Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

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  • mikael
    mikael Registered Users Posts: 10
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    hello
    yes I watched the graph windmax.
    by the chart HY energy plant is better
    thank you
    I saw that the wind turbine has trouble staying in the wind, it turns right and left often and therefore lost production.
    apparently I'm not alone. you have these problems or a solution?
    I think the wind was turning but I am not. I hope that the winds are auton winters more stable.
    HY I see that your 2000 has a good production: 23 kW in 12 hours or an average of 2KW / H
    you know people who have a hyper 1000 and the results
    I want to buy a hy 3000 the next year if the results are good
    greetings
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Mikael,

    I do not know anyone personally that has a HY-1000 wind turbine, but I have read about some people that have them and they seem to like them.

    Here is someone that owns 2 of them and has some video on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/econewpower?feature=chclk#p/u/45/yX94m_LGGFg

    Here's another video from someone else that owns a HY-1000 wind turbine: http://www.youtube.com/user/leamyvideo#p/u/0/Auyb9fzImWE

    I think that last video is made by a member of this forum named windwatts1 (or something like that).

    Regarding your wind turbine turning out of the wind, it sounds like you might be experiencing turbulence.

    How high is your tower and what is the surrounding terrain like nearby (buildings, trees, other obstructions)?

    Edward
  • mikael
    mikael Registered Users Posts: 10
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    hello
    I need help for my wind turbine windmax HY1000, 24 V
    when I cruise on a 24V battery charging wind generator does not load the front have about 20V 20W, and when I plug it on a 12V battery has low wind load well over 30W!
    thank you for your reply
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    That it pretty normal... When you are charging a lower voltage battery, the generator does not have to create as much voltage as for the 24 volt bank.

    You can see how another wind generator performs. Same generator on a 12 volt and 24 volt battery bank.

    12 Volt Battery Environment
    24 Volt Battery Environment

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • mikael
    mikael Registered Users Posts: 10
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    I do not understand, my wind turbine runs well: 3 mph
    bulb 24V, 55W lights, but my battery does not charge: it should normally produce a few watts in the battery
    it begins to load when there is: 8mph
    is it normal that my wind turbine rotates at up to 8 mph empty?
    is what my controller can be the cause of the problem?
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Pretty much... I would not expect "significant" power below 8 mph for the "average" wind turbine.

    Running at 12 volts will help a bit--It takes significant RPM to get a turbine to operating voltage. Doubling that operating voltage makes things "worse" for low wind operations.

    Windmax power graph does not list voltage--Just power. Without knowing voltage (24/48 vdc rated)--It is not easy to figure out (from that chart) what the useful power is at XX volts and YY wind speed.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Mikael,

    Yes, it is normal for little-no battery charging to occur below 8mph. There is very little energy to be havested in the wind at low speeds. On my larger HY-2000 wind turbine, it might begin to trickle charge the batteries around 8 or 9mph. Even so, at those low wind speeds, it is very LITTLE power. Below 8mph, it will spin and even seem to be spinning fast at times, but it is not enough to produce any useful power. That's why the only people that should even consider a wind turbine are those that live in truly good wind areas. Most people probably do not live in such places.

    It sounds like your wind turbine is working normally.

    Edward
  • mikael
    mikael Registered Users Posts: 10
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    agree
    I understand that the wind turbine produces slightly below 8 mph.
    but is it normal that the wind does not produce 1w below 8mph? Can it be damaged by turning the turbine without prodution?
    A 350 RMP quickly turns the wind turbine, 0 watts!
    thank you
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    You get bearing wear (seals, brushes, slip rings, leading edge abrasion, etc.) from rotating without generating useful power... However, you do not get any electrically related problems because of no power production (at low speed).

    Where you can get problems is "no power" in high wind conditions (>8 MPH). For horizontal axis wind turbines, the RPM will quickly climb to 2-3+x faster than normal operating speed without loads.

    So, you need the electrical load to prevent over speed. Typically, the turbine is "hard connected" to the battery bank and use a "diversion controller" to dump excess power to a resistor bank to prevent batteries from overcharging.

    A turbine should have several methods to prevent over-speed. Blades that "stall", furling out of wind, blades that feather, mechanical brakes, etc. are all good backup for the case where you have an electrical fault (failed slip rings, failed breaker, failed windings, etc.) that can shutdown the turbine in an emergency.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • mikael
    mikael Registered Users Posts: 10
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    thank you for your help Bill
    I have a very big battery 24 V 1500AH
    the controller has a resistance to the excess
    I was told that my battery was too high and would prevent the load with light winds
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Your large battery bank has very little effect on the operation of the turbine...

    Ideally, you are looking for 5-13% (up to 25% is OK) of battery AH rate of charge. 10% is a "good sized charger" to battery ratio:.
    • 1,500 AH * 0.10 rate of charge * 29 volts = 4,350 Watts
    For a 1,000 watt turbine, roughly a "nominally" sized battery bank would be:
    • 1,000 watts * 1/29 volts charging * 1/0.10 rate of charge = 345 AH @ 24 volt bank
    There should be no real difference between the turbine operation between a 350 AH and a 1,500 AH 24 volt battery bank...

