400 Watt eBay Vertical Wind Turbine

[makenzie71]

My initial thoughts and what's on the inside: https://youtu.be/H7_UFuM9ZZY

key points:

1. 12 pole/36 core stator
2. Stator is wound in 27AWG wire
3. Magnets are tiny
5. Coils are tiny, loose, and not all evenly sized

I don't think there's enough "copper" and magnet material in this thing to even get 400 watts.  The other 400 watt turbine I reviewed was made with wire that was twice as thick and there was considerably more of it, and more magnet material.  This turbine has even less material in it that the "500" watt turbine I started with and so far it's peaked at 280 watts in a 50mph wind.

[makenzie71]

So just doing some rough math...you guys told me in another thread that you can guess a baseline of about 40 watts per cubic inch of magnet material.  There is roughly .3696cui of magnet 8n this mill.  In order for it to make the claimed 400 watts it needs to peak at roughly 1000 watts per cubic inch.

Sounds completely reasonable.

[makenzie71]

Any wagers on how fast I got to drive to hit the rated "400" watts?

[MagnetJuice]

77 MPH

[Mary B]

88mph

[taylorp035]

I think the top speed limiter will be hit in the Ford first.

[MattM]

I think the top speed limiter will be hit in the Ford first.

Definitely this.

[makenzie71]

 Working on a video now, but it didn’t come out very well. The turbine didn’t  come out very well either.

I connected the turbine to each a car battery, then a 500w work light, then 175w worth of christmas lights, then 60w worth of christmas lights.  I ran each up to 60 miles per hour.

Battery, peak output 11w
Work light, no output
175w christmas lights, no output
60w worth of christmas lights, <10 watts

It did better running it up with the drill.

[MagnetJuice]

I said 77 MPH, so since I am the closest to 60 I am the winner.

I will PM you my mailing address where you can send the $400.

Ed

[makenzie71]

Spoiler...the video is not worth watching unless you just want to see a VAWT driving around on top of a car...

https://youtu.be/2tuQ_cchxfY

[JW]

Since your having fun anyway. Put on a fairing to cover the half of the swept area spinning against the wind.

[makenzie71]

The thought crossed my mind but I pretty well already considered this turbine a loss.  This was just a quick confirmation so I can discard it.  I have two more I need to focus on finishing up my work with and I have one more coming...everyone seems to hate Ista Breeze so I bought one of those

[SparWeb]

I love the part where it goes backwards (5:30 - 6:10).

Or are you actually driving in reverse?

:-P

[margusten]

What is this windgenerator nominal voltage ?
You connected to 12V battery, and get 11W instead of 400W.
Thank God I did not buy this windgen, total waste of time and money.

[makenzie71]

I saw voltage jump up pretty high on the drill, but current was pretty weak.

The whole thing is not worth the time...just not enough copper and magnet in it.

[Adriaan Kragten]

I saw voltage jump up pretty high on the drill, but current was pretty weak.

The whole thing is not worth the time...just not enough copper and magnet in it.

You blame the generator and may be you are right but the rotor won't be much better. This is a clear example of a pure drag machine and in my report KD 416 I have shown that the maximum Cp which you can get out of such a device is only about 0.07. So with the given small swept rotor area, only little mechanical power will be produced even if you drive with a very high speed.

The generator itself may have a higher maximum power than what you have measured if the load would have the correct resistance for a certain rotational speed. It is easier to get the correct load if you use a battery charge controller which can be adjusted at a certain voltage. Such a battery charge controller is described on my website at the bottom of the menu KD-reports. The voltage can be varied in between about 10 V and 30 V and for a certain rotational speed, you can vary the voltage such that the product of voltage times current is maximal. But if you have a range of different resistors with a low Ohmic value available, you also can find the resistance for which the power is maximal. Loads which are normally used for 220 V AC, have a much too high resistance to draw a considerably high current at low voltages. Even with the thin magnets and the thin copper wire, I think that it must be possible to get a higher power out of the generator than what you have measured.

[makenzie71]

I think it is entirely possible that the generator could have produced more power, but I do not think it see how it could even reach 25% of the claim with how much copper and magnet is in there.

[Bruce S]

This was just a quick confirmation so I can discard it. 

I'll PM you ,,, you can ship it to me  . I'll put it on top of one of our Fire Trucks  . Tell people it's the newest thing in Fire Truck add-ons!!

I think I heard it start to sing or Max Q, at when you were trying for 40, so probably around the 35/mph mark?

All kidding aside, thanks for putting the time and effort into this !! This will help a lot of people not wasting their time/money.

I still like the blades for shear lawn art!!

Cheers
 Bruce S

[makenzie71]

ha yeah I've already had a few people try and nab it off me but it's gone back to the seller.

eBay's "no questions asked, buyer is always right" return policy is why I don't mind trying the things out...if they don't meet the seller's description, they go back.  It actually makes it hurt a little more when they do what the seller says it's going to do lol

[SparWeb]

It actually makes it hurt a little more when they do what the seller says it's going to do lol

Very ironic!