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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
 Posted - 21/08/2008 : 12:02:22
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Hi all.
I have been lurking for quite a while on here, grabbing loads of useful information so that I could build my own turbine.
Well I have built one and used a 36v 200w geared brushed front wheel bicycle motor for the generator. I ran into a few problems along the way with blade sizes, I made 6 15" waste pipe blades but found that the mill would hardly turn due to having to overcome the internal gearbox in the motor. I next made 3 3' blades and had a little more success with those, although still needing quite strong wind to turn the mill.
I have now added another 3 3' blades to give me a 6 blade 6' prop and things have improved alot.
I live in Cannock close to Cannock Chase Staffordshire, right in the town so do struggle with getting clean wind. I have got a good clean path wsw, sw and west, so can take advantage of some of the wind directions.
My setup consists of a total of 30w in solar panels, 3 40ah sla mobility scooter batteries wired in parallel to give me a 120ah 12v system, I have a 4amp charge controller for the solar and have that and the mill running through a Watt's up meter.
The mill is producing power in the gusts and last Saturday i saw a peak of 12.7 amps from the mill.
I have been wondering if i need to build a charge controller for the turbine and have a dump load. Any advice any of you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Here is a flickr link to some pictures that i have taken. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29666566@N03/
I have also got a weather station online at http://weather2.andyn.net if anyone is interested in weather aswell.
Cheers. Andy.
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fungus
Moderator
305 Posts |
Posted - 21/08/2008 : 16:15:09
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| Very nice project .. where did you get the motor from? |
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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Posted - 21/08/2008 : 16:42:18
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Hi Fungus.
Thanks, I got the motor off the wonderful world of Ebay. It came as a full 26" front wheel, so I removed the rim and spokes and made the blade hub out of 12mm marine ply and mounted it using the motor front cover mounting points (8 m5 bolts)
This auction is the same wheel and motor as mine, same seller aswell. Wheels usually go for around £50-£60
Item number: 220271009519
Cheers. Andy. |
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Victor
Average Member
United Kingdom
522 Posts |
Posted - 22/08/2008 : 13:39:47
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| Looks like the front hub off an electric bike which tend to be around 36volts. If that is the case the turbine will put out a good voltage in low winds. |
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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Posted - 22/08/2008 : 15:58:31
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Hi Victor.
Yes it is a front hub motor at 36v. I will try and set up my spare bike computer on it this weekend and see what it is actually producing at a range of rpm. It does get upto cut in voltage very quickly (possibly to early) looks like about 80-100 rpm to cut in speed, although I could be wrong.
Cheers. Andy. |
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gotwind
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
1067 Posts |
Posted - 22/08/2008 : 16:00:58
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Great work Andy.
Can you explain a bit more about how you got your weather stats online, in real time?
pretty impressive, is it relativly straight forward with the right software?
I have a Ventus wireless weather station.
Ben. |
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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Posted - 23/08/2008 : 22:02:41
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Hi Ben.
First off you need a weather station that will connect to PC, not sure if yours does or not. I use a piece of software called Weather Display and the online part is called Weather Display Live. The software is not too badly priced, although if you get the main software and you can do Flash, you could write your own live part. I have written a small Windows Mobile Flash version to use on my PDA/Phone and it works great.
My weather station is a WS2300 wireless, I also have some 1 wire devices that I use with the software.
The software can be downloaded from http://www.weather-display.com/index.php and there is a 30 day demo version and also a free linux version.
I built a small 1 wire interface to measure my battery state from my solar and wind turbine, on the live page it is the Solar Power Meter. At 90% my batteries are fully charged and anything above is float charge, 100% = 14v on the batteries.
Hope this helps.
Cheers. Andy. |
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gotwind
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
1067 Posts |
Posted - 23/08/2008 : 22:15:45
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Thanks Andy.
I will pass this on to our web guys.
Interesting stuff, well done.
Ben. |
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gholt
Junior Member
USA
107 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2008 : 04:59:16
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Hello Andycap,
quote:
I have been wondering if i need to build a charge controller for the turbine and have a dump load. Any advice any of you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Contact either Fungus or Ghurd about Ghurd's dumpload-charge-controller. It's dirt cheap, easy to build and works!
There's also some other fellow on this forum who makes and sells them - although optix-something is as close as I can remember to his nick, and that may be way off the mark - my apologies to opti-whatever-your-name-is ... sigh.
G. |
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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2008 : 16:21:18
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Hi Gholt.
Thanks for the info, I will have a look at Ghurd's controller, I have built a quick and dirty controller that starts dumping when the battery level gets to 13.8v. I have a 12v 55w car headlight bulb connected to it at the moment to take some of the excess current, I may need to find something else though because today has been quite windy (19mph gusts) and I have recorded a peak of 14.29A or 213.6w from the turbine and the headlight bulb has been on and off all day.
I only have 120ah storage at the moment and I am hoping to increase this sometime this week funds permitting.
I am very pleased with the performance of the turbine so far and quite supprised to see a peak of 213.6 watts on the Watt's Up meter, my weather station only recorded a peak gust speed of 19mph and a maximum average of 17.3mph.
I wonder what output other people are getting in built up areas.
