Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Wind Turbine Woes~ Update of Roger Alexander's Wild Turbine

Alexander turbine 2009


A reader provided the video ,photos and details regarding the recent incident of Roger Alexander's wild wind turbine.

Additionally this reader sent an email to The Chinese manufacturer of Alexander's turbine . As of yet they have not received a response from the manufacturer or one of their mid-west dealers.
The reader that provided me with this information did say that they think that they have established that Alexander's turbine was out of control on Monday.
~~~~~
By looking at the pictures provided below of Roger Alexander’s Personal Wind Turbine It is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Alexander’s 92-foot wind turbine was out of control.

The first picture of Mr. Alexander's turbine was taken in 2009.
Note in the first image a cable that attaches from the vane on the left through a guide or two and then to the top of the generator. This is for the operation of the furling mechanism that limits and governs overspeed of the rotor.

July 7 2009


In the second image (Alexander's Turbine taken 19, OCT 11) you will plainly see the cable is no longer there. It is gone!

oct 19 2011


In the third image, which is a cropped section of the previous image, you can see over on the left the end of a frayed wire. It is obvious and shows that the wire parted and therefore the turbine was not functioning properly.

19,oct 2011 frayed wire


Additionally,the video of Mr. Alexander’s turbine taken Monday October 17, 2011 shows that the furling mechanism was not working because the rotor was not moving out of the wind during gusty conditions, the rotor just stayed straight into the wind.
Bottom line is the generator is broken and it should not be run again in its current condition.

Today the turbine is no longer operating.
Thankfully, no one was injured.

Short video of Roger Alexander's noisy turbine


Longer video of Roger Alexander's noisy turbine

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

another piece of crap from china.where did he buy it wallmart?

Anonymous said...

The breaking mechanism should have been a solid rod instead of a cable. The whole thing looks flimsy for the winds generated. The fact it didn't disintegrate was a good thing. There are generators capable of the high speeds and actually are rated to perform best at the higher speeds. Provincetown Mass uses a twisted shape blade that is very efficient and quiet. It's also not bad to look at. Must have been designed by an artistic engineer. Who would have guessed.

Dave said...

Roger's daughter and husband signed the anti-seasonal petition. Maybe this is Karma.