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Forum Index : Windmills : Vertical shaft generator
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| praxidice Newbie  Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 18 |
Is anyone aware of a vertical shaft design with usable output (at least 2 - 3kw) that actually works ?? There is simply no way known a horizontal setup would work in my areas it would need to be so high to clear the trees that every moronic gubmunt muppet & other misguided do-gooder within a hundred kilometers would be screaming for my blood. I'm not in the least concerned about genuine greenies as they are on my side. |
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MacGyver Guru  Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
praxidice As a matter of fact, as soon as I finish a little more on my nw house, I'll be building a ground-level VAWT and hooking it to a 3 KVA alternator. I live on the plains of Texas and get gobs of daily wind. If you're in a wooded area, there's no way around it; you'll have to get the "mill" above the tree tops for it to work. If, on the other hand, there's some ground wind, my design will fit like a glove. I'll post the build when it happens. It's been a long time coming (like a year!) because I hosted an EF 2 tornado last December and it took most of the house, the barn roof and lots of other stuff to Oz (and I don't mean Australia; I mean the mythical "Oz" as in "The Wizard of Oz". Hide and watch. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| praxidice Newbie Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 18 |
No shortage of trees here and every single one of them is protected (its mostly World Heritage Rainforest). Not that I wish to get rid of trees, one wouldn't move to such an area if one wasn't some shade of green. I understand that vertical thingies work better in 'dirty' air so they shouldn't need to be as high as a horizontal one. My block is in an area that was logged back in the 1950s & there are only a few big (50 meter) trees nearby, main issue is 15 meter pines on the next property so I'd probably need to be above them. Given the local geography, its unlikely any muppet would see a vertical wind generator & I figure I can make peace with any neighbours by giving them some power when the mains is down (not uncommon due to the trees) ... I already have a 10kw PV system and that hasn't upset anyone. Mind you its not visible from anywhere but an aircraft. What physical size is a 3kw vertical turbine anyway ?? |
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mac46 Guru Joined: 07/02/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 412 |
what size is determined by how much sustained wind you have at you'r location, and how fast it blows. My average wind is about 10 mph, my vertical turbin is a large one, about 9 foot wings set on about 6 foot radis...neigbors comment about it was that it looks like something landed belonging to NASA, but hes ok with it. It struggles to make any power in less than 10 mph winds, but at 20 mph or higher it works fine. I have not worked on it much in the last year, need to refine it a bit more. Mac46 I'm just a farmer |
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| praxidice Newbie Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 18 |
Wind speed here varies from nothing to 100kmh, thankfully not much of the latter. Most of the time my PV system sends 50 - 60kw to the grid per day but something that works when its overcast would be nice. Wind isn't particularly consistent here except when its blowing a gale & those times only last a week or two at a time. What about that Telsa business ... plenty of itty-bitty ones but doesn't seem anyone has ever built a decent sized one ?? Should be plenty of electrons floating around from the CIA / ASIO communication centre a few kilometers up the mountain  |
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Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Sounds like you need to do some more analysis, it may not be worth putting in a wind generator if you are not consistently getting useful wind. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| electrondady1 Senior Member  Joined: 12/02/2009 Location: CanadaPosts: 208 |
http://www.usvawt.com/cgi/windpower.cgi this should tell you how much swept area you will need in order to capture 3kw. 3kw is a lot, even for a horizontal axis something like 20' in dia. can you weld ? search for something called a wind wall. you can get a huge swept area but can overdrive a modest alternator with pulleys |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
[Quote=prasidice] What physical size is a 3kw vertical turbine anyway ?? HUGE My initial VAWT will be somewhere between 10 and 20 feet in diameter. It will sit just above my wood and welded-wire fence top, which is 4 feet and accept prairie wind from any direction. The "wind wall" (I like that terminology. It perfectly describes what I'm building.) in my case will be a flat surface of about 3 feet tall and half of whatever the diameter of the contraption turns out to be. Fortunately, the only neighbors I have are cows, sheep and an occasional critter. Like I said, as soon as I finish up building this house, the VAWT build begins and I'll photo-document and post the build here on the 4m. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
@ electrondady Thanks for the VAWT POWER LINK in your previous post. I took a look at it and it would appear, if my VAWT fits any of the categories, I may not be able to produce a full 3 KVA with a 20-foot diameter machine. Be that as it may, the generator will be bolted on underneath and should it prove to be too daunting a task for the wind grinder to pull the load, I'll merely bolt on a smaller version. I'm using recycled truck alternators as my "generator". Thanks again for that great HOT LINK. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| praxidice Newbie Joined: 18/07/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 18 |
At that size the supporting structure would involve a major engineering task and the cost of the approval process such that it wouldn't be cost effective. I can just imagine the foundations required to withstand the occasional galeforce winds. There is simply nowhere within 30 odd kilometers of here where it could be sited on the ground. Ah well, back to the drawing board. |
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| MacGyver Guru Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
[Quote=praxidice]At that size the supporting structure would involve a major engineering task . . . Well, not in my case. My "blades" are going to be made of either Coroflute or Styrofoam. That's the cool part of it being able to be so big. The entire weight of the blade assembly will be no more than the weight of the welded square tubing used to support the plastic air paddles. I might invest in a MIG welder and make the framework out of aluminum tubing. If nothing else, it's a great excuse for buying a new toy, eh? . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| electrondady1 Senior Member Joined: 12/02/2009 Location: CanadaPosts: 208 |
i live in town so i can't go big. by building along my fence line, I'm using a dead space. if you build a big mill in the yard you no longer have a yard. my mills all look about the same but the alternators keep evolving. a row of duplicate windmills all nice and straight and evenly spaced looks cool. very modern. you can use the fence posts as support structure. if you plan on building multiple mills of about the same design you can jig up for easier construction. i have been running 5 small individual mills and combining the output after rectification. that works ok. the next step might be to build a metal framework, adding lots of individual mills joined by mechanical means and over drive a single alternator. |
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