Coil winder made from 5 mm steel sheet

Posted on 14/04/2010 by hugh

Noam Dotan writes:
Hello Hugh. While making the laser cut for the new turbine, we have decided to spoil ourselves and cut the parts for the coil winder from 5 mm metal sheet. We made the coils yesterday and they cam nice and easy. Attached are few images of the parts and an AutoCad drawing of the part. The narrow slot is for the start and end wire. The wide slot is for the adhesive tape to hold the coil before opening the winder front part. The longer screw is to hold the start and end wires so one person can do the whole thing by himself. The spacing between the two parts is maintain by copper or brass 10 mm OD pipe that is cut to 10 mm length and inserted on the 8 mm screws. One can weld the screws head to the back part of the winder, so they stay in place and thus to take it apart you need to open only the middle screw nut. We cover the edges of the metal parts with tape so it will not harm the copper wire while winding It might be an overkill for a workshop but if you make quite few of them coils it is really more easy and the end result is nice. All the best. Noam

More about wind turbines in Palestine in this article.

Posted in CometME, developing world, People | 1 Comment

When the wind stops

Posted on 03/04/2010 by hugh


Vivek Mundkur writes:

Hi Hugh

I got hold of 100 LED modules and lit them up with the pedal generator.
With effortless pedalling they work. I could light up 100 more I think. Each LED takes only 0.72 watts power but gives as much light as a 15 watt incandescent bulb.

Cheers

Vivek

Posted in developing world, pedal power | 2 Comments

One way to erect a wind turbine

Posted on 30/03/2010 by hugh


Don’t try this at home, folks!

Ian Woofenden and Kelly Keilwitz assembling an ARE 442 turbine on a 120 foot free standing monopole tower. Some people have all the fun.

Posted in People, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Last minute chance for the Feed in Tariff without MCS

Posted on 22/03/2010 by hugh

MORE FROM KARL …

Hi

Yes i am on the FIT because i registered before the end of March under the existing Renewable Obligation Scheme. When i asked Ofgem they said :-


As of 1 April 2010, microgenerators in the following technologies to be covered by FITs will not be eligible for support under the RO:

• Anaerobic Digestion
• Hydro
• Solar PV
• Wind

Microgenerators in these technologies who have applied for accreditation under the RO on or before 31 March 2010 will have this accreditation transferred to the FITs scheme. In the case of wind, hydro and solar PV microgenerators transferring from the RO, they will not be required to meet the MCS accreditation requirements for new microgenerators in these technologies.

However, all microgenerators transferring from the RO will still need to find a supplier in order to access FITs. Generators will need to find a supplier within 6 months of the start of the FITs scheme (i.e. before 1 October 2010) in order to avoid any interruption to their support.


It looks like there is still time for people to get on the FIT if they can apply under the RO scheme and get it sorted out within the next week. It looks like its just for the ‘big boys’ after that.

Karl

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

New video of my latest welding project – the 3600 recipe

Posted on 19/03/2010 by hugh


Plans to build this wind turbine here.

Posted in courses, my own projects, Video links | 2 Comments

Nice homebrew grid connected project

Posted on 19/03/2010 by hugh


Karl writes:

I registered with the Npower ‘juice’ green electrity tarrif and told them i had a wind turbine i would like to connect to the grid. They sent the forms to register asking what make the turbine was and who intalled it, i also had to fit a generation meter for them to read my power output. The terms and conditions on the application do not mention having to have MCS certified machine or installer so i just told them i did it all and drew a simple diagram of the layout and told them the inverters were g83 compliant.They said it was no problem and signed me up but now after reading your blog i wonder if it will be!

The turbine i have connected is 10′ diameter mounted on a 13 meter pole. I use 3 mastervolt soladin inverters with a dump load controller in between and it ties to the grid via a standard 13 amp plug wired on its own into the house distribution board. I have built 5 more 8′ turbines as in the pictures all with laminated blades caved using templates that fix onto the sides of the blanks and follow bearing guides on a modified 9″ surface planer, it takes 5 minutes to cut the twist and taper in each and they all turn out exactly the same.All i then do is to form the aerofoil shape on the back by hand.

I hope my machine and anyone else’s will be allowed to work with the FIT as the whole idea of green energy should be above and beyond the greed that got our climate in such a mess in the first place

Posted in construction, People, UK small wind scene | Leave a comment

More photos from Mali

Posted on 19/03/2010 by hugh

Thanks to Roland for these pictures.


Posted in developing world, People | 1 Comment

Matthew Rhodes writes about feed in Tariffs and MCS

Posted on 04/03/2010 by hugh

http://www.yougen.co.uk/blog-entry/1428/Three+ways+we+could+improve+UK+feed+in+tariffs/

“There was not a single voice at Monday’s meeting raised in defence of MCS, which is an unaccountable monopoly run by people who may have their hearts in the right place but who are anonymous and naturally most interested in defending the interests of their own businesses. It creates an additional learning barrier and cost for existing, completely skilled construction contractors who might want to enter the market, and thus slows down growth and keeps microrenewables as a relatively niche market accessible only to those in the know.

It also creates a whole heap of completely gratuitous technical arguments (and diversionary hot air) about whose standards should be adopted, and who should be on which committee, at a time when the industry should be focused on creating imaginative propositions for customers.

Personally, I cannot really see why we need to confuse customer protection with promotion of renewables at all, particularly in the context of a scheme which deliberately rewards quality installations over those that work less well.

In the end, a green kWh is a green kWh and can be measured accurately by your generation meter.”

right on.

Posted in UK small wind scene | 1 Comment

Youtube tour of Scoraig wind turbines

Posted on 25/02/2010 by hugh




Posted in my own projects, Video links | Leave a comment

Wooden blades are best

Posted on 21/02/2010 by hugh


“I thought you and your wooden blade fans would be interested in this . We’re currently building a short run of 16m blades in wood epoxy in the now disused Vestas workshops in Southampton. We’ve taken an old design which was last built about 10 years ago and redesigned for birch veneer. The blades are for 400Kw Turbowind machines and weigh approx 1 tonne each. The birch veneer is like plywood but with the all grain running in the same direction. It is a fantastically strong material. Each veneer is approx 4mm thick and made up of 3 plys. Its vacuumed into female moulds along with glass and foam sandwich for the trailing edge panel.
I think we are the only big blade builders in the UK now! Crazy!”

Nick Barlow
Designcraft Ltd

Posted in construction, People, UK small wind scene | 3 Comments