Wind generators

Our wing generator is an American model called an "Air Breeze ", up to now it has given sterling service and has kept our batteries topped up for the last year. However for the last few months it has been making an annoying clunking noise, it usually clunks when the unit brakes itself, this occurs either when the wind exceeds 35 knots or the batteries are fully charged. We can also manually brake it with a Stop/Run switch. This was more of a continuous clunk as if it was having trouble stopping the blades, this it normally achieves in a second to a full stop.

Yesterday however it stopped charging, seeming to be stuck in a start stop loop. I suspected the electronic charge controller circuit had died or become faulty.

I thought to try and alter the voltage threshold, this is done by means of a small screw on the body of the generator.

Stupidly I hadn't tied down the blades and as a sudden gust of wind came through it spun up and swung round one of the blades slicing my nose rather neatly lengthways, remenicent of Jack Nicholson in " Chinatown"..............

There was a lot of blood however it seemed to respond to being held together and a trip to casualty was avoided!

The wind generator is a bit of a problem now, we need to get it fixed or replaced as soon as possible. The weather is looking poor for the next few days anyway, more wind again. It is looking like we will be staying in Dale for a while........will know more on Monday, when the suppliers will get back to me with a plan of action after they have spoken to the manufacturers.

Of course if I stay out of the way on our pontoon in the bay I won't have to explain to everyone I meèt how stupid I can be sometimes!