Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

keyturbocars · October 2010

I've had a HY-2000 2kW wind turbine up for about 1 month now, and I am happy with it so far. The power output has been better than expected and better than the charts posted by the company. The quality seems very good. Time will tell how it holds up. I read about others with Windmax wind turbines that were happy, so I decided to give it a try. So far I am happy with it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31445&id=100000264867099&l=6c791ef013

I was embarrassed to share pictures of my system and setup, because I'm a bit of a "redneck" and my system is not professional by far. If I have trouble with the HY-2000 wind turbine then I'll plan to let you know. I know that much of the stuff coming out of China is junk. I've been burned by that fact more than once. However, I will honestly say that this seems to be well made. I've got a mechanical engineering background and so I can usually get an impression of overall build quality. Of course, time will tell how it holds up.

So far, so good.

Edward

PS. I will say this... in my opinion, it's probably best for most do-it-yourselfers to stick with the HY-1000 1kW or smaller turbines. I like the larger HY-2000 and HY-3000 units, but they are bigger, heavier and harder to set up.

MisterB · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

So far, I'm happy with my 500 watt Windmax H5. The deciding factor when I bought it was the CE approval--wind is big in Europe right now and European code is stricter in some aspects than US code. They seem to be solid well designed units. A simple basic wind turbine with no electronics in the turbine itself, just a 3 phase alternernator and all control electronics on the ground in a seperate box. My Windmax turbine replaced one of Southwest Windpowers earliest products, a Windseeker 250 which was certainly well built and produced power for around 20 years and could easily be rebuilt even after 20 years of constant use but the built in controller in the turbine never worked and I had to buy another controller for it and install it on my power panel and Southwest Windpower continues with this design folly to this day. Nothing like putting the most delicate and fragil part of the system where it will be subject to weather, constant vibration, mechanical stress and lightning. And when the controller fails, you are forced to lower the tower and remove the turbine to service it.

The Windmax turbines have a much simpler and better design.

The one thing I don't like about the Windmax is the quality of the electrical connecters on the controller box which aren't designed for the types of cable available in the US and they will never get UL approval until they put better quality connectors on the controller box with strain reliefs positioned properly for them.

keyturbocars · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

After a couple weeks of generally calm winds, we had some windy weather today. Wind was blowing around 20-30mph for a while. I was seeing peaks of 3000 watts at different times. Quite a few times it was cranking out 2500 watts. And now the winds are averaging in the teens and I'm seeing 500-1000w.

The interesting thing is that the HY-2000 wind turbine is rated at 2000 watts at 26mph. Peak output on the HY-2000 power output chart shows around 2400-2500 watts. It is a case where the HY-2000 actually puts out what they rate it for (and more). Almost surprising to me that a Chinese company is probably more honest than many American companies in the rating of their wind turbine output.

BajaGringo · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I have a 400 watt WindMax which I bought solely to augment our system. We have 2kw in solar panels running through a pair of Xantrex MPPT controllers charging our 1200 amp hour battery bank at 24 volts. The solar panels work great down here in our part of Baja, Mexico but I wanted to try the wind turbine to see how well it could provide additional charging at night. Our part of the peninsula is very windy facing the Pacific ocean and we have been very happy with the performance so far. In fact we have purchased another turbine and will be installing it in the next couple of weeks.

One suggestion - Throw out the stock controller and buy a good rectifier and diversion controller from Coleman Air to operate your WindMax...

keyturbocars · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I agree the controllers are often not the greatest on Chinese wind turbines. The controller on my HY-2000 is not bad. My biggest complaint would be that it came with a 62AMP fuse on the DC output circuit going to the battery bank. This does not have enough of a safety buffer to accomodate power surges. I was seeing 60AMPS at times yesterday during strong gusts! That's way too close for comfort with a 62A fuse. The last thing you want to have is the fuse burn out and inadvertently disconnect the wind turbine from the battery bank in high wind gusts!

I bypassed the 62A fuse assembly because there was no larger amp rated fuse in that size available. I just used a more appropriately sized circuit breaker.

I do have a Coleman air diversion controller that diverts power to an auxillary hot water heater in my home. If the hot water heater thermostat shuts off, then the HY-2000 controller dump loads the 3 phase AC turbine output directly to a set of heating coils that heats air.

