Work has been done!
First off...the wind turbine. The new turbine and controller were delivered in August. BUT, (why is there always a but?) The installer hadn't even ordered the pipe for the new pole. Apparently the installer was just trying to appease me by delivering the system components. You are probably beginning to wonder where I find these contractors? The internet, of course. This led to my boyfriend taking on the project of buying and constructing the pole, wiring in the new system and putting the windmill back up.
Everything was ready, and the date was set for August 31 to "raise the windmill". It was a tad bit breezy for the raising, but we took it slow, all things went according to plan and the new turbine was back in the air. After congratulating ourselves we took a moment to ponder why it didn't seem to be spinning very much even though it seemed quite breezy. We decided to sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.
We spent the evening perusing the literature and double checking the install to make sure everything was done correctly. After much scratching of heads, we realized that the blades were on backwards! The windmill would have to be lowered, blades switched and raised again. Murphy's Law strikes again. My philosophy is if you do something once, it is easier to forget than if you do it two or three more times. We were getting really good at raising a windmill!
How did it go up? We used a pickup attached to the guy wires that lowers the gin pole as it pulls the windmill up.
Just to bring you up to speed, everything appeared to be fine for at least a month and then the lcd screen on the charge controller went blank and the windmill wasn't really turning. Of course there was no warranty literature in the box. I emailed the company in India and a dealer in Colorado. (Apparently my new system had been ordered not solely by the Iowa dealer, but through another dealer in Colorado.) The controller has been reset, but we are still in the process of running some tests to see if the controller is bad. The company has assured me that they will take care of this and the dealer in Colorado has been more than helpful.
First off...the wind turbine. The new turbine and controller were delivered in August. BUT, (why is there always a but?) The installer hadn't even ordered the pipe for the new pole. Apparently the installer was just trying to appease me by delivering the system components. You are probably beginning to wonder where I find these contractors? The internet, of course. This led to my boyfriend taking on the project of buying and constructing the pole, wiring in the new system and putting the windmill back up.
Everything was ready, and the date was set for August 31 to "raise the windmill". It was a tad bit breezy for the raising, but we took it slow, all things went according to plan and the new turbine was back in the air. After congratulating ourselves we took a moment to ponder why it didn't seem to be spinning very much even though it seemed quite breezy. We decided to sleep on it and see how it looks in the morning.
We spent the evening perusing the literature and double checking the install to make sure everything was done correctly. After much scratching of heads, we realized that the blades were on backwards! The windmill would have to be lowered, blades switched and raised again. Murphy's Law strikes again. My philosophy is if you do something once, it is easier to forget than if you do it two or three more times. We were getting really good at raising a windmill!
How did it go up? We used a pickup attached to the guy wires that lowers the gin pole as it pulls the windmill up.
Just to bring you up to speed, everything appeared to be fine for at least a month and then the lcd screen on the charge controller went blank and the windmill wasn't really turning. Of course there was no warranty literature in the box. I emailed the company in India and a dealer in Colorado. (Apparently my new system had been ordered not solely by the Iowa dealer, but through another dealer in Colorado.) The controller has been reset, but we are still in the process of running some tests to see if the controller is bad. The company has assured me that they will take care of this and the dealer in Colorado has been more than helpful.
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