After only 9 months the wind turbine has failed completely! Find out what its really like to own and live with these machines. Are they really worth it?
Hello there. Just seen this, and yes, my 1000w / 48v Ista Breeze has similar small gauge cables, one of which I had to heat shrink due to the insulation melting.... Does not seem like a big enough size, especially considering the lengths required and potential current flowing. Fortunately, my experiment has only given ~100Whrs in 3 weeks of work in it's current location (due to being surrounded by trees) so not working anywhere near as hard as yours.
I'm very aware of those failures, used insta-breeze for 6 years straight. The wind safe has a major flaw, the slip-ring is exposed to water and fails very quickly. It's structure doesn't handle the vibration and starts becoming lose. but as you mention, a wind generator is only to help keep the batteries charged on those long days of no sun.
Really? Very interesting indeed. Had seen other channels showing the badly corroded slip rings from their windsafe models but hadn't a time scale on the failure. Great info, thanks for sharing 👍
I just checked I2000my slip ring and wiring and would say its about the same as yours. But it is 48 volt. The Istabreeze mast kit I purchased is the same for all their models so it would be the standard size for all. These mini turbines unfortunately can handle 80 miles, a Brit had a failure on CZcams even with a dump load. It would be better to lower the turbine in those conditions, but easier said than done. Some form of quick release tilt system that one person can do. Haven't seen one yet. Hope you get it sorted. Great vids
Hi, it's the same slip ring? I thought so, thank you for confirming. I had wondered did they equip that part based on a 48v amperage capacity instead of at 24v amperage capacity which would be double and beyond the parts capabilities. I'm replacing this with a 60amp one but the neck has to be drilled out a few mm as its a physically bigger part. You're spot on about the mast and lowering during extreme winds. It's what we had hoped for here but my setup needs major improvement as like you say it's easier said than done. The combined mast and turbine weight multiplied by the distance really adds up as no doubt you know yourself. Seems like a motorised heavy duty winch off on a seperate concrete foundation of its own is what's needed for a one man put up and take down. It's funny with these turbines, love em or hate them, they do keep us on our toes 😊
Yes and going just solar I have seen is not an option, not in Ireland with only 6 hours of light max on the winter, we have wind and need to use it effectively. The other option is to manual turn the tailboom and lock it at 90 degrees to the wind, basically feathering the prop much like an aircraft. All part of the fun😁
This failure is quite unfortunate and it gives a very distorted view of the potential for home-based wind power. I used to have a little business restoring and selling the older American wind turbines and I can assure you that I've never seen things like this. The turbines that I restored had been running for years and, generally, the bearings were still good enough to have been left in place. Insofar as the wiring is concerned, if that is a weak spot then that would decide the maximum rating of the alternator. What about this business of allowing the user to choose 3 or 5 blades ? That's crap. A proper wind turbine is DESIGNED around a particular set of parameters; generator output vs rpm and tip speed ratio being central. I can assure you that a proper wind turbine should go at least 10 years without any problems. Wouldn't be fun to redesign this thing ? As for solar trumping wind...lets talk about that on the next Winter Solstice in Ireland. I can assure you that we'll be singing a different song. The off-grid solution is really solar + wind but there's a lot more to this story...a lot more.
Sorry I don't mean to come accross as blunt. Allow me to elaborate, N-type solar panels currently cost €75 each for 435watt panels. Even on a dull day they'll still bring in 100watts and are maintenance free apart from cleaning every so often. Don't get me wrong as a mechanic of 23yrs, former BMW, suzuki, Honda, hyundai technician efficiency is what it's all about. Turbines involve risk, both personal (during maintenance) and collateral damage in the event of failure. Additional costs of a foundation, cables, auxiliary infrastructure for raising and lowering, can't operate in excessive windspeeds and there's always those days when there's no wind at all. The craic with the blades is down to rotation speed, 5 blades gives more operating surfaces reacting to the wind however the trade off is the resistance that the addition blades create resulting in a lower rotation top speed. It's like gearing in a gearbox, more teeth equals better torque but at the expense of speed. Your experience has shown you a certain set of values however David like all of us, our experience is limited to the machines that we are familiar with. "every day is a school day" as we say in the motor trade. With all that said if you could name and or recommend some of the turbines that you are familiar with, I'd love to know more about them and perhaps buy one if they are as reliable as you say. We're not here to compete either with knowledge or brand names, we're here to do it better. Best wishes Mike Our Kilkenny Homestead.
