Our Nuts Were Tightened!

Yeah!  Redriven came this week and tightened down all of our bolts. The tech said that just about everything was loose.  I guess vibration will do that.  He said the hub nut tightened down about ½ inch. There was another term the tech used to describe what he did to keep it from coming loose that they do now – tapped it or tinned it?  Does anyone know what they do?  I know someone that commented a while back talked about welding it or something like that so it couldn’t come loose again.

This year is such a freak year.  There is so little wind, that I had to wait two days to see the turbine even move after repair. Last night we got some good wind and I could hear a marked improvement in the sound the turbine was making. We didn't get the highest winds, but it sounded healthy for a change.   Let the winds come!

Dec to Jan Results -Retraction - I made a mistake last month

Results report for Dec 27 to Jan 27


I was putting in my calculations for this month and I found in a mistake in my spreadsheet. In my excel formula, I copied downward the wrong calculations for the last 2 months. I found this because the numbers just weren’t adding up. We had an average wind speed this month of 8mph but the results didn’t improve on my sheet. So I’ve gone back and fixed my error.

The wind gusts (show as blue dots) did cause the system to shut down several times this month.


Month of Jan Wind Speed



 This month (Dec 27 to Jan 27) average 8 mph with a gain of 367KWH with the inverters putting out 581KWH.

Month of Dec Wind Speed



Last month the average wind speed was 6 mph and we made 320KWH with the inverters putting out 408 KWHs

  

We had some high peaks of wind speed, but these wind gusts cause the system to shut down in protection mode . Also,  the system needs to do a lot of yawing to move out of the wind on these gusty days. A slower steady wind speed will produce much better results.

Wind Turbine Popped it's Lid

After a very windy day, we noticed that the wind turbine popped it's lid.  So in the bitter cold we had to take it down one more time.  We think it popped because of the vibration caused by the loose hub. Redriven still hasn't come and we don't have the socket to tighten it ourselves.  It would be best to turn the yaw break on and take it down face up.  We don't know how to do that trick or if it is even possible with the newest software.  REDRIVEN we need a Tech!

Loud noise source found?

My husband an I took the wind turbine down yesterday to see if it was a loose nut on the flange that was causing the loud airplane sound. when  we shook the blades they did seem to wobble back and forth more than it should and made kind of a " wa wa"  sound.  One thing we didn't consider was that this nut was gigantic. About twice the size of the nuts that hold the tower together.   We tried to tighten it with a pipe wrench but that would not move it. With the blades on, you really can't get a wrench in there very well.  You really need a big socket to go around this or take at least one blade off.   Here is a picture of what the nut looks like, under the hub cap.

I looked back at my youtube video -  and saw that it was originally tightened down with a pipe wrench but before the blades were attached so there was some room to get the wrench next to the nut. You can also see that the shaft sticks out about 1/4" and now it is flush with the shaft.

We called Redriven to tell them our findings and that we couldn't tighten it ourselves. They said they would send someone next week to tighten this down.

Decembers Results

Like the snow,  the wind is not coming this year.  So again not much power made. (see the chart below)

For the month we made 606KWH. Mistake -Sorry 320KWH

My husband was able to down load the latest long board and user interface code. Now Redriven can download code remotely to the tower, long board.  We have seen them do this several times - there is a warning on the main screen when it is getting a remote download.   We are now on version 356 according to windveiw.   Also since my last blog - Redriven had my husband change the Inverter numbers and they now read on windview.  Next windy day, I'll give you a screen shot on how that looks.

We had a problem with a rattle noise - we thought were the breaks. That rattling noise has stopped coming as frequently, but now there is an increasing loud vibration noise. It  sounds like a plane is landing in our yard.  Does anyone else have noise like that when the wind gets blowing hard?

Windview What can you see?

I received an email from a college professor that is the process of getting a  Redriven wind turbine for the college.  He asked about seeing the Wind view.   I thought I would post this so you can see why we don't look at Windview very often.  Our inverters are not connected, so there is not too much to see there.  My husband has it on his cell phone (iPhone). I can't get it to display on my Blackberry. Another reason I don't look too often as I can't get it on my work laptop any more.  The only browser that seems to work is Opera. I can't run that on my work PC.   It is much easier to look out the window to see if it is running.  If you are interested in how much power your making , you can't see it here. Take a look for yourself.

November Results

This month we’ve had a few issues with the software. It has been having errors in low wind and doing a lot of extra yawing. We’ve had to unwind it twice. Not huge issues but we missed a few hours of wind here and there when we were sleeping or away. There is a new version of software that should fix these low wind issues, but we were not able to get it to load. We’re hoping a tech will come by soon to upgrade us. With the next version of software, upgrading will be able to be done remotely they say.




This month we had a total of 286KWH of power. The average wind speed for the month was only 5 miles per hour.

Other news this month – I’m glad to see that NYSERDA still has Redriven listed as a choice. The more turbines they have in NY State the more access we will have to the technicians.

http://www.nyserda.ny.gov/Page-Sections/Renewables/Small-Wind/Eligible-Wind-Turbines.aspx