Andy. |
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Tim
New Member
80 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2008 : 20:51:06
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Andycap
My own urban HAWT, 10 ft dia prop on a 1KW stepper motor, doesn't start playing until a WNW gets interesting (turbine is wind shadowed from most other directions). However, in the gales this Spring it poked out over 30A at 30V. Since then though, not a peep, wind from the wrong direction. Underlines what the estate agent types keep saying : "Location, Location, Location".
Edited to add : re divert controller - it's Myk, aka OptixElectrics - don't want to post his real email here because of web crawlers but try taking the word "crap" out of "thewizardsapprenticecrap@hotmail.co.uk" or "myk@optixelectricscrap.co.uk" - have spoken to him on both addresses, very helpful. |
Edited by - Tim on 25/08/2008 21:14:02 |
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gotwind
Forum Admin
United Kingdom
1067 Posts |
Posted - 25/08/2008 : 20:56:31
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Personally, Urban locations are very poor.
I have never seen over 3 amps@12v from my Ametek in my back garden,
I've seen 9 amps on my brothers farm - not that high, but a massive open space without any obstacles.
As Tim mentioned "Location, Location, Location".
Ben. |
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shawn
Junior Member
United Kingdom
186 Posts |
Posted - 27/08/2008 : 10:22:46
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| Hi Andycap, Have you cracked the motor open to see if its possible to get rid of the internal gearing? Gearing usually means less efficiency. What do the brushes do as well? has it not got permanent magnets inside it? |
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Andycap
Starting Member
United Kingdom
9 Posts |
Posted - 27/08/2008 : 22:21:27
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Hi.
It would be nice if you could get that output all the time Tim, I think I will have problems with wind shadowing, my best direction is SW and that is the direction that the wind has been blowing the last few days. I think come winter that I may have problems with wind direction and turbulance.
Ben do you get a regular 3amp? mine is up and down like a yo yo. Today I have not seen hardly any output due to low winds.
I have managed to generate 538wh in the last 4 days, not near enough to go off grid but enough to run some garden lights, my network switch, garage alarm, weather station, my security cameras and a few other bits and peices.
Shawn the motor has a planetry gearbox and is part of the hub, I know that i get some loss from the gearbox but I don't think it would be practical to remove it. Brushed as in DC permenent magnet motor inside the hub. I mentioned the fact that it was a brushed motor because you can get brushless hubs that look the same.
I have designed and built a new dump load controller today and so far it seems to have passed every test that I have thrown at it. The specs for it are, N channel mosfet output for dump load with a current handling of 30 amp (easily increased by adding more power fets), 10 second delay to hold dump load ON after trigger to prevent rapid switching, dump load soft start and soft stop, adjustable trigger voltage. If anyone would like to build one then just ask and ill post the diagram for it.
Cheers. Andy. |
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windymiller
Junior Member
United Kingdom
113 Posts |
Posted - 28/08/2008 : 09:07:09
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Hi andycap...
Nice to see another brushed scooter/bike hub as a wind genny.
Did something similar many moons ago with good results .
I eventually took it down after concerns about safety (12 blades)
Best up to date relating to good wattage per rpm(for me that is )....no cogging felt also.
Commutator and brushes checked afterwards for wear.....absolutely no wear evident on commutator...brushes showed a tiny bit of wear...quite a bit of dust circulating though.
A bit awkward to mount securely also .
I also liked it because it was gearless,so less to go wrong.
Cheers WM |
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balltip
Starting Member
Sweden
5 Posts |
Posted - 01/09/2008 : 19:22:27
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Hello all! First time poster here, so maybe a short presentation would be in order.
My name is Per, aged 39 and live in Sweden. Apart from lurking on different wind/solar and water power forums I spend a lot of time flying model rockets (mostly MPR nowadays since I begun making my own KNSU-motors), petting my dogs (borderterriers) and spend quality time with my wife. I also work on occasion (okay, got my own little company going).
The reason why I post in this thread is because the original poster, Andy, showed something that struck me as just about plain perfect!
"A reasonably cheap motor/alternator that should be possible to locate is a good thing" I thought to myself. Looking on eBay revealed that there were no sweet deals to be had at the moment. Two people I've emailed on eBay regarding other alternators seems to be reluctant shipping out of the US, and thus I had to turn elsewhere.
Googling for "hub motor 36V 200W" revealed an amazing thing - those motors are available over the counter! And not very expensive either, $77. Au!
This seems to be a very reasonable alternative for me, living where I do. Shipping is steep no matter where I find a motor/alternator as long as it is located outside of the EU. (Not to mention customs!)
Until I saw this thread I had my mind set on the Windblue 540 but now my plans might just have changed.
I emailed the place where I had found the hub motor, greenprobike.com, and they replied that they absolutely ship internationally, and that their motors are brushless. (I forgot to ask if they also are gearless but that answer is just an email away.)
Now I am only a day or two away from ordering the hub motor that can be found here: http://www.greenprobike.com/dispdet.php?ids=0808061836470991
I am not looking to power my house using this but only a few reading lights and maybe a radio and so. About 3-4A in a medium wind would be totally satisfying for my needs. Battery bank will be something in the order of 150-200 Amps for starters. Maybe go bigger later on but for now that is all I need.
Any thoughts regarding this "find"?
Cheers!
Per
(If anybody would happen to know where I can find this motor, or a similar one, within the EU for a competitive price then please let me know.) |
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Topic |
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Home built turbine using 36v bicycle hub
