New Personal Record

[taylorp035]

Here is a video of the amp meter + windmill of the record breaking moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asEV_k43aZg

The wind speed was roughly 12 mph in a short mini gust ( shouldn't even be allowed to be called a gust ).  The open voltage would of been about 15-20 volts at about 500 rpm.  I hit 3.46 amps at the peak into my four- wheeler.  Cut in is at 360rpm

When I got home from school today, I looked out back and saw it spinning and starting up by itself, which is a first because we haven't had a SW or NE wind in about 4 WEEKS, so I was pretty excited (maybe extremely would be better).  So I ran out there and stood around for about 1/2 hour til the wind picked up past 5 mph.  Also, the local 10kw Bergy windmill has not spun in 8 days, and it is on a 140ft tower.

Things I saw:

1. The protective sheet metal housing around the motor had been torn because...
   
   
2. The blades were never balanced, therefore the PVC pipe was wobbling quite fiercely after 12v or so.

   
   
   

Therefore I wrapped the cable around the blades so she wouldn't spin and self destruct until this weekend where I can balance it ( the hub does not have a center hole because the way I made it)

While during the peak output, it didn't seem like it was bogging down at all, so I have high hopes for the future.

[wooferhound]

it's interesting to hear about the wind generator, but I'm wondering how that PVC pipe tower is working out ?

[taylorp035]

The PVC pipe is Ok, as it seams good enough for a 4ft but not a 6-7ft.  It bends nicely so there is less stress.  After digging hole #3, it is much more solid, roughly 2.5 feet down in wet clay.  The pipe does "whistle" in the wind, approximately 15mph and higher.  It is really nice since my whole windmill can just be picked right off the top of the tower with the help of a ladder or my 4-wheeler.

I once stacked a 2nd 10ft pipe to the top, with my 30" windmill on it, and with the help of my twin brother, a 10 A-frame ladder, and my 4-wheeler, we got it on top.  It held up to 20+mph winds, but it would bend approxiamaely 3 feet in a strong gust.  My current setup will bend about 2-3 inches with the 4ft on it in 10 mph.  I would let it bend up to about 10inches without any fears.

Here is the 20ft tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWfvyj8diug

I bet if anyone wanted to use my idea, they should buy some 1/8" or 1/4" walled PVC pipe, as mine is about 1/16" thick.  The diameter is what counts, so maybe 8" would work better.  Also mine has the holes in it for drainage, so the water doesn't build up on the inside (my area gets 40+ inches of rain and the water table is about -1 inches below the ground for 8 months a year.

 

[joe4324]

Awesome!   I'm surprised you don't get at least a little more wind than that.  4 weeks?!!

[taylorp035]

I am not kidding, I have never seen it not be windy for such a long time.  The problem is that I need either a North / Northeast wind or a South or Southwest wind.  For about 10 days, we had 20 mph NW winds, which gave us 70" of snow.  It was before christmas (about a week) when I made my new blades... so I have been waiting a long time.  I even tried on Christmas day!

[taylorp035]

I just brought the windmill inside and took off the blades.  I found that the blades were out of balance by about 2-3 oz at about a 5" radius, so that will be fixed in the next 10 minutes.  

Also, the sheet metal guard did a good job at keeping the water and snow out of the motor, that is until the sheet metal got torn off by the hub.  The rest of it looks good, maybe I will tighten up the wires a bit since they seemed flaky at times.

Since I am using a treadmill motor, I can balance it by hooking it up to a 12v -20v power source to see how she runs and make adjustments easily.  I think I will also dismount the motor to bench test it on my drill press to get a power output curve.  

[taylorp035]

I finally bit the bullet and decided to tap some holes into my flywheel, so i don't have to have my ugly set up from before.  I also balance the blades to a reasonable amount, but certainly not up to my standards for battle bot weapons (I once had to balance a helicopter type weapon that weighed 4 lbs and had a diameter of 18+" that would spin at 2500 rpm by hand).

Also I am going to build a wooden enclosure for the motor, which already rusted a bit from the snow.  Once thing I found difficult was tapping threads in 1 1/2" thick cast iron, which was easy to drill, but the tapping took about an hour for 3 holes.

I tried bench testing the motor on the drill press and could only get it up to 540 rpm, where it put out almost 2 amps.  I then used a v-belt and my 2500 rpm corded drill and got it to 10 amps, but i was burning up the belt.

I looked inside of the motor and found 4 huge magnets on the shell and the wire was thicker than 16, maybe 15 or 14 gauge.  It should be good for at least 20 amps continuous, maybe 35-40 peak, but that would be some crazy wind.