Test report for Recipe 3.6 metre turbine

Posted on 11/11/2013 by hugh

Rapport SEPEN 32.6 – Eolienne autoconstruite Piggot – 1.7 kW – Reseau

Above is a link to the full test report in French of a Recipe style 3.6 metre diameter grid connected wind turbine, built by Tripalium.

I can understand a bit of French, but I mostly look at the pictures, which I like because they show it producing a bit more energy than my predictions in the Recipe Book.

annual energy

I put this international chart in for your info… it’s not part of the test report! (Hugh)

This is a high budget test site, and it is a privilege to have had such a test conducted on one of my designs.  Thanks to Jay Hudnall of Ti’eole for doing this!

front page

Here is a link to a video I made with Jay and a similar wind turbine in France.

Posted in Books, construction, France, People, power curve data | Leave a comment

Logic Energy Loggers available cheap

Posted on 02/11/2013 by hugh

I have been using a logic energy mobile logger for monitoring Scoraig wind turbines.  We have produced some good power curve data for the homebrew machines on Scoraig and it’s also great for live monitoring of installations during the teething period.  It’s great to go online and see what is happening in real time.

Logic Energy have a few pre-production LeNETmobile loggers of the latest type to sell. All working fine, but they need to get rid of them.
These are full advanced systems and the hardware (the LeNETmobile unit) would cost £300 each.  The full cost including one year’s GSM (SIM card) and the portal website contract is £490.  These prices include VAT.Overview

  • These are Energy loggers (for energy meters and analogue sensors).  Sensors are not included.
  • It’s a small production batch that they usually run before full production to test for any early issues.  These are ok so nothing to worry about, the only noticeable thing is that the box as an extra hole for 2nd antenna that never was used.
  • There’re a limited number of these and no plans for more – pretty much one off.
  • These loggers have all 14 channels enabled.
  • specifications

For details or to buy one contact Eduardo at [email protected]

Universal MonitoringLOGICENERGY

Posted in products/technical | Leave a comment

Big alternator for sale in Canada

Posted on 14/10/2013 by hugh

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ALTERNATOR IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR SALE.  CHARLES HAS DECIDED TO USE IT, AFTER ALL.  (Hugh, January 2014)

Charles Haynes has built a large ferrite alternator for a project that no longer needs it.  The alternator can produce 3kW at 75 rpm with 90% efficiency.  He is looking for a home for it.  It’s pretty heavy though!  At present it is in Vancouver, Canada.

Here are some photos.  Leave a comment if you are interested in this alternator.  Magnet rotors are 40 inches in diameter.
Oct 8 -- 40 - 2 by 1 by 1 inch Ferrite Magnets on 40 inch Rotor

Oct 8 -- Coils on Stator Ring Oct 8 -- 107 Volts from 22 RPM

)ct 8 -- 103 Volts from A-F Alternator

Posted in construction, ferrite magnets, products/technical | 11 Comments

Research work published in Germany and Greece

Posted on 14/10/2013 by hugh

Here are some links to research work that has gone on recently in Berlin and Athens toward further development/documentation of the designs in the Recipe Book.  Mostly it’s bench testing of alternators.

If anyone wants me to put notices of other work on this blog then just let me know!  You can also find a lot of stuff at windempowerment.

Posted in construction, People | Leave a comment

A chance to work with Adriaan Kragten on a pumping application for small wind

Posted on 22/09/2013 by hugh

Here is an invitation from Adriann Kragten to test his design ideas and develop a pumping wind turbine project.  Please note that Adriaan has never built an axial flux generator, so these instructions are not like my Recipes which are based on decades of experience, but the document is very rigorous and mathematical, and covers every theoretical detail.  Adriaan has a designed many successful wind turbines based on induction motors as can be seen on his site.  This is a great opportunity to work with an expert.

Adriann writes:

“Up to now, 17 public KD reports about different aspects of small windmills can be copied for free from my page on the website of Bidnetwork: http://www.bidnetwork.org/en/member/adriaankragten. The most recent report is KD 531: “Ideas about a 16-pole, 3-phase axial flux permanent magnet generator for the VIRYA-3D2 windmill using 16 neodymium magnets size 50 * 15 * 15 mm”.

In KD 531, a new idea is described how water can be pumped by a windmill. The windmill has a multi pole direct drive axial flux PM-generator and a fast running steel rotor with only two blades. The pump has a standard 3-phase asynchronous motor. For the VIRYA-3D2, the windmill has a 16-pole generator and the pump has a 0.75 kW motor. The same idea is described in report KD 529 for the bigger VIRYA-3.9 windmill which has a 22-pole generator and is meant for a pump with a 1.1 kW pump motor.

