I am not allowed to have a wind-gen where I live, but I hope to have one when I retire.
Until somebody figures out a cheap and easy way to incorporate "variable pitch" onto the popular 3-blade PMA-HAWT, I can't imagine any way to improve it. If I ever do build one, I will exactly copy an existing proven design.
So,...I have nothing to play with for a few years, and I want to join the fun. I have read about VAWTs being used to run a 55-gal drum that agitated with an old bicycle pedal crank. It was used to wash army clothes on Pacific islands in WWII.
I have a pic of a three-drum Savonius that pumps irrigation water in a remote region. central pipe shaft, auto wheel bearing at bottom, top of shaft braced.
I can see making something similar to this new VAWT on my roof (visually unobtrusive to wife and neighbors) spinning a shaft through the roof which runs a fan that evacuates my attic. A while back I put in a thermostat-controlled 120-VAC fan in my attic. It cooled the attic enough with ambient air that my A/C cycled about half as much, saving much money (or battery Watts if I was RE).
There has to more ways we can think of to use a medium torque/low RPM shaft, that you made from free junk.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977