Stratified Wind

[tanner0441]

Hi

I had my turbine down today to up-rate the supply cable and increase the height (it was just over 18 foot). I have now put it back up to nearly 30 foot.  Over the last couple of months I have had it at 12 foot, it worked well but only when it was pointing in one direction, other than that it was snapping back and forth on the yaw bearing, then at the 18 foot point, it produced less power than the 12 foot point, often sitting just below the point at which it charges, as the load came on it did not get enough wind to push it into charging, and again swinging about on the yaw bearing.

At 30 foot it swings gently on the yaw bearing, it starts turning earlier, and hopefully over the next couple of days I will see how it charges.

I would not have thought getting it just 6 foot above the gutter height on my house roof would make such a difference, or is it getting it just below the gutter height would destroy totaly any form of laminar flow in the wind.

I know various people on here have told me I was wasting my time with a low mast height, some times quite robustly, but you can't beat seeing it for yourself.

I wonder if a 40 foot latice tower would be a bit over the top to ask for at Christmas.....

[wooferhound]

Nice to see you getting up into the good wind.

 I asked mom for a Harbor Freight 44 watt Solar Panel Kit for Christmas

[oztules]

I will be interested in hearing how this pans out.

My mill is 3m off the ground and works well. The 12M tower is ready to start work on.... but it works so well on the ground I have been slack about getting it up into proper air.

........oztules

[tanner0441]

Hi

The first thing I noticed when I put it up to 30 ft was the thing was gently swinging on the yaw bearing, not snapping backward and forward, as it came up to speed there was none of the swishing noises as the rotor was being dragged in and out of the smooth wind.

It seems to start spinning in what feels to be lower wind speeds allbeit not enough to charge. We are threatened with some real winds this weekend so I will let you know.  It sure beats car alternators and the like and was £250 well spent, and its shown I do have enough wind to start making the axial flux machine. The magnets are on the shelf and I have some old 10 inch diamond tile cutter blades to stick them to.

Brian

[tanner0441]

Hi

True to form wind turbine goes up, wind comes down, but today it blew long and hard.

The difference between 20 and 30ft is amazing, the blades rarely stop even though they may not be fast enough to charge, they keep turning, the tail keeps it pointing into the wind and instead of swinging violently back and forward it only swings gently throught about 45 degrees. As it reaches furling speed the tail comes round slowly not banging against the stop. It is also charging while pointing in a direction its never charged in before.

On the charge controler the ammeter instead of comming up to about 3 amps sits at 3 and swings up to 6 and goes on to 12 much more frequently and moves up to 18A more often.

On the down side......... I am now wondering how it will work at 40FT and I cant help wondering about some of the undersubscribed 90FT areal masts I have worked on. 90FT and one coliear antena stuck on the top seems such a waste.

Brian