| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| milkmaid |
really simple wind turbinesorry disgussion i was having at work yesterday and something that i have been wondering about for a while ,i've looked at all sorts of wind turbines and could not in my wildest dreams afford one , conversation at work went like this if things get bad on the mainland here we would be forgotten about my answer was probably so the chap asked about a wind turbine that he could just run a freezer/or one light on on ,could he conect it somehow to a generator ,so then he could plug it into the mains for the house .i'm sure it would be illegal but i'm talking worse case sinario here i know may years ago my granfather did this sort of thing with a bike and generated some electric  ,his children got paid in sweets then ,but he died a long time ago
any reasons why this would or would not work we have both searched the net thought i'd ask on here sorry if i couldn't work or if it's a stupid questionand i'm sorry think i put this in the wrong place 
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| vegplot |
You can use a wind turbine and generator to run house electrics - not a problem at all and it's not illegal.
If mains electricity is not available you need some method of storing your surplus generation when time are good and use it when times are lean. The normal method is batteries but pumped water storage is viable if you have the topography. None of it is cheap. You can build a turbine reasonably cheaply, there are plans on the interweb. It's a bit of a learning curve but an interesting one. |
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| Chez |
Have a look at Hugh Piggot-Smith's site. He's Mr Windturbine Nerd:
http://www.scoraigwind.com/ |
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| gil |
Has anyone heard that Colin Campbell track about the whirligig washing line that generated electricity when its owner's enormous bloomers were pegged out on it ? Can't remember which volume of his 'Local Radio' sketches it was on. Track is called 'The Highland Wind Crofter'.
Sorry to lower the tone, and go off-topic .
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| Jonnyboy |
Same theory as a savonius turbines, simple but not particularly efficient.
easy to build though. |
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| john of wessex |
There is a serious issue though over the grid connection.
You need a gizmo that disconnects you if the mains supply goes off because 1. You will end up trying to power the whole street 2. More seriously you could kill or injure anyone working on the supply as it's supposed to beoff |
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| vegplot |
Good point and one I should have made in my initial response, thanks for pointing this out. If you're generating you own electricity and plugging into your house mains and the house itself is NOT grid connected then it's not a problem. However, if your house IS grid connected then you need an approved disconnect device and you need to get a connection agreement from your local energy supplier. DO NOT connect to the grid without an agreement AND the correct connection equipment. The grid disconnect device must be one that is type tested to prove that it disconnects from network under certain fault conditions * loss of mains (power cut) * under or over voltage * under or over frequency * disconnects at the required speeds for the different faults * has high power quality * waits the statutory 180s after a power cut is over before trying to reconnect to network Map of DNO's http://www.energylinx.co.uk/electricity_distribution_map.htm |
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| milkmaid |
i wasn't thinking of doing it ,just with were we live ,for these things we are reliant on the mainland ,and if things ever went belly up for some reason then we have to know how to look after our selves  ,strange i think i solved most of my own thoughts on it when i feed the animals ,the feed caravan has a plug that runs from a car battery  and as i was talking a light 2 hours a day and maybe a freezer which could go in the caravan ,that would be the 2 things i couldn't be without ,not anything else then that would be fine ,thank you for all your help ,
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| James |
I'm considering making a small turbine for trickle charging a 12v battery or two. Just enough to power an outdoor light (maybe also an irrigation system for the greenhouse).
A freezer is a different order of magnitude altogether, so you need to work out exactly what the turbine will be needed for before embarking on making one. I'm going to use a 6 volt/3w bicycle front wheel hub dynamo, with blades cut from a PVC waste pipe(see GotWind for info on hub dynamo use). The charge will be past through a voltage doubler (so instead of 6v, 2A you get 12v 1A), this should be enough to slowly charge a 12v battery. I'm looking to do the whole thing as cheaply as possible, partly because I don't know if it'll work in my urban area. Found a source of cheap hub dynamos on ebay (they seem to be going for £10). If you want more than to trickle charge of a 12v battery (in other words, if you whant to do more than power a low energy item for short periods of time), the next stage is a large permanent magnet motor. Best place to find these is apparently old treadmill exercise machines. here is an article on making a larger turbine with a treadmill motor at its heart (good info on PVC blades also). I think this size of turbine has the potential to charge in the 100v range (so could provide 12 v power in the 7-8A range) Next step up from that is making your own motor, as described in Hugh Piggots website(link in Chez's post above) using neodynium magnets, magnetic wire and transit van break hubs. these are efficient and put out a lot of energy. Here is an 'instructable' page for a hugh-piggot type turbine built in the US that's talking about 1 kilo-volt. Enough for an energy hungry house and some. |
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| vegplot |
Home built turbines are great fun to do and some can produce useful power. There are a few downsides which shouldn't dampen the self-builders enthusiasm but are worthy of a mention.
The first problem is ensuring your blades will perform at their best for the wind speeds you expect to see at the site. If you look at commercial small scale turbines data sheets you'll notice dramatically differing performance between different makes. This is because blades cannot not perform at their best for a wide ranges of wind speeds. Cheaper models will have best performance at one speed and performance will fall off at either side of that wind speed. More expensive models will use complex blade shapes and/or variable geometry to cope with a wide range of conditions. Next, you'll need to consider what happens in adverse conditions such as high winds. Will your turbine bearings and generator cope with high speeds? Will the turbine be ripped of it's mast? How do you protect from over speed? Less importantly is noise generation. If you're at a remote location then it's less of a problem than if you have close neighbours. Modern turbines are very quiet, in general. Home built ones can be noisy unless you're clever, or lucky. James' approach is probably what I'd do for a small scale turbine where you're not sure how it will perform at your location. That way you won't spend large sums of money if it doesn't work and you'll have gained a lot of knowledge and experience in the trying. |
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| milkmaid |
i'm thinking take down when wind hits 60,lewis is very windy ,but you normally tell it coming that's exactly what i'm after anymore info anybody , 
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| James |
you're really best off talking to the people over at Scoraig Wind (Hugh Piggot's web-site and associated knowledge base) that Chez mentioned before. They have a wealth of knowledge and most of it is directly relivant to the Western Isles.
forgive me if it sounds like I'm trying to duck the answere, but Scoraig Wind & Hugh Piggot really are the recognised authority for what you want In comparison, the turbine I'm thinking about is just a toy, and I dont know of any one else on this forum whose done what your doing, so you're unlikely to get much relivant advice. |
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| milkmaid |
yep thank you for all your answers ,the chap has been reading as well i sent him the link ,and you've come up with some pionts we hadn't thought of ,but will get in touch with them as you suggested
thank you agian for your replies
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