Air Breeze: So Far So Good
Upon first getting the turbine wired up, and spinning, I thought it wasn’t making much power. I thought I had a dud… another defective Air Breeze. Southwest Windpower has had alot of complaints about the Air Breeze and the Air X. Both are the cheapest in the small turbine category. They both have internal regulators, so nothing more to buy except some wire, a switch and a fuse. But usually… you get what you pay for. You hear and read about people having bad customer service experiences, regulators failing within a few months, blades disintegrating, etc. Knowing all this, I really wonder why I bought one of these units so prone to failure and complaints. Guess it comes down to price and my penchant for playing the odds!
The Air Breeze specs are in kilowatts per month… not exactly the way I want to measure my output. I’m dubious of such convoluted specs. I want to see amps per knot of wind. Since getting the amp meter wired and confirming my power generation, I’ve seen good things. Winds have been strong lately, and I have a new appreciation for breezy nights at anchor.
Here’s a short video demonstrating the kind of power I’m seeing on a breezy night like tonight…
Good thing you have a subscription to ongoing electrical support via telephone!
Who Shunted?!
More like who got you to realize three of your grounds weren’t grounded!
Ben’s a well grounded guy!
First your wind generator spins
leading to and induced current, and ‘lo,
energy below!
And then what? The current and the current…
Sail on!
The unit sounds very quiet in the video. It doesn’t appear to have that distinctive whine of previous AIR products.
Yes David, it’s really not loud at all. I’m fully used to it now and don’t even notice it. When I’m aboard Daphne, the boat “next door”, I can tell the wind generator is spinning IF I listen for it. It does start spinning in about 6 kts of wind, and it is quieter then the AirX by ALOT. So, the claims made by Southwest Windpower are accurate. Also, it is putting out decent power, ~2.5 amps at ~12kts, and going up exponentially from there. Overall I’m pleased so far.