Savonius Rotor

[near horse]

With regard to the “windmill” versions (Dutch and in the old west), I think you’re looking for a different power usage than electricity generation, although they can do that too. Those things are good for pumping water and grinding feed etc – is that right?

Erik – what’s your storage going to be and how far from the rotor? Are you planning on running DC appliances or how will you use the electricity – inverter? Some of that can get spendy – just depends on how close to “on the grid convenience” you choose.

IMHO – the whole electric car movement should benefit the solar/wind power users in the development of better, smaller, cheaper batteries.

Carl – I never saw how you generate power at your place. What’s your setup?

[goodcompanion]

@near horse 25238 wrote:

With regard to the “windmill” versions (Dutch and in the old west), I think you’re looking for a different power usage than electricity generation, although they can do that too. Those things are good for pumping water and grinding feed etc – is that right?

Erik – what’s your storage going to be and how far from the rotor? Are you planning on running DC appliances or how will you use the electricity – inverter? Some of that can get spendy – just depends on how close to “on the grid convenience” you choose.

IMHO – the whole electric car movement should benefit the solar/wind power users in the development of better, smaller, cheaper batteries.

Carl – I never saw how you generate power at your place. What’s your setup?

Generally VAWTs and Water pumper Aeromotor type windmills both operate at low speed, high torque. Good for pumping water and grinding grain as you said. We had to gear up in order to get the higher rpms needed for generation.

The initial goal is simply to measure output so as to have an objective measure of performance. We will do this with a DC generator, a load (electric heater), an array of sensors, and a data logger. The research objective is to log 3 months of continuous production data. The output will not be used for anyone’s benefit during this time, it’s just research.

Later on my hope is to swap out the DC generator for a squirrel cage AC grid-tied generator, and net-meter the whole thing. This is kind of a separate project. It will be easier to deal with the power co. once we have assessed the performance of the device.

High winds today–that sucker is really flying!!! I would not dare to try and stop it with my hand like I did in the video!

[blue80]

interesting if we could stick it upside down in our fast flowing irrigation canals for some hydro?

[near horse]

@goodcompanion 25240 wrote:

Generally VAWTs and Water pumper Aeromotor type windmills both operate at low speed, high torque. Good for pumping water and grinding grain as you said. We had to gear up in order to get the higher rpms needed for generation.

The initial goal is simply to measure output so as to have an objective measure of performance. We will do this with a DC generator, a load (electric heater), an array of sensors, and a data logger. The research objective is to log 3 months of continuous production data. The output will not be used for anyone’s benefit during this time, it’s just research.

Later on my hope is to swap out the DC generator for a squirrel cage AC grid-tied generator, and net-meter the whole thing. This is kind of a separate project. It will be easier to deal with the power co. once we have assessed the performance of the device.

High winds today–that sucker is really flying!!! I would not dare to try and stop it with my hand like I did in the video!

You might need to put some sort of fence around it 😮

[goodcompanion]

@near horse 25252 wrote:

You might need to put some sort of fence around it 😮

Ultimately the whole array is getting hoisted and installed on the ridge of my 130′ gambrel roof barn. There it’ll be under a little roof and will look kind of like an oversized cupola, with a trim and paint scheme to match the rest of the barn. It will be accessible by interior stairs that we’ll build for the purpose, maybe 5 people at a time will be able to go up and see it, clean off snow if necessary, but the electric components will be protected from the weather, and will be able to interface with the rest of the farm electric.

[j_maki]

Very impressive. I got to ask why you went with the plywood rather than steel such as the drums. Just wondering if your design is more effiecient or if it is just what you wanted to use.

I would really like to build one of these on our farm to run lights and a water pump out at the future barn site.

I am looking forward to seeing some of your numbers when you got all your data collected.

Jeremy

[goodcompanion]

Steel drums are fine but have a much smaller “sail area” than plywood. Thus, less power for all the trouble of setting them into a tower on a shaft with bearings and such.

The design is framed around the nature of the materials that come easily to hand. Plywood comes in 4 x 8 sheets and can be efficiently made into a sturdy rotor with a lot of surface area to catch the wind. Designs for this will be distributed at the conclusion of the project, by the way.

Exposed, the way you see it in the video, the array will degrade. A fiberglass or steel version would obviously last longer, but for a basic windmill, the price of wood is right!! However we also plan to put a roof over it and seal the exposed wood with a good paint job. I expect it to last about 5 years before needing much attention.

[Author]

Posts