We're Back!

We're back in the wind!

. . . Only on a much smaller scale

I've been wanting to replace the Redriven turbine but my daughter will be in college for a while so I can't throw too much more money in my wind hobby.   I set up ebay and Craigs list searches for wind turbines within driving distance.

In July, I saw a wind turbine on eBay for Sale only a few miles from my house and bought it.

Its a 1K Southwest Whisper 200 HV.   Unfortunately the HV ( High Voltage 240V ) model is quiet obscure an the manual doesn't cover that model at all.

So it has taken a while and a village to get all the info an parts  together to get it going again.

Our neighbor Matt, who is a farmer and and expert with Hydraulics helped us make sure the the tower wasn't going to come crashing down on us after many years of not being used.

We hired Scott Fouts from (QED) an ex Redriven employee to help us with the conversion from the complex wiring of the ReDriven set up to the basic  South West Wind set up. Scott also remotely dialed in to configure the Inverters.

Rob from Greenpowertalk.org guided us in getting the measurements and calculated the power curve for the Whisper 200 model.

My husband hired an Amish company down the road to weld the part that my husband  designed on CAD  to convert from the Redriven mount to an new Schedule 40 pole that the South west requires.

And I did what I do best, gently nudged (nagged) everyone to do their part.


The wind started today Dec 29th and after a little troubleshooting, it is making power! Not a lot of power but we are now out of the lawn ornament category now.

Here is the spec for the tower for those who want to try to put a new head on it.



https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzdXN0YWluaW5nd2luZHBvd2VyfGd4OjIzZDQ3NTRlNzMxNTI2NmQ

Does anyone have the spec for the 10K tower turbine mounting connection?

It as been a long time! 

Does anyone have the specs for the Redriven mounting system.  Several people are looking for a  drawings that show the number, size and bolt circle for the tower-to-turbine connection of the Redriven-10K.

Can anyone share that info?

If you are a former Redriven owner or employee, I promise not to tell where I got the info if you send it to me.

Warning about flange and structural cracking on the original installed

These pictures were provided by the maintenance staff at Presentation Sisters in Aberdeen, SD.
Safety Maintenance Alert Turbine Model: RPI 20kW with original "Flat Root" blades and original blade flange. These pictures are of a weld failure on the original installed flange and structural cracking on the original installed blades. The system has been running since April 2013 with a QED control system. It was lowered for routine annual maintenance.
QED recommends an immediate system stop and inspection of any systems in operation that are using original RPI blade Components. It is our opinion that these original installed blades and flange represent a safety concern.
*please note that systems running Round Root bladesets should also be inspected.
Please contact Scott Fouts of QED Wind Power with any questions.
scott@QEDWINDPOWER.com
These pictures were provided by the maintenance staff at Presentation Sisters in Aberdeen, SD.

Redriven owners - Scott sent a bunch of pictures but this one was the one that said it all to me.  If you have a redriven that is still running, be sure to inspect the blades for cracks.

It is time to move on . . .but what next?

It is time to move on.   We are tired of looking at a non working wind turbine.

Has anyone out there put a new Nacelle on the Redriven tower?

What did you do?  How did it go?

Has anyone been able to get a 10KW Redriven going?  I know Scott has some 20KW going now, but any 10KW working out there?


Looking at the options

WARNING for Long board users - The Long Board is not safe to run

Anyone running the long board version of the Redriven wind turbine should read the warning below from Scott Fouts.

------------Letter from Scott ---------
There have been continuing failures of Redriven's long board controller over the past year - you have experienced your own issues.   Many of the failures I've been made aware of are much more significant in nature, and are cause for concern.  Some of the machines began experiencing capacitor failures, which can be explosive.   Recently it seems that catastrophic failures, such as capacitor explosions and inverter failures are more the norm instead of random.

I am recommending that anyone running the Redriven long board "C" system shut them down.   In my professional opinion, to continue operating them is not safe.

As you know, I have been working on a control system to retrofit into existing Redriven machines.   As of today there are several of these systems running flawlessly.   At this point only 20kW machines have been retrofitted with the new "Phoenix" controller, but it is designed to work with other sizes as well.

There are still options for most of the systems out there.  Initially it's important to get the word out that running the machines on the long board "C" controller isn't safe.

-----------End of Scott's letter -----------



Anyone that would like to talk to Scott about the issues or his solution can contact him at scott.fouts@yahoo.com or call him at 740-601-3959


We have the long board installed but there is no concern since it is completely shut down.  We have a blown controller board in the head and the bearing are shot.  Is there anyone out there still running that hasn't worked with Scott?  Is anyone out there selling there Redriven parts? We are trying to decide what to do next. I'd love to hear what others are doing.  Sorry it has been so long since I've updated the site.

Can't spin in the right direction

We took the entire break assembly off and the turbine still does not move in the direction the wind would take it without brute force.  It does move freely in the opposite direction however.

On the next nice day we are going to attempt to turn the blades around and see if we can squeeze a few more KWH out of it in the reverse direction.



Does anyone have any other low or no cost  ideas?