TLG 500 Wind Generator

ws9876

anyone know anyone who has one of these....about 1250$
from Wisconsin

BB.

Re: Tlg 500

I assume this is the home page.

There are a few threads here--none that really have much information (that I could see).

-Bill

ws9876

Re: Tlg 500

another cheap option is the Applied Magnets 500 and 900 watt units for about 650. I figure that 900 watt means 450 watts but its cheap. I need to find someone who has one. Maybe the best way to get into cheap wind is buy a budget unit and find out what to re inforce before it goes up.Its not a furling unit which I dont like
but maybe it could be modified.

System2

Re: Tlg 500

Yeah, I have two of them, LOVE THEM, We had Christmas eve 55mph winds, I was producing between the two of them 110 amps!!!! BELEIVE IT! Check out the web page www.TLGwindpower.com, look under customer reveiws with pics. I'm John M. in Penfield N.Y. Terry has to update for 2008. I have six l-16's 1100amp hours, the wind blew for 48hrs. 25-55mph, we could not use all the power we were producing, the dump load was burning 25amps up also. We live in upstate N.Y. and wind in winter the wind is great, the summer not so good. Are you thinking of purchasing one? Do it, you will not be disapointed. TOLFG.

ws9876

Re: Tlg 500

the only comment i've got is from a company review. I should expect that.
thats enough information for me. I'm moving on.

Windsun

Re: Tlg 500

We have not been able to get a lot of feedback information on these so far.

Have recently (past month) talked to two people that had one, and both were pretty much satisfied. But we would like more reviews from users before we take a closer look at them.

They apparently also make a blade upgrade for the Air 403, but no info on how well it works, and it seems to be currently "under revision".

System2

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

I was looking through the site and saw this thread on the TLG-500.
I have owned one here in Alaska for 2 years. This thing works well and has survived my 40 below temps while spinning away. The bearings are still tight and it has not needed any maintenance or repair.

If you go to TLGs site I am in the reviews as Scott from Alaska. You will see another guy on their who has bought 10 of them last time I looked who also swears by them.

Mine is below the tree level except from the south and west. When the wind blows from the other directions it swirls through and just beats my tower and TLG-500 up. I have had gusts to 63 mph that made me secure my windows better as they were flexing the glass.

It is tough and puts out more power than his site says. Anyone who thinks these metal blades will not hold up is wrong. I am running 3 sets of his blades now with out any flex or fatigue problems. One set is the 7' ones on a homemade generator that takes a lot of power to turn and they work great.

The blades spin up fast with very little wind. I tried a Air X and it was junk compared to the TLG-500. If you are always worried that your roof is going to blow away the Air X might do the job. Once spinning the TLG will still charge my 12 volt battery bank with 1/2 an amp down to 4 to 5 mph wind. Living off grid I want all I can get.

I run a 30 amp breaker on mine and it pops it at around 35 amps for to long. I found out the hard way I did not have enough diversion load to handle the TLG-500 as it does more than rated.

I was missing two washers when I got mine and emailed Terry to ask their dimensions so I could pick them up on my next trip to town. Terry knew that the nearest town that would have them was 70 miles away from me so paid to second day air them to me for no charge. Two 1" washers cost him almost $20 to send. That's another reason I would and will buy from him.

Scott

System2

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

I purchased the first two units sold in Canada over three years ago. They still function perfectly today and nothing has ever been done to them! These units are everything TLG says there are and the customer feed back says it all. If you live in a low wind speed area............BUY IT, you will not be dissappointed, if you live in a high wind speed area....BUY IT. As a mechanic when I got mine I had to look inside, I called Terry and told him I was going to open it up and have a look. The longevity of these units will be second to none, two large roller bearings support the permanent magnet stator and one big coil, thats it, what is there to fail???!!
I recently sold the business that I personally installed these units on, I WILL BUY MORE for my new location............count on it!

Dave in Canada, a very satisfied customer!

BB.

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Good Morning Dave,

Glad to hear that there is a wind turbine out there that makes people happy.

One of the things that has been very difficult to find is how much power over time any wind turbine installation has generated.

Do you have monthly data on kWattHours or AmpHours (at what voltage) generated by month for a year or more from each turbine?

How tall was the tower? What kind of charge controller did you install (brand, model). Was the charge controller a diversion type?

-Bill

System2

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Hi Bill, take a look at TLG web site, just about every customer has posted their output info, some like myself substantiated it with pictures of either volt/amp meters, I used a Tri-Metric meter which alowed me to track that type of info. Unfortunately as I stated in my first post, I sold the business so do not have the data anymore. But stand by what I said in that I will buy from Terry again.
With being the first one to purchase the TLG-500, I received a lot of calls from people who eventually bought the units and to the best of my knowlegde every one of them is very satisfied, actually thrilled as I guees I did not do enough justice to the unit. Terry's numbers (output) are what he likes to call "real world"............he sells himself short on what his thing will do as well.
Call Terry yourself, he is a great guy to chat with and has nothing to hide!

