NOTE: PARTS HAVE CHANGED, THE PIC'S BELOW ARE FOR REFERENCE ONLY
INSTALLATION
NOTES:
As far as parts, you will need two 25 foot pieces of #6 Welding
Wire, one red and one black (or Yellow). This will go inside the pole tower and
can withstand lots of twisting and turning motion. This type of wire can be bought
at any welding supply store found in your local yellow pages.
You will
also need to purchase a 20' piece* of schedule #40 -1.5" water pipe available
at any Hardware or Plumbing type store. I would recommend you have them cut the
pipe at 14 feet. This will give you 3 feet cemented into the ground and a nice
tall 11 foot tall mast that will not require messy looking guy wires.
11
feet is just high enough to easily be worked on with an 8 foot painters ladder
and is tall enough so kids can't get cut. While you are at the hardware store
buy a post hole digger and a few bags of premixed "post hole" cement
too. You may want to use quick setting cement, or add some to your concrete which
will make it set within 15 minutes. You will need a level to get the pipe straight.
Look at the picture above and to the right showing how the welding wire is to
be run, up the pole to the PMA and back around under the cement and up out of
the ground plus extra. The run of wire going to you disconnect panel/battery can
be done with type UF direct burial wire. 10 gauge 4 conductor is fairly cheap.
Double the wires up for maximum amperage. Twist the black and the white together
to become the positive and then the green and copper together for the negative.
A 250 foot box is about $120.00 at the Home Depot - You can run this wire under
ground without conduit since Type UF wire is water proof. Finally connect this
wire to your battery/disconnect with the proper fusing/breaker. You are basically
done with the hard part. What you do with your battery power is up to you.
*Note: IF you do use a 20 foot pipe it will need guys wires or need
to be at least Schedule #80 to resist bending when a storm hits!!!
For
a step by step installation guide with photos CLICK HERE http://www.springtower.com/installation.html
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. How do you get the electricity down from the generator as it changes
direction to face the wind? Would the wire get twisted without sliprings?
A. Our turbines do not have a tail that flips to the left or right in high
winds so how can the wires get twisted??? This is a 70 year old misconception
left over from a bygone era when ALL wind turbines made in the 1930's would turn
in one direction for high wind protection. IF you simply use rubber welding wire
(made for twisting, abrasion and tension resistance) and tension the welding wire
at hard points like a rubber band it will never be able to make enough turns to
get twisted before it desperately wants to release it's build up tension energy
and literally unwind itself in the pole. Welcome to the the new millennium and
evolution from old ideas.
A wind turbine manufacture that brags about his
brushless PMA's and then admits to the terrible dependability of carbon brushed
generators AND then puts a set of carbon brushes in his sliprings is at odds with
his own philosophy to say the least! Carbon brushes wear out, sooner or later.
More On "No Slip Rings" - Our advice on slip rings
is to use heavy rubber coated welding cable and don't worry about twisted wire.
Twisted wires in the pole are an overrated problem in small wind turbines. Heavy
rubber welding cable tends to simply unwind when it is under tension and the wind
turbine head favorers turning in the opposite direction to effect unwinding. Welding
cable has also magical qualities when it comes to taking continuous twisting and
has incredible abrasion resistance when rubbing inside the pipe. Welding cable
will last for about 50 years (Not even slip rings will last 50 years)
NO
OTHER TYPE OF WIRE HAS ALL THESE QUALITIES EXCEPT WELDING CABLE!
USE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
In all our testing slip rings eventually
failed and required maintenance while over 100 small test turbines equipped with
#6 rubber welding cable operated with an exceptional 100% dependability factor
for over 14 years now and counting. 100% reliability
Yet
more on the - "NO SLIP RINGS" Topic
If you have #6 rubber
welding cables and put them in a wind turbine tower pipe you can only turn them
about 20 or 30 times in any one direction before they get tight. Interestingly
enough at this point they react like a giant Rubber-Band and try to turn the other
way trying to unwind themselves. A simple rubber tension system was born from
welding cable! It's very reliable, cheap and never fails. No moving or rubbing
parts to fail. Welding cable is specially made cable designed to endure endless
abrasion, twisting, bending and turning motions offering at least half a century
of service life or more. Especially if it's in a dark pipe with no UV shining
on it. It should last a life time.
WATER IN
CEMENTED TOWER PIPES
Drill a small 1/4'' drain hole at the ground
level of the pipe. Fill the pipe with a few cups of liquid cement (water mixed
with Portland cement powder only, NO sand or rock!!!) When this mixture comes
out of your 1/4" drill hole then chase it with a gallon of clear water. If
it cogs during pouring use a piece of wire until it flows clear water. DONE! -
Water in pipe problem gone!!!!!!!!!!!
