400 watt wind turbine from aliexpress - installation, output test and review

These turbines look good but barely generate 10 % of their advertised output. I suspect the included charge controller being connected to the battery uses more power than the turbine can produce in an average month.
Waste of money, better off with another solar panel.
I plan to ditch the generator and bolt the blades to my own modified smartdrive permanent magnet generator, should make around 500 watts in a good wind.

To those assuming my cable is too light and complaining about tree top turbulence, please read the following to put your minds at ease -:
Turbine has no problem getting up to full speed, in fact I find the tree line ramps up and increases wind speed just above the tree tops in this location, sure there is some turbulence but when I see the blades spinning full speed I know its not a major issue. Cable loss is negligible with such a low output from the turbine -my wire gauge 4mm2, cable length 20m, max 20a advertised output from turbine 20a = AC energy loss of 20.78% worst case scenario with advertised output. Now from testing on the bench at recommended rpm with near flat 24v batt as a load, wired through the reg/rec as shown in the manual and experimenting with various loads including a 12v battery I know maximum output is more like 65w which would give me a cable loss of 3.1% not enough to worry about.

[andyklyon]

Watching someone assemble something with small nuts and bolts on decking with gaps in it could be a new stress inducing genre for YouTube!

[fedeyoutub]

Maybe you did not read the manual, it's clearly written down to 400w, during a tornado 10 force! :-))

[benjaminpowell]

I like how you made use of the instructions, not to be read but to keep the stuff off the deck. I think a lot of us are alike! Appreciate the video.

[FlorentHenry]

Power delivered by wind turbine is a function of speed squared so a slightly faster wind might yield more power. Turbulences from the tree could cause losses. All that being said, windfarms yield an average 30% of installed capacity (maintenance, no or low wind).

[biggityboggityboo]

The performance is absolutely pathetic...I'm glad I saw this.

[isaactuscano]

I wonder how delivery guys found his house

[markstevens]

I haven’t watched all the video yet, but based on comments, your device success rate has improved over the years. Less new crap, better results.

[sneharthyadav]

I like the point where you said tree can be used as poles. Thank you for sharing this information

[silverismoney]

Looks cool, nice video. I loved your idea of pruning the trees and putting it between, very stealthy.

[GlennLittleford]

to small to make 400 watts. maybe 150 in a gale. A lot of the cheap turbines use false advertising.

[fernarias]

I bought four of these for my Tesla and it won't stop running. I drove all the way to Australia, whoo.

[nixxonnor]

The wind turbine/regulator combo seems to be the "Morning Group" model S2-400W at aliexpress. It is stated in the specs (graph) that the system should generate 400W at wind speeds above ~10.8 m/s. The regulator's nominal voltage is selectable 12 or 24 VDC. It seems that you have not put enough load on the DC output from the regulator. If you did, the voltage should have dropped way below 25 VDC, which is actually a higher voltage than the max nominal 24V output.

Next time try connecting a battery that is not close to fully charged :D

You could try to connect a 2 ohm power resistor and then measure the voltage drop across the load while measuring the amperage going through the wires at the same time.

[chrisbunch]

I purchased a 3kw wind + 2kw solar panels. Hybrid system. the solar panels outperform the wind all the time (we are 30 deg south near the coast west Australia) The 3 blades were not balanced and destroyed the bearings, Tanfon, the Chinese manufacturers would not believe that at least the 3 blades should all be the same weight!

[trislynd]

Nice tree climbing skills! Beautiful place!

[Lardzor]

I know this is a very late comment, I just wanted to point out that resistance increases over distance. I longer the run between generator and charger, the greater the resistance. Also, thinner wires have more resistance than thicker wires.

[stylusrowm]

Nelson Bomber ,

I like that you are testing these import products.
But I would not recommend putting a turbine in front of any object, be it a tree or a building or to close to the ground would never product good results because of air turbulence. This is why large wind turbines make more power out at sea than on land. Not as much turbulence in the airflow. 12m/s and above is the point to aim for in wind, anything below the generator will just not turn quick enough.

That blade design is for whats call clean air, take it as fair away from any object as possible will create better results like high up in a pole on a ridge line for example.

I am not say this will solve your issue, maybe have a read up on air flow over turbine blades and vertical vs horizontal.
Coming from a engineering researcher who lives in the windiest county in Europe, wind turbines are only good if you have the right place to put them. Other wise they are totally useless waste of money.

In my case a 1kw turbine in mind of a field with no tree line produces more than it advertised and it was a cheap Chinese product. The only fault I found if the generator quality is bad so it would not last long.

Wish you all the best to get it working.

[KalpeshPatel]

I thought you were going to takeoff at 3:29 Nelson. Great video. Thinking of buying myself these turbines.

[ianwilson]

Sorry, a bit late for a comment. I love your videos and can't understand why so many posters are mocking your efforts rather than offering constructive help, but I guess that's to be expected. I think installing it within a group of trees is a big mistake. The wind would begin to divert around the trees well before it actually got to the trees. So your turbine would never function that well. Plus, you would have a very disrupted airflow. There would be lots of air pockets, which would also cut down your wattage.

[MRrwmac]

Marty, I hope you work on “your generator” to this tree top propeller and record it for us? BTW, great idea putting the propeller in a tree!!!!

[SedatedByLife]

That's not typical for wind turbines unless they have bad blade configurations or pitch. It was an AliExpress purchase so that doesn't shock me. How far is the tree from the house? You could be losing voltage from distance and size of cables as well as if it's a DC turbine or ac turbine. Just some ideas. It's disappointing to see that you didn't get good performance though but that's not indicative of wind turbines :-/