I know that everyone will just recommend a HAWT, but I want to try something different.
Now just some general wind turbine questions, I was wondering how many RPM's would I need to have an equal unit to some of the big wind turbines?
And what do you think the blades and end caps should be made of on mine? I currently just used some .14" aluminum flashing, which I bent into curves pieces. It actually works rather well, holds its shape just fine so far. Thicker would be better I'm sure, but I definitely like the light weightness of the aluminum. The round end caps I used wood. I just used a jigsaw to cut this out, and also cut the curves slots in it for the aluminum.
The center rod, all I did was drill holes into the wood and slide it onto an electric metal fence post rod. Then just lubed it up a bit, works rather well, but definitely nothing permanent. So what would I want to use for the bearings on each end do you think? I also sort of figure this would be easier than your average HAWT since it'll be attached at 2 points instead of just one.
The blade height, not sure if longer strips of aluminum would make it go faster or not, but surely wider ones would. My thinking with this VAWT style wind turbine is this. In order for a HAWT's center point to spin say 50 rpm, the outside of the blades might have to spin 100 rpm or something. (dont know the math on this) But on a VAWT, since the blades are shorter, they wouldn't have to actually spin as fast in order to achieve that center point spinning 50 rpm.
Now I want to test my design at some high wind speeds, in which case I'd probably mount in on a small tower type of deal in the back of my truck or something. Hopefully it doesnt self destruct and kill my truck. I have a 2005 Toyota Tundra.
But this will be my third free energy project. The first was I made a really nice solar oven that could sell commercially for $99. Gets 370-400 degrees here, no problem. The second I made was a passive solar heater that would put out 110-160 degrees at 50 cfm. Only 15" by 15" too!
But now wind power has caught my attention for those days that are windy but not sunny. We have a commercial building downtown that is about 5,500 square feet. Most of it is our martial arts school, but I have an 800 square foot room in the back that I'm using for these projects. I want to put a wind generator on the roof of this building. Now huge towers and noise wouldnt be good, so thats why I'm leaning toward a VAWT.