James Malone

[James Malone]

Hi to everyone,

James Malone here in Australia. I imported a 2 Kw on gird turbine from zzkino in China and after 6 months the tail panels were rusted all over. A few months later the turbine blew up on top of the tower and virtually disintegrated. I sent the Australian made inverter back to the manufacturer and they tested it fully and could find no fault as to why it did not stop the turbine from spinning if over revving was in fact the problem.

The factory and many others in China that make claims of all sorts of expertise and market export countries could not care less. Does anyone have a factory where you do get a good product and responses to your experiences and concerns?

James

[Joe Blake]

Hi James,

Joe "down under" as well (Perth).

There's already an existing thread about Chinese Turbines you might like to check out.

http://www.greenpowertalk.org/showthread.php?t=12007

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Hi James,

Welcome to the forum!
Just to correct a (common but dangerous) misconception: It's not the job of the inverter to keep the wind turbine under control. The grid can fall away at any time, which would cause the inverter to shut down and the turbine to loose its load. It should stay under control, and limits its RPM, especially when there is no inverter.

You're lucky the inverter is still OK. The most common cause of wind turbine inverter failure I'm seeing is due to overvoltage (which means the turbine was overspeeding).

-RoB-

[Cor van Houtum]

Hello James,

welcome to the forum.

If you import from china then you have to take in consideration that you are the business man that takes the risks And do not act as a consumer when things are not working as you think they should.
You need to have the knowledge your self or someone in your company must have.
And you need time and money
To keep things running you need stock and parts.

For instance today Sunday I have worked all morning on a 10kw on customers site This machine has blow up a hydraulic tube in site the nacelle These things can happen and no body is going to pay for this damage It is all warranty that comes on my account.

If you want to go bankrupt then you must sell as much windmills as possible in a short time And specially sell all kinds of models.
After your first 10 Pcs sold you can work all day to keep them running And the customers claim their warranty.
After replacing some very expensive inverters on your account you will stop this nonsense automatically.

So my advice to you is

Do not sell windmills that you have not tested for a longer period yourself.
Do not think that all customers understand what they are doing .
Windmills cannot turn unattended, there should be always someone to keep an eye on the things.
Especially in hard weather conditions
Or you take the risk , that’s always a possibility .

But your customer will come and put all the risks at your platter.

The most common problem is discussed sevaral times on this forum
and i must agree with Rob for 100%
a inverter is not made to controll the turbine NEVER !!!
You need a controller to do this job.

people are happy when the 2kw engine is producing 3kw
you should not be happy at all when you see this.
it is the same as driving down hill 200 Mph with a scooter
only wait for the accident to happen !!

so keep your engine under controll and in extreme winds shut it down.
IF YOU CAN.

when electric braked then you cannot shut it down in extreme conditions
you will need a mechanic sort of brake , or active yaw to get the thing in safe position.

I explain why you cannot stop the engine.
most chinese windturbines are made to start turning at low windspeeds.
this has also a counter site.
the blades power is so strong that it will over feed the generator with natures power when extreme winds occur.

and there it is going wrong.

overspeed will come easy and extreme temperature of the generator wil follow
customers are expecting a lot of energy in a short time when high winds occur.
IT IS A WINDMILL THEY SAY , AND MADE FOR THE WIND.

But that is not completely true,
your car is also not a racing car
why expect then that it will not brake down when you miss use it.
it will over heat and blow the motor or the tires come off.

this is the same with a windmill.

SO BUILD A CONTROLLER THAT COVERS ALL OF THESE EVENTS :oh:

Kind regards

Cor

[Ralph Day]

Cor,
With english not your first language you explained that all to perfection! There must be thousands of people wish they'd read this before purchasing.

Ralph

[Cor van Houtum]

Thanks for the compliment Ralph,
I hope people read it and take there lessons out of my expensive expierence
It was expensive for me I mean.
And even with our knowledge of systems we get suprised sometimes.

thanks

Cor

But also in Dutch I talk backwards sometimes (sorry)