Be sure to check our continued article below the product offerings on the page we have written up to try and help our consumers understand the difference in products.

So while many of the people in the small wind community, social media, and sellers create mass hype hysteria and rely on mass inflated watt outputs to sell their wind generators Hurricane take a path less traveled in this industry.. We have taken the "master your craft" approach and we simply focus on building and selling the most robust products available on the web. We start with heavy steal and use good coatings and many items are even powder coated for high corrosion resistance. We design and have stringent quality control testing prior to shipping a product. We back this up by our guarantee that your products will perform as advertised or we will make it right.

While we cannot defy the laws of physics as the current advertised power output values of many companies selling these type of products do. Hurricane products have a proven track record of producing more power over time than any of the other leading brands we have tested. Our buck boost mppt controllers and larger blade swept area and generator rotor and stators coupled with our buck boost MPPT controllers just make more power over time period .

Hurricane Wind Power has some of the best pv modules on the market in the Synthesis solar panel line we sell on hurricanewindpower.com which have become a favorite among those living the off grid lifestyle.At Hurricane we do not view wind , solar and hydro power in competition but rather parts of a comprehensive strategy for making power at home. Solar, wind and hydro all have their own distinct advantages depending on many factors such as location, season land topography and many other factors. If you have question if small wind power is right for you do not hesitate and call hurricane today.

No one makes a finer small wind turbine on the market period. Our Vector XP and AIR BOSS Lines of wind turbines whether it be for on grid. Off Grid. Residential or that home away from home we can power your busy life style in a sustainable manner with quality and old world craftsmanship. .

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Small wind Generators

A bit on how small wind turbine worked or has worked in the past and how our product is different. To understand how a wind generator works you must first understand that a generator in and of itself does not make power it converts kinetic energy and torque from a set of blades to electrical energy. It would seem that while the average consumer or individual has a compression of this concept when they understand that a utility scale wind turbine with huge blades makes more power than a micro wind turbine. At some juncture this logic is lost on many consumers which are seemingly now making purchasing decisions based on a “wattage ratings” that in my experience is simply made fictional accounts in some cases fabricated by some small wind vendors. Some members of the small wind enthusiast community have coined a term and refer to this as “watt wars”. While the watt wars are good for some unscrupulous individuals who are seeking to gain any competitive advantage they might in a competitive market what these companies have succeeded in is in essence confusing consumers, fostered unrealistic expectations of their products, and in many cases exodus many consumer and small wind enthusiast from the hobby. At a minimum these individuals have drawn focus away from what is important in small wind and to a greater extent renewable energy as a whole.

So what is important when buying a small wind turbine?

I myself have yet to get a power bill measured in watts. The measure that is used is kilo watt hours. This simply means the use of 1000 watts a load for an entire hour. This is used to calculate how much power is used and how to size renewable energy systems. In the discussion as it relates to small wind generators it would be it would give a better understanding to consider which would produce more kilo watt hours in a day.

Turbine A has a steady output of 250 watts constant therefore in 4 hours it produces 1 kilo watt hour. Over the period of a day the same wind generator in this example would produce 6 killo watt hours of the course of the day. 24 hours divided by 4 is 6 KWH. Estimating at this rate we can presume that at this average turbine A would generator about 180 KWH per month

Turbine B This turbine came from the manufacturer with a rating of 2000 watts 5 28 inch blades with minimal swept area. After checking the blade calculator we located at warlock engineering we discovered that to achieve a mere 200-300 watts at the National Research energy laboratory standard 24.6 mph design. This would be the wattage output if the turbine were well designed as advertised, started up in the low winds as advertised. The reality is that many of these turbines are not well designed nor built and output negligible power over time unless operating in strong winds. Hypothetically we will for the sake of discussion give turbine B the benefit of the doubt and say it produces 2000 watts for a half hour during a high wind storm. In this instance the turbine would have produced 1 Kwh and generators minimal if any power in average winds due to poor design, cogging and other design flaws. Again giving some of these type products the benefit of the doubt and “credit” from production of another KWH over the course of the rest of the day trickle charging in 12-18 mph winds this product may output for the purposes of discussion 2 KWH per day. Over the course of a month you would have something more along the order of 60 KWH produced in the same time frame.

Conclusions

Looking at both hypothetical examples and comparing it is easy to see and now understand why a small wind generator rated at a unusually high power output may in fact output less usable power over the course of time by a factor of 3-4 times less than on that is well built properly designed engineered and rated honestly.

That being said in and generator you have windings. These are the wires that you see in the casing that are wrapped in close proximity. These wires have and enameled coating which has a temperature rating at which if it is heated beyond the coating burns off and the generator or even an electrical motor will burn up. Therefore it is important to understand that in any generator if too much torque is applied for the size windings or wire gauge then the amperage flow builds up heat and any generator can burn up if too much input torque is applied for a given generator. This is why matching a wind turbine to a generator set is important.

