A 48 volt hornet now produces some good power.

Images of the conversion are below Brian's comments.

Terry,

Finally I got some wind to give you feedback on the Boast Buster/48 volt Hornet conversion.

As you know the 48 volt hornet is definitely a high wind turbine.
Your blades turn the Hornet very easy, but it doesn't get up to 24 volts until it is spinning pretty fast.  I am guessing around 400 rpm since the blades are very much a blur at that point.

My Hornet is the first generation Hornet alternator which needs a lot of RPM to reach 24 volts.  I think it would work better if it were geared up.  Even with the Boast Buster blades it still takes around 15mph to reach 24 volt charge, opposed to somewhere around 20-25 with the stock blades.

Since I can only guess at wind speeds I would say the BB/H combo starts 24 volt charging at around 15 mph.   Since most of my winds here are in the 7-15 mph range I had never seen much output before with the stock blades.
I think the best I had seen with the stock Hornet blades was about 10 amps at 24 volts when we had high winds up around 60 mph.

Saturday we had some nice winds of 17-30 mph and I was getting 10 amps out of the Hornet at around 30mph. I would guess at 20-25mph I was seeing 5 amps consistently. This is a big difference from what I had with the stock blades.

I had done some experimenting in the past with the stock blades.
I would disconnect the load by flipping the breaker and I would watch open voltage climb up to around 60 volts at times, then the second I would engage the load the Amp meter would jump up to 5-6 amps then immediately drop to around 1.

I ran the same test with the Boast Buster blades and it simply held the amperage right at 5 amps or higher. No noticeable drop off after engagement of the load like it did with the stock blades on it.
I would guess an improvement of 3 to 5 times the output with the Boast Buster.

My general impressions are that the BB blades would be even more awesome on a lower speed alternator other than the original Hornet like I have.  In fact I am so sure of this that I'll be trying the BB blades with the Thermodyne SC60 alternator later this week.

Another note.
I have a 20 amp circuit breaker inline for my wind circuit.
In my 2+ years with the stock Hornet setup I have never had the breaker trip even with the 60+ mph winds.
I'm confident with the BB blades I will be seeing that breaker trip if the wind ever blows like that again.

I'm glad I tried your blades I now know what it takes to make some decent power with wind.  I still need a lot more power for my home so I'll be doing more wind generators in the time to come. 

Thank you so much, you and your website have been a big help.

Regards,

Brian Betz
Bozeman, MT
Mtnguy6368@yahoo.com

Images and more comments added 5-25-05
Terry,

Enclosed are the photos from the BB/Hornet conversion. I forgot to mention how quiet your blades are. No more of that annoying vibration sound, just a barely audible sound at higher wind speeds. I can barely hear it with all of the pines that I have around me. No neighbor of mine would ever hear it. My neighbor used to let me know from time to time with my hornet blades when it would get really windy. He lives at least 1/4 mile away. He is a good guy and the sound didn't bother him, but if I was in a high wind zone and my neighbors were closer it would be a concern. Anyway, enjoy the pictures, and don't, unless you absolutely have to, mount a wind generator in a tree. It makes changing Hornet blades to your blades rather difficult.
Brian

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The stock Hornet system.

The Boast Buster painted black before mounting.

The converted Hornet 

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