Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: DANNY on December 07, 2008, 23:52
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Ive been toying with the idea of having ago at the wind turbine for my shed,
The idea being to charge up enough battery power to service the likes of an inside light, a radio, etc, nothing to big just a few small things.
Anyone doing this or any advice on this subject, ?
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I there's a few on the market but v expensive.
If you know what you're doing, I think you can use a large motor with a suitable propeller stuck on the shaft and some sort of box of tricks to smooth or charge batteries, etc.
Dick strawbridge did something in "It's not easy being green".
Rob 8)
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Can you not make a rotor rather than a windmill construction maybe be simpler and could probably made from scrap.
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You thinking helicopter-esque Richy ??
Good idea. Less height required and less gearing too. Shaft straight down into the dynamo.
Woudl a car alternator make enough power do you think ? Geared to get enough revs through it and produce a charging voltage across a battery or two. I sound liek I know what I'm talking about but I haven't a clue !! :)
Zak is probably teh man for the electrical side.
Rob
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No was thinking of an oil drum cut in half length ways, welded back together along one length so the 2 halves faced opposite to each other, so what ever way the wind blows it catches, mounted on some thing like a mini wheel joint connected to an alternator.
Did that make any sense :lol:
Now I know what it's called a Savonius rotor like this (http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/microsavonius.htm)
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Bit like teh spinning shop signs. But doesn't blow over and roll down the street :)
Rob
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Yes that's it :lol: found one on you tube LINK (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0rI8xlq8z0c) :oops:
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I have thought about this in the past but the wife thinks i am crackers!
A car alternator would be good as the voltage is regulated to a steady 14(ish) volts, so you wouldn't need gearing if you had a large enough rotor on the front. It is also easy to couple up to car batteries which are relatively cheap and easy ways to store small amounts of electric - certainly a couple of batteries would be plenty for lighting a shed occasionally and running a car radio or something.
As I race bangers I have plenty of opportunity for bits - just never seemed to get round to having a go :)
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You,ve really given me food for thought or should I say a few blown up ideas,
What got me thinking this way was a walk along a river bank the last time I was in shropshire, I passed this canal boat and the small wind turbine was blowing away and I thought it would be an idea to have this or some way of lighting the shed on the allotment, hence never done this befor I,d ask and see if any of you lot had any ideas, and now Ive a head full of them.
Thank you one and all.
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an alternator coupled by a fan belt to a car fan blade werks just fine ... make sure its all watertight at the alternator end . we used to have one sort out our battery power in the chalet at humberstone fitties many years ago .. and it ran a portable telly :wink: you can weld the blade to the alternator pulley and then make a good housing for the alternator with a rubber grommet for the blade shaft to run outside of this :wink:
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I would have thought that a car alternatoer required a reasonable torque to turn it. If you gear down a propellor then you lose the RPM that is also required.
This lot do small turbines but too expensive I would guess.
http://www.energyenv.co.uk/WindPower.asp
Info on building your own:
http://www.bwea.com/you/byo.html
Permanent magnet generators:
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Permanent-Magnet-Generator.htm
Each have links you may find useful.
If you wanted to try it really cheap then some years ago you could buy bicyle wheel that had a dynamo as part of the hub. These turned easily but probably only produced 6v.
If you could locate one then it may be the basis of something but as I said I think they were only 6volt.
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6v would be ok if you used white LED's they can be quite bright :D
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Although wind power is great fun if you're an engineer type, if you want a cheap alternative energy light then you can get a solar power shed light kit quite cheaply.
More Info on Solar Shed Light (http://www.allotment-garden.org/greenhouse/Growlight_Garden_Power/garden-1297.html)
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Hi Danny
Check this out. http://www.velacreations.com/chispito.html
Plannng to build one myself, have most of the parts now just missing the main one - The motor, lol
Have fun in whatever you go for
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realy interested in this subject but im not mechanicaly minded, saying that i did have a caravan witch had its own battery and charger unit built in to one box. :idea: im thinking if you had a solar panel then it would slowly trickle charge the battery or you could take the box home to give it a boost :?: so if you do make a turbine this system may also work coupled with the charger and battery system. so thinking caravan systems may help,
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please keep us posted if anything or anyone makes a system that works, then maybe a moderator could post it as a sticky :lol: :lol: :lol:
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I've been thinking about this very thing too but am not mechanical or engineeringly minded. fortunately for me, my OH is and I've set him the task of looking into it :)
I've been looking at 12v or less accessories, eg a 12v heater to heat the greenhouse for a time, but the problem is you need enough energy to replenish whatever storage battery is being used
... I think :D
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The problem is that most electrical items like heaters and motors require a lot of electrical power (relatively).
Electrical power (watts) = volts x current (amps)
At 240v, if you have 1kw (1000w) then you only need to draw just over 4 Amps.
At 12v you have 1/20th the voltage so you need 20 times the current to reach the same power output.
ie. 1000w = 12v x 83Amps :shock:
That would drain a battery pretty quick and would take a lot of charging to get back to full capacity.
Ad the bigger the current, the bigger the cable diameter you need. At 4Amps a 1mm squared is more than you need,
For 83Amps you need something like 25mm squared and then you get losses that lower the power.
I'm speakign from a very amateur viewpoint but that's the basic difficulties as I see it.
:)
Rob 8)
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(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c168/WildCat69/banners/c-whoosh.gif)
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That's the simple version :shock:
I have no electrical qualifications. Just did it at physics O level, engineering HNC and picked up bits along the way.
Now ask an electrical engineer for the details !! :lol:
You'll hang yourself half way through. :x
Rob 8)
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As well as the wind turbine digalotty there would have to a couple of pieces of equipment. for example the turbine itself would have to have a blocking diode. the turbine would then feed into a voltage regulator of sorts that would allow charging to a set of batteries and be able to use them at the same time.
You could add an invertor so that you can use low power electric items.
Not sure how a the caravan system works that you mention but I just might have to take a look into it.
One of the biggest problems that I might have is that the turbine would have a 4 foot diameter and our allotment officer might have something to say about it, lol.
Andy
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you may need other components as i said im not familier with turbines, :? surely if you have a 12v system you wont need a inverter as when the power goes through the charger this will controll the power output to the battery.please forgive me for asking but im not sure why the turbine would need to be four ft. you can get them mutch smller on houses.
hope you dont mind me asking these questions as im not a sparky or engineer :oops: :lol: :lol:
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surely if you have a 12v system you wont need a inverter as when the power goes through the charger this will controll the power output to the battery
You are correct the power goes into the regular which feeds the batteries. You don't need an invertor. This would just be an extra to run electric appliances from the batterys.
not sure why the turbine would need to be four ft. you can get them mutch smller on houses.
My intention is to use a Treadmill motor. These operate at about 90 volt and have an rpm of about 5000. Used as a generator, blades at about 4' will rotate at around 400rpm in a 10/15mph wind. At this speed it should generate about 12v. Small blades will need more wind to operate.
The figures used here are only rough but illustrate why the need for a 4' turbine. In reallity 4 foot is small for a turbine. If you were to measure the ones that you see on house the will be a least that if not bigger. just look small because you are at ground level.
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hindy123 good luck with your project,youve researched it well by the sound of it, free leccy cant be bad. :lol: