Three decades later, the Arab oil embargo sparked a small-wind revival. During the 1970s, hundreds of back-to-the-land hippies began restoring abandoned Jacobs wind turbines and… Contact online >>
Three decades later, the Arab oil embargo sparked a small-wind revival. During the 1970s, hundreds of back-to-the-land hippies began restoring abandoned Jacobs wind turbines and…
wind motorI have tried a lot of turbines and the more reasonable product do not cost that much. wind generators wind turbines from Hurricanewindpower cost a lot less much less 7000$ for a tower? are you serious?
Why have you tried a lot of turbines?Tom, Was there something wrong with the first two or three turbines you tried?
You get what you pay for. If you buy a $1,000 turbine, don''t expect it to produce anywhere near the electrical production of a $40,000 turbine.
A small, cheap turbine produces even less electricity than a more expensive, more productive turbine. But small turbines are likely to be less cost-effective, not more cost-effective, than a larger turbine. In general, the larger the turbine, the more likely it is to be cost-effective. That''s why utility-scale turbines make much more sense than backyard turbines.
turbinesI just know you have a skystream pictured for your article....southwest wind power.....now there an efficient unit.....hahaha....who in the world has a 40000$ turbine in their back yard? The point is the 2 kw turbine from hurricane knocked the crap out of my power bill and cost a fraction of what you are speaking of
wind turbines & birdsWe''ve been in our home for over a year and have yet to see any birds approach the whirling blades of our Skystream; during that time, we''ve had 4 birds die by running into our windows. I think birds are smart enough to stay away from rapidly moving blades they can see, but haven''t figured a way to learn about reflected sky in windows.
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For many environmental enthusiasts, horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) — the kind that look like windmills slowly spinning in the distance — are a pretty familiar sight. Unfortunately, there are quite a few caveats that make them harder to adopt despite the fact that harvesting renewable energy sources is more sustainable than relying on natural gas and fuels that can be depleted. Since they face in one axis, they need to be able to track the wind, or else trade off the ability to maximize energy output. In turbulent and gusty conditions, as well, HAWTs face accelerated fatigue when harvesting.
The development of the vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) solves several of these issues. In addition, the turbines are typically closer to the ground and the gearbox replacement is simpler and more efficient. Maintenance is more accessible due to the size of the turbines, so no heavy machinery is typically necessary to access crucial components on-site. In addition, the gearbox by nature of its operation takes on less fatigue and is able to function in turbulent winds, which reduces the rate of failure.
For a simple version of a VAWT that you can build yourself, [BlueFlower] has published several mechanical drawings that detail the layout of the design. The wind power generator uses 24 magnets, copper wire fashioned into coils, and a metal plate for the main generator. The coils are arranged in a circular formation on a static plate, while the magnets are equally spaced on a moving circular plate. As the magnets pass over coils, the flux induces a current, which increases as the plates spin faster.
In [BlueFlower]’s initial trials using the VAWT for charging a battery they were able to generate a max power of 15W on boost mode and 30-70W when charging in PWM mode. Not bad for a home-made wind power generator!
There aren’t only pros to the design, however. While VAWTs may be cheaper, more mobile, and more resistant to wear and tear, there are some design features that prevent the generators from functioning as well as HAWTs at harvesting energy. The blades don’t produce torque at the same time, with some blades simply being pushed along. This produces more drag on the blades when they rotate, limiting the efficiency of the entire system. In addition, higher wind speeds are typically found at higher altitudes, so the VAWTs will perform better if installed on a towering structure. Vibration forces close to the ground can also wear out the bearings, resulting in more maintenance and costs.
VAWTs are inferior to HAWT thanks to a that fly in the ointment of perpetual motion: physics. Do the maths and then buy Hugh Piggott’s books.
just spent a minute trying to figure out what perpetual motion had to do with vawt. now that I’ve got that straightened out you should know that vawt do have a few positives besides efficiency which hugh mentions in book four of his misnamed hitchhikers guide to wind turbine trilogy.
It’s an obvious jab at people who take the few positives and ignore the motherload of negative points to push some particular solution over another – typical of snake oil salesmen.
If you examine the efficiency over tip speed ratio (TSR) of different types of turbines, you’ll see that VAWT turbines start to block out really early. That is, they can only utilize a narrow range of wind speeds before they saturate and cannot produce any more power. This means they’re wasting almost all of the incoming wind energy most of the time.
That, plus the fact that VAWT turbines don’t capture a lot of wind area for the amount of materials and cost you put into them, makes them generally not worth the effort.
The biggest bonus I see is that you don’t need to swing the VAWT to face the wind, it does not care what direction the wind is coming from. Another bonus is the orientation of the generator itself.
But it IS nice that no slip rings are needed.
In most locations, there’s a dominant wind direction which causes the turbine to swing back and forth on one side. Many times people get away with just leaving a lot of slack in the cable and let it twist – then they come in a year later and un-twist it.
True but this acts like a built in inexpensive safety in case of winds high enough to cause self destruction. Most have a clutch or vain to turn the blades to a point where they’re inefficient, something built in on this one.
Small thinking for small minds. HAWT’s have been in development a long time, and they still breakdown. What’s with that? By now, you should have the engineering down to a fine art. But, they still crash and burn. When VAWT’s have been in development as long, then talk to me about how they compare. When “sweep” is finally determined to be a “non starter” and they start comparing apples to apples, then talk to me. Me, I’m going to reserve judgement for the present time. I think VAWT’s have farther to travel to be “on par” with HAWT’s, but I also believe that with the right “combination” of breakthroughs”, they could surpass HAWT’s. Woops! My bad!
It’s more of a politics thing. Governments are paying subsidies – basically guaranteed prices per MWh sold – for as long as the industry can argue that they need it. So, everyone’s really just dragging their feet so they wouldn’t have to step off the gravy train. The major function of the subsidies is to remove the need to compete, because everyone gets the same prices, so the best and worst designs make no difference. They only have to last as long as the subsidies run, and then you can tear the turbines down and build new ones to reset the clock. Pick the cream off the top.
VAWTs are a hundred years old thing. The Savonius turbine was invented in 1922. The Darreius in 1926. They have been in development for a long time and many people have tried to make them work – they just aren’t very good.
The point of wind energy isn’t to capture every random gust and turn. That’s a small part of the energy that is available to a wind turbine.
The power of wind goes up in the cube of wind speed, while the probability of wind speeds at a location is heavily biased on low wind speeds, which means the most energy you will produce happens on the relatively few days with high steady winds, and those days when you’re getting winds from varying directions produce little to no energy because turbulent conditions have low average wind speeds.
Points taken. But consider this. If you value ruggedness and easy repairs over efficiency, VAWT might be a better option.
The more successful wind turbine installed down in Antarctica is a VAWT, the HAWT’s tend to get ripped apart apparently.
As a tradeoff, you get really low average power output for the cost and size of the device, and it still isn’t steady enough so you could get away with significantly smaller batteries.
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