Wind Generator up and running!

I dont use any governing system other than brute force loading.
I feed my wind generators back into a my home built Grid Tie inverters which are designed with a sort of exponential load rate at a certain voltage. Above a specific voltage a 2 volt increase may mean a 200% increase in power draw!

I also overbuild the generators systems by using big commercial PM DC motors so that they have considerable surge capacity well above their intended typical working range so if needed they can be short circuited at full speed in order to stall them out if the wind does get to excessive. I usually design the generator and electrical systems for a 50+ watt per square foot of swept area power capacity for continuous duty operation.

So far my only problem has been with poorly designed factory made fiberglass blades that either fly apart from bad craftsmanship or have very poor aerodynamics that limit them power wise.
Anyone with basic wood working skills and and eye for detail can make a good blade set from common wood with little more than basic wood working tools and some time. Its what I am going back to from now on.

Have you ever tried the DIY PVC blades? Looks cheap enough to try.
Photos of PVC Wind Turbine Blades - Wind

I remember seeing a huge turbine literally fly apart a while ago because its brake was broken on a (very) windy day.

Have you ever tried the DIY PVC blades? Looks cheap enough to try.

Click to expand...

I thought about them a number of times but where I live and what I run just dictates that the blades need to be robustly designed. My present system has a rotor that is 9.5 feet in diameter and tops out at around 800 RPM. Plus the wind loading at 50 watts Sq/ft generated power is rather substantial. I dont see PVC standing up to that for very long without flying apart from centrifugal forces or just folding back from wind loads.

The old wood blades a friend of mine and I made many years ago where easy to make and where nothing more than 2" x 6"'s and 2" x 8"'s that we reshaped with a band saw and belt sander.

They flew very well and lasted for many years without any protection from the weather or over speeding. Thats the design I am going back to but with some improvements and refinements next time.

For small experimental type units PVC may work well enough but unfortunately for heavy usage in the rough weather and a harsh climate like I have the old wood based designs are what proved themselves to be the only thing that can apparently survive here.

That came out really nice. I like how you pieces and parts things. Ingenuity at its best huh? Pretty slick setup and guessing from the pictures no shortage of open space and wind.

Ron

Well this one did not come out so nice. Shortly after this thread came out, about a year ago this happened.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/wind-generator-no-longer-up-or-running.93321/

Then it took me almost all year to get around to replacing it with this one.

https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/wind-generator-up-again.104543/

Which has been up and running steadily since the second rework of it at the end of the thread where I changed it to a direct drive generator using a large PM DC motor!

I redesigned the other GTI system for it, different voltage again, and it has so far back fed around 72 KWh this last three weeks since the GTI has been hooked up.

I am expecting this one will produce around 10% of my average power which is around 800 - 1000 KWh a month.

So you're replacing a single 100 watt lightbulb for 24 hours a day? Is it worth it?

Sceadwian said:

So you're replacing a single 100 watt lightbulb for 24 hours a day? Is it worth it?

Click to expand...

Umm, maybe my math is wrong but would not a 100W bulb consume 2.4 KWH per day or ~70 KWH per month.

-----------------------edit---------------------------
Oops, I misread the post. Ignore my comment

Its $10 - $12 a month the power company does not get.

Or knowing my yard lights and under house vent fans run for free all year!

Or that I can leave my computer turned on all the time instead of most of the time.

Or that my boiler controls and pumps run for free for the year.

Or that it makes others envious or jealous in some odd way because I have it.

Or that it keeps me out of the chat rooms and actually has me doing something with my skills.

Or its a hobby that keeps me happier and thus slightly more tolerable to be around.

Or that I learned some less common knowledge from the experiences related to designing and building it.

Or that it puts some of my odd collection of industrial junk to work doing something useful.

Or any combinations of the above.


I know people who spend far more on far worse stuff in a year and have nothing to show for it so at least I have something for my time and money that I invested.

tcmtech said:

I know people who spend far more on far worse stuff in a year and have nothing to show for it so at least I have something for my time and money that I invested.

Click to expand...

I like this one. :Wink