Whisper 200 parts needed

Aussie Kev
Aussie Kev Registered Users Posts: 3
I have a Whisper 200 with 9ft diameter blades as part of my stand alone (off grid) system and have broken a blade on the turbine when lowering (yes the wife was helping!!) and have learnt the company is no longer in existence. Does anyone know if parts are available and where from? Any second hand blades available anywhere?. I have not had any luck sourcing blades in Australia. I was hoping someone here may be able to help with information.

Comments

  • Ethan Brush
    Ethan Brush Solar Expert Posts: 235 ✭✭
    Aussie Kev wrote: »
    I have a Whisper 200 with 9ft diameter blades as part of my stand alone (off grid) system and have broken a blade on the turbine when lowering (yes the wife was helping!!) and have learnt the company is no longer in existence. Does anyone know if parts are available and where from? Any second hand blades available anywhere?. I have not had any luck sourcing blades in Australia. I was hoping someone here may be able to help with information.

    I also have a whisper 200 but have not needed any parts yet. I believe the whisper line was sold to a company called luminous renewable energy. Not sure if this is an outdated page, but they also appear to have parts here:
    http://renewableenergysupplies.net/product37.html
  • Aussie Kev
    Aussie Kev Registered Users Posts: 3
    Thanks for that Ethan, Sorry for the delay, I have been away working. Have managed to track down Louminous and they are still making the blades. Just have to weigh up the cost against what it actually produces. They have recommended a whole new set to keep them balanced so may be more cost effective to spend a bit extra and increase the solar capacity.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Kev,

    Have you ever had a chance to measure/log the output power of your wind turbine over time (months/years)?

    Personally, I agree with you that more solar panels is probably a better/more predictable investment.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • cmeans
    cmeans Registered Users Posts: 2
    Hi folks, Chip from Pika Energy here. New to this forum, but wanted to introduce myself. Adding to what Bill is saying, what we typically see as the value proposition for small wind turbines in off-grid applications is the benefit for battery charging. Solar is awesome, and definitely more predictable... it predictably stops at night! That's where the hybrid system is a good option, so you get the power from your array and from your turbine.

    Cheers and best of luck!

    http://www.pika-energy.com
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Chip,

    Welcome to the forum... I have edited your post a bit... We really do not allow advertising here.

    However, please feel free to post an example system (yours or a customer's) that is designed the way you believe a good wind system should be--And, roughly, how much wind energy per day/month would such a system harvest (i.e., "real" numbers). You are welcome to start a new thread going through the basics of site selection, production estimates, and system design.

    Ben Polito from Pika has posted here a bit too...

    From my point of view, many wind companies have over estimated the amount of energy that "their systems" really can produce in the field. It is a combination of "specsmanship", harsh realities of electro/mechanical devices at the top of a 60+ foot pole, and--many times--The location chosen for the install (poor wind location, will not produce much power no matter how good the turbine).

    One of the most difficult things to get (and I have asked many times) are a 1+ year's worth of monthly kWH production figures from an operating system. And how often/what kind of maintenance is required (tilt pole, crane truck, etc.).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • cmeans
    cmeans Registered Users Posts: 2
    Hi Bill, thanks for your reply. We use conservative estimates for AEP, based on NREL, PVWatts and other data, which we then decrement based on tower height, losses, etc. What we find is that in a good location, a hybrid system (3kW, combination wind + solar) can generate around 600kWh monthly. I'll see what we can share as far as real in-the-field data from a customer's site, from our monitoring dashboard. Maintenance-wise, we primarily use tilt-towers with a gin pole and winch. We have recommendations as to how often to check fastenings etc. - with only two moving parts and sealed bearings, the aim is to be as low-maintenance as possible.

    -Chip
  • Aussie Kev
    Aussie Kev Registered Users Posts: 3
    Bill, I havn't measured the output over time as my system doesnt show an accumulated figure. (maybe it does but i dont know how to read it??) I have 3kw solar with the 1 kw turbine. The house is on a farm 1 hour north of Perth Western Australia. We are not connected to the grid due to the large cost estimates of the power company to connect (over $75,000 to run about 700 metres from the wires that run through our farm!!).
    The Turbine when installed never seemed to produce much power and the heat sink was always warm to touch, with me not knowing much about id didn't worry as we seemed to have enough power, When the company came back to check on things 2 years later I mentioned it didnt seem to do much and they found it had been set up for 12v and not 48v and was sending all the power to the dump as the Sunny Island Inverter wouldnt accept it.. Quick wiring change and all fixed.
    I had noticed that even in very windy (storm) conditions i never got more than 550w before it would tilt out of the wind. Still no big deal as we had enough power but recently a daughter came back home to live and the extra power drain was becoming a concern.
    The company who installed the system advised it should give more than that and to tighten the pivot bolt a bit to delay the furling, thats what i was doing when the blade got broke.
    I have found someone in Aus that has a set of blades but he recommended changing the whole lot to keep them in balance. At about $ 900 landed here not too sure it is worth it. That little bit of extra power on cloudy winter days sure comes in handy though.
  • inetdog
    inetdog Solar Expert Posts: 3,123 ✭✭✭✭
    You could probably get more kWh for the buck from adding panels, even if the winter insolation is not good. At least in terms of the average over several days.
    SMA SB 3000, old BP panels.