BajaGringo · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

You might want to look at picking up a good rectifier and just buy another diversion controller for your application. I bought this one from ColemanAir and it seems to work great - the specs should fit your turbine based on what you described:

ColemanAir 150 amp, 3 phase Rectifier

keyturbocars · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

BajaGringo, That would be another viable option. I actually prefer the the HY-2000 controller because it is programmed with safety features that I would not get with a separate rectifier and generic diversion/dump controller. The HY-2000 controller is programmed to automatically apply electromagnetic braking when turbine RPM exceeds certain limits. This continual monitoring of turbine speed is important to me. Sure, I could manually shut down the wind turbine during a really bad windstorm, but I would not be able to react fast enough under all conditions around here. We get some powerful wind storms around here that some times come up very quickly. One year, we had a nasty wind storm that snapped off around 100 big utility poles like they were flimsy toothpicks.

I've also inspected the controller and the rectifier assembly is mounted to a nice, big aluminum heat sink. The dump load from the HY-2000 controller is a separate unit that can be mounted away from the main control unit to prevent heat from the dumpload affecting the rectifier and other circuitry. Looks to be a decent design. I can't comment on the controllers from smaller Windmax wind turbines, and they might not be as good a design.

BajaGringo · October 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Sounds like they did a better job on the larger unit controllers. The one that came with mine was not much to look at...

Wally · November 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

This thread has been inactive for a few weeks, so I’ll revive it with some info from another Windmax Turbine user here --- an HY-1000 1KW unit.

It’s an off grid --- pheasant and deer hunting camp site, I have here in central South Dakota feeding an RV (5th wheel trailer).

Last month it made it through a pretty severe stress test. We had a major high wind system go thru this area with continuous 45 to 55 mph winds and gusts to over 60 mph --- lasted over 3 days.

I have it set up as a 24 volt system and had steady output readings on the TriMetric TM-2020 in the 50 to 55 amps and at times over 60 amps at 29 volts --- that is about 1.8 KW --- almost double the rated spec. When the output gets into the over 50 amp range you can hear the blades flutter and moan as the tips bend to flex / feather and control the over speed. Normally, it is an amazingly quiet unit.

This unit has 5 blades and is rated at 1Kw at about 825 rpm with about a 28 mph wind driving it. Interpolating from their output charts --- it looks like a 1.8 Kw output from a 50 to 55 mph wind is turning the blades at over 1400 rpm, no wonder they were fluttering and moaning.

I also did not use the controller that came with this unit, but went with a Xantrex C60 set up as a diversion controller and built my own load dump unit.
The load dump unit is made up of 12 -- ten ohm -- 100 watt resistors in parallel and also a couple of 24 volt box fans controlled by a 120 F thermal switch --- works well.

This site in Central South Dakota has 15 to 20 mph winds about 3 or 4 days out of each week and works well on a 24 volt system. In a relatively lower wind speed area --- it may be better to set it up as a 12 volt system though. A 10 to 12 mph wind will turn at what looks like pretty good rpm’s but not high enough to get the voltage up to the 27 volts or so to charge a 24 volt system.

It’s all a trade off though and there would be pros and cons --- and in the real world, there is very little energy available in a 10 mph wind until you get into really long blades.

MisterB · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Interesting. It looks like the owners of the 5 blade Windmax turbines are getting much better performance than with the 3 blade models. I haven't gotten nearly the performance of some of the 5 blade HY-400s I've seen on Youtube. So far my 3 blade HY5 hasn't put out anything like it's rated wattage at higher wind speeds but it's low speed performance has been totally up to spec. I was getting about a 8-10 amp average with peaks at around 16-17amps the other night when we had some winds but nothing in the 20 plus amp range. This indicates I might have some voltage drop in the wiring but I haven't found anything significant so far. One thing I've noticed is that the turbine will shift back and forth a few degrees at higher wind speeds which immediately drops the current a few amps. I didn't have this problem with my old turbine. It might mean the tail should be a bit bigger and longer. My site is not perfect and I am likely to get turbulence from one direction but this seems to be happening in winds coming from all directions. In any case, until I put up some sort of anemometer, I won't have any real data on wattage vs wind speed.

The controller works very well. At the amperages I'm getting, it is not stressed at all and I have been doing temperature readings when the turbine is really cranking and the rectifier heat sink is only a couple of degrees above ambient temperature and when the controller is dumping, the dump load is, at most, around 10 degrees above ambient temperature. The one thing I don't like is that it just starts dumping when the voltage reaches 14.1 volts and stops when it drops below this point. It would be better to have 2 adjustable trip points that would hold the contoller in dump mode until the battery voltage dropped to a settable low voltage. What happens when the batteries are charged is that the controller will dump for a few seconds and then the battery voltage will drop below 14.1v and it will charge again for a few seconds until the battery voltage reaches 14.1v and then the cycle will repeat. I have 2 solar arrays on 2 separete controllers that I have to integrate with the wind controller and this one doesn't give me much flexibility.