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 If the turbine is designed for a particular alternator and a particular wind speed then there will be a single tip speed ratio that is optimal. The blades will be designed accordingly. Generally, fewer blades -even if they're correctly designed- will be less efficient. Also, if you ever need to have to re-balance the rotor, it'll be more difficult. Solar can be messed up too. The further North you go, the less viable it is and solar is very, very susceptible to heavy cloud or smoke. I use solar too and last winter was terrible, probably due to climate change impacts on the cloud cover.
I said it and I'll say it again "BEWARE OF SOLAR". I'm doing some research for a handbook on the off-grid. According to the Global Solar Atlas, Kikenny will give you a hard time with solar. In Canada's Halifax, NS, for comparison's sake, we would get 1278 kw-hr/meter squared/per year, with a monthly max to min ratio of 2.2. At your location, you could expect 954 per year with a monthly ratio of 3.8. In December, you'd need 3.8 times your solar output to equal what you'd get in summer. Best to stick with wind plus some solar. Go for a high tower and a decent turbine. Solar alone, in the North, is a recipe for battery murder.
nice video. a slip ring is often a failure there on istabreeze. just get a bunch of those to be stored as spare in your garage. also, a much more efficient way to stop the turbine is not to shortcut it, but to dumpload it. I bet some 8-10 Ohm resistor will do this job great
Hi, thanks for checking out the vid and glad you liked it. Those slip rings are way below spec for what they need to do. I have been looking for an appropriate sized one but having no luck, all I can find are 30amp ones. By any chance would you know a supplier to buy a 60amp slip ring?
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 I've left a comment with a link for you, but since youtube is blocking it - you may find it in your admin panel only (in pending approval maybe? or maybe just search through all the comments but from the channel admin panel).
@@bogdankushlyk thank you so much, really appreciated. It should be accessible through CZcams studio. If I buy one I'll be sure to thank you in the rebuild vid. Merry Christmas and happy new year!
My i1500 made that exact same noise last winter!. Recognised it immediately. Turns out it was the plastic cow vibrating! I was really downhearted at first. Thought it was a major failure. But no, when I removed the plastic cowl, that noise completely disappeared. Up 18 months now and still spinning smooth as silk. Great video by the way. I'll bet every Ist 1500/2000 owner would be really interested to see how you took the machine apart and to know how difficult it was. Do you plan to do a rebuild? Would be interesting to see how easy it is to pull the bearings. Regarding turbine ownership: I have 6 lead acid batteries and a 4 kw solar array. There have been many days since October when solar just didnt cut it. Extremely low output and batteries hovering at low limits. Saved by the istabreeze though. Solar array ( 4.2kw ) produced a lousy 5.6kwh since 1st dec. Istabreeze has produced 27.5kwh in same period, despite quite a few calm days. So I think it's worth it. And it's good fun and interesting too. Turbine ownership depends on your solar setup, demands and whether your off grid. If one is off grid, I'd say it's very worthwhile as long as you can deal with the maintenance demands. My own views of course.
That's so interesting, what you describe is almost complete opposite to what how our system behaves. We have so many days when the autobrake on the turbine is active due to the solar having our (currently 8) batteries continually topped off. It's only a 1.8kw array which raises many questions. What voltage is your system running on? It has me wondering about what conditions best suit the equipment itself on a long term basis, always thought 24v was a bit of a sweet spot for combination systems.
