Ok, so, two weeks ago, after having stood for 4.5 years, through 2, and I mean TWO "century" wind storms, my generator tower failed on a very normal normal windy spring day.
We took it the rest of the way down, cut it apart, looking for the cause of failure. And found none. No rust, no breaks, no corrosion, nothing. And found while it was down, that the generator windings and electronics had burnt themselves up, as well. A real head scratcher. All the "obvious" stuff ain't there. All we can think of is that there was some very localized freak conditions that did what the storm a year and a half ago could not do. The storm then was so strong that about 1/3 of all homes suffered significant roof damage. Fields migrated across roads. RV's tipped over. parked Semis tipped over. metal buildings exploded. Wind velocities at the normal stations set records. individual weather stations recorded high hurricane velocities. But our tower didn't bend or even show damage. But two weeks ago, where we had predicted "gusts" to 35 or 40 mph, caused it to fold. We had changed the blades on it a couple weeks before, on the advice of the maker of the generator. They insisted that wind loading was within 1% of the original. So, we're re engineering it and back up it goes when the generator gets back from the maker (who is rebuilding it under warranty). I love a mystery. NOT. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <insert witty tagline here> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