@Wally. You live in one of the better wind energy areas of the US. If you check out a wind energy map of the North America, anywhere in the great plains is good with some places really good. I live on a desert mesa in Northern New Mexico where wind energy is a good supplement to solar but you could never live on wind alone. I'm at around 7000' altitude with the Rocky Mountians to the east and some smaller mountains west of me. Once you get east of the Rockies, wind energy potential goes up dramatically.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Wally,

That is some serious power out of that HY-1000! I've also seen 3.5kW surges out of my HY-2000. The HY Energy factory rates these wind turbines conservatively.

You are braver than I am... with those kind of high winds, I probably would have tried to shut down during a lull in the wind gusts. If the power output gets too high (too many amps), then the stator winding could burn out. I don't know how much factor of safety they design into these HY wind turbines. This time of year, with the colder temperatures, then turbine might be able to cool sufficiently during sustained high power output. At some point though, there will be too many amps flowing through the windings in the stator and it will get too hot and melt down (short out). Then you have a ruined turbine and a runaway turbine that is free to spin out of control with no electrical load to try to slow it. It could then throw a blade. Perhaps the blade deformation and stalling will not allow it to get that high in power output to melt down the stator. Not knowing the limits is what would make me nervous.

My perspecitve is based on having a different brand 2kW wind turbine that had the stator burn out and run out of control for about 1 hour. Talk about LOUD. Sounded like a helicopter was landing on my house. Thank God that it didn't throw a blade. Almost. There was cracking around the attaching holes on one of the fiberglass blades. That bad experience is permanently etched in my mind!

I'm now in the process of trying to figure out how to limit power output (RPM) on my wind turbine for long term safety and reliability. In my case, 2.8kW equates to around 650 RPM. That's about where I'd like to limit it.

Edward

RZ73 · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Anyone know a source for parts for the Windmax turbines? I've contaced the the company in Plano, Texas for help and they are far from helpful. They told me these turbines weren't designed to be repaired, they were so cheap it's better to just replace them and when pushed them fo more info they hung up on me. The guy I talked to was just rude!

All I really need is a big rubber bushing that is used on the tail. I'm about to put this thing on a 38ft tower but need to replace the rubber bushing. I can't believe there are "no parts" available.

R.Z.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

RZ, Based on what you wrote, it sounds like you've got a 1kW V10 or 2kW V20 wind turbine with tail furling.

I had the same type turbine as the V20, but I bought it somewhere else other than Windmax. In any case, it's the same turbine design.

The rubber bump stop for my tail also disintegrated, so I cut a piece of rubber out of a small scrap radial car tire I had laying around here. I used this as my new bump stop. I'll attach a picture here.

Unfortunately, the whole turbine failed a short time later (stator burned out). You will find that it is almost impossible to get parts or help after the sale. Even if you could get another rubber bump stop, it would fail in a short time anyway because of the inferior materials that they use.

Edward

MisterB · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

RZ73 wrote: »

Anyone know a source for parts for the Windmax turbines? I've contaced the the company in Plano, Texas for help and they are far from helpful. They told me these turbines weren't designed to be repaired, they were so cheap it's better to just replace them and when pushed them fo more info they hung up on me. The guy I talked to was just rude!

All I really need is a big rubber bushing that is used on the tail. I'm about to put this thing on a 38ft tower but need to replace the rubber bushing. I can't believe there are "no parts" available.

R.Z.

It looks like the HY turbines are generally good and well made but due to this lack of support, I find it hard to recommend buying one from magnets4less. I'm a bit dispointed in the real world power output of my turbine which is turning out to be a 300 watt turbine with it's stock 3 blade rotor. In checking out the possibility of of an upgrade to a 5 blade rotor, there are none available from magnets4less but I found this company makes 5 and 7 blade upgrades with a hub adaptor specifially for Windmax turbines:

http://cgi.ebay.com/7-Wind-Turbine-Generator-Blades-and-hub-/270666160827?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f04f5dabb

http://cgi.ebay.com/Windmax-wind-turbine-hub-adapter-fit-Raptor-blades-/270663162954?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f04c81c4a

I just found these ebay listings but I knew about the raptor blades for the HY turbine from the Youtube video they put up about it and checked out the company website. I'm thinking about buying a 5 blade rotor from them but I'm not going to do it until I've seen how the turbine performs under really high wind conditions which hasn't happened so far this year. Last year at this time, there was was a winter storm that had such severe winds that after the storm cleared out, all the east-west roads were snow free because the wind had pushed the snow into huge banks on the side of the road while the north-south roads had around 8 inches of snow. This year, the weather has been unusually mild and the snowfall so far has been around 1/4".

