Fail-Safe Design:  Most other small wind turbines can never be allowed to operate without an electrical load on the generator during high winds, for fear of over-speeding and failing the blades.  These turbines use "dump-loads" to limit their speed.  But, the whole system can be put at risk if the electrical connection to these dump loads is lost ... they are not "fail-safe."  Bergey turbines can run safely without any load at all, under any wind conditions up to their maximum design wind speeds (120 mph +).

Heavy Weight Construction:  Lighter is definitely not better when it comes to wind turbine reliability and longevity.  Wind turbines run up to 7,500 hours per year, which is the equivalent of putting 100,000 miles a year on a car.  And during storms they have to endure tremendous forces.  While it's cheaper to build a light-weight, fast-turning wind turbine, the history of the industry dating back to the 1920's clearly shows that light-weight turbines don't stand the test of time.  The heavy-duty Jacobs turbines from the 1930's can still be found running today.  Their light-weight competitors are long gone.

Higher Strength Blades:  The blades are the most critical and heavily worked part of a wind turbine. Bergey Windpower pioneered the successful use of pultruded fiberglass blades in 1980. This award-winning technology application results in blades of exceptional strength and durability.  In fact, with a tensile strength exceeding 100,000 psi, the blades on Bergey wind turbines are twice as strong as steel.  Some less expensive wind turbines now use molded plastic blades with glass or carbon fiber reinforcement.  But, the reinforcing fibers must be very short to allow injection molding and this limits strength to approximately 25,000 psi.  Many experts doubt that the useful life of these plastic blades will exceed 5-7 years, except at poor wind sites.  And using aeroelastic blade flutter (undamped torsional vibration) for over-speed control, as done by one popular micro-turbine, certainly can't help.

More Rugged Electronics:  It's less expensive to cut back on the power or heat handling capacity of the electronics that are used to charge batteries.  But, during storms wind turbines can operate at high power levels for hours on end.  Some other brands are notorious for burning up electronics because they simply haven't designed in sufficient reserve capacity.  We spend more money on electronics and heat sinks to make sure this doesn't happen.

Fully-Engineered and Warranted Towers:  Bergey Windpower offers a wide range of professionally-engineered (PE-stamped) towers, which we back-up with the same 5-year warranty as offered with the wind turbines.  Some manufacturers only offer partial kits and some don't offer towers at all.  This puts a lot of responsibility and risk back on the customer.