Apollo Wind Generator

[prae]

Has anyone had experience with the Apollo MAX 650 Watt 12 V (6 blade) wind generator, found on ebay (Apollo Max 650 w Watt 12 V AC Magnet PMA Wind Turbine Generator 6BLADE | eBay).
It seems like a good price and with six blades hoping it would be quieter than my three blade Air Breeze. I was looking at the D400 recently, because it is very quiet and compared to my current 160 watts, has a better output. The Apollo has an even better output; I just want it to be quiet! Any body heard these things running?

[bajacch]

I had the same question. Can someone help?

[GordMay]

The “Apollo” specifications, design, & construction (GreenergyStar website) appear impressive.
ie: Note their bearing system.
➥ Apollo 650W 12V DC (6 Blades) Wind Turbine Generator for Land or Marine Use - GreenergyStar Grid Tie Inverter, Grid Power III 600W, For Solar & Wind Hybrid Systems

[Triton318]

Well, according to the picture on the eBay page, it produces enough power to launch the space shuttle. Very impressive!

[Dexterbase]

These things are less than $400 on ebay right now.

Worth the risk? Anyone have any experience with these units? The ebay listing information seems kinda convincing.

[DeepFrz]

Notice how they cleverly omit any reference to wind speed in the output charts? Rated output is at 25 knots.

[Jim Cate]

A couple of thoughts:

Nylon blades? Most other turbines use much stiffer composite blades, and I wonder if these are stiff enough to avoid bending back and touching the mount in high winds?

No internal regulator may help explain the lower cost. They s how a dump load in one diagram... that's an additional item as well as the external regulator not needed with the Air-X family. Big deal??

Bearing system does look good.

Apparently one can use their six bladed hub on an Air-X turbine. If they provide more torque at less noise, might be interesting.

So, one of you eager beavers should buy and install one so that I don't have to!

Cheers,

Jim

[Dexterbase]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

So, one of you eager beavers should buy and install one so that I don't have to!

Cheers,

Jim

I'm really considering ordering the turbine and the charge controller. I think I'll be at about $700 for the package shipped.

Hmmmm... should I?

[windabled]

I purchased an Apollo 550 (4.5 foot dia blades) off ebay that came with an AC/DC rectifier. I installed them on my travel trailer by integrating them into my existing 250W solar system with 4 110ah 12 AGM batteries. Basically I terminated the 3 wire output of the Wind Turbine (WT) onto the rectifier and terminated the 2 wire rectifier output to junctions with the solar panels and ran those lines to the battery terminals on my Xantrex 35 charge controller that would activate a diversion load when the batteries reached 14.5V. The WT/DC output has been 0.3 to 0.7 amps in wind of 6 to 23 knots. The voltage between 2 of the 3 WT legs is 10.8V. All of this seems low when compared to the power vs rpm charts that came with the WT. I have been using the WT for 14 days while on a trip and the results are consistent. Before the trip and before installing the WT in the trailer, I bench tested the WT/rectifier by spinning it with a drill motor at 1000 rpm and attached to a 12V battery and got the expected 6.5 amps output. Can anyone with a WT tell me what their AC output volts is? I have a more detailed schematic of my installation if anyone wants it.

[ghochreiter]

I bought the Apollo wind generator on eBay from hi qu. It is the 550 watt 24 volt and I am still setting it up or dry fitting it in my garage. I had a problem getting a controller to work with it since I bought a gudcraft three phase controller. According to hi qu the turbine is a three phase also but keep in mind that is when it is AC. This turbine that they sell on eBay is a AC turbine even though it is advertised as a 24 or 12 volt doesn't matter. From what I understand if you have a rectifier that came with it then that is what converts the turbine to DC. What I found interesting in another forum was that these turbines when advertised at 550 watts that is at AC because without the rectifier it is a AC Turbine. So if you do the math on AC volts divided by watts equals amps. It would come out to 4.5 amps being that AC is 120 volts. When I bought it I figured it DC which 550 watts divided by 24 volts equals 23 amps. Great power house. NOT!!! Looking at the other post from Winabled .7 amps would confirm my suspicions that the eBay seller is not posting the right information. Now I'm no guru on this so if anybody might be able to confirm my theory it would be appreciated. I did send an email to hi qu at eBay who I bought if from but have not got a response which I don't expect to. On another note as I continue to try to get t his working I would like to hook up the two 24 volt wires from the. Turbine to the solar input on the controller because the turbine input requires three wires. I think it should still work. Any thoughts on this.

[Tristan]

Does the DC models come with a internal or external bridge rectifier (if any)?
I have asked this question two of the ebay dealers selling this product - still no answer.
Thanks

[ghochreiter]

It is an external rectifier. If you search it on ebay SQL 5010 you can see a pict of it. I blew mine up reversing the wires trying to get my controller to work so I ordered 4 more to have on hand cheap five bucks a piece. Also something great I found out about these is be careful when you buy a controller. If it is a three phase and requires three wires to hookup if you are going DC then it won't work. I have a question out there asking if I can take my + and - from the rectifier to the solar part of the controller which only requires two wires and see if it works. But if I am right on earlier comments if these only put out 4.5 amps why would you even need a controller. And that's at full wind power. Thinking I should have stayed with solar.

[Tristan]

I do not understand why would anybody put a lot of effort in designing these generators (it looks pretty good on the pictures) and forgot about the main function of them which is the energy generation.
Maybe the 650W model is better? I need more information, please. The mast is going up in a few weeks .
T.

[ghochreiter]

Tristan I am hoping to have the rectifier in my hand tomorrow and I am going to try and meter it running a leaf blower without a controller and see what I can get out of it. I sent the supplier again another email requesting him to confirm whether it's 550 watts AC or DC. hopefully he replies tomorrow and i'll let you know. one reply I did get him was the an AC turbine doesn't have brushes in it which is supposed to be better but a DC one does. their breakout in parts are all the whether it is 550 or 650. if it is 650 AC watts you are only going to get 5.4 amps at full power. I don't know what you are doing with yours but all I am trying to do is charge my trolling motor batteries in shorter period of time than solar and 4.5 amps fr m won't cut it.

[Tristan]

Thank You ghochreiter
I'm almost sure the DC power should be equal AC power
minus some loses on the diodes but ???
T.