Ista Breeze 500w Wind Turbine

[Briggs 2.0]

I'm about to purchase one of these and I was wondering if anyone has some feedback before I press the buy-it-now button. I've read the reviews and most say the 500w claim is exaggerated, well, I'm okay with that because all I need it to do is be 50% efficient and I'll be getting the 250w I need. I haven't bought it yet because I have the nagging doubt that it's cheap and I'll end up buying twice but it's a third of the price of a similar spec Rutland.

So, has anyone got any comments, good or bad on this £150 turbine?

Briggs

[Hamradioop]

Hi Briggs, have you considered a vertical axis turbine? I am led to believe that they are more efficient at using the wind and have safety advantages. I assume the price you quote is for the turbine alone, as a charge controller and a dump load will also be required.
Just my thoughts Kev

[Devonian]

Hi Briggs, have you considered a vertical axis turbine? I am led to believe that they are more efficient at using the wind and have safety advantages.

I could be wrong (it's often done) but I thought it was the other way round......

Also the vertical turbine need a higher wind speed before they start generating, but they are quieter and are therefore often used in urban environments. There is one at our local Secondary School and its spends more time static than it does spinning.

[poppypiesdad]

Absolutely spot on with what you said , £150 even for 250w is good they always say its about 1£ per watt with wind turbines, so thats good , what you mounting it on to , is planning a issue ?
Whats the spares availability , bearings should be available off the shelf from engineering suppliers but carbon brushes might be good to have a few sets , and perhaps blades aswell

post a linky for the turbine pls

j

[redskies]

I'll second the call for the link please

[Briggs 2.0]

Check eBay. They are on there for around £150. have a look and see what you think.

[Hamradioop]

link to ISTA-BREEZE® 12V i-500 Small WIND GENERATOR + Charge Controller

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KIT-Offer-IST ... 232c95b295

Ista Breeze i-500, WIND TURBINE only

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-500-Watt- ... 23433023cb

[Briggs 2.0]

Thanks, Hamradio, I was away from the interweb and couldn't post the link.

I'm still undecided on the Istabreeze, I'm concerned its low budget and will be a pain to maintain. I've found a German company www.windstark.net that make what look to be robust VAWT blades. I'm erring on getting a set of these and using a moped/small motorcycle stator to provide the power. I figure if I build my turbine I know how it works and needs maintaining. I plan to use it with my 35w solar panel which needs to be upgraded to 100w. I've got a dual charge controller.

Anyway, back to the topic: I'm undecided on the eBay wind turbine, I have a feeling these are refurbed items and that says to me they get a lot returned that failed in the field.

[redskies]

There's a new kind of turbine that might be worth considering, its not as cheap, but looks to be very effective. The design is based on Archimedes Screw.


http://gizmodo.com/eureka-a-whisper-qui ... 1582606998

[Briggs 2.0]

There's a new kind of turbine that might be worth considering, its not as cheap, but looks to be very effective. The design is based on Archimedes Screw.


http://gizmodo.com/eureka-a-whisper-qui ... 1582606998

That is neat. There are also vertical screw types and I've been checking those out and they do seem to work very well and I'm interested because I'm 99% certain I want to go VAWT. I'm currently trying to work out what revs I would get from the http://www.windstark.net turbine and whether this will drive a stator directly 1:1 or alternatively, via a pulley or gears sets to say 6:1 or 4:1 to up the stator revs and power output. There seems to be a lot of trial and error when building your own, I've seen some good looking VAWTs spin well until a load is applied, then they slow down considerably. I'm figuring a stator is going to have less resistance than an alternator so I'm doing a bit of online research at the moment....common sense would be for me to utilise the same stator as on my quad, then I've got redundancy....you could tie yourself up in loops thinking about this to the nth degree.

The bottom line is, I need to trickle charge 3 maybe 4 22AHr gel batteries and I think the mix of a VAWT producing 30 to 40w and a 100w solar panel (running at 25% efficiency due to shadow) will combine to give me the steady 50w power supply I need off-grid.

Anyway, I'm off to view the Intertube for more ideas on stators....