@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 I run my i1500 24v turbine into a 12v bank so that I get good charging in lower winds. I found that the i1500, especially on 5 blades, did a lot of spinning without charging when running into a 24v bank. Changing to 3 blades helped, but running into 12 v really improved charging a lot, because battery charging volts is reached much earlier. . I don't have an istabreeze charge controller. Instead I have my own diy solid state dump controller which controls two parallel SSRs. Totally reliable last 18 months.(cooling really matters) Critical thing is to set the "start dumping" voltage slightly higher than your maximum solar charge controller output voltage. If you don't, you'll find that you'll be dumping continually during bright periods. I have my dump start set at 12.7v. My max solar charger voltage is 12.5v with "equalize" set to off. The holy grail would be a Classic250 plus Ts60 dump controller but for me that's way too expensive. Initially I spent ages designing my own solid state dump controller but thanks to a John Daniel CZcams video I got the idea of converting a cheap solenoid battery protector to solid state by hacking off the solenoid and using the output to control SSRs instead. Works really well. Cheap, reliable and configurable. And no clicking relays things to inevitably fail. (The "U30" controller of eBay is great for £13)
That makes a lot of sense, ours does do a lot of spinning before reaching charging threshold. Super clever hack with the relay must check out that video on it. Tbh I think you're better off with your own control system as the istabreeze controller is not great and not configurable at all. Thanks a mil for sharing that info with me, it always seem to be the way that go out and buy these fancy toys only to find out that the DIY method works better 😁
my istabree i1500 24 lasted only 2 weeks before it boiled the slipring. then I changed to the bigger slipring and it lasted 10 months so I guess we have almost the same conditions with wind over 80 mph. I also have a proven 2500 but it failed because I didn't maintain it and I had a long period when I wasn't home. I have found some producer that have better systems but it going to bee costly. the wind safe generators from istabreeze still use the same slip rings and will boil it after some time. my best advice to you is to try to find a used proven. kingspan. ore SD wind this is the same turbine but with historical names now its SD wind. I still have my old dead one that I will try to fiks ore get a new generator head. have a nice Christmas holiday from Norway
My ista 1500 24 has been up 18 months now with no probs. Key thing is to have it locked out when there's a storm. ( last night there were warnings for 80mph with storm "Pia"........ which is a PIA 😆😆 )
Hello there. Just seen this, and yes, my 1000w / 48v Ista Breeze has similar small gauge cables, one of which I had to heat shrink due to the insulation melting.... Does not seem like a big enough size, especially considering the lengths required and potential current flowing. Fortunately, my experiment has only given ~100Whrs in 3 weeks of work in it's current location (due to being surrounded by trees) so not working anywhere near as hard as yours.
True more solar beats home wind power hands down. BUT Wind is fun.
I'm very aware of those failures, used insta-breeze for 6 years straight. The wind safe has a major flaw, the slip-ring is exposed to water and fails very quickly. It's structure doesn't handle the vibration and starts becoming lose. but as you mention, a wind generator is only to help keep the batteries charged on those long days of no sun.
Really? Very interesting indeed. Had seen other channels showing the badly corroded slip rings from their windsafe models but hadn't a time scale on the failure. Great info, thanks for sharing 👍
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 close to the ocean here in the Azores, year or less it fails. Very good idea, not deployed very well
@@carlossousa3285 Very true, mass production economics ruins a good product once again 😁.
My ancestors (Naddys) migrated to American from Kilkenny in the 1860's. I think there are still some Naddys there.
I just checked I2000my slip ring and wiring and would say its about the same as yours. But it is 48 volt. The Istabreeze mast kit I purchased is the same for all their models so it would be the standard size for all. These mini turbines unfortunately can handle 80 miles, a Brit had a failure on CZcams even with a dump load. It would be better to lower the turbine in those conditions, but easier said than done. Some form of quick release tilt system that one person can do. Haven't seen one yet. Hope you get it sorted. Great vids
Hi, it's the same slip ring? I thought so, thank you for confirming. I had wondered did they equip that part based on a 48v amperage capacity instead of at 24v amperage capacity which would be double and beyond the parts capabilities. I'm replacing this with a 60amp one but the neck has to be drilled out a few mm as its a physically bigger part.
You're spot on about the mast and lowering during extreme winds. It's what we had hoped for here but my setup needs major improvement as like you say it's easier said than done. The combined mast and turbine weight multiplied by the distance really adds up as no doubt you know yourself.
Seems like a motorised heavy duty winch off on a seperate concrete foundation of its own is what's needed for a one man put up and take down.
It's funny with these turbines, love em or hate them, they do keep us on our toes 😊
Yes and going just solar I have seen is not an option, not in Ireland with only 6 hours of light max on the winter, we have wind and need to use it effectively. The other option is to manual turn the tailboom and lock it at 90 degrees to the wind, basically feathering the prop much like an aircraft. All part of the fun😁
Proper wind turbines have blade feathering mechanisms or, at least, sidefacing mechanisms. They should be able to take anything up to 100mph or so.
@@davidsimms8054 David it's a 1500 quid affordable turbine, what do you expect for that price?