    A "small" battery bank would be:
    • 1,000 watts * 1/29 volts charging * 1/0.25 rate of charge = 138 AH @ 24 volt bank
    That small of battery bank (138 AH @ 24 volt) would be right on the edge of letting the turbine run-a-way (not enough load/capacity) to absorb surges from a 1,000 watt turbine.

    However, you should review how much charging current your bank receives (solar, AC Grid, AC Generator, etc.)... A battery bank should have a minimum rate of "reliable" charging to prevent it from setting below ~75% state of charge for days/weeks/months. That will "sulfate" the battery bank and cause it it loose capacity in months or a year or two... Needing early replacement.

    A 1,000 watt wind turbine, by itself, is probably insufficient to keep your battery bank "happy".

    You should be looking at other charging sources capable of >2,000 watts (69 amps @ 29 volts) minimum (solar, other power sources) to ensure your bank is quickly and properly recharged.

    Have you monitored the specific gravity for your bank?

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Thought I'd give another update on my HY-2000 wind turbine and also my Classic 150 controller. I posted this on the Midnite forum, but then I thought I'd post it here as well to add to this thread...

    Having some great winds today, and my Classic 150 is working like a champ. Last night it was breezy, but nothing particularly good. Some time after midnight, the winds picked up nicely. This morning when I woke up, the wind was averaging in the low 20's, but gusting into the mid 30's. When I went down to check my Classic, I saw power peak at 4000+W for a moment in the short time I was watching. The turbo fan was running on my Classic, so I know the winds were blowing strong (FETs' were getting warm). I've only ever heard the turbo fan run one other time. My 80 gallon water heater was already at around 120F this morning. Classic showed 12.6 kwh produced over the past several hours. Supposed to be windy the rest of the day and into tonight. Should be lots of great wind power today.

    I love the fact that I can go to bed and sleep well not worrying about my wind turbine now that I switched over the the Classic. In the past, with the old controller, I used to wake up at night when the wind was roaring concerned about the wind turbine. Not any more. I know that my turbine is in good hands! :)

    Edward

    EDIT: Winds are calming down now to the teens, and power production is tapering off. I've seen a little over 30kwh produced over the past 22 hours or so. A great wind power day here. Here's a snap shot from my Classic 150 earlier in the day during some gusty conditions. I saw over 4000W at one point when I was watching, but I captured this 3.5kW gust here.

    Classic-3500W.jpg
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    I thought I'd give an update on how my HY-2000 wind turbine continues to work. It's been doing great. It's been windy the past couple days, and my Classic has been working well with my HY-2000 turbine to convert the wind into electricity. A couple months ago, we had some strong winds approaching 50 mph, and I actually saw OVER 5,000 WATTS flash on my Classic 150 at different times. Actually, I was getting so close to the limit of the Classic that I decided to tune it down a bit and set my turbine braking to occur earlier (at a lower peak turbine voltage). I like more power, but I like reliability and safety better, so yesterday when the winds were blowing in the 40's, I noticed 4700W once. I think that's about as high as a power output that I will get with my current turbine braking settings.

    Here are some pictures of some of the power output of my HY-2000 turbine. I never did catch it with the camera when it peaked over 5000 watts. I didn't want to stand there all day waiting for a big enough wind gust.

    Here's one picture with 4299 watts.

    Attachment not found.



    Here's one picture of 4672 watts.

    Attachment not found.

    It's a little difficult to see since the LCD readout was changing quickly during gusts, but as best as I could tell, that was 4672 watts, 115.6 volts, and 84.8 amps. I wish I could have gotten a snapshot when it was over 5000 watts. Now that I've set my turbine braking to occur sooner, then I won't be seeing it get up that high again. 4700 watts is high enough out of this turbine. I can't complain. After all, this HY-2000 wind turbine is rated as a 2kW wind turbine from the factory! Getting 5kW out of a 2kW wind turbine is impressive! All that to say, I'm real happy with my HY-2000 wind turbine and my Classic 150. Great products.
  • lindsley
    lindsley Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Hi Edward,
    What power are you see around 16 mph.

    I got some data for my area and its averages around 16 MPH.
    I am very interested in the HY2000 but would like some real world data.

    The data is at a height of 3 Meters

    Thanks
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    welcome to the forum.

    i won't answer for him, but you should know that even if the area averages 16mph it does not mean that's what you will see as this will vary greatly even in the same area. btw they usually measure that at a much higher height of around 10 meters so 3 meters will not see as much wind. note of course that he uses a classic mppt controller on it as you most likely won't see anything near what it would get with the classic.
  • lindsley
    lindsley Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Thank you Neil for the reply.
    I will be at around 40 feet and i am at an altitude of about another 70 feet above sea level.
    How does that factor into the equation.
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    it helps the output, but doesn't nail down the speed the wind actually is at your location to know if you will be getting that same average wind speed. an anemometer at the location it will go will give you a better idea.
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Lindsley,

    Neil is right that my Midnite Classic controller will help my HY-2000 extract more power from the wind, but my experience so far is that the Classic doesn't really dramatically boost power output until the high end of the wind range. In other words, for the wind speed range that you are describing (16 mph average), then the Classic is probably not making as big of a difference. Fortunately, we have some breezy conditions right now with the winds blowing in the teens, so I took my Davis weather station console and held it up next to my Classic to monitor power output at different wind speeds. My HY-2000 is putting out around 600 watts at 16 mph. Power output dramatically increases when winds get a little higher than that. After 20 mph, things really get going.

