High on power
By mitcamp, Section Wind Posted on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 12:56:25 AM MST
I replaced my 18 foot Dual Rotor temporarily

I have been weeks getting my 18 footer down from its 100 foot perch. Had to take it down in pieces, blades, hubs, rotors. Finally got the frame on the ground, last week. Total weight 450 pounds.Gotta work around the weather. Tower top is now clear. I am rebuilding my 18 foot Dual Rotor similar to dan,s 17 foot, with 16 mags per disc, 3 x 1 1/2 x 3/4 inch thick. Stator is 12 coils, 3 phase, 34 turns of 14.5 ga.wire 4 in hand,for 24 volts. I am upgrading to a 6000 lb. hub and spindle, with 5/8 in. S.S. allthread rod. I will add another slipring to allow me to take all 3 phases to the battery and will rectify with 6 large stud diodes on large heatsinks which I have already built. In the meantime I put a 8 foot Dual Rotor,24 volt,3 phase machine on the 100 foot tower to help with my electrical needs. I have a whisper 1000 24 volt just to the right of the big tower and another 8 foot dual rotor to the left of the big tower. I have a jinpole that hooks to the top of the big tower that allows me to lower or raise parts needed up top. Pictures of sliprings and jinpole in my files.             Mitcamp

High on power | 29 comments (29 topical)

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#1) by harrie on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 07:54:30 PM MST

wow Mitcamp, that is a long way up. you must be younger than me for sure,ha. You must have worked in a trade that involves climbing, I was in heavy construction, so high places do not bother me, but its getting there that is getting a little hard. Do you build your own towers? They are not those lightweight TV. towers are they? Good luck with your rebuild.

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#4) by mitcamp on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 09:24:03 PM MST

Hi harrie, when the weather is good,I don,t mind the height. I did work in Toronto and Oshawa,Ontario years ago. Put up and serviced towers on high buildings, 20 and 30 stories up. I am getting so that 60 years old is not far away, but height don,t bother me, Its getting so it takes me longer to get to the top, although I can go up my 100 footer without stopping if i do it first thing in the morning. My 100 footer is a commercial radio tower,2 1/2 in. heavywall galvanized, each section weighs 350 pounds. It,s three legged and 28 inches center to center on the legs. I come across towers now and then and pick them up when needed. T.V. towers can be used if the top section is strenghened where the pipe is connected, and all T.V. towers must be guyed well. I would not recommend putting more than a 8 footer on a  well guyed T.V. tower.        Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#2) by jmk on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 08:09:56 PM MST

You must have fun watching your amp gages. jmk

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#3) by nanotech on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 09:12:43 PM MST

Dude, no way in hell would you get me up there!! Tilt-up tower for me!! Your setup looks nice, but I've got this strange aversion to heights.  I think it comes from having survived a 75ft fall down a cliff. __________________________________________ My ship finally came in, but it was the Kobayashi Maru!

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#5) by mitcamp on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 09:36:38 PM MST

I guess I don,t have much worry of anyone taking my windgenerators down when I go out of town. Thats a whisper 1000 at my right knee and its on a 65 foot tower, the other wind generator is a Hugh Piggott 8 foot, its up 50 foot.  Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#6) by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Sun Jan 07, 2007 at 10:49:55 PM MST

Jeez.  I get the agoraphobic jitters from just looking at the PICTURE.

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#24) by Nothing40 on Tue Jan 09, 2007 at 04:27:06 PM MST

"Jeez.  I get the agoraphobic jitters from just looking at the PICTURE." You and me both! Why do I feel like I'm about to fall out of my chair?! [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#26) by bj on Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 05:34:35 PM MST

me too   bj bj Lamont, AB. Can. [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#7) by tecker on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 07:49:05 AM MST

I like it and those batts too .

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#8) by wooferhound on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 08:04:38 AM MST

A 6000 pound Hub and Spindle Huh ? I used to climb 1000 foot TV transmission towers to change the lightbulbs. Heres a pic . . . Looks like you have lights on your tower too, are you near an airport ? W o o f -={(

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#9) by mitcamp on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 09:48:50 AM MST

Hi Woof Now thats a tower, must be a rush and a super view from the top. Matter of fact any where on that tower would be a great view. Regarding the strobe, shortly after I put the 100 footer up, my next door neighbour who works on a bridge crew with a crane advised me that a goverment inspector told him,anything over 80 feet had to be lit,even crane booms. So I put it up to escape a visit and or inspection. I live on a major waterway with power dams and we get a lot of chopper traffic, must be the reason. By the way Woof,you just blew the doors off my tower, with that monster.         Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#10) by Gordy on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 10:35:46 AM MST

HOW do you guy's post spinning pic's like that. LOL, As a heavy equipment operator I can be in a 60' deep hole, no problem. BUT being on a 2 story high roof scares the hell out of me!!! Gordy [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#11) by Shadow on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 11:27:19 AM MST

Great view! This is the only way I'd ever see it! I'm curious about your Whisper, how does it compare to your homebuilts? Is it 1000 watts as rated? Trouble free?. Good luck with all your upgrades.