This failure is quite unfortunate and it gives a very distorted view of the potential for home-based wind power. I used to have a little business restoring and selling the older American wind turbines and I can assure you that I've never seen things like this. The turbines that I restored had been running for years and, generally, the bearings were still good enough to have been left in place. Insofar as the wiring is concerned, if that is a weak spot then that would decide the maximum rating of the alternator. What about this business of allowing the user to choose 3 or 5 blades ? That's crap. A proper wind turbine is DESIGNED around a particular set of parameters; generator output vs rpm and tip speed ratio being central. I can assure you that a proper wind turbine should go at least 10 years without any problems. Wouldn't be fun to redesign this thing ? As for solar trumping wind...lets talk about that on the next Winter Solstice in Ireland. I can assure you that we'll be singing a different song. The off-grid solution is really solar + wind but there's a lot more to this story...a lot more.
Could you give specifics as to why 3 vs 5 blades is crap? And yes solar trumps wind every time on a small domestic scale.
Sorry I don't mean to come accross as blunt. Allow me to elaborate, N-type solar panels currently cost €75 each for 435watt panels. Even on a dull day they'll still bring in 100watts and are maintenance free apart from cleaning every so often. Don't get me wrong as a mechanic of 23yrs, former BMW, suzuki, Honda, hyundai technician efficiency is what it's all about. Turbines involve risk, both personal (during maintenance) and collateral damage in the event of failure. Additional costs of a foundation, cables, auxiliary infrastructure for raising and lowering, can't operate in excessive windspeeds and there's always those days when there's no wind at all. The craic with the blades is down to rotation speed, 5 blades gives more operating surfaces reacting to the wind however the trade off is the resistance that the addition blades create resulting in a lower rotation top speed. It's like gearing in a gearbox, more teeth equals better torque but at the expense of speed. Your experience has shown you a certain set of values however David like all of us, our experience is limited to the machines that we are familiar with.
"every day is a school day" as we say in the motor trade.
With all that said if you could name and or recommend some of the turbines that you are familiar with, I'd love to know more about them and perhaps buy one if they are as reliable as you say. We're not here to compete either with knowledge or brand names, we're here to do it better.
Best wishes
Mike
Our Kilkenny Homestead.
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 If the turbine is designed for a particular alternator and a particular wind speed then there will be a single tip speed ratio that is optimal. The blades will be designed accordingly. Generally, fewer blades -even if they're correctly designed- will be less efficient. Also, if you ever need to have to re-balance the rotor, it'll be more difficult. Solar can be messed up too. The further North you go, the less viable it is and solar is very, very susceptible to heavy cloud or smoke. I use solar too and last winter was terrible, probably due to climate change impacts on the cloud cover.
Indeed, we are at 55 degrees lattitude here. Thank you for sharing your experience. 👍
I said it and I'll say it again "BEWARE OF SOLAR". I'm doing some research for a handbook on the off-grid. According to the Global Solar Atlas, Kikenny will give you a hard time with solar. In Canada's Halifax, NS, for comparison's sake, we would get 1278 kw-hr/meter squared/per year, with a monthly max to min ratio of 2.2. At your location, you could expect 954 per year with a monthly ratio of 3.8. In December, you'd need 3.8 times your solar output to equal what you'd get in summer. Best to stick with wind plus some solar. Go for a high tower and a decent turbine. Solar alone, in the North, is a recipe for battery murder.
nice video.
a slip ring is often a failure there on istabreeze. just get a bunch of those to be stored as spare in your garage.
also, a much more efficient way to stop the turbine is not to shortcut it, but to dumpload it. I bet some 8-10 Ohm resistor will do this job great
Hi, thanks for checking out the vid and glad you liked it.
Those slip rings are way below spec for what they need to do.
I have been looking for an appropriate sized one but having no luck, all I can find are 30amp ones. By any chance would you know a supplier to buy a 60amp slip ring?
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 I've left a comment with a link for you, but since youtube is blocking it - you may find it in your admin panel only (in pending approval maybe? or maybe just search through all the comments but from the channel admin panel).
@@bogdankushlyk thank you so much, really appreciated. It should be accessible through CZcams studio. If I buy one I'll be sure to thank you in the rebuild vid. Merry Christmas and happy new year!
