Vawt Pages

[vawtman]

Page 1

 This turbine will be 16x16.

 Tower height 30ftsorry fellow vawties but im surrounded by trees and will win.

 Tower material will consist of 4-2x6x1/4 steel tubing mounted 6-8 ft on center with bracing.Super strong and needed.

 The blades will be of the same shape as seen in my files only with a 32in chord and itll have 4 instead of 2 learned that lesson.I will post pics of the spar and covering has time goes on.Super strong has needed.

 The rotor will be of the same design only doubled with supports across the bottom.Connecting each blade, no cables here.Super strong has needed.

 The gen is still a little foggy.Turbines like this need frewheeling to start.Maybe an axial with battery bank but would like to stay away from batteries.

 Need to make a homemade grid LOL No grid tie bothers.

 In ending the 8x8 proved to me how much power was available,but it had balance problems and thought about adding blades but after pacing around the shop awhile do that alot.Decided to go BIG.

 I think i will have to live by it if i fail ill have space for a cot up there just in case.

 

[Tom in NH]

Hey Vawtman,

Last I heard, you were giving up on vawts. Glad to see you're sticking with them. I'm curious why you decided on 4 blades and what the lesson was you say you learned about 2 blades. I dropped my lenz blades down from 3 to 2 and everything worked better.

Build it strong.

--tom

[vawtman]

Hello Tom

 I was planning on converting the 8x8 to 4 blades.Then i visited Solwinds website and noticed there 4 bladed now i could swear they were always 2 bladed.

 With 2 blades it picked up vibrations around 120rpms and would like to reduce this.

 I almost did give up this spring but the good doctors here pulled me back.

 Why is it most wind guys live in a forest?

[spinner]

me likes BIG <G>

spinner

[thefinis]

Hey Vawtman

Just got this one back up and flying. It too is in the trees but what can you expect with an 11 ft test tower. <grin> 15 ft to the top of the blades and 7 ft off the ground for the bottom of the blades. It had the two 2x8 ft blades on 6 ft arms which ended up with too much vibration so it was taken down. I wasn't going to put those wings back up but go on to the sailwings. Everyone kept asking why I took it down and if I was going to put it back up. I needed to try and build a 3 wing style anyway to get the process figured out and it was easier than explaining why it wasn't flying.

Just a day or so ago I finished adding a third wing and putting it back up. It is flying nicely but just free spinning no load on it except for it's own mass. It sure is smooth with very little vibration its main problem is that I overbuilt it so it is too heavy. Spinning a turbine that is 8 ft tall x 13 ft wide with about 210 lbs of wing, arm and shaft mounts. It spins in a 1 mph wind unsure what it takes to start it it but not much as it is almost always spinning. It is slow to respond to wind gusts and relatively quick to slow when the wind drops. This is bad when the top of the blades are no higher than the tree tops. Hey I have short trees 15 to 20 ft tall. I do have the main direction that the wind is from free for about 200 yds or so and the trees aren't all that dense but they do make for turblent winds and gusty conditions.

Have a friend who wants me to mate it to an air compressor for him. We'll see. I think first I may go take a hydraulic system off an old piece of farm equipment and see if I can get some kind of power readings from it. Now I am excited again and already working on the sailwings to see how a light weight machine will do.

Best of luck and once you start back to building it is hard to stop. We have been sitting out drinking coffee watching it spin in the morning before the sun comes up. What the heck here is a few pics of my yard art. One is my Texas twister and the other is the flasher named for both the flashing it is made from and the fact that it flashes in sun light and in bright moon light.

Finis

[ghurd]

Off topic I'll bet...

A gazillion calculations leads me to believe a mechanical air compressor and any windmill do not match. More so with a lift based blade.

Even a poor PMA, to a battery, to an electric air compressor as a dumpload looks like the best way to go.

Low air tank pressure and high winds will allow runaway blades.

High air tank pressure and low winds will stall or drag enough to prevent starting.

Didn't do it, just did the math.  Could be 100% wrong.

I could be more specific, but my real computer blew up last week.

Anything specific left as the 'majik smoke' dissipated.  

Along with Boo-Koo other stuff.  

G-

[vawtman]

Hello Finis

 Very good job there.

 This is an interesting experiment for wider diameters.What would your guesstimations be for rpms in a 15mph wind?

 Being slow to react to gusts isnt a bad thing im sure the wide diameter will slow the reaction.

 Have you tried to stop it yet or hasnt it seen much wind yet?

 Has far has the rotor weight goes,im thinkin the heavier the better has long has it doesnt create much drag, sorta flywheel effect.How are your bearings and is the rotor perfectly level?

 Im thinkin the same thing with hydraulics, ive got time.

 Called the power co. today to and got a real person on 3 rings didnt know what to say at first.There gonna send grid tie info in a couple days amazing!

 Your lawn art is much better than mine.

     Thanks Finis and have fun with your sailwing project.

