Author Archives: hugh

About hugh

I live off-grid in NW Scotland and have spent my life playing with wind turbines. I also love small hydros. Hands on renewable energy is my thing and I like to learn and to share my experiences.

Upcoming course in Ireland

Posted on 28/04/2012 by hugh

On 18th June I will be joining Jimmy and Miriam of Eirbyte for another fun workshop course.  Facebook page is here.  More information here. Here is a video of a previous workshop with Eirbyte: See this page for a calendar … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, courses, Video links | 2 Comments

Power curve measurements from Comet-me

Posted on 14/04/2012 by hugh

Noam Dotan at Comet-me in Palestine (Community, Energy and Technology in the Middle East) has been sending me some interesting data from the 4.2 m diameter turbines that they  build.  The design is based on the recipe but they use … Continue reading →

Posted in CometME, products/technical, Scoraig | 1 Comment

Coleman wonder turbine gives 3x the Betz limit!

Posted on 11/04/2012 by hugh

Thanks to Doug Selsam for this helpful commentary on the Coleman 600W turbine that is only 2 feet in diameter and produces three times the notoriously obsolete “Betz limit“.

Posted in products/technical, Rooftop madness | 4 Comments

Helix Wind Asset Sale

Posted on 10/04/2012 by hugh

The company’s largest creditor is requiring that the assets of Helix Wind Corp and Helix Wind Inc, both Nevada Corporations, be sold via a public auction held at the company’s office on May 11, 2012 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time … Continue reading →

Posted in products/technical, Rooftop madness | 6 Comments

Jan Wolstenholme’s construction blog

Posted on 09/04/2012 by hugh

Some novel approaches to small wind turbine construction including setting coils in concrete… The Wind In The Wires home built off-grid windturbine adventures by Jan Wolsetenholme.

Posted in construction, People | 2 Comments

WindTracker – for Small Scale Wind Turbines

Posted on 07/04/2012 by hugh

Logic Energy have brought out a low cost but decent quality datalogger for wind. This logger simply gives you the basic info that you need which is the windspeed distribution – how many hours the wind has blown at each … Continue reading →

Posted in products/technical, UK small wind scene, wind systems tutorial | 5 Comments

Turbike.org

Posted on 06/04/2012 by hugh

Turbike.org documents the progress of Sean Callagy‘s pedal powered alternator project in Ireland. Anyone who is trying to build a pedal powered generator should find this site interesting. The project is based on an alternator that we built with Eirbyte … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, courses, Notices, pedal power, People | 3 Comments

Jonathan Schreiber winding a coil

Posted on 30/03/2012 by hugh

Thanks to Jonathan for this video with some new ideas for coil winding!

Posted in construction, People, Video links | 6 Comments

48-volt heating controller

Posted on 06/03/2012 by hugh

Here is a diagram for a simple 48-volt heating control system for a 3 metre ‘recipe‘ turbine.  I did this design for Dr Francis Greaves in Ireland. Notes: There is no battery but the voltage is stabilised by the bank … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, products/technical, wind systems tutorial | 7 Comments

Servicing the 6kW Proven on Scoraig

Posted on 02/03/2012 by hugh

I have just done a service on our local Proven 6kW (aka Proven 11, aka Kingspan Wind KW6) at the Council’s School here on Scoraig.  First time it has been taken down since 2006.  Installed in 2003 by Sangsters. Nothing … Continue reading →

Posted in my own projects, products/technical, Scoraig, UK small wind scene | 59 Comments