Wind Generator Made In USA?

I just re-confirmed with Southwest Windpower and yes, indeed, their turbines are still made in good 'ol USA (Arizona, to be exact). What you might be catching on to are the hordes of cheap Chinese knock-off's of Southwest Windpower's Air series of turbines. You'll see many that go under different brand names and look just like the AirX/Breeze's. In fact, even when you search in Google for AirX or Air Breeze, some of these knock-off's come up instead.

There are no quality wind generators that I'm aware of that are still made in the USA. You can get some alternator's on a stick on ebay that may be largely assembled in the USA though.

Sneak preview: SWWP is about to come out with a version of their Air's that will have a lifetime warranty. Just wait til next month (Sept, 2011) - might be worth it to get that unit (the Air40 and then there will be a version of the AiR Breeze that will also have a lifetime warranty). We should have them in stock sometime that same month as well.

I've been very pleased with my Bergey XL.1.  I think they're made in Oklahoma.  I've had it since 2008 and it has performed well, especially in the winter.  It is a perfect complement to my solar.  I only had one problem with it and I think that's because it was struck by lightning... a sacrificial resistor wire was fried (saving the stator).  I cranked down the tower with my portable power drill, took out the fried wires, and had warranty-covered new ones in within a week. 

I would definitely choose a single larger turbine rather than three small ones, as it will be more efficient, less noisy, need less replacement parts, and have less redundant mounting/wiring costs.  Also, you should avoid mounting wind turbines to buildings because they can generate significant vibration and noise, and damage to the structure may not be covered by home insurance.  Structures are also usually too low to the ground to avoid turbulence and may actually create turbulence themselves.  And unless you have no trees, you should get a tower at least 60-80 feet tall.  100' would be even better.  Your results will improve the higher your turbine is from the ground.

I'm not sure about the logic of having multiple turbines for redundancy unless you have exceptional wind all the time and very little sunlight.  Otherwise, I would use solar for redundancy and a gas or propane generator for emergency.  In my off-grid setup, I have the 1kW Bergey and 1.5kW of solar along with a small 1kW propane generator (only for battery charging, not house loads). 

Usually, when it's sunny there's little wind and vice versa, so this tends to provide a predictable output across seasons and between day and night.  E.g. on a sunny day, it is dead calm at noon, but a breeze picks up in the evening.  And summers (other than storms) tend to be calm, but winds roll in with autumn and last the winter.

So it seems to me that, unless you already have these other complimentary systems in place, for the extra cost of mounting and wiring redundant turbines, your money would be much better spent on alternative sources including solar, microhydro if you have it, and some kind of on-demand (probably fossil fuel) emergency solution.  These will help you not only if your turbine is compromised at some point, but also whenever there is insufficient wind.

When my turbine was down for a week, I did not have my emergency generator yet (didn't know I needed it until then) and it was unusually overcast (usually we don't get 7 straight days of clouds).  It was also very, very cold, so my batteries struggled to hold the charge and I actually almost lost them.  Would a redundant wind turbine or two have helped here?  Perhaps a little, if there was sufficient wind.  But I'll tell you what, when you're in fear of losing $3,000 worth of batteries, praying for enough wind to make up for your out-of-commission turbine wouldn't be a good solution.  In that case, an on-demand power source to keep the batteries charged and free from risk of freezing is a life saver.

Another thing is that neither the wind nor sun care if you have a bunch of guests over, and guests generally don't appreciate conservation of resources, and even if they did, you probably didn't design your system for double the number of people in any case.  That's another reason an on-demand power source is very important.  As your batteries get overdrawn, you can run the generator for an hour or so to make up for the extra load.

This all is moot of course if you're grid connected and assume the grid will always be there for you, but in that case, having redundant wind turbines is also unnecessary.

No offense intended.  An on-demand power source could include non-fossil fuels such as wood gas, steam engine, Stirling engine, etc.  My point was merely that given the unpredictability of wind and solar and the potential need for additional supply during special times, an on-demand source would be a more efficient use of limited resources than redundant turbine mounting and wiring.  While it's true (as I qualified originally) that this is dependent upon your individual resources (wind and monetary), as a general rule for your average case, the more different kinds of power source, the better the redundancy will be because of the law of diminishing returns.  E.g. if you have little to no wind at all during a particular period, it doesn't matter if you have 1 or 100 wind turbines.  I'm not prescribing a particular solution, but just recommending to consider all of the potential scenarios down the road.

My intent with my system was also to get off of fossil fuels and be totally self-sufficient, but only in the sense that I wouldn't *depend on* outside sources.  For convenience, however, I am using propane for several applications.  Each of them I could do without propane, but it would be more of a hassle.  E.g. I have a wood stove I can cook on, but my propane range is the primary cooking appliance so long as my tank is full.  I also have a gas dryer, although I could hang clothes on the line.  And I have gas backup to my heat and electric, so we don't have to skimp and be uncomfortable when renewable resources are low, although rationing is also possible if necessary.  Also, since we have trillions of cubic feet of natural gas under our feet here in Pennsylvania, and gas burns very cleanly, I feel pretty good about propane being my only utility bill other than cell phone/internet.  I fill my 100 gallon tank about twice a year, and it'll probably be once a year when I get my solar thermal system hooked up.

That said, I am always on the lookout for an alternative to propane when it is convenient.  E.g. for my refrigeration, I decided against a propane fridge and am instead using a combination of root cellar principles combined with a very efficient DC compressor. And in the back of my mind, I'm looking forward to a day when I replace my on-demand electric backup from a propane generator to a biomass generator of some kind.  I have a dozen acres of switchgrass and another two dozen of woods, so would love to use these to either produce wood gas or to burn in an external combustion generator, either steam or Stirling.  I would then push the waste heat into my solar thermal storage tank.  But that is a future project, and for now, I am glad to have the propane backup, which I only use once or twice a year.

Like most people probably, I'm doing all of this in stages as time and money allows.  Propane is a great intermediate solution between dependence on the grid and foreign oil to complete and total self-sufficiency.

Anyone know the status of the new SWWP AirBreeze with lifetime warranty?

Will there be a marine version of the new Air Breeze?

Looks like a 30% increase in price.....

Is it too late to order one with only a 3 year warranty??

Hi
Can anyone tell me if the air breeze, air 30/40 stator and electronic controller can be fitted into an early Air X turbine?
Thanks