATES turbulence - unless you are well exposed to the wind, consider that you may have to retrofit at a taller location. I'm going to leave mine for a bit, but I'm already considering taking it off the house and fitting it on a taller tower to catch the wind better - but I'll leave it where it is for now so the community will get used to seeing it in the sky before I have it up any higher! It sounds like an electric garden strimmer but louder, not at all unpleasant. You can't generally hear it in the house due to the rubber mounts, but you can sometimes hear a low shudder, like you get when a heavy truck pulls away in the distance, again not at all intrusive. The whole turbine often pivots right around on the pole thanks to swirling air currents, it could do with a bigger tail fin where it is, better still, cleaner airflow! Verdict - mine needs a taller tower. There is a house 50 yards away and scattered trees in the direction of the prevailing airflow, then its open fields. The prevailing wind needs a clear run to the turbine, if you are unsure, go-ahead and have one fitted, but if it disappoints, consider a taller tower in the future- this will make a huge difference. The Windsave surveyer wasn't sure if it would operate well and told me so, and they were right, but as I had a 'Plan B' -the idea of a taller tower, I wasn't too worried. Windsave send out a surveyer at their expence to check if your location is suitable, so if in doubt, take their advice. Come on Windsave, how about a tall freestanding tower kit as a retrofit option?? :-)) UPDATE We were lucky to be properly exposed to a field so it did work - did being the operative word, the field is now full of trees, so it doesn't run like that any more, so now I put my money on to large scale renewables - google 'energy4all' and Westmill Wind Farm. Solar PV and hot water is the way to go for domestic instillations. I solved the problem of the turbine hunting back and forth by fitting a 'damping cuff' to the mast, I greased up the round boss the turbine is attached to (rotates with the yaw bearing) and bound Gaffer tape around the boss and the top of the pole (same diameter) this acts as a friction damper and stops the oscillation.
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Anyone still using a windsave effectively? I have one sitting in the barn and am considering putting it up in an exposed position at the end of a steel barn. Sitation is an award-winning ecohouse in the Cotswolds which already generates more energy from PV and ETs than it uses but the site is fairly windy and it would be good to produce another 500w or so on breezy days to supply the base load of the house. Any advice out there?
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UPDATE - it was prone to 'hunting' in and out of wind so I fitted a motion damper to the pole and solved the problem, I was lucky, mine faces a field, so many of these things face other roof tops that chew up the wind and ruin their productivity, solar has since become so cheap, its become a far better technology for domestic energy production anyway.
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just watched video and wonder if you can help you say its made in china ,i dont suppose you know the name of the comapny as i have a windsave inverter doing nothing and am wanting to get a wind turbine regards
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Having just rewatched the video, the turbine is displaying the classic problem of roof mounting, at best it gets up to speed for a few seconds, then stops and "hunts" for the wind due to the turbulence induced by the building - to make meaningful quantities of power, a turbine needs to get it's head into the wind, and "churn" for a long period - in the vicinity of a building it needs to be up a very tall mast to get up above the turbulence, sadly you won't get planning consent for one.
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Windsave went broke (at the end of 2009) because the damned things just don't produce any meaningful amounts of electricity when roof-mounted - they were true "chocolate teapots" - do a search on youtube for "Newsnight Windsave" and you'll see the MD admit they'll produce £10-worth pa (if you're lucky)
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