@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 same to you my friend
My i1500 made that exact same noise last winter!. Recognised it immediately. Turns out it was the plastic cow vibrating! I was really downhearted at first. Thought it was a major failure. But no, when I removed the plastic cowl, that noise completely disappeared. Up 18 months now and still spinning smooth as silk.
Great video by the way. I'll bet every Ist 1500/2000 owner would be really interested to see how you took the machine apart and to know how difficult it was. Do you plan to do a rebuild? Would be interesting to see how easy it is to pull the bearings.
Regarding turbine ownership: I have 6 lead acid batteries and a 4 kw solar array. There have been many days since October when solar just didnt cut it. Extremely low output and batteries hovering at low limits. Saved by the istabreeze though. Solar array ( 4.2kw ) produced a lousy 5.6kwh since 1st dec. Istabreeze has produced 27.5kwh in same period, despite quite a few calm days.
So I think it's worth it. And it's good fun and interesting too. Turbine ownership depends on your solar setup, demands and whether your off grid. If one is off grid, I'd say it's very worthwhile as long as you can deal with the maintenance demands. My own views of course.
That's so interesting, what you describe is almost complete opposite to what how our system behaves. We have so many days when the autobrake on the turbine is active due to the solar having our (currently 8) batteries continually topped off. It's only a 1.8kw array which raises many questions. What voltage is your system running on? It has me wondering about what conditions best suit the equipment itself on a long term basis, always thought 24v was a bit of a sweet spot for combination systems.
Glad you enjoyed the vid, hopefully it will be useful to someone out there 👍
@ourkilkennyhomestead2006 I run my i1500 24v turbine into a 12v bank so that I get good charging in lower winds. I found that the i1500, especially on 5 blades, did a lot of spinning without charging when running into a 24v bank. Changing to 3 blades helped, but running into 12 v really improved charging a lot, because battery charging volts is reached much earlier. . I don't have an istabreeze charge controller. Instead I have my own diy solid state dump controller which controls two parallel SSRs. Totally reliable last 18 months.(cooling really matters) Critical thing is to set the "start dumping" voltage slightly higher than your maximum solar charge controller output voltage. If you don't, you'll find that you'll be dumping continually during bright periods. I have my dump start set at 12.7v. My max solar charger voltage is 12.5v with "equalize" set to off. The holy grail would be a Classic250 plus Ts60 dump controller but for me that's way too expensive. Initially I spent ages designing my own solid state dump controller but thanks to a John Daniel CZcams video I got the idea of converting a cheap solenoid battery protector to solid state by hacking off the solenoid and using the output to control SSRs instead. Works really well. Cheap, reliable and configurable. And no clicking relays things to inevitably fail. (The "U30" controller of eBay is great for £13)
That makes a lot of sense, ours does do a lot of spinning before reaching charging threshold. Super clever hack with the relay must check out that video on it. Tbh I think you're better off with your own control system as the istabreeze controller is not great and not configurable at all. Thanks a mil for sharing that info with me, it always seem to be the way that go out and buy these fancy toys only to find out that the DIY method works better 😁
oops, said earlier I used 12.5v as setpoint. I actually start dumping at 14.5 and stop at 14.7.Was a late night last night!
Howd you get the blades off before you dropped it down?
With a ladder and a large helping of fear suppression 😁
czcams.com/users/shortsLaKIgsjHQL4?feature=share I pull mine out of wind before applying the brake@@ourkilkennyhomestead2006
No, I do *NOT* expect a wind turbine to fail in 9 months. And neither should you.
;)
my istabree i1500 24 lasted only 2 weeks before it boiled the slipring. then I changed to the bigger slipring and it lasted 10 months so I guess we have almost the same conditions with wind over 80 mph. I also have a proven 2500 but it failed because I didn't maintain it and I had a long period when I wasn't home. I have found some producer that have better systems but it going to bee costly. the wind safe generators from istabreeze still use the same slip rings and will boil it after some time. my best advice to you is to try to find a used proven. kingspan. ore SD wind this is the same turbine but with historical names now its SD wind. I still have my old dead one that I will try to fiks ore get a new generator head. have a nice Christmas holiday from Norway
My ista 1500 24 has been up 18 months now with no probs. Key thing is to have it locked out when there's a storm. ( last night there were warnings for 80mph with storm "Pia"........ which is a PIA 😆😆 )