Apollo Wind Generator

[Warmbreeze804]

So you know nothing about wind turbines. All need a dump load. Even when you use a wind charge controller . Because in a big wind any charge controller will burn out. They don't have a big enough load and cooling to Handel all the power in big wind events.

[Warmbreeze804]

Originally Posted by 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.

You don't have big enough wiring.

[Warmbreeze804]

Originally Posted by 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.

Not big enough wiring

[Warmbreeze804]

Originally Posted by windabled

I have tested the Apollo 550 wind turbine (WT) with 4 different blades in 6 configurations, charging a 12V battery bank. A) The original blades were white 4.5” wide and 22.5” long. B) The up graded blades seem to be the same. C) The short fat blades were white, 6” wide and 22.5” long. D) The long blades were black, 6” wide and 29” long. I could not accurately measure the pitch of the blades. . Wind speed was measured using a hand held anemometer.

A) The original blades were white 4.5” wide and 22.5” long.
I recorded .2 to .6 amps output in wind speed of 8 to 17 mph. A hand held photo tachometer measured WT 300 rpm at 14 mph of wind. One night during a storm with winds exceeding 30 mph, one reading revealed a WT output of 3 amps.

B) The up graded blades seem to be the same white 4.5” wide and 22.5” long.
I recorded .4 to .9 amps output in wind speed of 9 to 15 mph. Wind speed was measured using the hand held anemometer. A hand held photo tachometer measured WT 318 rpm at 15 mph of wind.

I combined A) and B) blades for 6 blades on the WT without a nose cone. I measured 1.5 to 2.7 amps at 12 to 14 mph of wind.

C) The short fat blades were white, 6” wide and 22.5” long.
I recorded 2.2 to 3.2 amps output in wind speed of 8 to 14 mph. A bike speedometer adapted to the WT measured WT 520 rpm at 14 mph of wind. I did see 6 amps of output while estimating the wind speed at 19 mph.

D) The long blades were black, 6” wide and 29” long.
I recorded .8 amps to 7.7 amps output in wind speed of 7 mph to 21 mph. The bike speedometer measured WT 900 rpm in 21 mph of wind. At one point the wind increased to over 25 mph and the WT blades began cavitating losing power and creating a loud noise. In addition, the shorting brake on the WT could not slow the WT rpm below estimated 300 rpm.

I combined 6 D) blades on the WT without a nose cone. I measured 1.3 to 6 amps in wind speed of 8 to 23 mph.
Conclusion:
While the 6 A) and B) blades were better than either in the 3 blade configuration, the C) and D) blades clearly produced greater amps than the A) and B) in any configuration. I don’t understand why the 6 D) blades did not perform better than 3 of the same blades when the 6 A/B blades almost tripled the output of the 3 blade configuration.

The 3 blade configuration of C or D blades seem to provide the best output, but I need to test the C blades in higher wind to compare output to the D blades at the same wind speed and determine at what wind speed the C blades will cavitate.

Whichever blades I ultimately use, I am confident either the C or D blades will enable the WT to produce meaningful power while the A and B blades did not.

Where did you get the blades?