Take care Dave

BB.

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Good Evening Dave,

Personally--I do not live in an area with good wind, and also we are in the suburbs--so not enough room on our lot anyway.

I am glad to hear that there are many happy customers out there. A good quality/reliable wind turbine with real numbers is a rarity out there...

Just looking for real world results from anybody with wind turbines.

Just guessing--if the system outputs 50 watts (into a 12 volt battery bank) at 11 MPH average wind--That would be about 36kWhrs per month...

When some of the comments stating a savings of $60-$80 per month on their electric bills (assuming $0.10-$0.20 per kWhr)... That would be somewhere in the 300-800 kWhrs per month from a single wind turbine.

Even a 12' diameter Skystream (PDF doc) would need an average wind speed for the month of 10-21 MPH to achieve that level of power output in a month... And the TLG500 is ~1/4-1/5 the size/capability.

To achieve 300 kWhrs per month, a TLG500 would have to average 28 amps @ 14.7 volts or an average wind of nearly 34 mph for an entire month.

Perhaps there are some areas out there that have such windy conditions... But it does not seem to be a sustained possibility.

-Bill

Windsun

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

We have one on order for evaluation, if it looks good we will probably start selling it.

dwh

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Windsun wrote: »

We have one on order for evaluation, if it looks good we will probably start selling it.

I saw on TLG's site that at least one of his customers modded his units to be "weatherproof" using the bottoms of Solo cups and a few auto type shaft seals.

I'm interested in *why* this customer did this...*why* did he feel the TLG unit needed additional weatherproofing?

If he was right, why isn't TLG doing something similar with the units when he builds them?

Just something to consider when you do your eval.

System2

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Hello everyone.
I normally don't posts comments on forums as the owners of my products always seem to jump right in to support TLG as we did for them during their project. It's a relationship that I am very proud of and it keeps TLG from looking like we feel the need to toot our own horn about our products. However in this case I see there are questions being asked that could only be answered by Ken who is the man that did all the advanced water sealing on his units. With him being a very busy farmer I doubt he would ever be online browsing forums so in this case I feel it may be necessary for me to jump in.

For the question of the water seals that Ken did, I ask the same question of "why?". Ken simply said he bought the TLG-500 because they looked overbuilt like something he would build himself, as for the seals he just wanted the added protection on the bearings. The reason for the top seal was he was mounting some of them through the roof on his barn and my original design left the top of the pipe open. Based on Ken's work I redesigned the pole mount to be sealed, so the last two he just ordered (for a total of 12 now) will not need the Jell-O mold caps. I would still bet he will do the shaft seals that I do not think are necessary and may even reduce his low end output due to the added drag of the front automotive type seal.

For the rest of the questions it seems to be an issues of the unit sounds too good to be true and a lack of faith in wind generators in general. Let me assure you that I understand your feelings completely. If I have heard it once I bet I have heard it at least 300 hundred times in the last few years... My generator doesn't put out like I thought it was going to.... I have personally seen first hand a bunch of wind generators that don't even come close to making their theoretical rated output, so I know how most of you that have tried some unit in the past may feel.

The output numbers that you see associated with the TLG-500 come from owners of the product (NOT TLG). I decided to take a different approach to product ratings, that approach was to do things the way is was done years ago when a man was only as good as his word. In my opinion the industry standard rating of Instantaneous Output is crooked and extremely unrealistic which I believe has played a significant roll in some of the bad feelings about wind generators today. I can say that this different direction was slow to catch on but it has provided TLG with a rock solid reputation and 100% customer satisfaction.

Lastly, I saw a comment that gave me the impression that some of you may be thinking "well these guys are his friends".. and if you do/did then you are right! They very clearly are my friends, but I didn't know them before they purchased a product from TLG.

I can say with certainty to those who read this post if you purchase a TLG-500 you too will be happy with it just like all the others, and you will more than likely be in forums just like they are supporting TLG for giving you more than you expected.

Terry :cool: Owner of TLG Windpower Products

BB.

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Welcome aboard Terry.

Nice to hear from you and read about your wind turbine.

-Bill

dwh

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Hi Terry,

Thanks for answering that waterproofing question for me. I saw the pics on your site but I wasn't clear on exactly what he achieved with the cup/cap. The shaft seals I was able to puzzle out for myself, but I still wondered.