Understanding permanent magnet alternator windings and purchasing pma’s

In any generator whether it be a re manufactured delco permanent magnet alternator, our white lightning radial or even the larger axial flux designs different wire gauges can be used and are used for different reason for a given application. It is important also to understand that generally speaking when you are looking at a permanent magnet alternator for sale on our site ebay youtube Amazon ect when you see a voltage advertised such as frequently 12, 24, and 48 models this usually does not mean that there is some sort of internal regulator which limits the output voltage of the generator or pma to an adequate charging voltage level for an application This is one of the biggest mistake we see do it yourselfers make when selecting a generator. Typically sellers and manufacturers rate a permanent magnet alternator as for instance 12 volt when the RPM range of the generator is sufficient to reach Cut in Voltage to charge a given battery bank. Windmill, wind generators, wind chargers, or residential wind turbine kits terms we often see used interchangeably are trying to tell you that in a direct drive application with a particular blade set that they would use a particular generator for an application. So what’s the difference? Any style generator has a capacity “slots” or area that a winding can fit in. This will be unique to the particular generator. It is important to understand that within the working area different wire gauges can be used. In the area of the generator windings more “ turns” wraps or whatever terminology you prefer can fit in a given area with finer wire that with thicker wire as a matter of what will physically fit in a given stator coil, wrap , winding and or slot “again whatever terminology is appropriate for the given alternator.

Effect of wire gauge in a permanent magnet alternator winding,

1st principle of wind generators (which we have overcome with our new technology) I will explain how at the end of the article.

Cut in point.

Regardless of the system battery voltage or grid tie start up to product any usable power the voltage in the stator or generator windings must be greater than that of which it is trying to transfer power to

When a pole or magnetic field passes a coil the result is electrons begin to flow but for the purposes of our discussion of how windings work what is important to understand is that more windings in a slot of finer gauge wire make higher voltage with the magnetic rotor being turned at a lower RPM. This is great for wind generator in low wind areas and integrating into builds where people keep track in mind that making some power over time is better than not making any power until the wind blows hard. It does remain a balancing act because while many consumers want low RPM generator. The trade off is that while finer wire will make voltage to reach a cut in point to start generating power the down side is that finer wire limits the potential current that a winding can carry. Niner wire also builds up heat as there is greater internal resistance.

In many regards what occurs with a manufacturer in many cases is a delicate balancing act which must account for many variables. If the wire is too fine a generator may “cut in” i.e. bring the voltage up past that of the battery bank. If the cut in is too low the resistance will drag the turbine, water wheel ect with resistive load due to a lack of torque. Excessive heat can build up when the winding is trying to pass current wher adequate torque is present to overcome the “resistive load” i.e. when the generator become harder to spin after the cut in has been reached”. Conversely in the case where a generator uses a winding set that is too thick or heavy the potential to make a lot of current exists but due to RPM limitations of the specific application no power can be generated due to failure to reach the cut in point. Example battery voltage is a 13.3 but open voltage reading on the generator is 8.8. Voltage flows from higher pressure to lower pressure”

Wrong Generator Wrong application

One of the mistakes which is often made by the newbie who is trying to size a generator is that they buy specifically by a voltage classification. Remember as we discussed before windmill generator builder tend to rate their voltages at direct drive rpm 150-250 at a given voltage. This does not mean that if the permanent magnet alternator is turned at a higher RPM that the generator will not exceed 24 or even 48 volts. This is to say that in the case that you may have a hydro machine is cable of higher gearing and higher RPM that it may be better to in fact us a 24 or even a 12 volt rated permanent magnet alternator.

Volts multiplied by amps = watts

In the example where the consumer chooses to use a generator labels as 12 volts which would have thicker winding they would in fact have the ability to carry more current on the specific generator and make more power at 48 volts while in fact running the pma cooler and extending life expectancy.

Hurricane White Lightning Departure from the status quo

The Hurricane white Lightning uses thicker winding which allows a higher level of current to pass to the grid tie or battery bank. This allows the generator to run both coolers and allow more amperage to pass which makes more wattage and has less resistance pass through the windings. We use the proprietary boost buck smart MPPT controller to maximize power output under all conditions. If you were able to follow the discussion essentially we have removed part of the balancing act. We are no longer limited having to use finer wire in windings to reach cut in points. We have less heating in the generators. Greater control over the turbines and finally more power output over time than anything in it’s class. We use our controller to get charging power out of turbines that other machines with lighter winding cannot. Our controller takes it another step further. The controller calculated the RPM of the generator based on the pulses of 3 phase power which flows through. The controller adjusts the resistance accordingly which takes a charge from the controller without applying to much resistance and killing the inertia of the blade set.

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