My VAWT

[bug bit]

I was trying to figure out how to put this thing together when the maintenance guys where I work were throwing away a wheel hub from a 2 wheel hand truck. I rescued it from the Dumpster and went from there. I put bearings in it for a 5/8 shaft.





Now I have a hub and a shaft, but how to keep the rotor locked to the shaft?





With the help of the drawing program I have, the stator was drawn to size and dimensions found. I made the coil winder.





115 turns of #17awg wire. ½ inch legs, ½ inch thick.

Stupid me, I forgot to compensate for the air gap, the air gap will be 5/8 inch.

All the coils were made so I just kept going.

Stator ready to pour wired 3 phase.





Stator poured.

The magnets are 1x1½x1/4 on an 8inch disk

The wings are dimentioned for 24 inches but I closed them up to 18 inch dia. They are 24inches tall.





I opened the wings out to 2foot dia where they belong.

It will hit 12 volts at about 80rpm open.

This was all done with hand tools. Most of it done on my coffee table in my apartment.

I have no idea what kind of power I will get from this yet.

The plan is to mount this on top of our fish house

[Norm]

Nice job....like the color  ....looks as

nice as a piece of furniture.

[windstuffnow]

  Nice job!  Pretty clever scrounging the cart bearing hub.  I'd bet 24-27 watts in a 15mph wind.  

.  

[gotwind2]

Nice build, and use of recycled parts.

Ed's trusted 24-27 watts in a 15mph wind estimate is a little disappointing though for such an amount of work and expense (of the magnets alone)

Hope you prove him wrong

Ben.

[wayne]

You did a real good job, and painted also, found out this is important because wood will crack over time. Looks a little like my 2 wing Lenz, also this weekend rebuilt my little 6" lenz. Has leds on pvc cap. The old one worked for many years and hard drive bearing gave out. So running again, will post pics later. Like to know how many amps you get, with mine haven't seen much at all!

Good Job

Wayne

[Volvo farmer]

Ed's trusted 24-27 watts in a 15mph wind estimate is a little disappointing though for such an amount of work and expense (of the magnets alone)

Whew!

[windstuffnow]

  How much would you expect from a 4 sq ft turbine?  I see the maximum extraction at around 40 watts according to Betz.  

 

[windstuffnow]

  Bug bit, if you add winglets to the top and bottom of each wing you'll increase the output by several watts.  The winglet is basically the same shape as the wing ends except are 1.5 inches larger all the way around.  These can be cut out of sheet metal, plywood, plastics what ever you have on hand.  They do need to be rigid otherwise they'll flex and defeat the purpose.

  Instead of allowing the wind to slip off the ends and create a vortex it traps the air and holds it to the wing as well as decreases the power robbing eddy currents from the vortexes.

  On my 2x2 during the wind tunnel testing there was an 8 watt increase simply by adding the winglets at the same wind speed.

  Once again nice work!

.

[jmk]

  Fishing is fun with a nice warm hut on cold, snowy, and rainy days. I to have been scheming of a wind turbine to set up out on the ice. Last weekend we had the barbeque grill out there with the snowmobile and sled. Plenty of beer and food. It was a blast. We are going to take the LCD flat screen tv out for a super bowl party. My shanty is big enough for six. I have two wholes 38" by 18". It looks like a big aquarium. It is just as much fun watching the fish as it is catching them. I think mounting it to the shanty would cause to much renaissance noise and scare the fish, or drive you crazy. I was thinking of a twenty foot tilt up set up about twenty foot away. We will close the covers on the holes while watching the game and set tip ups out so we can still say we are fishing. Sometimes half the fun is just being out there! My favorite time is when the sun heats the black walls and you have it all dark inside. The holes light up and waiting for the pike is a lot like hunting. Watching the sucker swimming with bass chasing it and perch and gills swimming around. The scariest thing was when a musk rat swam up right when I was looking down the hole twice in two minutes. I am still waiting for the beavers. I see all the trees the cut down on the shoreline.  I hope I don't hook one! If you get it out there let me know how the noise is with it.    

[bug bit]

I have been toying with making another stator with thinner coils to get the air gap down.

I have also been thinking about overdriving by 2 or 3 to 1 to get the thing spinning faster.

I have lost track how many times this has been taken apart and put together thinking I can improve it.

I have seen 1 amp into a small 7 ah 12 volt battery when it was spinning on the deck. I have no idea how strong the winds were that day though. It does start to turn in what seems like no wind at all.

I will definitely cut up some plexiglass and make the winglets. I just want to say Thanks Ed for all the information you have shared here and on your web site.

Brian

[hvirtane]

A really nice machine and nicely used raw materials.

Did you calculate the costs?

- Hannu

[CmeBREW]

Good progressive work on the Vawt Bugbit.  

      I think the great thing about that is it is so unusual and small, that you can just say to your neihbors that it is simply a wind meter to monitor the changes and effects of global warming. They won't know any different!

Im still trying to make a modified Lenz2 myself. It is fascinating to try.

Hope you figure out the best angles. Thanks for sharing the info and pictures!.

[CmeBREW]

Sorry, i forgot this:

Nice stator and alternator by the way! It is possible that that alternator might be somewhat too powerful for that smaller vawt rotor. That is what I just encountered myself. I don't know that much, but have you tried putting different ohm resisters in SERIES with the line to allow the rotor to spin easier and faster?

As Flux had said, the cut-in remains the SAME. I never knew that myself.

I am seeing some noticable improvements myself (not outstanding though yet) with one of my vawts. It can at least generate alot more CONSISTENT low watts now-- whereas before it was almost entirely held back by the alternator until a big wind gust.

I need to get more small power resistors with different ohms yet to do more testing.

I've only tested with 2 ohms and/or 30 ohms. I need inbetween I think.

It might just help.

[bug bit]

It seems as though it is free-wheeling when it spins.

With the air gap so big ( 5/8" ) I am thinking it is not going to held back very much.

The only place I have had it running is on the deck (supported to the table with a couple of boards so it won't tip over). When it starts charging, the buzz is amplified throughout the deck. Almost sounds like a vibrating sander. Really a neat sound.

I can't wait until the ice is thick enough to let her fly out in the middle of the lake and see if it will survive.

[jmk]

  Sounds like it's going to work fine for you. I'm lucky we have early ice here. We have been on the ice since Dec 8th. I caught twenty two perch on minnows and my first pike on a tip up today. We almost got to thin on last warm spell. I fish on a small inland lake. Our big lakes aren't frozen yet either. Who knows maybe the buzz noise might attract the fish? Let me know how it works for you out on the ice. I think it's a great idea.