Comments on: Homemade Wind Turbine Generator VAWT Vertical

By: imikewillrockyou

imikewillrockyou — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:44 +0000

Using just the …
Using just the alternator bearing in direct drive and a brass bushing at top. Wood and fiberglass construction, wings at slightly less than 45 degrees in drag configuration. Likely not the best configuration for wing turbine but it works. Efficiency appears to be decent in moderate wind. However, it seems to have a built in drag limitation in higher wind. Likely a result of the drag configuration. It looks nice and works. I’ll get more efficiency with a little work. btw 3.5 lb turbine.

By: actselectric

actselectric — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:40 +0000

wow 3.5 lbs! what …
wow 3.5 lbs! what is the wattage rating on your pma. min is rated 1800 watts at 2000 rpm. direct drive is nice but for me to achieve an average of 2000 rpm i have to gear it up. somehow

By: imikewillrockyou

imikewillrockyou — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:33 +0000

The website is …
The website is windbluepower (com). Their low wind PMA reaches 12 Volts at 130 RPM which is nice for a direct drive system like this. It’s about 90 volts X 12 amps at 1000 RPM. So a little over 1000 watts at 1000 RPM.

By: imikewillrockyou

imikewillrockyou — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:33 +0000

It’s the wind blue …
It’s the wind blue low wind PMA. And yes you’ll never get 2000 rpm from a turbine this size without very high wind. There just isn’t that much energy in the wind even if you reach 100% efficiency. Once I have a turbine design I’m satisfied with I’ll scale it up and make a geared up turbine. I suppose if you make a turbine large enough you can max the alternator regardless of efficiency to the wind. So maybe cost of production vs. energy produced is the most important calculation.

By: LynxSteam

LynxSteam — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:32 +0000

I have been working …
I have been working on a very similar design. I am getting similar results. Mine starts charging at about 140 rpm or 9mph winds. Spins up and then the alternator drag at cut-in speed limits further speed increases. Most I have seen is 1 amp, but we are getting high winds of 20-30 mph this week.
I have tried gearing. There isn’t enough power in the wind at small scale.
My next step is to double the coil count and place the magnets on the perimeter of the 28″ rotor. Lets compare notes.

By: imikewillrockyou

imikewillrockyou — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:28 +0000

This small turbine …
This small turbine does very well in 20-30 mph wind. However, the size alone does limit what it can do. I’ve considered building a larger alternator. However I’ll likely just gear up a couple standard PMAs with a larger turbine in this design or something very similar. It just works. =)

By: DrewBlue86

DrewBlue86 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:27 +0000

hi i have a …
hi i have a question, what could you actually power with this? with the watts it puts out? i want to make a few of these for my home

By: imikewillrockyou

imikewillrockyou — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:26 +0000

I use it to charge …
I use it to charge up some golf cart batteries. I run power tools off of it and use it for back up power for my home. It’s possible to add a grid tie inverter and run your electric meter backward as you help power your neighborhood. Obviously this is a small but capable turbine. I just built a new improved turbine like this. I did video the whole process so I might upload that coming up. But it’s kind of long, 46 video segments! So I might need to make a DVD out of it. Or do a lot of editing.

By: centralscrutinizer76

centralscrutinizer76 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:23 +0000

Nice turbine . …
Nice turbine . Thanks for sharing the Information .I subscribed .

By: 4591rotcod

4591rotcod — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:53:20 +0000

Nice looking …
Nice looking turbine! Is it a Lift and Drag system? Thanks for sharing your video. Are you sharing the plans, and if so, how can I get them? I live in a very windy area and would like to build a system like this