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#13) by mitcamp on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 02:39:57 PM MST

Hi harrie, If you told me I had to give up one of the 3 generators,there would be no question. I would rather part with the whisper 1000 than the Dual rotors. The reason is this: #1 the dual rotors start up in the slightist breeze and give me some power, 2 - 8 amps mostly all the time even on low wind day. #2 The whisper 1000 cogs a bit so it starts later. Some days here the whisper makes no power at all,while the others make 2 - 8 amps. #3 If the whisper needed parts, stator, sliprings or brushes,control box parts you would have to order them, so you would be down for a couple weeks.  #4 If you put a set of whisper 100 blades on a 8 foot dual rotor it will make more power than the whisper all the way around. Matter of fact I put them on machines that are in the cottage country where they get used only on weekends and sit all winter. The reason is wood weathers and is more likely to have balancing problems. Yes the whisper is rated at 1000 watts,its dependable, trouble free, brakes very well in heavy weather, but it cost 3 times as much as a Dual Rotor. I have 3 other whisper 1000,s in my basement that needs the stators rewound and I never seem to get to them. I also have a whisper 600 that I recently rewound. Matter of fact the whisper 1000 on the tower was my first rewind about 4 years ago. The 1000,s are certainly a good wind generator,no doubt in my mind. I,m just looking at the overall system cost for the average Joe that needs a generator at camp and is on a budget.             Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#21) by Volvo farmer on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 09:56:32 PM MST

This is FAQ material. Horses mouth and all that... Volvo Farmer [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#23) by mitcamp on Tue Jan 09, 2007 at 06:59:30 AM MST

Shadow, sorry I got the name wrong, too much in a hurry.   mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#12) by SparWeb on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 12:38:49 PM MST

Mitcamp, Do you mind if I ask what these lines are?  They weren't easy to see, but with Adobe I blew it up and saw the interconnecting lines. Steven Fahey

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#17) by mitcamp on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 03:51:28 PM MST

Steven, Those wires are guy wires that normally would go to my guy anchors. My anchor plates were getting pretty crowded with turnbuckles and the air was getting full of wires so I used the big tower as a anchor for the guy wires from the smaller towers that were going in that direction anyway. Maybe not up to code, but it works. I got the idea from a cable T.V set up where 2 upright towers were joined 3/4 way up with another tower going between them, kind of like a H shape. You have a keen eye,nobody ever noticed that before.   Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#14) by force9BOAT on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 02:57:37 PM MST

"Stator is 12 coils, 3 phase, 34 turns of 14.5 ga.wire 4 in hand,for 24 volts" What does "4 in hand" mean?

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#15) by wooferhound on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 03:10:34 PM MST

"4 in hand" means that he wound his coils with 4 wires at the same time, making 4 wires in parallel. This allows it to carry more current and reduces Eddy Currents. W o o f -={( [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#16) by mitcamp on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 03:23:30 PM MST

4 in hand means you are winding your coil with 4 seperate wires that are coming from 4 seperate spools, usually the same gauge, but not always. Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#18) by tecker on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 04:02:29 PM MST

Quadfilar parllel connected is a common term [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#19) by tecker on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 04:03:19 PM MST

That's parallel [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#20) by force9BOAT on Mon Jan 08, 2007 at 09:52:16 PM MST

When connecting each coil to the next coil in its phase do you keep the wires separate?  Or are the four wires joined at the point of connection to the next coil?  I presume the former. [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#22) by elvin1949 on Tue Jan 09, 2007 at 06:00:48 AM MST

The latter  The 4 wire's are treated as 1 wire. later elvin [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#25) by kenl on Thu Jan 11, 2007 at 02:49:19 PM MST

Mitcamp, You seem to know something about using radio towers etc for turbines. What are the limits for a ham radio tower if you know off hand. What were your shorter towers intended purpose? What are they made of and what approx gauge? Nice looking wind farm. kenny seemed like a good idea at the time

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#27) by mitcamp on Sat Jan 13, 2007 at 03:46:50 PM MST

Kenl, my 50 foot tower on the far left was a 16 gauge T.V. tower. I modify the top section to handle the extra wind load of the generator, in this case its a 8 ft Dual Rotor. These 16 ga. T.V.towers must be well guyed and I keep the top guy wires just below the blades. I would not want to put anymore than a 8 foot generator on these towers. The 65 foot tower to the right of the picture was used in a CATV head station. It is made of galvanized angle iron,heavy enough that you need a gin pole to put one section on another. It would stand a generator of 10 or 11 feet radius. this tower also must to be guyed. I an not familiar with  Ham Radio towers you speak of. Do you have a make,like Delhi and a model #  Some of those Ham towers had some pretty big antennas on them.  The tower top may need some work to be made stronger.   Mitcamp [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#28) by kenl on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 08:40:40 AM MST

Mitcamp, Found a tubular tower on ebay, doesn't give much of a discription. What I was looking to do was put a DC pm motor turbine I built on it with a 5' sweep. Weight about 30 lbs. I need something kinda tall due to the trees around the house. If I can find out more about it I'll get back to you. thanks for your reply-kenny seemed like a good idea at the time [ Parent ]

Re: High on power (3.00 / 0) (#29) by mitcamp on Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 09:22:20 AM MST

kenny, Thats a small generator you got there. You would have no problem putting that on any T.V type tower. Many of my installations are attached to a building with brackets and the tower sits in a 2 to 3 foot hole in the ground. Others are standing in the open in a hole with guy wires attached roughly every 20 feet. Lets say you erect a 50 foot tower, I would put one set of wires 3-4 feet below the blades and put your next set of wires at obout 22-25 feet up from the ground. I'm assuming you are talking about 3 legged tubular tower. If your talking about a single mast for tower you would need another set of wires, maybe 2 more sets. If your looking at tower on ebay, I would think shipping would kill you. What part of the country are you, I would think you could find something locally would be more cost effective. Post a add in the local paper.     Mitcamp [ Parent ]

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