Wind Max HY Energy Chinese imports hype or good stuff?

ChrisOlson wrote: »

Oh really? Well, I will tell you that about 90% of residential wind power installations are a complete waste of time and money. And that, regardless of whether or not you think I know what I'm talking about, is fact.

This whole thread smells of the "hit squads" that run around on YouTube and forums promoting their favorite toy wind turbine. So before continuing the rant on the WindMax H20 I suggest you provide some useful information as to your site's suitability for wind power, and whether it is off-grid or if you just want an expensive and useless toy.
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Chris

ChrisOlson wrote: »

That's called experience.



This is your first clue that you should not even be messing with wind power. 30 feet clearance over obstructions means nothing. At 50 feet you are still in the ground induced roll zone that causes turbulence thru a turbine rotor. At 60 feet in perfectly flat terrain you are just at the edge of it. 80 feet is minimum to get any real production from a wind turbine. 90 feet is ideal minimum to get out of your investment in it what you should get. Anything over 90 feet is better.

Wind power costs 3x what it costs for the equivalent kWh production with solar. You have to have a reason for putting it up - like poor solar conditions in the winter for an off-grid home, and wind power costing roughly 1/3 of what it costs to operate a standby generator. Otherwise residential wind power is simply not practical.

When it comes to the H20, installed on a 40 piece of pipe with guy wires strung all over tarnation, it will last reasonably well. Put it on a 90 foot tower in a good wind zone and it won't last three months. I got two of 'em laying in my shop in the junk pile burnt to a crisp. The electronics on them are a fire hazard. When they burn the stator they free-spin and toss blades.

Over 90 years in the history of wind power the only turbines that withstood the test of time are machines that use either mechanical furling or variable pitch rotors to protect themselves in high winds.

Bottom line - avoid the H20 like the plague if you have a good wind site and a real tower. If you're putting up an expensive toy on a 40 foot piece of pipe it might work but don't expect much energy production from it compared to what you can get from solar.

Edit:
Another thing to consider with wind power is that the wind zones are established at 50 meter (164 feet) height. The average wind speed on a 90 foot tower will be about 85% of what is established for the wind zone at 164 feet. On a 50 foot tower the average watts/square meter thru the rotor will be only 25-35% of the wind zone rating. And this is the primary reason that 90% of residential wind power installations are failures - failure to spend the money on a decent tower. The tower is the most expensive part of a wind power installation.

There are also "micro climates" in any wind zone so the suitability of a site for wind power has to evaluated on a one-on-one basis with actual data at the proposed tower height. For instance, we live in a zone 4, but due to terrain, features like Lake Superior and prevailing winds, we get close to 20 mph averages in the winter time with many days of sustained 30-35 mph. I've flown data logging anemometers for years here and at 50 feet height the wind speed is only 14-15. At 80 feet it increases to 18-20. For a wind turbine that's a difference of sustained 300 watts output vs sustained 1 kW - JUST by increasing the height of the tower by 30 feet.
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Chris