Hi everyone - newbie here!

[winny]

Hello everyone, thought I'd introduce myself to the forum.

Been living off grid for over 3 years now in the north of scotland and have almost completed the rebuild of our crofters cottage.  We have a futurenergy turbine, solar pv, rainwater collection for all our water needs and heat the house with a wood fired rayburn feeding underfloor heating, so the only expense we have is running the landrover and paying the council tax.

I wish I had found this forum before we started the build but I'm sure that I will be asking for advice sooner rather than later!

Looking to add solar heating for the hot water tank and to build a wood gasifier, may also build my own turbine 'cos the one I have doesn't like the serious wind we can get here!

Cheers, Winny

[martin]

Welcome! - how nice to have yet another "off-gridder" joining our ranks!

[Tigger]

Hello Winny and welcome aboard,

Indeed, the forum is full of useful (and otherwise) information and all the folks on here love to help

If you've got the time, put a little intro together about what you've got with a few pics for folks to drool over.....

[stannn]

Winny, you must have heard by now of Scoraigwind.com for the ultimate self-build turbine.
Stan

[clockmanFR]

Hi winny.

Wind Turbines, I can recommend Hugh Piggots, he is also in the North of Scotland.

Over the past 30 years Hugh has finely tuned his deigns so that they are simple, robust, very efficient, and easy to make.  His site,   http://scoraigwind.co.uk/.

He has put all the info into a book, Called "A Wind Turbine Recipe Book" , and does several sizes up to 4.2m diameter.

My 3.7m dia Turbines keep on going in all conditions where sadly the Chinese stuff falls apart.

There is also Dan Bartmann's book "Homebrew Wind Power", this book is from USA and is written as a manual of construction with designs up to 5.2m dia (3000Watt).
However in the front of Dan's book page 17, is, "There are very few people in the world who truly deserve the title of "Genius" but Hugh Piggot is one of them, one of the very best in the area of wind technology" .

I agree.

[winny]

I should've been clearer, I don't intend to make one from scratch but thought of using the futurenergy pmg and blades and either improving on the furling design or reconfigure the blades so that they either fold out as proven ones do or change pitch with different wind speeds.  I have run the futurenergy and it gives me enough power but the furling isn't good enough for high winds.

Seems silly to reinvent something that works well, I did also consider using 2 of the pmgs and use different blades to give double the power - obviously more work involved but do-able.

All this is academic at present, still got the lounge to finish building, then conservatory, tractor sheds, veg plot, wood store, raised beds, greenhouse etc etc etc

Winny