Chinese wind generators

The turbine in the link seems to have a powered field coil taking 15ma whether charging or not. May be a concern. It is claimed that it has an MPPT regulator giving 13.2 volts if I read correctly. Not enough for fast charging of a largish battery. Now Chinese have often claimed MPPT for a solar regulator when it is not. Just PWM.
MPPT is vital for wind gen as without it a low wind speed giving low output volts will not get any charge in to a 12v LA battery. It must be more like 14v which requires quite a good wind.
My friend bought some years back a Chinese 12v turbine for a remote property. It had permanent magnet field and 3 phase out put from stator coils. The very impressive looking "regulator" simply contained 6 diodes to rectify the 3 phase AC. It did give some charge at decent wind strength but ultimately dismantles itself in a strong wind. So he went to rely on solar charge. Can't tell if this one is any better. If you do buy one give it a good check out at home before you go to the cost of permanent mounting on your boat. Connect it to a 12v battery with an amp meter and check at various wind speeds. ol'will
 
The technology is well known, the Chinese are market leaders in large wind generators there is no reason why their small wind gens should not be acceptable. After ITT bought LVM, or the Aero/AquaGen part they transferred all production and (presumably) technology to China. Whiterose is correct - I wonder about ITT's thought processes - but then most 'T shorts and Apple hardware comes from China......??

China has this reputation for producing rubbish - people forget about their Hi-speed trains, Huawei etc

You are as much at risk in buying any unknown product from any market entrant. If you are buying from eBay they offer certain guarantees - if the wind gen does not meet expectation - you get your money back. I'd be looking to check the actual manufacturer, in China. Find their website check them out.

What's the problem?

Try to minimise the xenophobic views.

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
The technology is well known, the Chinese are market leaders in large wind generators there is no reason why their small wind gens should not be acceptable. After ITT bought LVM, or the Aero/AquaGen part they transferred all production and (presumably) technology to China. Whiterose is correct - I wonder about ITT's thought processes - but then most 'T shorts and Apple hardware comes from China......??

China has this reputation for producing rubbish - people forget about their Hi-speed trains, Huawei etc

You are as much at risk in buying any unknown product from any market entrant. If you are buying from eBay they offer certain guarantees - if the wind gen does not meet expectation - you get your money back. I'd be looking to check the actual manufacturer, in China. Find their website check them out.

What's the problem?

Try to minimise the xenophobic views.

Jonathan
Click to expand...
Thank you. I have absolutely no issue whatsoever with it coming fron China, in retrospect I could have titled 'cheap' rather than 'chinese'
In any case, my question was, can they be any good at that price?
 
Is there a reason you want wind rather than solar? A friend who's a bit of an anorak did a comparison between the amount of power available from his Rutland wind gen and his 100W of solar panels. For the S coast of England, the expected output from solar was several times the output of the wind gen.
 
When its blowing a hoolie, the sky is overcast and the rain is forecast you are very grateful you invested in both. This idea that 'solar' is the only answer and that it works effectively 100% of the time looks very questionable (and is nonsense) - and on a mono hull where exactly are you going to put the solar display required? Its not the averages that matter but the extremes. You want you batteries topped up rain or shine - not just shine.

Its horses for courses - solar may offer more output except for those times it does not.

Its dusk here, in Sydney, the solars are a complete waste of space for the next 12 hours + + - the wind gen is happily filling in. We have rain forecast for the next 3 or 4 days, with warnings of Strong Winds and big swells - yes in sunny Sydney. Of course we could turn the engines on...... but the wind gen will fill in - much more quietly. We are lucky our wind gen also offers a hydro gen option (better when on the move than both wind or solar) - but again hydro gen is of little value when you are at anchor.

With an unlimited budget you would have a hydro-get, wind gen and solar - the compromises depend on how you use your yacht (or how you use electrical power).

Its not black and white.

Jonathan
 
Praxinoscope said:
I do my best to avoid buying anything made in China, unfortunately too many of the Western manufacturer ‘sold their souls’ and their countries to the cheap manufacturing provided by this obnoxious dictatorship, that even temps ne expects to be made in the West are found to be made in China.
Click to expand...

A Victron solar regulator I recently purchased was made in India. If manufacturing has to be moved to a low labour cost country, I'd like it to be that one.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Xenophobia is disliking foreigners because they are foreign regardless of who they are or how they behave. Disliking a foreign government because of the way it behaves is not xenophobic.
Click to expand...

Apologies - but where in my post did I suggest that I approved of a foreign government. You have made an interpretation that was not there.

Commonly, or historically, there has been a suggestion that Chinese product is cheap and nasty, a poor copy, lacking in quality control;. Without repeating that mantra I have made mention of Hi Speed trains and Huawei - as indicative of technical excellence - politicians are seldom good technologists nor engineers and you cannot 'make' good engineers etc with political doctrine. . You have chosen to make an interpretation with which I disagree.

