Hadn't heard of this untill now.
 

Hi GMurray,

I hadn't heard of this untill I read your post.
I appreciate this information, I thin k its time for me to burn some more midnight oil on one of my many ideas.
I particularly like the idea that its a no strings attached offer.

Thanks again,

Fries.

the IQprize thing actually closed yesterday :(

Vertical wind turbines
 

always make informed choices :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine

We want to make a windmill
 

We want to make a windmill and mount it onto the wall of our stone shed/old stable. There are existing holes in the side wall and we want to use these to mount the windmill (as we don't want to make any physical/permanent alteration to the shed).

What sort of fins would be better? Wide like the ones we see on farms or thinner blades like they have on more modern versions? What's the difference?

We want to put some sort of energy storage system/battery in the shed to store any wind generated energy and then feed this to the house to use for things like electric heaters and things that are non-essential but energy guzzling.

Somewhere once upon a time we read that a submarine battery is ideal for this sort of thing. (Anyone have a clue how I'd go about sourcing one of those :o)?

I would love to hear any suggestions anyone has and especially success stories you may have. We want to be more energy efficient and would like also to have some sort of backup if, God forbid, anything cataclysmic were to happen. We can't afford solar energy and don't think that is the route for us anyway so here's hoping someone has advice or help to offer us.

here's 3 good resources for making a simple wind turbine for those who don't feel like building the whole generator from scratch.
I used them to make my own turbine from a small re used treadmill motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mwW1phX_7M

http://greenterrafirma.com/DIY_Wind_...tml#variations
http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html

Hi all, I am mad for trying to generate my own power for garden.
However can anyone comment on the rumour or otherwise that 'you need a licence to generate electricity' ?

No you don't
 

Simple answer is no, you don't need a licence to generate your own power.

There are rules and regulations you have to follow if you intend to feed that power into the mains, there is also some expensive equipment you'd need to buy.


If you're interested in wind power, scroll down through this thread, I have posted some links that will give you some practical information in relation to building a diy wind turbine.

Hugh Piggott
 

Hi, Jimmy and Miriam here, we are the people that run the workshops on building wind turbines as posted by summersun.


And just to reply to Fries

Yes, we would love it if we could have ten people come to do a course and each one go away with a finished turbine at the end however it is just not feasible.

Not everyone who comes on the course has workshop skills, some may never have had the chance to work with hand tools before and for many people this is part of the fun - learning how to use the tools, learning how to read the instructions and apply them to the materials. Some people may have worked with metal before, or worked with wood, however we tend to find that most people have not done both to any great degree.

The cost of materials to build a 3m turbine is around €500 and it can take 4 or five people the full week to build just one turbine on a week long workshop. Sometimes the turbine does go home with one of the participants.

People learn more than just how to build the turbine, questions are being asked (and answered) everyday about how much energy you get from the wind and small turbine, best way to site a turbine, how to safely erect a mast, what sort of guy and anchor system to use, how to connect your system up, how battery banks work, system size, grid connecting etc.

People who have done a course with us sometimes come back when another course is on or by arrangement, to have us check out their blades, to do some welding or to wind coils using the workshop wire instead of having a full roll delivered to their house and having to sell on the remainder.
We always welcome back anyone who wants to do a repeat visit and don't charge for this, we believe in creating a community feeling and supporting people who are keen to do things for themselves.

Location Location, not everyone has a suitable turbine site and we have seen turbines installed by so called experts surrounded by trees or buildings so please research well before you buy or build.

Two of the most respected wind turbine gurus are
Hugh Piggott http://www.scoraigwind.com/
and Paul Gipe http://www.wind-works.org/

from Admin
 

View a video of a Scoraig wind-turbine workshop...here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/scoraigw.../2/gsJ7WIpoWks

About Scoraig, Scotland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoraig

Build your own wind turbine
 

imecofarm has a course only 3 days long showing how turbines are built and installed, and also actual hands on building a turbine over 3 days. This turbine only costs a few hundred euro to build and can be easily wired to the immersion for free hot water . The design is so robust it is being built and used in most countries around the world. The head of LIT and lecturers there in Renewable energy have atended the course to see this excellent alternative option, and have student projects linking in with the centre. People are attending courses here to learn in a practical hands on fashion, and giving options for future work for themselves. Any queries on renewables, just email me through the website www.imecofarm.com

Hi John,

I've been working on developing a small turbine for the Irish market. There are a lot of products on offer there, but they are either dreadfully expensive, or downright dangerous.

If you're interested in looking into this, you can check our work at www.turbotricity.com - we also have a training page on that site with an eight part course which gives good background on what you need to look for. (eh, the training bit was a course I was running long before I decided to make turbines, so it isn't quite a sales pitch!)

Good luck with the project. First thing though is to check your sites mean wind speed. If you contact me, I can give you details on how to do this yourself.. Q

Wind generator
 

I have just bought a 1.8m, 3 blade rotor off eBay for use on my (large)houseboat.
Initially, I anticipate using a 2kW Landrover alternator, but want to progress to a homebuilt PMA. Right now, an hour/day of battery charging @20A from a diesel generator is sufficient, but I'm not yet running my fridge-freezer which will run off an inverter.
Comments please.

Good idea to get the rotor. Have you looked at Hugh Piggotts book on how to build your own generator? If you google Scoraig, you'll find him. He has a system for making generators based on various bits - I think one was from the hub of an Opel Corsa. Car alternators usually have to be doing a hell of a lick to produce anything.

Alternator
 

Forget about using an alternator as it would have to spin to fast (for a wind turbine) to generate power to charge batteries.

What you need is a permanent magnet motor, it operates differently to an alternator (which needs an external power source to start up), The PMA will start generating power as soon as it starts turning, much of this power will not be at a sufficient voltage to charge your batteries.

You need to have a turbine that generates 13-14 v an a reasonable blade speed otherwise it could shake itself to bits and the vibration and noise they produce would be a serious nuisance.

If you scroll down on this thread you will find several links on a previous post to several sites that offer you the information you need.

I suggest you get your hands on an electric motor from a treadmill and start from there.

Best of luck with this project.

Thesis
 

Hi People,
Very interesting thread here. Its great to see such an interest in Wind power and renewable resources. Its the way forward, depending on ever price increasing fossil fuels should be a thing of the past by now. once oil runs out it can never be made again. it really is black gold and it will increase in price to an absolute crazy price not too far from now.

Any way, I came across this thread while googling wind turbines. I am researching for a thesis in college here in Waterford Institute of Technology for Architecture Technology. Im proposing for the thesis that it is would be worth while installing a medium to large wind turbine in a ghost estate in the west of Ireland. All the houses in the estate would get Electricity off the wind turbine. As ESB dont allow more than one meter per wind turbine, i propose that the wind turbine is owned by a private small size co-op and meters are provided by this co-op. House owners pay this co -op. If the savings in Electricity was high then i think this would add both value to the house and make them more salable in this economic downturn.

I'd really appreciate if any one could help me with this research if they knew anything about this topic, Any useful website or other information.

Regards,

Kieran