First Wind Turbine

[brokengun]

I've been working on this project for about 10 months. We started constructing the actual generator back in July and I worked on the tower, logistics, and everything else throughout the year. I attended high school in Northern Maine (Limestone) and wanted to see if I could put up a wind generator. I planned to put it up on school grounds and we talked to the appropriate people, the subject became a bunch of political crap that ended up delaying me 3 weeks and resulted in having the wind turbine installed at my teacher's house. It has been quite an experience trying to do all this while I was away from home and was one of the biggest hurdles of it all. In the end, it has been worth it and I was very excited to see it on the tower three days before graduation. I even got on the local news for my project (which was not for school, I just did it while I was at school).

Anyways here are a few photos of the day we put it up. I don't have any of the tower being raised, or assembled on the group (I was too busy helping).

Here is a picture of the whole machine put together in the garage before we raised the tower. It was actually the first time all the parts had been together. It was hard to work on some parts of it at home and bring some to school. This was really exciting for me to put it all together and see it up close. It also allowed me to iron out anything that might look messed up.

We used a bucket truck to lift the tower up and we guyed it off. The man running the bucket truck let me put it all together up at the top, it was quite a thrill. The tower is 36 feet high (sure feels a lot higher when you're in a field). We had a beautiful day that was dead calm to put it up, couldn't have asked for better weather. Pictured is the newly installed turbine and one very excited boy.

I was hard pressed for time at the end of the year and as a result we only finished half the wiring, here is a picture of the box we installed. I'm using two Xantrex C40's to regulate the charge on an Optima battery that is hooked up to a light (mounted on the tower) that connects through the inverter. I also need to make some serious adjustments to the guy wires and re-balance the blades I think (it vibrates a lot when it reaches charging voltage). Here is a picture of the nice box we got, they even let us pay half price for it since they liked the project so much.

Finally here is a picture of my teacher's son who took an interest to my project and figured he could build himself a small model wind generator too. We did a size comparison after mine was up... it was close but I think I beat him.

Also, for a video of the turbine spinning check out this link:

Student Builds Windmill Project It's actually the link to the news bit, but it does have some good footage of the turbine (it's the only footage I've got). Also, it was spinning slowly because the brake was on and I need to adjust the air gap.

Thanks to everyone on the Otherpower boards who helped make this possible. There were multiple times when I didn't know if all of my effort would even result in anything. I would like to thanks Flux, who is a continued help for me and others here. Thanks to Mr. Piggot and the Dans for some fine reading material. I've learned so much from this project that I can't wait to build another, so many I can get it right this time!

[pepa]

GREAT JOB, pepa

[tecker]

Looks like you were just waiting for spring to wrap that unit up looks good up there and that's a really nice picture . The fiberglass blades are light enough to be supported at the root by two bolts .I would coat the area around the hub to keep the weather out any loosening will give a big change in vibration and ruin the mounting blocks at the root fast . Looks good

[electrondady1]

congratulations. that's a real accomplishment.

you showed real class to mention hugh piggot

put a feather in your cap!

[ghurd]

Very nice job!

G-

[TomW]

Super Job!

Thanks for sharing.

I think you will find that all of these machines "vibrate" right at cutin. Thats just the sound of power being produced.

Try this on a relatively calm day while it is charging batts: remove the load for a second and the vibration will go away. If so, then it is pretty much normal sound of a working turbine. Mine all have done this.

Again, thanks for the share.

TomW

[SparWeb]

That's one lucky teacher you have!  Just kidding, that's a great looking project.  Thanks for putting up pictures.

For me, school was a long time ago, but I build my windmills as much for the education as for the practical uses.  Once I was done my first, I was pining to build another, too.  (I got my wish, but not under circumstances of my choosing)  There's a lot to be learned just keeping that one in the air and doing useful things with the electricity.

I hope you have enrolled in engineering, or some other discipline that harnesses your talent.

[s4w2099]

Everything looks good but why not give the C40's some headroom for heatsink ventilation?

[zap]

Good job Tony!

It's nice to see some young folks interested in something other than... a high score in Guitar Hero, skateboards, and tagging.

It's also nice to see some kids are still being taught how to communicate... a talent that's becoming more and more rare these days.

Nice write up!

 

[Flux]

Well done. You look to have an excellent site and the whole project looks excellent.

I am pleased to have been able to help. I agree with what Zap has said and it's nice to see some younger people doing something constructive.

Flux

[brokengun]

Firstly because it's the first time I've ever used these and I am not sure how much heat they'll give off. Secondly because we would have to get a bigger box and that is expensive. I tried to stay on budget as much as I could with this project even though I did have to go over.