I also looked at Missouri Wind and Solar's turbines and they are actually cheaper than the Windmax turbines and it looks like you have a lot better chance of getting replacement parts. If anyone has tried one of their turbines out and dealt with them, I would be interested in hearing about it.

@keyturbocars

I've been reading your posts with interest and have been thinking about ways to brake a 3 phase turbine in high wind conditions. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any winds so far that have given me a good high wind test and some serious motivation and my problems with my HY turbine are in the opposite extreme. My thoughts so far are that a progressively increasing load between the the 3 phase lines until the the rpm slows down enough to put a dead short between the lines would be one approach. There are all kinds of ways to do this. If you could get big enough variable resistor and gang 3 of them together and put them across the 3 phase lines, you would have tapered load that could be controlled manually. The only variable resistors that I've ever seen like that were WW2 era airplane controls and I don't think you could find anything like that on the market today. A power mosfet circuit might be a modern alternative. This is really a controller design idea. A quick and dirty trick would be to put a high current spdt switch between the controller and the dump load which could bypase the controller and force the DC output into the dump load and then put another dump load in parallel with another switch which in theory would progressively load the turbine output and slow it down in stages. If 2 stages weren't enough, another switched dump load could be added easily. High current DC switches and dump loads are easy to come by and not very expensive in comparison to even the most basic 3 phase high current equipment.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Mister B,

Those are good ideas about braking. I've got some similar ideas on ways to load down the turbine and then after the rotor has slowed down sufficiently, flip the 3 pole switch to short out the 3 phases. Right now, I have the old controller from my previous 2kW wind turbine hooked up to my HY-2000 turbine.

Even though that other turbine that failed was inferior in quality, oddly enough the controller appears to be a much better design. It's a MOSFET controller that uses PWM to dump the load. I can flip a switch on the controller to manually trigger the MOSFETs to dump the turbine output to a 4kW resistive load. Then, once the turbine slows down under the heavy load, I can short out the 3 phases. The other reason I like this MOSFET controller is because it was also programmed to pulse the 4kW load under higher wind speeds to try to keep rotor RPM under control. The circuit must have monitored the freqency of the incoming 3 phase AC and applied PWM dump at a set frequency that was to ensure safe turbine RPM. What I don't know for sure yet is if this controller's RPM limit will be too low for the HY-2000 turbine. In other words, it might try to reduce RPM too early and chop off the top end of the power curve prematurely. I'll have to wait and see what it does when we have some high winds again. We are in a seasonal lull of winds now.

I'm doing all this while I wait to see how the Midnite Classic/Clipper ends up working.

Edward

MisterB · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

In looking for a definition of "yaw" this morning I found this article which has a section on dynamic braking which reinforces my idea about installing a bypass switch that would force the controller into dump mode. I like the photo of the dump resistor installation.

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Wind_turbine

We had a windy afternoon a few days ago and I managed to get my AC/DC clamp ammeter around the dump line and measure actual dump currents which are about double the charging currents. Definitely something to think about when sizing any fuses in a wind turbine installation. I also saw the turbine slow down when the controller was dumping. Now I want to force it into dump mode and see how fast it rotates and compare it to how it rotates with the brake on at a given wind speed. This will have to wait because this is the low point in the annual solar cycle and I need everything my system puts out right now. There was no wind at all last night and my batteries hadn't reached float when I checked at 11:30am. When the wind blows at night, they reach float between 10 and 11 at low wind speeds and between 9 and 10 at moderately high wind speeds. If it is really windy, the batteries are charged when I wake up which is usually between 6 and 7. Even underperforming, this turbine is making a difference.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

The controller I currently have hooked up to my HY-2000 wind turbine has exactly what you are describing MisterB. There is a small switch which manually triggers the gates on the MOSFETs to dump wind power. This is what is used to slow down the turbine manually.

The way I do it is to flip that switch to slow the turbine, wait for a moment for the turbine to actually slow down, and then flip the 3 pole switch that short circuits the 3 phases for final braking.

dagelt · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Hello keyturbocars and other HY users

I have 3, HY3000 wind turbines set up and I think the quality is very good on the HY series. I had 3 V20's set up and they are not the turbine to have for a long term investment with wind that gets over 25MPH.

I am very new at all of this but I had my 3, V20's up for about 3 months before they melted down. I had 25 to 30 MPH wind for about 48 hours and they just melted down. All the blades were still there just freewheeling and sounding like an airplane. Once the wind died down I just strapped them until I got my new HY's. I liked the controllers for the V20's and the units did not make any noise... but the quality is very poor on the turbine itself.... too many moving parts.

The HY's have been running for about 2 months and I like the overall quality of the turbine and the controllers but again I have not seen much. The 5 blades are a little noisy but it just sound like the wind is blowing all the time... some people think is sounds like a waterfall....????

You asked about the output and the max wind I have seen with them. The other day we had 32 MPH wind for around 14 hours with gust up to 42 and they seem to work very well. Again I only have a 6000 watt inverter so I was max’ing it out and the turbines were shutting down periodically because of over voltage. But overall I have been happy with the quality, functionality and the power output they are producing.

I would recommend the units on quality and the power production capability but like someone else said Tech support could use some help.

I am very interested in what you are working on with putting a load on the unit to slow it down so you then can put the manual controller brake on. Right now I just climb the tower and strap them down when I think the wind will be too strong. Please keep this part of your thread going I think it will help a lot of people.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

dagelt, Sounds like your experience is almost exactly like mine. I had the same style turbine as the V20 and it melted down in 30mph winds. Mine was several months old, but it had multiple problems and it was not operational for some months. When mine went out of control, it sounded like a helicopter was landing on my house before the internals melted down to the point that it caused a lot of drag. Very poor quality! On the other hand, I have been very impressed with the quality and power production of the HY turbine. I've been running with mine for 3 months now.

Do you have any pictures of your wind turbines that you can share?

Here are some pictures of my HY-2000 setup:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31445&id=100000264867099&l=6c791ef013

Sounds like you must have some acreage since you have 3 big turbines flying. I'd be interested in seeing your turbines and towers. If you're climbing your towers, then you must have a lattice type tower. We've got a small farm with 80 acres and I could literally build a wind farm here, but I don't plan to expand beyond my HY-2000 right now.

I'll plan to update what I come up with for controlling my HY-2000 turbine.

Edward

dagelt · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I will get some pic's this weekend posted with more information of my installation.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Sounds good. Look forward to seeing the pictures and information.

MisterB · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

After almost 3 days of overcast weather with almost no sun and very little wind, the weather cleared yesterday and I had full on sun and 15-20mph winds at the same time. My batteries quickly recharged and I tricked the controller of my HY turbine into staying in dump mode by flipping the equalize switches on the solar controllers which kept the battery voltage well above 14.1 volts and the turbine braked beautifully and it took about 20-30 seconds for it to slow down enough to be able to short out the 3 phase lines. Now I need to try this in a 40-50 mph wind but it looks like forcing the controller into dump mode is the way to go to break the turbine in high wind speeds.

keyturbocars · December 2010

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Sounds good MisterB.

Last time I shut down in high wind, I waited for a lull in the wind and also when the controller was dumping power (and turbine was slowing down). Then I flipped a 3 pole switch that I have wired to shut down all the way.

The HY-2000 controller dumps the 3 phase AC output, so I was planning on adding a 3 pole breaker/switch between the 3 phase input lines and the 3 phase dump lines. Then I can manually flip the 3 pole switch to bypass the controller all together and load down the turbine with the dump load to slow it. Then flip the other 3 pole switch which shorts out the turbine's 3 phase output.

Another idea I have is to wire in a 3 pole 65A contactor/relay that I picked up cheap on eBay. I'm thinking about setting up a circuit where the contactor will be wired between the 3 phase turbine lines and the 3 phase dump lines. Then I am thinking about using a DC current switch set to 60A to trip the contactor to act as a power limiter. I've seen 65A during strong surges and I'm concerned that during sustained high winds, the stator windings might oveheat and burn out. In any case, the contactor would act to brake the turbine by loading the turbine down with the dump load to slow it during high wind gusts. I'd also plan to wire in a manual switch which could energize the 48VDC contactor coil to apply the brakes before flipping the 3 pole switch that shorts out the 3 phase turbine lines.

Both ideas will effectively bypass the controller to directly dump the 3 phase turbine output to the 3 phase dump load. This way, if the HY-2000 controller ever fails, then I can still manually apply the dump load and brake the turbine before shutting down the turbine completely (shorting out 3 phases).