I'm impressed by the attitude you display on your site, and I'm looking forward to the evaluation from our hosts here at AZ W&S.

Keep up the good work!

icarus

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

I await NAWS evaluation as well. Like Terry,, my first foray into RE was a wind genny with the blade carved out of a local tree with an axe,, coupled to an old hand crank grinder,,, coupled to a auto generator,,, sort of proof of concept. Worked fine (put our voltage enough to light a brake light bulb) for a few hours until the nut holding the prop on came off,, causing the blade to fly off. That was the end of that endeavor!

Tony

backroad

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

If'n that prop being carved out of the tree wasn't so scary, it'd be really funny. But, nice try.

Now I've got to wait and see if TLG can come up with one for a 48 volt bank.


backroad in Bagdad.....................................AZ....

Windsun

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

We are looking for a good location to mount it right now - we had planned to put it at the store in Flagstaff, but there are too many high obstructions there, so we might put it out on the Navajo reservation at one of our customers sites.

We have it listed on our store now at http://store.solar-electric.com/tl500wawige.html

icarus wrote: »

I await NAWS evaluation as well.

Tony

dwh

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Bump.

Windsun,

It's been > 6 months, and I'm wondering if you have yet installed and/or tested one of these units?

I know you are selling them on your site, and your page has some nice things to say about TLG, but I'm wondering if you have any of those "Real World" numbers for us yet?

And/or have you sold any and what do your customers have to say?

Windsun

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Good question.

We have sold a fair amount, but so far have heard no feedback on any of them as to how well they are actually working.

On the other hand, we have yet to have had any problems or warranty claims on them.

I will put up a post on the main site asking for feedback, would be nice to know what we are selling...

I know that we sell a ton of the TLG replacement blades for the SWWP turbines.

klrskies

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Any more feedback on these turbines?...It's been years, so there's been substantial time for evaluation. My best belief was that it was OK, but more expensive than the competition, but I don't know. maybe someone will chime in?

Ken

bumper

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Why would anyone pay that much for a 500 watt unit when you can get one justas good for less than $500 dollars?

Cariboocoot

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

bumper wrote: »

Why would anyone pay that much for a 500 watt unit when you can get one justas good for less than $500 dollars?

Would you care to back up that statement with a product recommendation?

Most people have found the inexpensive turbines to be the equivalent of throwing your money in the garbage, but with added frustration.

waynefromnscanada

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Would you care to back up that statement with a product recommendation?

Most people have found the inexpensive turbines to be the equivalent of throwing your money in the garbage, but with added frustration.

Totally agree. Here tonight would be one of the very rare times a small wind turbine would produce any usable power at all. The winds from this nor-easter are so strong it sounds like someone has built an airport in my yard, with the glide path right over the house. The only problem would be the effort put into Praying the blades would still on the thing come morning. Been there, done that, just one of the thousands who have learned the hard way.

icarus

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Wayne,

You should have been in Port Aux Basque about 3 weeks ago! We had winds in excess of 120 k, and up the road in the wreck house was over 200! I want to see the small turbine that would hold up to tht very often.


Tony

waynefromnscanada

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

icarus wrote: »

Wayne,

You should have been in Port Aux Basque about 3 weeks ago! We had winds in excess of 120 k, and up the road in the wreck house was over 200! I want to see the small turbine that would hold up to that very often.Tony

Hahaha The famous Wreck House where the May West, or is it now the Dolly Parton Mountains funnel the wind in off the ocean: "Caution, if you experience difficulty handling your vehicle, pull over and stop. Trucks have been blown off the road, and trains blown off tracks".
Went through there in a storm a few years back on my motor bike. First time I traveled straight ahead (more or less), mile after mile, while leaned over at a 45* angle. Quite the experience lol
And yes, I'd really like to see the wind turbine that could stand up to that! They'd be finding the blades in St. Anthony! :p

icarus

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Pretty amazing place! We were hunkered down in a closed Prov. Park campground in our van for 4 days waiting for the ferry!

T

waynefromnscanada

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

icarus wrote: »

Pretty amazing place! We were hunkered down in a closed Prov. Park campground in our van for 4 days waiting for the ferry!

T

Yep, truly is an awesome place, I've likely stayed in that park. The time we biked through the wind, we were racing to get back to the ferry ahead of a coming hurricane. lol
Wind Power, yeah, that's what we're talking about, wind power. Perhaps in a place like that, a unit designed for underwater tidal power would work.

bumper

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Look on eBay??. Check out the reviews for all those under $500.00

icarus

Re: TLG 500 Wind Generator

Let's see,,,, who are you going to take more stock in,,,those with real world experience over decades of design, installation and use, or some EBay feedback? Hmmn?


Tony