Jonathan
 
Nowhere in my post do I suggest that Chinese products are of low quality or lacking in technology, (even if a lot of the technology was developed in the West) my observations are aimed at what IMHO is the stupidity of relying to such an extent on products/technology from a country that is ruled by a rather nasty autocratic regime.
If India could sort out its chaotic structure, it would certainly be able to compete with China in manufacturing,
By investing to a considerably higher degree in automation, robotics and modern technology the West could produce many of the products we buy from China at a marginally higher cost, but many Western manufacturers have become lazy and just want an easy return with minimum effort,
Successive short term visions from our politicians have not helped, often allowing the loss of many of our manufacturers and perhaps more importantly our hi-tech companies to be taken over by overseas investment.
In the case of the U.K. the decline is not a new phenomenon, it started back in the 1950’s and accelerated during the 60’s & 70’s, thé 80’s brought in the concept of the ‘service’ society, it this just results in closed circuit economy where we just sell our services to each other and forgets that in a capitalist based economy you actually need to produce something (whether it be physical product or technology) hat others will buy.
 
Lots of people do not like wind and genset running because of the noise. Probably will be more due to electric outboards etc so others have to suffer while they enjoy the quiet motoring. Sorry that's how I feel.
 
Neeves said:
When its blowing a hoolie, the sky is overcast and the rain is forecast you are very grateful you invested in both. This idea that 'solar' is the only answer and that it works effectively 100% of the time looks very questionable (and is nonsense) - and on a mono hull where exactly are you going to put the solar display required? Its not the averages that matter but the extremes. You want you batteries topped up rain or shine - not just shine.

Its horses for courses - solar may offer more output except for those times it does not.

Its dusk here, in Sydney, the solars are a complete waste of space for the next 12 hours + + - the wind gen is happily filling in. We have rain forecast for the next 3 or 4 days, with warnings of Strong Winds and big swells - yes in sunny Sydney. Of course we could turn the engines on...... but the wind gen will fill in - much more quietly. We are lucky our wind gen also offers a hydro gen option (better when on the move than both wind or solar) - but again hydro gen is of little value when you are at anchor.

With an unlimited budget you would have a hydro-get, wind gen and solar - the compromises depend on how you use your yacht (or how you use electrical power).

Its not black and white.

Jonathan
Click to expand...
When it was "blowing a hoolie" my UK made wind genny blew up, causing damage to the boat, but thankfully no injury to us. Its replacement, from the same company, burned out its brush gear, because although they had substantially increased the new model's output, they were still using the original design of brush gear. They accepted responsibility, and gave me a completely new unit, but I had had enough, and went over to solar. The solar panels just sit there silently, working well and keeping the batteries topped up, not causing any worries or annoyance to us or anyone who happens to be nearby. Admittedly, our wind genny was installed way up on the mizzen mast, and while that gave it good clear access to the wind, it was also very difficult to tie it off for very windy conditions. It's PV for me, every time.
 
To return to you original question.
But are they worth a punt at that price?

Here is the return policy from their home page.

Return Policy
Every single product is backed by a 12-months Warranty and a 30-day return policy from the date of purchase. Special circumstances will be listed clearly in the listing.

If you need to return a product and get a refund, please contact us for address( support@vevor.co.uk).

I think that under those circumstances it is worth a punt for £99,

Then please report back to us on the performance and your experience.
We will all be the better off for your efforts.
thanks in advance
gary
 
Neeves said:
Apologies - but where in my post did I suggest that I approved of a foreign government. You have made an interpretation that was not there.

Commonly, or historically, there has been a suggestion that Chinese product is cheap and nasty, a poor copy, lacking in quality control;. Without repeating that mantra I have made mention of Hi Speed trains and Huawei - as indicative of technical excellence - politicians are seldom good technologists nor engineers and you cannot 'make' good engineers etc with political doctrine. . You have chosen to make an interpretation with which I disagree.

Jonathan
Click to expand...
There are a lot more good technologists and engineers at all levels in Chinese Government than there are in our Government. They are also often educated in European or American universities. And the degrees they read are typically not PPE.
 
Bit suspicious that the reviews on the site are all glowing 4 or 5 star, However if you go to the appropriate Amazon review page there is a different story:

Amazon.com: Customer reviews: VEVOR Wind Turbine 400Watt Wind Turbine Generator DC 12V Wind Turbine Generator 3/5 Blades with Controller (400Watt)

Douglas L:
" I am a state licensed electrician and yes checked to make sure that none of the 3phases are crossed (turbine is AC goes into a the included bridge rectifier). Likewise I found the included controller in China for sale. It is rated for 100 Watts. This is absolutely not a 400 watt turbine."

Chris:
".............. you should be aware this turbine whistles, I was very excited to finally get wind power but this turbine doesn't offer much more that something to show my friends what not to buy....I'll update as testing continues. Ok, so at a 30mph wind I was able to make 14.3 v at 2 amps, and slower and the amps went to zero and volts dropped as well, I can not recommend this product"


A lot of throwaway stuff arrives from the Far East and we tend to put up with it because it is cheap, which is not a great thing in terms of sustainability. I think we need tougher legislation to keep junk out.
It may be worth a punt but I would look for a used Aerogen which which would be quiet, reliable, well made and generally repairable. A chance of a few about now as people change to solar.

.
 
The idea that the junk you find for pennies on eBay is in anyway similar to high end consumer products simply because they were both manufactured in China is laughable. As is the Idea that being critical of the Chinese government is xenophobic.
I've worked on and off in China for many years and having spent more time there than most in this thread I'm sorry to say that my views of china would be censored.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top