Lucas Freelite.Quieter blades ?

[Swatf]

Just some thoughts on the Lucas Freelite. I have rebuilt three of these and fitted them with 6 foot wooden blades with profiles as near as I can make to the originals. These shunt wound dynamos are dated 1947 and 1948 and 195?. One has the original electro-mechanical  control gear.
I would like to make turbine blades that would be quieter than these rather noisey wooden ones.  Recent development has come a long way from the 1940s and although I like the"original"feel of old equipment I keep thinking of things like the alluminium blades sold by Missouri Wind and Solar. These are what they call Gulf wing and appear to be almost silent being very fine pitched although wide near the hub for good starting.
I am wondering if anyone has had similar thoughts ? The thread on alluminium blades posted in July 2009 was interesting as it discussed aerofoil sections that could be made more easily in wood and started me thinking.  Chris.

[Flux]

The Freelite is fairly fast and fast blades tend to be a bit noisy. The original aluminium Freelite blades were noisier and less effective than the wooden ones but I have no idea of the blades you are interested in.

I am sure there are things that you could do to the wooden blade to reduce the noise, the profile was most likely chosen more for easy manufacture than anything else. In particular the tip shape could be altered to make a big difference. I have had a lot of success shaping the tip profile on other blades so I can't see why it wouldn't work here.

There is not a lot you can do to reduce the tsr as it is difficult to get the dynamo to load things any more than it does. Machines that operate above the peak of the power curve tend to be noisy anyway.

I really can't comment on your proposed blades or what tsr they are intended for but I am sure you could easy quieten the wooden blades a great deal.

Flux

[Swatf]

The Freelite is fairly fast and fast blades tend to be a bit noisy. The original aluminium Freelite blades were noisier and less effective than the wooden ones but I have no idea of the blades you are interested in.

I am sure there are things that you could do to the wooden blade to reduce the noise, the profile was most likely chosen more for easy manufacture than anything else. In particular the tip shape could be altered to make a big difference. I have had a lot of success shaping the tip profile on other blades so I can't see why it wouldn't work here.

There is not a lot you can do to reduce the tsr as it is difficult to get the dynamo to load things any more than it does. Machines that operate above the peak of the power curve tend to be noisy anyway.

I really can't comment on your proposed blades or what tsr they are intended for but I am sure you could easy quieten the wooden blades a great deal.

Flux

Thanks, The blades that I made produced a nice 20amps at about 15v in a 20 knot wind. I have not put my optical tachometer on them as it needs to be set about 2ft away.!. So T.S.R.has not been found. Yes the old dynamos were designed to turn fast but so are the new P.M.As although don't these produce better power at the lower speeds?  This is the place where I saw the alloy ones.
 http://www.mwands.com/index.php?main_page=product_info

[wolfie]

interesting...went to your link...then clicked this one....

http://www.mwands.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=43_54&products_id=386

it appears they are selling an assembled lenz2 for rooftop installation...i hope Ed patented that this is the second site selling them  i think

[Tritium]

They are also selling grid tie inverters that are NOT legal in the US since they plug into a regular house outlet  .

Thurmond

[phil b]

You can get roller derby pics from the same website.

[Bruce S]

Seems they have one somewhere in my hometown.
Gonna have to go find it, even though the pic was taken in July.
That's a way big NO-No here in the city.
If it's still up I'll find it and go try and talk to the owner.
Also will have a "talk" with AmerenUE about the grid-tie inverter.
Most of the pics-n-posts have them up in absolutely to worst/wrong places!

Mardi-Gras is coming up so may be a little while to find this.
RD pics are cute tho...

Cheers
Bruce S

[Swatf]

Air governor on a Lucas Freelite. It operates in winds over 20 knots, then I can use the brake behind the drive plate to stop it should the wind increase. Chris.

[Flux]

I am not sure what point you are making. The Lucas Freelite never had an air brake or the band brake, I am not sure whether you have added these features to a Freelite or whether your machine is a Wincharger. I can't see enough from that front view.

I was not aware that the Freelite made its way over to America.

Flux

[Swatf]

Pic 2 has no tail fitted. To activate the stoping brake the tail(screw fitting)is pulled down with a boathook. Chris.

[Swatf]

I am not sure what point you are making. The Lucas Freelite never had an air brake or the band brake, I am not sure whether you have added these features to a Freelite or whether your machine is a Wincharger. I can't see enough from that front view.

I was not aware that the Freelite made its way over to America.

Flux

Some work has been done  by "angle" some time ago as an alternative to the turning off wind mechanism. He used a wiper motor controled by a voltage sensing circuit. I thought this good and am offering an alternative mechanical one that I have been working on.
It is Always a matter of opinion as to wether the original should be kept as the manufacturer made it or to modify good older technoligy that served well and was of a certain era.
I have an unmodified one that is complete although not all assembled .

[Flux]

Certainly an interesting modification, I've never seen anything like that before.

Flux

[windwizard]

I have two Lucas Freelites here in Somerset together with original parts and copies of the Lucas manual. One has a fully (Lucas restored) 24v dynamo and it was used on my Integrated Solar Dwelling in Brighton which was the UK's first monitored off-grid passive solar R&D project.
In the 1970's I created a modified lightweight tail to improve furling and a smaller diameter (faster) blade with rounded tips to improve the power output and reduce noise. The original Lucas douglas fir prop was a very crude design (made to simplify manufacture) which was noisy and also suffered from tip erosion.
My blades used a Clark Y airfoil section and I used to machine these blades for the turbines I sold under the Aerodyn brand, using simple jigs and a special planing machine which I created. I used lightweight woods such as Jelutong and then hand-coated the blades with SP epoxy resin. Glass cloth, or thick self-adhesive alloy tape can be added for leading-edge protection. It is fairly easy to hand-carve a new blade providing you have patience and skill...
The Freelite is of course very heavy, of limited power output and way out of date, - and you could generate much more power if you hand-built your own slow-speed permanent magnet alternator... (It does not have to be a crude axial-field design which is inefficient in the use of steel, copper and magnet material).