I'm fairly certain this is the Air-X under a different name. Southwest Windpower makes the Air-x but sells it through a number of different channels, some of which rename it.

I was considering buying one this year, but they have a reputation among sailors for being noisy. I can't place it more than about 200' from my cabin and I don't want to listen to it. So I went with solar instead, they cost several times more and produce less, but I won't have to listen to them.

$800 for a 400W wind turbine, you must be joking! Looks like we should have another competition to see who can design a better one. A nice prize and a posting on Instructables:
http://www.instructables.com/home

Hey I think I'm starting a trend :)

So heres my nomination:
DIY 1000 watt wind turbine
http://www.instructables.com/id/EDTMO3QLQIEP287OGM/

I've been cruising on a boat for a year now and have seen lots of these. They are noisy. Imagine a high speed whistling/wooshing sound. We have an old fourwinds II on our boat. It's more powerful than an Air X but not as sexy looking. Also it's much much quieter. I'd go hear one before I put one up. You can turn them off if you want though.

The old Air-X model did have serious noise problems. I had a friend whose organization used one to power weather monitoring equipment. He said it made a lot of noise. However, about two years ago Southwest redesigned the blades, which were the cause of the noise problem, in order to eliminate noise. I believe all of their new models sell with these redesigned blades. However, I do not know how much noise the now make, but I suspect that it is probably little to none.

This is a total ripoff of the AirX wind turbine by Southwest Windpower which is a piece of junk to begin with. Ignorance is bliss.

I've heard that the cheap wind turbines are rubbish, and you need to spend a bit more to get one that provides a reasonable amount of power.

What a great idea. I was at a recent conference where Zoltek Companies http://www.zoltek.com , a leader in carbon fiber was talking about how the wind blade length will give a square root increase in mega watts with wind generators. What’s next? Wave generated electricity?

Looks like Air-X is a sore spot with some folk. I thought I should mention the good things I found about them while researching...

- They have an integrated charge controller. This keeps them from gassing your batteries to death during long windy periods. You would need to add such a device to most wind generators.

- They put themselves into a safe state when the wind is too high.

- They have (if you wire it in) an off switch so you can stop them for maintenance work on the tower or wiring.

- They are compact, 24" or so blade length if I recall, and light weight enough to put on a very inexpensive pipe tower, even up to 45' or so. Their 27' tower is especially cost effective.

- They come in 24 and 48 volt versions, this cuts the current in your possibly long wires by 2 or 4 over the 12v and allows you to use smaller wire and still have acceptable losses.

Now, if they were just quiet. I'd have felt better about buying one if Southwest had published noise data taken at various distances and positions in various winds.

Noise with small wind is directly related to Tip Speed Rotation (TSR) and furling mechanisims. With an RPM of above 1,000 resulting in a high TSR, and an active furling mechanism which tends to create massive noise fluxuations when topping off battery banks due to cycling, the Air X is quite a noisy little turbine. It also has a very limited life, usually less than 6 years. This might be why most in the small wind community refer to the Air X as a toy rather than "heavy metal" reliable power producer.

If you are thinking about buying this turbine, save your money and buy green-tags instead. This will save you headaches, and keep any unsuspecting birds from becoming lunchmeat.

As an off the gridder, I am will tell you what I heard when I asked about putting a wind turbine on my property. "you would not want to live in a place where you get your power from the wind. This can only be a back up to a seperate, stand alone system like solar, never as your main power source for recharging your battery bank.

The Air-X is extremely overstated in its performance. I've owned two (sent them both back) and the most I metered out of 15-20mph winds was about .5 to 1 amp. It is no more than a trickle charge and will not even power a lightbulb. Probly worth about $300. Good luck with warranty as well. Southwest takes their sweet ol time.

I'm currently researching small wind turbines. The leading edge of small wind turbine design seems to be ARI's models. They tell me that customers tell them that their turbines are the quietest on the market and they hold new patents blade technology from Clarkson University. Their CPU controlled magneto generator, like found in electric car's regenerative breaks, means auto overspeed protection and higher energy output at higher speed winds with same turbine speed. It also seems to be less than half the weight of the competitors and comes with a charge controller to protect the batteries. Since their system is hybrid solar-wind, the charge controller is made to input solar panel energy symultaniously for land or marine use. www.arisolarwind.com.

The warrantee on SouthWest Wind Power products is laughable. They've got one guy, John Hall, working support and he is either completely overloaded or a pathological liar. Parts are promised and never sent out, emails aren't returned, and neither are phone calls. The basic design of the product, the Air X I have is, in my opinion, great, but the support is non-existent, and so is the "warrantee". The problem I had with the Air X is the electronics kit going out. I was thinking about upgrading to their 3.7KW product at our site, but this experience scares me.

Your kidding about this being a noisy turbine and not generating any current? I helped put up one and it burnt out a 30 amp meter. I know they are not even suppose to produce that much current but it did and I saw the results. This one helps power an ham radio repeater along with some solar panels. I was at the site on several occassions when the wind was very high and you had to listen close to even hear it. I hope you guys are wrong because I have sent for my own to be used with my solar system here at the home.

I own an air X, the only problem we have had is lightining. We live off grid and know we only get power from the turbine when the wind blows. I need some sort of heater diversion kit for the winter. We have very high winds, I think two would cause me some over load. any one know where to get a heater diversion. I like my air X had it for six years.