Hugh Piggott Recipe book

[jarrod9155]

   I based my turbine off the 14 foot plans in The Recipe book . So far it hasnt failed in any way but I do have one question to the plans . He puts the tail at 110 degs from the blades  face now that is were I put my stop also 110 maybe 115 deg . I would think this would halter the performance not being straight in the wind is there a benifit to having the 110 versas 90 deg to the blades . Just  wondering  my self .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5xNFudGwnY
Quick video of the 18 foot royal wind and solar blades full tilt

[DanB]

The tail must be off to the side to compensate for the alternator/blades being off to the other side... it helps the machine run 'square' to the wind.  I expect that it should maybe even be further off than 110 deg - this depends some however on the size of the tail vane.  At some point I usually make a compromise between running perfectly square to the wind... and a machine that looks funny.  If the tail is too far off to the side I find it looks strange and sometimes I would rather run with a slight yaw error and have a more pleasant looking turbine.

[jarrod9155]

Well thanks for the explanation the book didnt really explain it .

[Flux]

Dan is right, it is very much a compromise. With it at right angles to the blades you will have quite a big error in tracking the wind and most likely it will be such that you notice the loss. Even with it at 120 deg you will have an error but probably not to the extent that you will notice it.

To eliminate this error completely the tail needs to be very big and you will need more than 120 deg, but you reach a point where it looks silly and the gain is negligible.

For peace of mind, don't mount a right furling and a left furling machine within site of each other, otherwise you realise that this error is much more than you expect and it does look silly indeed.

If the blades are within 30 deg of the direct wind direction you will see little difference in performance but having two machines with a 30 deg error either side of the true wind looks dreadful.

Flux

[jarrod9155]

I have had a few people notice it but really had no explanation for them .... now I do 

[zander1976]

I was thinking that would have something to do with the vortex effect behind the blades from them spinning. The vortex effect or spiriling wind would cause the tail to be pushed off center and not directly face the wind. To compensate for it you make the tail off 90 degrees to fight against the vortex making it flush with the wind.

[Dave B]

Looking good Jarrod ! Looks like maybe you bumped the tower up and you have a nice wind there for the video as well. Have you measured the RPM or guestimating it from your output etc ? Must be pushing 300+ I would guess and we are excited for you and look forward to hearing more of your grid tie and inverter performance. It is fun to see someone else enjoying the performance of the Gottigen blades and we certainly appreciate seeing the videos and your mention of purchasing from Royal Wind and Solar. We were wondering if you had any photos of how you finished your blades ? As a note to your original question ... I plan to either offset my tail a bit more (lower the lower stop) or possibly add a bent tail addition. Mine needs to run a bit more square to the wind but I feel the tail weight and length is all about right so I'll tweak one thing a little at a time. You have a one of a kind set up also and your motor (the blades) have their own personality from the "standard". We are very interested to know more of your inverter programming and grid tie performance. Thank you again for posting and if you need to adjust the tail a bit to run the blades more square to the wind you will not only improve the performance by not spilling the wind but the blades will run even more quite than they already do.  Dave B.

   I based my turbine off the 14 foot plans in The Recipe book . So far it hasnt failed in any way but I do have one question to the plans . He puts the tail at 110 degs from the blades  face now that is were I put my stop also 110 maybe 115 deg . I would think this would halter the performance not being straight in the wind is there a benifit to having the 110 versas 90 deg to the blades . Just  wondering  my self .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5xNFudGwnY
Quick video of the 18 foot royal wind and solar blades full tilt

[jarrod9155]

Yes theses blades are all there own they dont like to over spin they like lower rpm in the video the rpms were around 260 the dc volts were 210   and it was starting to furl  the watt output at that speed was 1300 and I could of easly pushed it to 2,000 watts . And even with the low load I was applying at that rpm the blades didnt  brake away and over spin . The power band with my setup is from 100 volts dc to 250 volts dc  rpms rpms 110 to 300rpm max .  I have some photos just cant get them to post maybe I will just email them to you . The automotive clear is holding great on the blades crystal clear and when the sun hits them they shin pretty nice . ...It did take 3 coats sanding in bettween coats to get a nice finish but wurth it .

[Flux]

It seems as though your programming is quite good if you are tracking volts pretty much with speed.

You will be able to get more from the alternator with the decent match compared with direct loading at constant volts. I feel certain you could go to 2000W without any worry but better stay safe if you have it furling nicely.

In reply to Zander it is really a balance against the thrust moment on the alternator offset. With no offset the thing tracks the wind well enough. I have little doubt that the spiral vortex does have some effect on the tail but it's not the real reason for not facing the wind with these offset furling machines.

There are a few tricks you can do such as bent tail rods or setting the vane at an angle that make it look better than moving the rest point around well past 90 deg but they all do the same thing to balance the thrust component on the alternator offset. There are more complex furling schemes that keep the prop axis in line with the yaw axis that don't suffer from this problem but they need another pivot capable of supporting the total weight of the alternator and that pivot is quite highly stressed.

Flux

[jarrod9155]

Flux ,
What I been doing is reading the hertz at diffrent volts under load to determine the rpm  and from there trying to get the most out of the mppt .When it furls I would like to be around 2,000 watts . The arora tracks the load from the volts coming from the generator and from there it applies a load , knowing the rpms  helps me track the blades for best performance .   Rob at solicity in canada started me out with a base mppt from a program he has but with my blades it needs twicking . My next big move is a new stater ...... instead of 19 awg at 350 turns 12 coils Im going for 17 awg at 350 turns or more if possible with 19 awg there was al little gap between coils so I asome I can get alittle thicker  wire with less resistance to fit .
 
A video off the arora in the basement sorry for the bad video used my Iphone better than nothing  ,but does give and idea of the inverter in action . To the left is the wind box I have been building alot of trial and error , contents omron voltage sensing relay and a 110 3 phase relay shuts the inverter feed off in a no grid falure and applies the brake . The omrone ingages a baseboard heater at a set voltage to tame the windmill if the grid comes back and the inverter hasnt sinked quick enough .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpcOLPEg93k