Air X wind turbine

I picked on these up: http://www.windenergy.com/air_x.htm.

I have yet to install it because it requires some fabrication, I am hoping to use it instead of a generator. The specs say it rated for 400W in ideal conditions but if it only generates half of that its more than I need, even at night with all the lights, the TV and the laptop I use nowhere near that amount. With this, 200W of solar and 1050 amp hours of battery my offgrid time without starting the engine is pretty much indefinate. It only weighs 13 pounds - its mounting hardware will weigh more.

I plan to install it on an extending pole on the back of the mog - the end result will be something like the RV mount shown on the website but fitted. For those that have seen the mog this will make sense. I have that metal rack on the back which holds the external box and the spare. The bars holding the rack go from top to bottom of the camper, I plan to install an extension tube inside the tubes of that rack. The tube will have a few holes which bolts go through to lock it in position, both in and extended. With the pole at full extension and the turbine on the end it will be about 22 feet in the air. The extension pole will be able to extend to multiple heights to account for tight spaces.

With me sleeping at the front and it being 10 feet above the camper at the back it shoudn't be too noisey but I'll still be able to hear it. The turbine is noisey because it spins really fast. Martyn from AT suggested a kill switch to disconnect it when you don't need it which is not a bad idea although the latest controller has a brake system to stop it rotating - kind of important when you need to pack up! When its spinning fast those blades will take your fingers off.

The blades do come off for storing which makes it pretty small but taking them off and putting them on is a bit of a pain in the ass. I am hoping to find somewhere to store it with the blades on but its 4 feet across.

I hope to have it ready for the DV trip in the new year.

Pics to follow.

Rob

EDIT: I forgot to say, I got it from these folks http://home.altenergystore.com for $538 for the land version. The marine version is more expensive at nearly $700 and the industrial vesion is $1000. The marine version is salt spray safe, other than that its exactly the same as the land version. The industrial version is very different and needs a charge controller.

Extremely cool, Rob! I'm very curious to see how it works out.

How many watts at the Mog's cruise speed?

It would be cool to leave out while driving...

For some reason I'm reminded of some friends with property in Silt, CO. They took a chemie outhouse up there early in their ownership. Was a hideous green, so it got camo'd (too well I might add - hard to find in the daylight). Some yahoo stuck a old tv antenna on it and off it went to CO on a flatbed trailer.

They got a LOT of strange looks on that trip.

Why can't it stay up? Does it have a max wind speed rating?

I am interested in how it works. I have heard mixed reviews. We have a cabin with no power to it and I havea small solar system on it. we get lake wind almost every day. I have heard they require a high wind speed to start making power.

I have the 400W Air-X marine version going into my van in the coming months. How are you planning to store the unit when underway? My blade diameter is 48" I believe, and that is going to take up a huge amount of space in the roof basket if left assembled. I've contemplated machining up a new blade hub which allows quick removal of the blades, but at this point I have more important project to attend to with the new vehicle. I don't have solar panels (they are still too expensive for the *actual* output in my opinion) so this will be my primary stationary charging system. I'll be adding that above mentioned stop switch in my system. All it does is short the windings and locks up the rotor. Its absolutely necessary when deploying and retrieving the power head, as those blades will do some serious damage to carbon life forms if left to flail about. I've been wondering when this topic would show up on the forums. I'd done searches before on "wind generators" etc, and it appears this still is a fairly new application. Will you be dumping power into just the house battery(ies), or into the whole 12V system?

Spence

I had the same unit on my sailboat, although it was a few years older.
They begin working in as little as 5-8 kts of wind, start humming around 12-15 kts and crank out tons of power around 20kts!

If you have it up in high winds, 40kts+ it is a good idea to turn on the brake so that it will not rotate.

chet said:

I am interested in how it works. I have heard mixed reviews. We have a cabin with no power to it and I havea small solar system on it. we get lake wind almost every day. I have heard they require a high wind speed to start making power.