In my thinking, this should work. I haven't implemented it yet, so I don't know if there is some unforseen issue that might cause problems with this idea. Right now, I'm working on my battery bank (equalizing and desulfating) and doing other work on my system. We are in a calm wind period now, so I'm not in a big rush because there is not much wind to harvest this time of year. Come Spring, the winds roar and keep blowing day after day after day. I want to have everything worked out before then.

Edward

windwatts1 · February 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Hello everyone,
I am a Windmax owner and very pleased with my turbines as well as my over all system due to my small site. I have had them in for over a year and they have not given me one problem so far. I am very impressed with the low wind production they provide compard to a car type PMA. Currently I am using the China GTI's to grid tie my turbines. I also have 1.4kw of solar GT with Enphase micro inverters
As far as me, I am an electrician from Pottstown PA.

Looking forward to sharing some info.:D

Here is a video and pictures of my site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/leamyelectricinc1?feature=mhee

NEOH · February 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

WindWatts1,

Q1) What was the total KillowWatt-Hour production for your triple Wind Turbine design over the past 12 months ?

Q2) What was the total cost for the Wind Turbines, Mounting Poles and GT Inverters ?

RZ73 · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I finally got this system up and after a week the wind generator has stopped turning. It acts like it's being electricly braked but the brake switch is in "run". I hooked it up to a OUtback GTFX3048 and up until Saturday it was doing just fine. Now I can't figure out what's wrong with it. I powered down everything and started hooking things up one by one. When the inverter comes on it also charges the batteries. When that happens the charge controller for the the Windmax comes on and sends power to brake the turbine, I'm guessing it's doing this because it sees the 58v the Outback is sending to the battery bank. Once the Outback stops charging the batteries the Windmax should start up again and with charged batteries that power should be selling back to the grid. That's how it worked till Saturday. I guess I'm gonna have to lay down my tower and check the generator itself to see if there's something mechanical going on up there. We have plenty of wind with this approaching cold front but the rotor spins very slowly. It sure would be nice if there was some tech support and parts for these things. Hy-Energy needs to find a better distributor!

btw. I just wrapped that rubber damper with black electical tape and stuck it back on and as soon as I get a Mate for the Outback I'm shutting off it's charger.

MisterB · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Sounds like a controller issue to me. The Windmax controller will put the turbine in dump mode at a fixed battery voltage. I can force my turbine into dump by flicking the equalize switch on my solar controllers--provided the batteries are charged and the sun is out.

I like the HY tubines but you're right, the US distributer is not very good. No real support or warranty.

RZ73 · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

Today I laid over the tower just to make sure the turbine wasn't dragging from some internal mechanical failure. It was completely disconnected from the controller. When we got it down, it was easy to spin by hand and I didn't feel any mechanical resistance. When we stood it back up.. it still won't spin. Dump load isn't the issue here cause there's no electrical connection to the controller and it's not spinning. If the thing had melted down and was free-wheeling I'd understand but for it not to spin with plenty of available wind, I'm just stumped. I've emailed that guy in Plano again but not surprisingly haven't gotten an answer.

MisterB · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

If it is completely disconected from the controller, it should freewheel unless 2 of the the 3 phase lines were shorted to each other.

Do you have an ohmmeter/continuity checker? I would check the 3 phase lines for shorts. It's possible that either the turbine freewheeled and melted something or power from the inverter charger or grid somehow backfed into the tubine. I doubt this because it would have done damage elsewhere or at least popped a few circuit breakers. If it was disconnected from the controller, it must have freewheeled initially which could have easily created enough energy to cause a short somewhere, hopefully in the wire insulation and not inside the nacelle.

RZ73 · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

I put a meter on it again this morning and this is what I'm seeing. Between two of the phases I get momentary contunuity as it slowly turns, readings like: open, 19.38, open., 19.38. Between the other two I get constantly fluctuating continuity. Something is shorted inside the generator and with no technical support I guess this is just a total waste of money. I'd like to hear from anyone else who's had one of these things fail in short period of time. I have a point of contact in China and with enough information maybe we can get some resolution to all this. I can be contacted directly at KingAir99@hotmai.com

MisterB · March 2011

Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

The momentary continuity as it turns is what I get on between all 3 phases. Just a breeze this morning so I put the contoller in stop and checked this as it started up again.

Sorry to hear about this. I really like the HY turbines but the support situation makes an otherwise sound turbine a quesionable purchase.

Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

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