Treadle Powered Computer

Posted on 22/07/2010 by hugh

Thanks to Jean-Paul Tarit for these pictures of his treadle powered computer.

Posted in People | 2 Comments

Real world data

Posted on 12/07/2010 by hugh

Here is a site with some real world kWh per month as generated by Eoltec, Proven and Bergey machines in the UK. Data uploaded by users.

http://www.renew-reuse-recycle.com/
Direct link to spreadsheet

Posted in UK small wind scene | Leave a comment

Courses in England and nearby

Posted on 25/06/2010 by hugh

Some course dates in England for imminent courses that I will not be teaching but they are based on my design:

V3 are doing the following:

Introduction to Building a Wind Turbine -Weekend Course
16th – 18th July, Workhouse, Wales

How to Build a Wind Turbine – 5 Day Course
26th – 30th July, Nottingham

transitioncambridge are doing

Friday 9 – Sunday 11 July 2010 (3 full days), 9am to 7pm (some nights may be later); finishing by 5pm on Sunday At Cambridge GreenTech Workshop, Harvest Way, Cambridge

£150 (bookings before 25 June); £180 (bookings after 25 June).

My own next course that I will be teaching is at CAT in Wales

29th August – 3rd September 2010

This will be my last course in the UK this year,

but I am also doing one in Ireland

13-18 September Ballinamore Co Leitrim with Eirbyte

A full calendar of my courses is here including several in the USA.

Posted in Notices, UK small wind scene | Leave a comment

Blade hub question

Posted on 22/06/2010 by hugh

Hercule writes:

Hello I’m trying to sketch in CAD the blades for a 3m turbine using your 2009 metric recipe book (I’m enjoying the read so far). For some reason I am getting an overlap of 76mm (see image attached). Have I misinterpreted your instructions (Metric Guide – Page 16) or is this intentional? Thanks
hi Hercule,

It is not important whether there is an overlap or not. It depends on the width of the wood and in some cases the edges of the blades will meet each other but there is no advantage to that and it makes no difference. I suggest that you use the widest wood that you have but at least as wide as the minimum size quoted in the manual. So there is no ‘right answer’ for the width of the wood and sometimes the overlap will be large and other times there will be none.

I hope this helps.

Hugh

Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Galvanised disks

Posted on 16/06/2010 by hugh
I have just received a batch of galvanized disks for making magnet rotors.
Some ten 300 mm diameters and a pair of 660 mm for my big windmill.
No more rusty magnet rotors!
It cost me 64 pence per kg, which comes to about £3 per small disk (about $5).
Transport was a bit more expensive going via the galvanizers,
but I think it will be worth it.

Cost per disk:
cutting £10
galvanizing £3
transport (in total) £7
Total was £20 per galvanized disk delivered to me in a batch.

Posted in Books, my own projects | Leave a comment

Bike pedal power project at school

Posted on 14/06/2010 by hugh

Here is a nice video from Delaware about a bike using the axial flux alternator for a school class project.

Posted in pedal power, People | Leave a comment

Videos of French courses

Posted on 11/06/2010 by hugh

I have just produced a video of the course in Normandy in April, building a 3.6 metre (12 foot) battery charger and a couple of smaller machines. I was helping Thomas Plassard and Tripalium with this course for CIER

Patrick Chalmel also put some other videos on youTube of the same event.

The earlier Tripalium course in the south is here

Posted in Video links | Leave a comment

Siting of small VAWT turbines in the UK

Posted on 06/06/2010 by hugh


Factors affecting the success of a wind turbine are :reliability, windspeed, swept area, cost and efficiency. I found a Quiet Revoluiton QR5 turbine at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh and I am checking out these criteria.

There is a good rule of thumb that says a wind turbine should be 30 feet above any obstruction within 300 feet. Windspeed is highly critical for energy production since the energy depends on the cube of the windspeed. There is hardly any wind for turbines sited below the ‘canopy layer’ of the tree tops. For more details check the Carbon Trust wind siting tool. The company state that “Please note that the minimum recommended average wind speed for a QR5 is 5m/s.” But they were willing to sell one to go on this site, maybe just for “demonstration purposes”?

Reliability is very important since the kilowatt hours of energy generated will depend on the hours the turbine is available. The QR5 is out of action so far as I am aware due to problems with the blade attachments. Vertical axis turbines do have intrinsic fatigue problems which along with the problems of starting and stopping, and the problems of putting them on proper towers have made them a poor choice for wind energy.

The turbine is a nice size (5m high x 3.1m in diameter) but in relation to its cost it will not produce much energy even on a good 5 m/s site. The turbine alone costs £25,000. It does not matter how efficient it is it can never produce more than about 12,000 kWh per year at a 5m/s site, and the manufacturers claim 7,500 kWh per year. A HAWT of similar size and a fraction of the cost would do the same.
Nice ornament? Or a big waste of money, and another big embarrassment to the small wind industry?

Posted in Rooftop madness, UK small wind scene | 6 Comments

Scoraig wind turbine workshop 2010 video

Posted on 30/05/2010 by hugh
I have uploaded a video of the latest workshop here

It was a fully international group with no UK residents involved at all.
We built and tested a 3 metre diameter turbine and it produced 6-700 watts peak.
Posted in Video links | Leave a comment

Another windmill born in Mozambique

Posted on 21/05/2010 by hugh

Jason Morenikeji

THE CLEAN ENERGY INITIATIVE Mozambique


more here
Posted in developing world, People | Leave a comment