2003 Guemes Gennie with Stainless Steel Bowl Fairing

[conohawk]

I recently made the short trip from Bellingham, WA to Guemes with my two children to see the 8' Piggott turbine that was constructed during the 2003 workshop.  I am currently building from the same design.

The fairing immediately caught my attention.  Would one of the attendees at the workshop mind explaining how the fairing is attached?  I can't tell if there is a center screw doing the job.

(Photo from blueEnergy)

See all blueEnergy workshop photos

Cheers,

-ConoHawk / Mark

[DanB]

On this one I think Win ran a bolt through the prop, it's held on by a nut in the middle.

I've done the same thing in the past with SS bowls, and 3 or 4 wood screws in the lip around the outside of the bowl work nicely.

I've put those on a few wind turbines... but always windup taking them off in the end, I kind of like the look of the flat hub w/bolts sticking out.  It's all just a matter of preferance though...

[LEXX]

I have just finished building my prop and i've been thinking of putting a fairing on mine, is there any difference in performance at all?  You would think that it would have less of a dead spot in the middle and force wind onto the high torque area of the prop at low wind speeds?  Or is this effect negligible?

LEXX

[DanB]

Im sure it might help ever so slightly - my guess is it would be a lot less improvement than you could ever hope to notice though.  I believe it has more to do with appearance than anything.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

To be serious about it you'd need a BIGGER one, covering the whole hub and out to where the blades are actually blade-shaped.

More bullet-shaped would be better, too.

[Victor]

 All of the test data that I have ever seen shows spinners to be purely visual and contribute nothing to the power of the rotor.

 That said, I and many others feel the visual aspect does have importance and should not be dismissed. In one of Paul Gipes books the visual effect is explained as breaking the plane of the rotor, which is why something as simple as a mixing bowl looks pretty good IMHO.

Victor