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Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5118

Posted: 08:21am 15 Dec 2008

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Well it was an interesting weekend for the windmill.

I arrived home Friday to see the tower shaking itself to pieces and making all sorts of horrid noises. The 6 blade turbine had thrown a blade, and the out of balance was shaking the "bleep" out of the tower. I shorted it out to bring it under control, and tightened the guy wires, everything was loose. The broken off piece of blade was near by, clean break through most of it, where a bolt goes through. No sign of impact, I think it just "broke off". These blades are 2 years old now and starting to fatigue, so time to replace them.

I dont have the time to make a new set, so dug up my old timber blades and 7 phase stator as a quick replacement for the PVC blade dual stator windmill. The blades were made by Dennis and are good performers, though a smaller diameter than the PVC blades. They are a good match for the 7 phase stator. By Saturday afternoon I had replaced the broken mill with the new one, just in time to see a few amps before the wind died off for the day.

Sunday was storm day, lost of rain and lightning. Some strikes were very close, within a few hundred meters. I always unplug all my sensitive electronics in the house, PC, TV, that stuff. The windmill I leave to take care of itself. Later in the day a storm had passed over about 30 minutes earlier, I could still hear some distant thunder, there was blue sky almost overhead. I plugged my PC back and started working.

BANG!

Holy cow batman, sounded like a gun shot next to my head! Big flash at the same time, then the thunder shook the house. That was close! After I calmed the dog down I went outside for a look. It must have hit one of the windmills, about 10 meters from the house, so I went to the workshop to check on the battery bank. The LCD panel meters were all blank, and the display on the PicAxe Charge Controller was full of gibberish. I reset the controller, it came good and told me the solar panels were still charging. After an hour I went out to the mill with my multimeter. There was no wind so I tested the diodes ( situated at the tower top ), the meter indicated they were ok. Later the wind picked up and it looks like the windmill has survived.

Later in the afternoon my 12v garden lights didn't turn on. They run off the battery bank and are switched on at dusk. Today I had the chance to look at the lights controller and panel meters. The light controller had a couple of exploded caps, should be a easy enough fix. The LCD panel meters are dead, will have to buy a couple of new ones. I think I was very lucky not to loose the charge controller and windmill.

Thing is, I thought the storm had passed, the thunder was many miles away. I felt safe enough to turn my PC back on, and I would have easily walked around the yard near the windmill if I had reason. I could see blue sky!

Lesson learned, dont get complacent with mother nature, or she will give you a good kick to remind you who is the boss!

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

Gill

Senior Member

Joined: 11/11/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 669

Posted: 10:39am 15 Dec 2008

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Glenn,
I had a close one too just a few weeks ago.
It was about 2.00PM when the thunder started. All upper level stuff and no ground strikes at all. Last year I had a scare when I had a hit about 100 to 200 meters away. Previously I hadn't seen anything close and thought I was in a dead zone.
I wasn't concerned with the upper level stuff but have lost a few modems from line surges so disconnected all the computer gear and just for the practise unplugged the windmill lead to the battery and inserted the shorting bar.

By now it's bucketing down rain so was standing in the shelter of the doorway when ZZaatttt ZZaatttt. A high voltage static discharge at one of the tower guy anchors on the roof just in front of me. A second passed then Flash Bang, a small lightning strike a short ways off.

Now all this happened in 15 minutes from when I thought, "It's a waste of time but still I'll unplug the modem and stuff", to the discharge and strike.

No damage what so ever, but now at the first sign lightning activity in the area, I pull everything out. My windmill must be sucking the lightning in. It's coming to get me. Not that I'm paranoid mind.

was working fine... til the smoke got out.
Cheers Gill _Cairns, FNQ

sPuDd

Senior Member

Joined: 10/07/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 251

Posted: 10:51am 17 Dec 2008

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The recent storms around Cairns have kept us busy with
crashed computer gear and fried PSU�s. As with the hit
Glenn got, I'm always amazed that one device will fry
while a more sensitive one will survive.

Always ready for the time bombs though - the stuff that
falls over a week later because it got a tickle from the
first hit.

Ahhh.. The Queensland wet season. Wouldn't swap it for quids :)

sPuDd..

It should work ...in theory

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