Portable turbine?

[RustyJunk]

Hello.

I'm interested in building a small wind turbine to use with my truck camper when I go camping on my freinds off the grid property and while at remote camp sites. It's allways sunny and windy here in the desert PNW, big windfarms are everywhere.
 While camping my electrical needs are low, I only have lights( eventualy plan on going led), 2 12v fans, 2 small computer fans to stir the air in my fridge, waterpump, and my laptop/phone to keep going. Everything elese is Propane Powered. I'm planning on building a 60-120W of solar panels for use this year, and then suppliment that with wind if it isnt enough to keep the battery full. It would also be nice to be able to charge my electric boat motor battery when I go fishing and not have to drag a Genset and charger along.

I'm thinking a 150-250W turbine useing a 4-5 foot PVC pipe prop would be good both in capacity and physical size. I'm going to build a 10-15ft "tower" out of EMT and Iron Pipe fittings that I can break down to transport.


With the Price of Permanent Magnet Motors going though the roof, I'm thinking about building a alternator/generator.

I'm not sure even where to start , Single phase, 3 phase Delta or Wye, How many and how big of magnets, how many turns of wire, what size of wire, how many coils, 1 or 2 rotors, how big of rotors! So many choices.

Is their a good simple, cheap design that I could just build? I can't really find much info about building a small Axial Flux alternator.

Edit: I just remembered someone I know's has an old electric lawnmower, would one of those motors work as a generator?

[tecker]

I've never outfitted an RV . There are several unique challenges not the least of witch is reliable mount and stow .
Hiker is probably snowed in somewhere and will kick in his builds .
 The solar is popular but the rough and tumble seem well suited for wind .   

[tanner0441]

Hi

150 to250 W with 4ft or 5ft PVC blades.... I can't see it happening.

Also always windy in the desert.. How windy? At what height? Commercial wind turbines tend to be very tall, and the blades are in clean wind.

I would think solar would be the way to go, also a five ft turbine producing a couple of hundred watts with PVC blades will be heard for some distance.

There are small turbine that are mounted on decks of boats but they only produce from 10 to 50 watts.


Brian.

[sean_ork]

There are small turbine that are mounted on decks of boats but they only produce from 10 to 50 watts.

150w isnt so difficult to achieve, but not with such large span blades - 2 blades spinning 500+ will see in excess of 100w even from a treadmill motor - given the wind

there's plenty of small turbines rated at 200 watts +

they'll hit 5 watts in a 5m/s breeze - double that and you'll be seeing over 100 watts

Rutlands Windcharger for example - £800 new, or circa £200 SH - you could easily spend much more than that building a small AF style mill that would struggle to hit 20 watts in a gale

[RustyJunk]

There are small turbine that are mounted on decks of boats but they only produce from 10 to 50 watts.

150w isnt so difficult to achieve, but not with such large span blades - 2 blades spinning 500+ will see in excess of 100w even from a treadmill motor - given the wind

there's plenty of small turbines rated at 200 watts +

they'll hit 5 watts in a 5m/s breeze - double that and you'll be seeing over 100 watts

Rutlands Windcharger for example - £800 new, or circa £200 SH - you could easily spend much more than that building a small AF style mill that would struggle to hit 20 watts in a gale

Would It be better to use smaller blades?
I don't have that kind of money to spend.

Hi

150 to250 W with 4ft or 5ft PVC blades.... I can't see it happening.

Also always windy in the desert.. How windy? At what height? Commercial wind turbines tend to be very tall, and the blades are in clean wind.

I would think solar would be the way to go, also a five ft turbine producing a couple of hundred watts with PVC blades will be heard for some distance.

There are small turbine that are mounted on decks of boats but they only produce from 10 to 50 watts.


Brian.

Well the last time I was staying at my freinds place, we were getting steady 15-20 MPH winds in the late morning/afternoon that went away at sundown. Probably 7-8 hours of winds at that speed. His property is on a large area of Hills in a large valley, it's treeless. The wind blowes from the west or the east.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[bcalmed]

Dude,

Search the site for posts/diaries for"Jerry".

[RustyJunk]

Dude,

Search the site for posts/diaries for"Jerry".

Thanks.

[JW]

When you search/research use the google search of the site at the bottom of the home page. Hopefully you will get the best results from that, but there is also a search box at the top right on the home page, it will give different results than the google search of the site.





JW

[spottrouble]

either a good treadmill motor (not all are the same) or a servo motor would be my choice, and the servos have fully enclosed houseings to keep grit and water out, whereas treadmill motors are open. Do a search on here for table saw blade carving, its pretty easy and with a 2 bladed removeable prop it will break down for storage better, imho.

Kristi

[RustyJunk]

When you search/research use the google search of the site at the bottom of the home page. Hopefully you will get the best results from that, but there is also a search box at the top right on the home page, it will give different results than the google search of the site.

(Attachment Link)



JW

Wow, that is much better than the standard search. Thanks.

[RustyJunk]

either a good treadmill motor (not all are the same) or a servo motor would be my choice, and the servos have fully enclosed houseings to keep grit and water out, whereas treadmill motors are open. Do a search on here for table saw blade carving, its pretty easy and with a 2 bladed removeable prop it will break down for storage better, imho.

Kristi

I may go bother the guys at the local scrap yard about treadmill motors tommorow, they seem to get some of them in their bin every few weeks, and Clist is full of ones around here for $50 or so.

I'll look up tablesaw carveing. I have many wood/metal working tools and quite a stock of lumber and metal bits to build this thing. All I need to build this thing is a suitable generator/low speed alternator and a big diode.

I would also like to make a clarification, when I say 4-5 foot prop, I mean Circumference, not radius. Each blade being 2 Ft to 2.5ft in length. I hope I dident make anyone think I wanted a 8-10ft prop! 

[bcalmed]

I think "diameter" is the magic word...

[tecker]

Considering deploy and stow I would be good with an delco or a treadmill motor  three to one belt drive. You can check the belt (or idler tension before you put it up each time . Both will freewheel until you hit cut