I will discuss this in three parts, the Wind Turbine itself, the Charge Controller, and Operating the device.I was recommended this from EcoPower Shop as it would be quicker to connect and disconnect than the Rutland equivalent, as this will be mounted to a vehicle for use at festivals.
Note that I have not tested any other turbines yet, so I cannot compare it to others.
This fits onto a standard 48mm scaffolding pole using Allen key bolts.The cable comes down the middle of the pole, which makes sense, although made things more complicated for my intended usage.The nose cone just clips on, and the assembly that holds the 3 blades uses one nut and Allen key to fix it to the generator.As I am using this on an RV, I wanted it to be easy to pack, and this is where the mechanism could be easier - all three blades take two Allen key bolts to attach, which is fine, but in the manual it says that when you bolt them on, you should measure the distance between the blades to make sure they are equal (and to stop vibration I expect).This is quite annoying, as there is quite a bit of a gap between where the blades attach to the mount, so at the tip, this can change the angle several centimeters.It would have been a lot better if the blades couldn't move at all. I was hoping to remove all 3 blades from the central mount whenever I pack away the generator, but this means that every time I set it up again, I have to spend about 5-10 minutes measuring the blade distance.I will have to figure out how to store the entire blade structure safely without having to undo any bolts or it will get annoying (and probably weaken the structure).
The controller is quite useful as it gives various stats - V and W from both the wind turbine and solar panels separately, battery voltage and load from it's optional output connectors.To configure it properly, you really need the Android app that connects via Bluetooth. While this is better than just having the slow to navigate built-in display, the app is rather poorly written.The layout of controls is rather crude, and sometime takes ages to connect to the controller. There is no logging capability, and only seems to work within 4 meters of the charge controller.Once the door to my metal battery compartment is shut, the app can't connect to the controller at all.What would have been more sensible would be to have an external Bluetooth aerial that could be mounted elsewhere on a cable.
I have now used the turbine over a 3-week period. Half of this was at the War & Peace festival near Folkstone, where the maximum power I saw was 170W (but could have been slightly higher when I was not looking!), and the other half at the SHA 2017 festival in Holland, near a forest (not an ideal position), where the maximum power I got was 110W.I also had ~180W of solar panels connected to the controller, which was feeding a 100AH PowerBrick+ LiFePO4 battery.This battery was full at the start of the holiday.During the holiday this setup kept a Waeco CFX-65 fridge in operation constantly, use of DeWalt 18V grinder (2 days of about 6AH each), and 3-4 geeks' devices (2 laptops & 4 phones) charged. We also used the system to power a small projector and 12V amp connected to 2 Bose Environmental speakers for 2-4 hours most nights, and kept various torches and worklamps charged.It also included a day where I had to charge the 24V starter system for the vehicle from the 12V battery as I had not disconnected something and had to revive it from 21V before we could start the engine.The optional 12V outputs from the controller seem to output at least 12.9V, which might be enough to charge a secondary battery, and I will try this soon.The turbine certainly was quiet, and a few people commented that it was quieter than the one they had got (but can't remember the makes). Vibration was minimal, and we did not feel any from inside the vehicle.
The turbine is easy to set up, but connecting the 3 blades at the correct spacing should be a lot easier.All I can really say about the controller is that it is the "least bad" that I have seen so far, which is not really a glowing recommendation. The Bluetooth capability is rather pointless due to range problems, and a remote display and interface like the Tracer MPPT HPST2210RN would have been more reliable.It certainly performed well once the wind got up, but I wouldn't like to be around in the weather required for it to generate 400W!See below for a picture of blade spacing:
Note inside the red box that it is possible for the blade to be moved several mm in each direction before tightening the bolts, which can make up to 1cm difference between the blade tips.
