Small w/t residential area

[pantsmachine]

Hi Lads,

I had a topic running last year on small scale wind turbine in a residential area. All advice was to not do it as its not going to work. I listened, I agreed and then i went for it with full expectation of failure. I am glad I did it as it is one thing to read it and another to have a go and feel the full impact of the prior experience that was offered. I got a lot out of it.

The positives of the project
1. I enjoyed making up the bracket, running in the cable and building the unit.
2. It is completely silent in operation.
3. No neighbor complaints.

Negatives
1. we don't have the wind speeds to crank it until its a blur.
2. It runs at the merest hint of wind (this is a killer).

I bought it as being the revised Chinese lantern wt as indicated by the blade design and pancake motor size. it was advertised as a 600w unit. Its a 3 phase ac unit with charge controller to 12v dc. I have had it hooked up to a leisure battery out of my Mazda Bongo and its done heehaw, no increase in voltage on the battery at all. I bought a dc-dc buck converter, stuck it inline and it will  crank out over 15 volts but there are no amps there, enough to flicker and led maybe.

So that's where I am, a unit that birls away no problem yet isn't outputting anything of any significance. I am not phased by this (did you see what I did there) as hope springs eternal and I'm daft so don't give up easily. Have a look at the photos and notice the gap between generator assembly and the blades. It could easily take an increased width of unit operating off of the same top blade plate. There is nothing stopping the generator assembly being longer as well as it would just raise the blades by a few inches.

I've not been back up the ladder yet but thought i'd ask if you guys know of any generator units or suppliers of units that output meaningful power at low rpm? I am happy to be back on the learning curve and would just like to see the unit maybe heating up a storage heater. Its sad to see it turning in the wind yet not doing anything of note?

The blades are great, the bracket is fine as is cable, its just a shame that the generator has less power than a sherbert dib-dab.

[Scruff]

An anemometer and Hugh Piggotts book woulda said the same much sooner.

[pantsmachine]

Yeah but I like to find out for myself with a hands on approach and I enjoy the challenge. Thanks for the words though, mildly acidic and not that positive, your usual (yawn) style, nice.

[kdmnx]

The reality is that you’ll never see a usable amount of power out of that kind of wind turbine.

[Scruff]

I'd rather find out what a horizontal axis in a field outside the turbulence envelope would do after a year of monitoring the potential with a €50 piece of test gear and a tome of wisdom.

To each their own.

[pantsmachine]

The reality is that you’ll never see a usable amount of power out of that kind of wind turbine.

Likely the case yet I'm not quite ready to write it off.

[kdmnx]

The reality is that you’ll never see a usable amount of power out of that kind of wind turbine.

Likely the case yet I'm not quite ready to write it off.

Ha ha!

Go for it. I really wish there was a way to generate 400-600W at night and in winter, even if intermittently, just to offset the times when the solar isn’t generating. The problem is you need a tall tower, a large diameter turbine, and no nearby buildings, to generate a usable amount of power.

[dan_b]

When I stayed on Orkney last summer, the house we were renting had loads of solar and one of these on the roof of their garden shed.  The house was about 1/2 a mile from the coast, 2/3 of the way up a hill. Between the house and the coast in the farmers fields were two 5kW turbines which were spinning very nicely in the constant Orkadian sea breeze and I'm sure were generating very well.  This little rooftop turbine barely moved in the whole time we were there.   If it doesn't work in coastal windy exposed rural Orkney, I doubt it'll work anywhere else.  But I certainly admire you for trying and giving it a go.  I keep meaning to put some more solar panels in my system on my flat roof, and on the roof of my garden office, but somehow I never get round to it.


Here's the thread where I posted about the turbines https://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,30834.0.html

[pantsmachine]

Thanks Dan,  great to hear your real world experience, I had some winters in the late 90's on Shetland, it's a different level entirely!
 I am torn between my nature which likes to push water uphill and switching to planning a second solar array on a smaller yet more favored aspect roof. No doubt this re stuff gets under the skin!

[Scruff]

I'm plenty positive when there's scientific merit to a thing.  I guess watching technology and markets develop they way they have as long as I have would  make one a natural cynic. I'm happy to to be corrected with data... opinions everyone has one.
I can't even buy honest cable any more ffshakes.

[oliver90owner]

My view is practise at doing something but no point in re-inventing the wheel.  Vendor is laughing at you - all the way to the bank - even if we are only smiling quietly....

[pantsmachine]

I'm plenty positive when there's scientific merit to a thing.  I guess watching technology and markets develop they way they have as long as I have would  make one a natural cynic. I'm happy to to be corrected with data... opinions everyone has one.
I can't even buy honest cable any more ffshakes.

I know, I did see the melt, nae good. Seen similar from China on ships, cable said it was one thing and just the  weight told us it was quite another. Opinions indeed and everyone one has one, love the full phrase!

I always try and be 1/2 full and as said before like to push against conventional wisdom even at my own expense and even when I know I'm walking into it. If I don't win, that's ok as I continue to learn in my own way and will use it somewhere else. Oliver my boy, opinions....who's laughing and learning.

[Scruff]

Oliver90 put it more elegantly above^

You might find I'm pretty negative about domestic grid-tied batteries too...Lord K's on the money there.
Have you noticed it's people involved in marketing and self-interest singing their praises?
Comparisons of Li-ion versus Lead is way off the mark too with nothing to back it up.

"Lets take the most anaemic lead-acid variant we can, couple it to a shyte charger and rob it of a BMS...then compare it to something 4 times more expensive bedecked in bells and whistles."

Lead ain't dead. Get data before throwing hardware at the elements.

No engineers, scientists or commercial uptake...maybe it's a sign...

[daveluck_uk]

Nice one.

So is it the generator thats rubbish or location or lack of wind or any combination?

Could you rig up something on the end of drill and spin the generator to see if it would ever produce any power?

I've had an anemometer sitting on a pole where I would install my wt. It's been there for 2 years. Every 3-4 months I check the data out and then let it run on in the hope that I might be able to justify a small 250w job but alas...

I'm incredibly disappointed that I just can't get any real wind. Over 2 years I have only 10% of the time had wind greater than 3.6m per second. Yet as I look it of my window...wind turbines galor...

[Scruff]

Answers' inside Hugh Piggott's book. It's a bargain even if you never build or buy the hardware.

Wind is an economy of scale endeavour, usually defeated by poor siting and unrealistic expectations.
Solar's better bang for buck at least times 5.

If you live in a city forget about it.