Turbotricity

They may be cheap, but are they cheerful? A few years ago, I was tempted by low cost Chinese wind turbines. At the price, they seemed to be too good to be true. I have brought in five different ones at this stage, and I give up.

The first one we put up whistled like a banshee. The blades were straight cut – the pitch was the same for the entire length of the blade which was fibreglass, and you could hear if from a few miles away.

I had sold two more of these to other folks locally. One fell down because the guy wires failed. In fairness, it should have been taken down and greased each year, and it wasn’t, so the owner couldn’t really complain.

The third one seized its bearings and destroyed the main shaft – I replaced that one for free. That was the fourth one. It is still going, but the owner has replaced the bearings and the blades, thankfully. It also whistled like a demented firework and was something of an embarrassment locally.

The fifth one was remarkably like the machine allegedly made by a company in Mayo (who threatened to sue me for having their name on this post). Given a choice, my guess would be that it comes from China. The bearings went on it as well, and then a casting failed while replacing them.

A sixth one never showed up – I sent the money off and got three towers and no turbine. The towers are doing nicely as gateposts for someone in Drimoleague.

All of them came with inverters and charge controllers that were total rubbish.

That’s me finished with Chinese turbines for the time being. I’ve heard other folks complaining that the magnets fall out, or that the blades have broken. The latter can be catastrophic, because the turbine is then spinning out of balance and just about anything can happen then.

To be honest, yes they are cheap, but if you want an ungalvanised tower that has guy wires that have to be checked each year, and are prepared to change the bearings and blades, and use a different inverter and charge controller, you might save a few bob, but I doubt it.

What the market needs is a quality machine that has a properly galvanised free-standing tower, a well made generator with SKF bearings and quality controller and inverter. Watch this space….