As the turbine turns ...As mentioned in the November/December, 2006 issue of COUNTRYSIDE, we had problems with our old wind turbine turbine, rotary engine that uses a continuous stream of fluid (gas or liquid) to turn a shaft that can drive machinery. A water, or hydraulic, turbine is used to drive electric generators in hydroelectric power stations. after its re-installation at our new location in northern Wisconsin Wisconsin, state, United States Wisconsin (wĭskŏn`sən, –sĭn), upper midwestern state of the United States. It is bounded by Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, from which it is divided by the Menominee . Basically, it wouldn't would·n't Contraction of would not. wouldn't would not wouldn't would turn no matter what the wind speed. We decided to upgrade our Whisper H900 to a Whisper 100 turbine and controller, and added an optional display for the controller. From a cost perspective it made more sense to take advantage of the upgrades and the five year warranty instead of repairing the old unit. We would also have very little down time. After assembling the new turbine and controller (which I must add arrived neatly neat 1 adj. neat·er, neat·est 1. Orderly and clean; tidy. 2. Orderly and precise in procedure; systematic. 3. packaged with easy-to-assemble instructions) and rounding up staff members from their desks, the tower and turbine were lowered and the change-out began. We removed the old turbine and double checked the wiring from the turbine to the building, to ensure there were no breaks or shorts which would bring things to a halt. This also proved to us that the problem was indeed in the old turbine. Before we could install the new unit the top four-foot section of the tower had to be modified. The old unit was mounted in the 4-1/2" ID pipe of the tower and the new unit required 2-1/2" ID pipe for mounting. The folks at Medford Medford. 1 City (1990 pop. 57,407), Middlesex co., E Mass., a residential and industrial suburb of Boston, on the Mystic River; settled 1630, inc. as a city 1892. Wax, paper, clothing, and furniture are among its products. Metalworks had set time aside to fabricate a new top section to accommodate our new turbine by modifying part of the old top section, knowing that we were in a time crunch (1) To process data. See number crunching. (2) To compress data. See data compression. 1. (jargon) crunch - To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. (i.e., the weather was cooperating). Once the new section was ready and the wiring, mounting and assembly of the turbine were completed, the tower was lifted back into place. The guy wires were adjusted and the outside work was complete. The next step was to replace the controller, which only took a few minutes--this Whisper system has been designed with simplicity in mind. Using the supplied owner's manual makes the step-by-step installation, operation and maintenance a breeze. The replacement turbine was up and producing in one day, and 'we have had no problems to date. About Southwest Windpower Southwest Windpower is a wind turbine manufacturer established in 1987 based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Maker of small-scale, consumer-oriented wind generators. With 60 employees and growing, Southwest Windpower’s tagline is “Renewable Energy Made Simple. Southwest Windpower has been a pioneer in the development of wind technology for over 20 years and has produced over 90,000 generators providing power to residential homes and remote cabins. For more information, see their ad on page 42. Visit www.windenergy.com or call 928-779-9463. RAY KRUEZIGER COUNTRYSIDE STAFF |
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