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.

Some of the owner-installed Powerspout turbines that I supplied over the last twelve months

Posted on 06/02/2021 by hugh

Bear in mind that the turbines are freshly installed and working so the setup is a bit rough in some cases. Most owners will do a bit more work around and about or even build a shed although this is … Continue reading →

Posted in PowerSpout hydro turbines | 1 Comment

F-series wind turbine manual available soon from Jonathan

Posted on 24/12/2020 by hugh
Posted in construction, ferrite magnets | Leave a comment

New chapter 9 in Kragten’s public report KD 341

Posted on 13/12/2020 by hugh

Adriaan writes: “Dear HughI have added a new chapter 9 in my public report KD 341 which may interest you. The title of this chapter 9 is: “Voltage generation in a coil”. This chapter also contains three pictures of a small … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

An up-to-date list of UK sources of materials for my wind turbine projects

Posted on 01/10/2020 by hugh

My most recent wind turbine plans are dated 2014, and I don’t really make enough sales to justify updating them now but the list of UK suppliers at the back of my Recipe Book is out of date for sure. … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, ferrite magnets, my own projects, products/technical | Leave a comment

F series wind turbine designs

Posted on 12/07/2020 by hugh

My wind turbine designs in recent years have used ferrite magnets and the naming system is based on “F” for ferrite (or ceramic) magnets, preceded by number denoting the diameter in metres. Hence the 2F is my 2012 design ferrite … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, ferrite magnets, my own projects, Scoraig, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Jon Leary’s performance study of Scoraig wind turbines published

Posted on 08/07/2020 by hugh

The long awaited final version of Jon’s study based on data he collected here in 2012-2014 has finally been published and is free to read or download here courtesy of Wind Engineering. An important conclusion is the the table in … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, my own projects, performance, power curve data, Scoraig | Leave a comment

PowerSpout price increase

Posted on 25/03/2020 by hugh

PowerSpout plan to increase prices of their hydro turbines and associated gear by approximately 15% on 1st April. This will be the first rise in several years. At present exchange rates, a turbine costs approximately £1190 with an additional £150 … Continue reading →

Posted in hydro, PowerSpout hydro turbines, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

more from Adriaan

Posted on 14/10/2019 by hugh

Dear Hugh Recently I have written two new reports about small PM-generators which make use of the housing of an asynchronous motor frame size 80 and four neodymium magnets size 80 * 20 * 10 mm. Report KD 681 describes … Continue reading →

Posted in Adriaan Kragten, construction | 1 Comment

Greg Gibbes hydro turbines using axial flux alternators

Posted on 19/09/2019 by hugh

Greg sent me some photos of the hydros he is building using axial flux alternators to provide direct single-phase AC for sites in Papua, Indonesia. Here is some information. Greg’s email is [email protected] These are single phase units, 240VAC, 50Hz. … Continue reading →

Posted in construction, developing world, People, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Bench testing of Kragten axial alternator

Posted on 15/08/2019 by hugh

Adriaan Kragten has tested one of his small alternator designs and published results showing it is compatible with a 1.02m diameter rotor for a low power wind turbine. A new chapter 6, “Generator measurements”, has been added to public report … Continue reading →

Posted in Adriaan Kragten | 1 Comment