    With that being said, tomorrow my power output might be a little different at 16 mph. Wind is a bit of a mysterious force. There are times when my weather station tells me that the wind is a certain speed, but the power output just doesn't seem to match what I'd expect. Sometimes it's lower than expected, and sometimes it's higher than expected. I've learned that it's not just the "quantity" (mph) of the wind, but it's also the "quality" of the wind. If the wind is gusty and constantly changing directions (even just small shifts in direction), then power production will suffer. A nice, constant, steady wind is what makes the best power, but I've found that in real life it seems that wind is usually more erratic than it is constant and steady. Just keep in mind that my 600 watts @ 16 mph is an approximation made during varying wind conditions. If a turbine was set up in a wind tunnel environment, then you could get a much more accurate and repeatable power output at any given wind speed.

    If you have average wind conditions of 16 mph, then that sounds quite good. When you say "average", do you mean that if you measured wind conditions for 3 months, that the average daily wind speed is 16 mph if you factor in each and every day during that 3 month period? If so, then that sound like a decent wind site.

    By the way, my HY-2000 is an older model and I've heard that HY Energy made some changes (improvements) to the HY-2000 wind turbine. Apparently, the factory now makes the HY-2000 with 5 blades. The generating head is also a little different than my older model. Also, they now have a newer controller that is supposed to be much better than the original controller. In my case, I don't use the factory supplied controller anyway, since I use the Classic (which I really like). I have heard that Windmax in the US does not carry the latest, improved HY-2000. Some people have purchased directly from the HY Energy factory in which case you would get the newer version of the HY-2000. Windmax might have old stock of the older version. I have the older version and I am happy with it. The newer version with 5 blades should theoretically put out more power at lower wind speeds, but I don't know from personal experience how they actually compare.

    Edward
  • lindsley
    lindsley Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    Thank for the reply, certainly helps.
    The average wind speed was calculated over a period of time. more than 3 months.
    Here is the data on this website.
    http://www.windfinder.com/windstats/windstatistic_vieux_fort_st_lucia.htm

    I live three miles from the site observed.

    I have an ARI 450W and it is said to be the same as the HY. with my wind speed I have seen a max of 6 amps at 24 volts. I was hoping to purchase the Hy2000 at 48 volts to charge my 24v bank of 620AH forklift batteries.
    As it stands my turbine is not contributing much to my system. most of the charge comes from 3 270 watt PV units. I need more but was hoping to complement the Solar with wind so at least at night the load would be shared with the turbine.

    Thanks again for the information.

    Lindsley
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    the wind turbine aside i believe you should add more pv to it to at least get one reliable power source to charge the batteries. as it is you are most likely under a 5% charge rate and could be hurting the batteries by undercharging them. once the solar has some reliability then play with the wind. you won't usually reap much power from the wind anyway and it's most likely to go down for maintenance being it is mechanical and moves.
  • keyturbocars
    keyturbocars Solar Expert Posts: 375 ✭✭
    Re: Windmax HY-2000 2kW Wind Turbine

    I agree with Neil is probably a more reliable source of consistent power if you live in a sunny area. In addition, solar is probably a better bang for your buck in terms of $/kwh. Of course, all that assumes an area with an abundance of sunshine.

    Also, on the HY-2000, the controller would not work with a 24V battery bank. All the controls and voltage setpoints would be wrong. If you'd like to expand your wind power, something like the HY-1000 in the 24V version is selling for $899 right now at Windmax, last I saw. Much more economical than $2600 for the HY-2000 and then needing to come up with a whole new control system for your 24V battery bank. You could do what I did and go with a Classic 150, but running at 24V would reduce your peak power capacity in the Classic and you would need 2 of them. You can see what I mean here:

    http://www.midnitesolar.com/images/classicFrontPage/graphs.php

    Two Classics would add another $1600 or so to your system cost, and you'd still need to build the rest of the control system. By the time you add it all up, you will be at OVER $5000 and have a fair amount of work to do. All that to say, I'd say that a HY-2000 might not be cost effective for your 24V battery bank. That's why I say that $899 for a HY-1000 24V version might be much more reasonable.

    http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info.php?cPath=8_116&products_id=719

    By the way, my understanding was that the ARI turbines were just "copies" of the HY Energy turbines, but from what I've seen they are not up to the same level of quality and power output of the HY turbines. They just look the same. Typically Chinese copycat approach.

    Good luck on whatever you pursue.