DEATH OF A WIND GENERATOR

My Primus  (formally Southwest Wind Power) 48 volt wind generator stop working last
year. It had been in operation 365 days a year for the past 8 years so it was probably
due for some refurbishing.  The wind generator has a sophisticated regulator circuit.
Which I imagine had failed. So sending the unit for refurbishing back to factory seemed
like a good investment.
  Unfortunately, I got some bad news along with some photos of the damage: 

“The technician was able to begin working on your unit, unfortunately we found some bad news.  Please see attached pictures. The stator in your turbine overheated which leaks the varnish from the stator throughout the entire turbine.  In these instances, the turbine is not repairable (or not worth repairing due to how much it would cost).”

After discussions with the technicians at the factory I asked how this failure occurred.
He explained that too much wind can cause this type of damage.  Though the
wind generator was advertised as having circuitry that protected it from excessive
winds obviously it failed.
Since the generator was out of warranty I was only offered at discount at purchasing
a new on which was still in the thousand-dollar range.  Even with a new 5-year warranty
the reality was there's no guarantee but the unit would not fail again once the warranty
was up. While I liked having the wind generator as part of a multi energy approach to
charging my electric propulsion battery bank. In the end I thought the cost of a new
generator was not worth it  and the money might better be spent on additional solar
panels. 

HARVEST TIME

I was glad to be on board to once again see the full moon rise over the harbor. It was the Harvest Moon and probably the last one I see before I put the boat on land for the winter. Watching that Harvest Moon I began thinking that BIANKA has been back on the mooring for over two weeks. In that time I have not had to fire up the Honda 2000 eu generator to charge the two battery banks on board. Which is a good thing because as efficient as the Honda is it is still fuelish to use it. Instead BIANKA has be harvesting all the energy it needs from the solar panels and 48 volt Marine Air X wind turbine. So there has been no need to fire up the generator. No doubt the addition of the new 100 watt Renogy solar panel has added enough power to make up for the additional refrigeration I added this year.

YOU DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN

The unstayed mast of BIANKA whips around pretty good. So good that the wind anemometer on top seemed to fail every other year. So I got rid of it and sailed by the feel of the wind on my cheek for a few years. Which worked fine though there were times I would have liked to know what the wind speed really was doing with a little more accuracy.  So this year I bought a cheap  handheld Anemometer.

It works pretty well and is small enough to keep handy in the cockpit when my curiosity on the wind speed is heightened. Another reason I bought it was to try and calibrate the amp readings for the 48 volt Marine AirX wind turbine to the wind speed. It's Pretty accurate but, being a cruiser even ballpark is fine as far as I'm concerned. So during some recent windy days I used the Anemometer to come up with the following readings on the wind turbine amp reading. Then using a P Touch Labeler made labels for the readings. Just another tool to use that will give me a rough guide when it's time to reef or just gauge the wind speed:

  

WHAT WORKS: MARINE AIR X WIND TURBINE

I installed a Southwest Wind Power Marine Air X 48 volt wind turbine when I installed my Thoosa 9000 electric propulsion system back in 2008. It worked reliably 24/7 for over three years. Once I installed it I did not have to think about it. The Marine Air X has some control electronics that I really like. Once the battery bank has reached full charge it shuts down.  Since my 48 volt solar panels manage to keep my 48 volt propulsion bank charged up the Air-X is often shutdown all day. It also will shutdown if wind speeds get to great also. One day I noticed that some of the paint had started to chip off the housing:

 This was not hard to believe as the unit had been exposed to hot summers and freezing winters in a marine environment for almost three years. It was certainly due for a little touch up besides I had to replace two of the blades because they got chipped when my heavy metal boom had accidently hit them. Since the Air X had a three year warranty I called up to see if they covered the paint chipping. To my surprise they did. I had to pay for the shipping to them but, they sent out a replacement Air X right away and I had it within the week. Now that's customer service like it should be. I finally got around to re installing the wind turbine  earlier this season along with a set of new blades.

The Marine Air X is once again back on board keeping my 48 volt electric propulsion bank topped up. I am pleased with the reliability of the unit has given over the years that's why I give it the Capt. Mike What Works approval!