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Forum Index : Windmills : Heating a House in Britian
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rasberry Newbie  Joined: 12/12/2006 Location: Posts: 4 |
Hi, i live in a house in Scotland, That is totally electric. I am trying to start heating the house using solar panels and small wind turbines, small because of the neighbours and planning. I am just starting. Most people say it is not economical to do, but I would like to trying doing it, for myself. I don't think that you can produce a lot of electricity from a small wind turbine, atleast not enough for heating. My idea is to use many very small windmills or solar panels. I.e. to power one small heater off one small windmill, etc or a small light off one small solar panel. One-to-One. I am thinking of making the wind mill off the website or maybe buying a very small one, like the Rutland 504, because it is silent for the neighbours and not to big. ------ Gregor ------ |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi Gregor. Welcome to the world of home made windmills. Have you seen Hugh's windmill site, he's in Scotland too. http://www.scoraigwind.com/ Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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Jonger Newbie Joined: 08/09/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4 |
Gregor If you are looking for heat you will struggle to get a decent return from a wind turbine, they generate at low voltage - 12, 24, 36 volts dc etc so you will then need to convert that back to 240v ac before you can use it for your heaters. You would be better to look at solar water heating which is much more efficient especially with evacuated tube collectors. Try This site for solar heating at realistic prices - he also sells wind turbines so its a good site to visit. Jonger Jonger |
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| rasberry Newbie Joined: 12/12/2006 Location: Posts: 4 |
Dear Glenn Thanks for the reply. I looked at the wind mill site. It was very useful. Thanks. It gave me lost of new ideas. Gregor. |
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| rasberry Newbie Joined: 12/12/2006 Location: Posts: 4 |
Dear Jonger Thanks for that sight, I have seen him about at the shows in Scotland. It is a really useful site. Thanks Gregor. |
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| rasberry Newbie Joined: 12/12/2006 Location: Posts: 4 |
I have been looking at the solar water heating, and it looks good. But I don't think that it would heat a house. I think it is ment for heating the hot water tank. I just don't think that in Scotland you could heat your house that way? Maybe you can with the vacum flasks? Also the other question is to do with the building, if the building heats up with the sun the area covered by the solar water heater is "taking away energy from the house" by covering it.(minimal). I know this is not a huge amount but if the heat given by the sun is not alot it might "make the system not work so well" ? Maybe if you got the flasks to work really well and the indoor heater to give of loads of its heat, i.e. get the ratio between absobsion and "giving off heat" totally right, "fine-tuning" then maybe you could heat your home from the sun ?? That would be good. I have never seen this done before. ------- I have a question to do with thermodynamics. If the heat outside is say 15C then I supppose there is a way to make the house hotter than this, by taking in heat and "dumping" it inside and then "going back" for more heat, over and over so ?? in theory ?? the solar system could heat and heat the building to say 30C ?? But in practice, it doesn't seem like it would actually happen ?? Maybe it would ?? G. Please get back.  |
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| petanque don Senior Member  Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212 |
Would a product like the sun lizard be more appropriate for house heating? http://www.sunlizard.com.au/ Being in Scotland sunshine and solar energy I would guess would be at a premium. |
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| KiwiJohn Guru  Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Rasberry, a heat pump does exactly what you are proposing, it takes heat from the outside air and releases in the house. Solar heating temps can be much more than the outside air temp, just think of a black plate behind glass. |
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mrpackethead Newbie Joined: 11/11/2006 Location: New ZealandPosts: 17 |
Some mills do produce those sorts of voltages, some product 3000V. However even so, why would to back to run at 240V? Thats not efficent use of power. Every thing should be as simple as possible. Not simpler. |
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| Jonger Newbie Joined: 08/09/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4 |
It is suitable for underfloor heating where you only require a bit more than the room temperature required, but it is not suitable for a conventional central heating system. It all depends on how far you want to go and how deep your pockets are. Like you I am looking at what I can do at home, I live in an urban environment and have put a small lenz 2 mill down the garden facing open fields to monitor the wind, I tried a horizontal mill first but found it spent all its time spinning round to face the swirling wind so changed it to the Lenz design, slower but more consistant in handling turbulance. Jonger |
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| Jonger Newbie Joined: 08/09/2006 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4 |
Domestic heaters in the UK run at 220-240v AC, to use any readily available electric heater you have to convert back to that voltage. Which is why running electric heating off a wind turbine in the UK is a difficult thing to do. Jonger |
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| KiwiJohn Guru Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Heating is the easiest, quite likely the only, electrical appliacance we can build at home and have 100% efficiency! Whatever the voltage of you generator you can likely make a heater using the appropriate length of resistance wire. Resistance wire is that coiled up stuff you find in a wrecked clothes dryer and in a lot of electric heaters. But dont be daft and unless you know what you are doing then leave this alone if you are dealing with dangerous voltages. However, if it is hot water you seek then maybe forget about the electrical side entirely and build something like this 
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2006/Sep06/waterhea ter.html |
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| jondy Newbie Joined: 14/01/2007 Location: EnglandPosts: 4 |
Water heating from magnets rotated over a copper plate looks very interesting. New to me. Has any one tried spinning up some magnets (with an electric drill,say) over a copper plate? Would it produce a useful amount of heat at lowish rpms? I will get some magnets and try it myself but wonder if anyone has looked into this. I wonder if the area of copper plate under the magnets would be enough to heat water? I would of thought that the usual solar flat plate collecter would be more efficient but might be a goer for a simple vawt I have in mind. thanks John (UK) |
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| Feral Newbie Joined: 03/12/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 39 |
Jondy, I have also heard about a simular method by rotating magnets within an aluminium block or cylinder creating temps up to 350deg. This was done by the two partners of Lutec Australia but it does not appear on their latest web site but I am sure that if you contact Loui Brits on their web site he may be able to help. If you have no luck contacting him direct I will attempt to get the information from him when I speak to him next that is if he is prepared to pass it on for third party distrabution and I believe he will. |
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| jondy Newbie Joined: 14/01/2007 Location: EnglandPosts: 4 |
Hi Feral, Sounds v/interesting. I remember a site about magnets and advanced motors. They showed a v/powerful magnet that was dropped through a heavy metal tube (possibly copper). It dropped very slowly through for some reason? A problem with rotating magnets may be the amount of power or speed required to spin up the magnets to produce heat. The example from Oregon State may produce useful heat from a vertical wind turbine, perhaps?. It is basically simple. I wonder if it can produce heat at low rpms and how much resistance there is ect. There is patent application behind it so it might make sense. John |
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| KiwiJohn Guru Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
I believe the basic principle of the hysteris heat generator is a well proven thing. It is really another form of resistance load and hence will convert 100% of the work put in to heat and has to be more efficient then generating electricity to drive an electric heater. Like every other form of energy transducer there will be an optimum to match the load with the input power. Here are a few idea on how to adjust the loading. 1. Adjust the gap between the spinning magnets and the copper plate. 2. Adjust the number of magnets. 3. Adjust the diameter of the ring of magnets. |
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