85' tilt tower photo with alternator and tail

[Dave B]

Photo shows A successful raising of my 85' tower with the alternator and tail installed. It is single phase with laminants and 3 blade 12' diameter. Currently 18 16-guage coils are 2 sets of 9 in series wired parallel that produced approx. 12 vac @ 100 rpm. on my test tower and furls at around 350-400 rpm 50 vac. I plan to pre-heat water direct AC (no batteries) and have designed a variable load controller for low voltage heating elements. Total run from the alternator to house will be approx. 225'. I plan to use direct burial service cable from the tower base to the house, I am trying to decide the best cable and guage for down the tower (no slip rings and it will be completely exposed with disconnect at bottom etc.) with this open tower. Any suggestions would be appreciated, I know it won't be a cheap date to do it right and also have it ready for possibly 3 phase at a later time. Thank you for your replies. Dave B.

[wdyasq]

Dave,

A run of 2" or 3" PVC conduit would not be expenssive. You could use CPVC "sweeps" at the ends and if there are any turns. This would allow you to:

     Use single straded wire which is normally less expensive

     Change wire if necessary

     Run control or instrument cables to the tower if desired.

     Reconfigure the entire system without digging a new trench.

But, your project, looks good. 96 here yesterday, not much thinking about heating.

Ron

[SmoggyTurnip]

Very nice Dave.

I am building a water heating windmill too.

How do you plan on heating the

water - did you build a special water tank

for the heater?

.

[vawtman]

Smoggy not sure what Dave is doing but his alt is single ph.My plan is to just buy another heater and use has a preheater.Cheaper than batteries and easy to control.

I also plan on mounting a heat exchanger in the furnace plenum which is gas.

   Good luck with your project

[kenl]

 PVC would work but although its stamped sunlight resistant it really isn't. Tends to get brittle after a couple of years if in direct sunlight. Might try painting it white to reflect the light.

 Must say that's one nice tower you have there. How long did it take to build it? What's the specs for the generator? And are you bringing back some cheese for all of us when you get back from Wisconsin?

kenny

[harrie]

Dave. what methed did you use to raize the tower, looks really nice. Wow in the picture the prop must be really screaming, cause you cant see it. It will be great to hear about how it all works out for you

Great fun, Harrie

[Dave B]

Thanks for the comments. The tower is a modified Rohn 55. 1/4" guys @ every 20' with girder beam anchors and tons of concrete. Gin pole is 52' of 4 1/2 and 5" pipe, 40:1 worm drive winch running a return pulley for another 2:1 and a custom fabricated hinge assembly. The blades aren't mounted in the photo for the test pull (learn from Dan's) but that's next along with wiring it up with the down cable. (My original question of what to use) As noted I've got the underground cable figured from the tower base to the house already. I'll probably end up with another hot water tank as the pre-heater. Comments and suggestions always welcome.  Dave B.

[DanB]

Hi Dave -its beautiful.

Can you describe the winch a bit more?  What size cable on the spool?  What is the rpm/hp rating of the motor?

[Dave B]

Hi Dan, thanks for the compliment. The photo shows my winch (sorry there are no legible markings or manufacture) but I believe this was used in a silo in it's previous life. It's husky at 60+ lbs. without the cable. I replaced the bushings and had a new drive shaft machined from hex stock so either a deep socket or 1/2" end can be chucked in my right angle drill. I have a manual crank made from 1/2" square stock that fits the socket besides. The drum is 12" wide and 2" diameter with the ends I think 6" diameter. I replaced the old wire rope (7x19 5/16")  and I've got 170' on there now just fine which 150' of it is needed up and back around the pulley at the top of my 52' gin pole. (older photo before adding the pulley) I've only pulled this up once as shown but with my new Milwaukee 1/2" right angle drill (I believe 7A) and running the chuck in the low range mode (325 rpm) it seemed to handle it fine in about 10 minutes or so and only slightly warming the gear lube as expected. The tower is 85' @ approx. 1000 lbs. and I'd say add another 200 lbs. to that for the mill. The gin pole is probably near 700 lbs. Maybe you could suggest a guage and type cable for down the tower ? All exposed and 3 wire for future 3 phase ? Thank you for all of your help and suggestions.  Dave B.

[kenl]

 Ok so we have a hard time staying on subject. But you gotta admit its a damn impressive tower. Anyway, use SO cord for your drop. You'll need a Kelems strain releif grip due to the height of the tower and the weight of the cable. Get the basket/hook type. They look like a chinese finger with a loop on the end. Or you could use the connector type put it inside the pipe threads up basket hanging down lock nut on top of your bearing pipe (the outer pipe it genny is attached to). SO doesn't have the same ampacity as THHN but 12/3 is fine for 20 amps at 120v. You do need to concider the voltage drop due to the long lengths of the UF cable and the SO.

electrician.com has a good voltage drop calculator figuring wire size. I use it all the time for bidding purposes.

hope this help Dave. kenny

Email me if you need a link or two for the parts

[kenl]

Here's a pic of what you may want to try.Hope this helps. kenny

[Dawn]

Kenny:

What is the website that you referenced above?  I went to www.electrician.com and didn't see what you were referring to.  We're going to need a good size cable when we get our turbine up a flying.

Thanks!

Dawn  

[kenl]

 Here's some links to the electrical calculator you  need Dawn. Electrician.com seems to not be there anymore. Insert the values you know and play with different wire sizes to find the one that gets you the most reasonable trade off between size and voltage drop. kenny

 http://www.mypq.net/resources.asp

 http://www.bartonelectric.com/voltage.html

 http://www.nooutage.com/vdrop.htm

 http://www.nitek.net/niteku/voltagedropcalculator.htm

 http://www.mikeholt.com/technical.php?id=technicalvoltagedrop

 I'll check my home computer when I get back to Ga and send you the link for the one I use. It'll be a couple of weeks though.

[Dawn]

Thank you!

[scoraigwind]

"I am trying to decide the best cable and guage for down the tower (no slip rings and it will be completely exposed with disconnect at bottom etc.) with this open tower."

At that voltage I would not recommend exposed wires out in the wind.  They will move, flap and abrade and then they will have contact with the tower, which is a shock hazard.

I would suggest you use some sort of pipe or conduit for the wires.  They can probably be quite thin, as I imagine you would only need 10 amps maximum.  #12 wires would only lose about 2 volts and would be light and easy to handle.  The bottom part where it does not have to be so strong can be just single wires twisting together within the enclosing conduit.  This will put less weight on the upper part, and also absorb more movement.

Make some provision for short circuiting the wires on the wind turbine side of the disconnection point.  It is not good practice to have it running wild, disonnected.  You could have an insulation failure which could also be very dangerous.

Make sure that your tower is very well grounded.

Have fun :-)

[keithturtle]

Well grounded on something this tall would mean a 2 meter ground pole for each leg, I think.   Concrete is an insulator, and steel legs need a good electrical connection to the soil.

Keith

[Dave B]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've got some 8/3 soow cord which I may run down in good sized pvc conduit to help protect it from the UV. 85' of it is pretty heavy so it will hang straight even if not in conduit. I'll have a shorting switch near the base before the disconnect and will certainly ground the tower properly. The trick is the strain relief and wiring at the alternator. I've got the alternator connections close to the top  of the yaw pipe which is good but it makes it tough in regards to space for the strain relief and connections, I'll work it out soon now that it's lowered back down. Photos to follow when that happens. Thank you,  Dave B.

[homemadegenny]

nice work