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Wind Turbine

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:49 am
by Arnie
Hi to all :)
Can anyone give advice on how to build a wind turbine or recommened any books on the subject.

Kevin :wink:

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:26 pm
by Geoff
I've often thought of investigating these and not got very far. The Centre for Alternative Technology has some information.

Bugger - put the full link in and it made the screen too wide!

Go to www.cat.org.uk then put wind turbine in the search

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:08 pm
by peter
Savonius are good.

Imagine a tin can stood upright, cut it in half down the middle as though going to make a barbeque out of it.
Slide one half along the cut line so () becomes
(
)
but still touching and and weld a shaft between the two edges.
This then sits on top of your generator motor, or use a pulley belt.
Works in very low wind, does not need to turn to face the wind and can be put almost anywhere (depending on size).

You may have seen a similar thing outside your local shops, where they paint the logo's in two colours so it flashes as it turns.

Check out this US website where the guy gives full diagrams and reckons to do the job for less than $100. :P
http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/ ... uper_Rotor

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:09 pm
by richard p
do a search on google. i once found a site that gave detailed instuctions starting with a volvo front hub assembly, once built with an 8 foot propellor the testing instructions involved bolting it to the front of a pickup an driving down the road to measure the output at various (wind) speeds. will try and find a link later.

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:51 pm
by nog
Went to the local Council Recycling and Conservation Conferance the other day cos I was thinking of getting a 1kwh turbine to go on the roof, as I live on the top of a hill..free elect 24hrs a day Free FREE.....but you need planning premission. Is it work the bother....Do they realy want us to conserver energy or not?

Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 9:32 pm
by richard p

wind turbine

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:22 am
by Arnie
Hi to all, :)
Thank you for all the information posted, as the weather is abysmal this morning I will have the time to look at all the links that have been posted :wink:

regards

Kevin :wink:

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 10:42 am
by richard p
ive been looking at the idea for quite a while, probably for £500 you can get a 500 watt propellor driven thing to mount on a pipe with guy wires. then there is the foundation cost and battery bank etc. there are plans for building your own from scratch but as with a lot of things if you value your time its probably better to get the plastic out and buy a proven reliable unit, not least because the prop will be balenced and hopefully not fly apart in the first gale. mounting on buildings seems to be out , how do u get the thing down for maintainance? and there are vibration issues.
having said all that i'm leaning towards a diy vertical axis machine, our site has quite turbulant air from buildings and trees, 3 forty gallon oil drums halved and stuck on a pipe mounted on a van rear axle driving a van alternator ought to do the job, the diff gears will bring the speed up to drive the alternator, brakes are already there, everything will be grossly overengineered so should be reliable. i think its all lying arround the yard so wont cost an arm and a leg! all i need is the time to stick it all together. the only worry at the moment is how much power it will take to turn the axle, perhaps something lighter may be more suitable.

Wind Turbines

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:05 pm
by martinh
Free Electric, do me a favor. Firstly there is the cost of the turbine, the erection of it, or fitting it to a roof (Subject to planning laws , more costs ) You would need batteries too more cost and these things are nasty to the environment when exhausted, add on disposal costs Then there are the mods to the wiring inside the house, oh by the way, you can no longer do these yourself, it must be done by a certified electrician. more costs

The old saying is there is nothing for free and i think it's right

Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:29 pm
by richard p
probably our biggest energy cost is fuel for cars. a turbine charging an electric car would seem to be the ideal use, anyone got an old milk float they dont want?

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 12:09 pm
by Guest
http://www.bigginhill.co.uk/solar.htm

A wind turbine is too complicated an engineering project for anything of useful size, an easier option for DIY is a solar panel water heater. The link above gives all info