[thefinis]

I know it is a bad match but he doesn't want to make compressed air he wants something to pump water and something to look at. It is wastefulness at its peak as a bubble type waterpump is really poor on how well it pumps(I could rig a piston type but it isn't what the wants). The deal is his well water is so bad it needs aeration and it eats up pumps. I have an old compressor(motor and tank bad) that takes about a 1/2 hp motor but should work at any rpm and all that weight will work as a flywheel. He is just going to run it into a pond as he is on a rain water system now. His site has only fair wind as he is on the side of a hill. I am not committed to doing it but I want to find this set a home when I move on to the next set of blades and he helped put it up the first time.

I am still hoping to see a set blowup. The 2 blade setup went through some 35-45 winds with higher gusts unloaded remember it is in the trees. I only went near it to tighten guy lines as it made groans and creaks and tried to pull the pipe out of the ground but my set of blades seems to stall in higher winds at least unloaded. I have just enjoyed having a set that worked first time and will spin when the tree leaves don't even seem to move. 1 or 2 rpm but moving. The L/D ratio must be pretty close.

So sorry to hear about the smoke getting out of your computer. I usually pickup spare computer parts from ebay but you have to read real close and know what your doing. I have quite a bit of what now is older parts in the 500 mhz and down range if any of it would help. My pc 100 and older sdram plus several cpus don't seem to find homes anymore I probably have some at power supplies too. I really have to throw some of this stuff out one day.

Finis

[thefinis]

Best winds so far probably 7 or 8 with gusts to 12. It should have more torque with the extra wing surface than the 2 blade. The extra weight is a real drag as it eats power when trying to speed up and eats power as it trys to keep driving the blades when the wind slows. If I had a good steady wind flow it would work fair but with lots of turbulence and gusts it just doesn't work well.

It should be level as pipe was set and guyed with a level. The top cables help keep the blades square and add a lot of support. Bearings are pillow blocks new 1 1/8 I think whatever the shaft was. The keyed steel pulley that this is all kind of bolted to says it is too much weight thank goodness I have the top 1/4" thick plate setting on top of the shaft.

Yard art is fun and doesn't need to really be good for much except to look at. I saw one that was a US flag and wanted a Texas one and had the barrels up and spinning from a failed first try. I will add another layer with the grandkids hand and footprints next. My test blades fall into yard art too as they are really fun to watch but don't do much except give me some info.

I thought that the conversion motor you built would work for testing you going grid tie now. I have some links for controls but it isn't hard. The big boys use the fluid coupling to reduce shock, vibration and as an adjustable torque shear for overspeeding.  I have the hydraulic system and want to play with it but have been tempted to use one of the old tractor generators and a battery for testing too.

Good luck on the new blades remember that it is how fast the blades move not how fast the shaft turns on the bigger diameter machines.

Finis

[vawtman]

Finis any links you have for controls would be greatly apreciated.Thanks

 Grid tying is just a curiosity at this point,but would be cool just set it and forget it.Im interested to see whats in the packet thats being sent.My freind who owns an electrical shop told me from the start to do this.I guess they have a residential plan less than 20kw.

[elvin1949]

"why do most wind guy's live in a forest"

Simple Shade is cooler than sun.

later

elvin

[TomW]

elvin;

Nah! It is because we need more heating than cooling so the fuel is nearby. At least here.

=;)

Cheers.

TomW

[elvin1949]

Tomw

 You are 800 plus miles north of me.

100 in the shade here today.Got to have my shade trees.I have 50'000 acre's of timber company land

around me.Clean up behind logging crew's for my firewood.

later

elvin

[TomW]

elvin;

Hmm, bragging or complaining? HaHa. I never have to cut a live tree just clean up after logging on the farm. I need a way to easily convert tree wastes to electric power I am almost phobic about steam and I suck at being a mechanical type so a wood gas setup is probably beyond my abilities.

Cheer.

TomW

[vawtman]

Hello Tom If you want come up here (wi)ill have some residue for you.

 Got my gridtie guidlines from Wenergies today and will be doing some landscaping this winter.The BOSS said i could.

[elvin1949]

hahaha

 Morning Tom

Both i guess.Like you i don't cut live tree's,for

firewood.I do have acess to all the top's and

limb's i can use.

 Steam or WoodGas   ---   WoodGas is more versital

SP?.Use it for  cooking,hotwater,home heating,

refridgeration and run it in a gas engine to

genarate electricity OH almost forgot run your tractor on it to.And cut and weld with it.

 STEAM  it will do all of the above,just with

more difficulty and it could go BOOM.Well almost

can't cut and weld with it.

Hell of a mess.gas to me is better.

 NTL has the basic system down.Just filter it and compress it into propane bottles and go.

have fun

later

elvin

[Amy Lewis]

Now that's IMPRESSIVE!!!

I'm in Texas too, and would love to come take a look at that thing when my truck comes out of the shop. What part of TX are you in?

Amy