Click to expand...

The manuals are at the location that Rob provided the link for.

AIR-X manual page 30 has a nice graph:

7MPH start up speed maybe 10 to 15 Watts (about an amp of current)

28MPH yields 400Watts

max wind speed is 110 MPH

ntsqd said:

For some reason I'm reminded of some friends with property in Silt, CO. They took a chemie outhouse up there early in their ownership. Was a hideous green, so it got camo'd (too well I might add - hard to find in the daylight). Some yahoo stuck a old tv antenna on it and off it went to CO on a flatbed trailer.

They got a LOT of strange looks on that trip.

Why can't it stay up? Does it have a max wind speed rating?

Click to expand...

I don't want to leave it out when driving because its huge, its 4 feet across and on a pole 11 feet above the truck!! Its max wind speed is 110 mph.

I do not plan on storing it as a unit, I plan on taking the blades off when driving and put the whole thing in the zages case on the roof rack. It only takes a minute or so to get the blades on and off, its just 6 bolts at 10 ft/lbs. It takes longer to get the hub cover off so I'll probably stop using it as it serves no purpose. A quick release hub would be brilliant but you would still have a 4 foot disk to store.

I searched all over the truck for a place to store the entire turbine in one piece but its not going to happen. The roof is the only realistic place to keep it and it will cover the solar panels and the roof hatch. On the roof it is also likely to get damaged because my roof is already quite high.

At the moment I am treating it as an experiment and I am not 100% what will become of it. This is what I know, I plan on putting the kill switch inside, I plan on a permanent connection to the batteries prior to the ammeter so I can see what sort of current its putting out. The wiring will end at some type of high current quick connector on the outside roof. I hope setup will be as easy as fit the blades to the turbine, raise the mast, fit the unit to the mast and connect the wires.

I'll keep you all posted.

Rob

Are the solar panels not enough?

FourByLand said:

Are the solar panels not enough?

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I would guess that there are a few reasons why supplemental wind generation would be advantageous. Cloudy days, actively moving the panels to generate enough watts, etc.

in my own setup my one solar panel should be enough to properly charge my second battery IF there were no clouds and the angle of the panel was actively adjusted to maximize the output watts. One way to overcome such factors is to have more panels but that is not really practical for me to carry more than the one 54W panel

I just wanted to know what his rationale was... they are huge panels placed on top of his mog and it seems like they would get plenty of charging time, just curious.

Which solar sheet are you using Teotwaki?

The panels are good and they are 150W each but you never get the rated power because of the volt drop in the converter, dirt on the panels, none ideal lighting and temperature etc. The max I have ever got is about 12 amps at 14.4v which is about 170W. A more realistic charge is more like 8-9 amps ( around 120W) and thats only during good light, in shade or shadow that figure drops rapidly. The panels are on the flat root and point straight up and I get pretty low power output until the sun is high in the sky.

8 amps is not enough to run the truck and put back what I used during the night especially if both fridges are going. I did consider adding a new panel to the hatch on the roof so I could angle it towards the sun but I figured a seperate independent system would be better. The turbine was about half the price of the solar upgrade and generates lots more power. I ultimaltey decided on the turbine because it works in the night and there is typically wind in situations where solar is not practical - rain, snow, dust, night etc.

I may be completely wrong, like I said its an experiment, we'll have to see how it works out but I don't see any downsides.

Rob

Robthebrit said:

A quick release hub would be brilliant but you would still have a 4 foot disk to store.
Rob

Click to expand...

I'm actually considering quick release blades instead of the actual hub. I don't think it would be very difficult to pull off, and I've got a full machine shop, so the turn-around between a design and prototype is just a few hours. I think the small bolts which hold on the blades (and the hub into which they thread) won't have much longevity if constantly being tightened and loosened. I agree on the "spinner" cone which acts to streamline the blade hub....no function whatsoever.

Spence