Although the multi pole generator is specially designed for connection to the 3-phase motor of a centrifugal pump, it can also be used for battery charging if it is provided with a low voltage winding and if the 3-phase current is rectified.

Public report KD 490: “Water pumping with a windmill” has been modified such that this new idea is now incorporated in chapter 5.

At this moment I have no intention to build and test a windmill with a multi-pole axial flux generator but I will support someone who is willing to test this new idea of water pumping.

Adriaan Kragten

kd531

Posted in Adriaan Kragten, Books, construction, People, pumping water | 5 Comments

Another successful workshop in France

Posted on 05/09/2013 by hugh

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More photos here of this workshop by Ti’eole in France.

Posted in construction, courses, France | 1 Comment

Pico hydro in Greece

Posted on 23/08/2013 by hugh

Pico hydroelectric installation in a mountain farm on Mount Iti – Greece

March 2013 from Kostas Latoufis

Alexandros and Ioanna live for the last four years in ‘Rodokalo’, the place name of a farmland on Mount Iti situated at an altitude of 850 meters at the boundary of the ‘Iti national park’. The land was used for growing vegetables for almost 100 years and then as grassland for farm animals. Today’s new residents strive daily to reach self-sufficiency with respect to the history and natural resources of the place. On the farm exists a plantation of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, a cistern with trout and spaces for goats and chickens, as well as some beehives. Finally there is a small house for permanent residence and small warehouses for storage of tools and materials.

Kostas from the New Guinea collective, after gaining some practical experience on small hydro installations by working along with small hydro designer and installer Richard Drover, undertook the project of powering the house and warehouses of the farm. In order to meet all the needs of the residents in electricity and hot water and since the property is located far from the main electricity grid and close to a stream that is running all year round, an off-grid pico hydro plant was designed.

The system uses 4.5 l/s of water flow, which then drops down 18m of dynamic head through a 140m polyethylene pipe and drives the small hydroelectric plant.

The turbine runner has been constructed by Joe Hartvigsen while the stainless steel casing was build in the workshop of Nea Guinea in Athens, following Joe’s plans from his website h-hydro.com. The generator is an axial flux permanent magnet generator of 500W rated power, designed and locally manufactured in the workshop of New Guinea, following the construction concepts described by Hugh Piggott in his ‘Wind turbine recipe’ book. In this way, the energy of the moving water mass is converted into electricity which is then stored in a small 24V battery bank. With the use of an inverter, the system has the ability to meet all the needs of the house in electricity such as lighting, general appliances such as TV, radio etc, washing machine, fridge and freezer. At the same time, and due to the continuous operation of the pico hydro plant, all the surplus energy that is not consumed instantaneously or stored in the batteries, is used for heating water for the kitchen and the bath.

Photos from the construction

Photos from the installation

 

Posted in construction, hydro, People | 4 Comments

Maximilian Schleeff’s single side chainsaw blade carving method

Posted on 18/08/2013 by hugh

previous video

Dimensions of 3m blade

SAMSUNG

Posted in construction, People, Video links | 1 Comment

More good articles on Paul Gipe’s web site

Posted on 30/06/2013 by hugh

http://www.wind-works.org/ is Paul Gipe’s site and see more links below.

Paul Gipe has published more good stuff on his web site recently about the ‘stuff that doesn’t work’ in the small wind industry today.  It’s a breath of fresh air to read his analysis of the rip-offs and scams that bedevil the marketplace.  It’s always hard to know whether to laugh or cry but it’s at least a good thing that somebody is documenting all this.  The only question is whether the purchasing public will ever learn.  It seems that people would much rather believe in a wonderful new vertical axis invention that produces twice as much power under a bush than believe the expert opinion of people who have been in the industry for decades.

Paul’s new articles:

Rooftop and Urban Wind

Honnewell Windtronics

Shrouded & Ducted Wind Turbines

Vortec

Windtamer

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Mariah Windspire

Posted in People, products/technical, Rooftop madness, wind systems tutorial | 1 Comment

Radio masts

Posted on 27/06/2013 by hugh

Assessing a site for a wind turbine is easier these days with good, cheap, loggers available.  But the anemometer needs to be at a suitable height above buildings, trees etc, and not just mounted on a rooftop.

Here are three web links to telescopic masts that can be used for anemometers.

www.radioworld.co.uk/catalog/masts-c-632.html

http://www.radiozing.co.uk/masts_detail.php

http://www.spiderbeam.com/index.php?cat=c12_Aluminium%20Masts.html

 

and here is a good installation guide page http://www.spiderbeam.com/documents/index.php?coID=37

Posted in Rooftop madness, UK small wind scene, wind systems tutorial | Leave a comment