Finishing The $100 Wind Turbine
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ม.ค. 2021
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Awesome rob! Thanks for including us in your process. This is some of the best content on TH-cam!
This has been a great series , I just binged it. I would love to find out how long it takes to charge the battery.
Love your channel and your practical experiments! Thank you so much for all your work. This is the type of channel I like to support.
Found this by accident. Watched the whole thing. This is brilliant. Appreciate your no nonsense approach and honesty. Great project. Inspirational to watch this. You should be proud of this.
Enjoyed the entire series; the concept is brilliant, you should be proud of your accomplishment.
The idea is really interesting, I love the way it has changed and evolved.
The other day was a first for me, I finally broke open my first inverter type microwave, I managed to desolder and save two IGBTs and some Capacitors, inductors and a nice power resistor.
Excellent design Rob. My challenge to you is to plot the charge rate using the fan/blower so that wind speed is a constant and then do the same with a venturi style input shroud that vents the exhaust through the top and bottom of the rotor. Extra work but I think you will be delighted with the increased efficiency. Keep up the great work.
This is the best and most effective desigh of the vertical turbine.
Hi Robert. Great project. I started following your channel after I discovered it sometime last year during lockdown while on TH-cam and as I also like to salvage parts from thrown away stuff, I liked the way you also do the same and the nice way you share those ideas. I have dozens of boxes full of spare parts of everything in my garage and also like to build something of it. I can also share your feelings of welding and although I have been welding since 1975, I still struggle as I am not a professional welder and only weld every other month or so. Every time it takes me a few welds before I can weld reasonable again. I wanted to build a VAWT now for a while and do like your latest design. I personally feel the structure as well as the magnets and coils are definitely the best option when you want to get the best system from salvage parts. I am however concerned about losses in your system, not mechanical as your design looks like it runs very smoothly and with minimum mechanical interference. My concern is with the electrical losses in the diode bridges rectifiers. If you did use the cheap ones, you will have +/- 1.4 volt loss with each diode bridge. I do not know what voltage is generated per coil and if it is high, then the 1.4V loss could be insignificant. If the generated voltage is however low, then the losses per coil could have a huge impact on the power generation of the unit as the same losses are per coil and the total loss is the sum of the losses of all the coils. It could be beneficial to investigate into some other method to interconnect the coils in some other configuration and get a three phase output, which can then be rectified. This will end with a higher voltage and also a lower loss over the diodes as there are now less diodes . It can however impact on the cost as the diodes can be more expensive as their ratings will be higher, but there are still salvage parts available somewhere. You will use only 6 diodes for three phase rectification, where you now use four diodes per coil. Anyway, just a thought from my side and keep on with the brilliant channel and work.
My next project! Thank you so much for this series!!
Great work. Thank you. We look forward to better weather over there for real testing!
It would be interesting to see something like this adapted to work with water. It could be set up at a remote retreat with a stream to maintain batteries and run lights etc.
looks Awesome!, Looking forward to the results!
We have to figure out when it pays for itself because that is the major point of celebration!!! Once again this is amazing and I hope to get to a project like this in 2021.
Please don't waste your time , this guy doesn't know what he is doing . There are many fine books available that will teach you everything about wind turbines and you can even learn the simple turbine equations which if he used would have saved this clown hours of work !!!
Fantastic job
Patent pending?
You should.
Many thanks 👍😁👌
Congrats Rob!
I understand that many people can offer advice on how to improve something after someone else has done the ground work and that is great. Any viable improvements simply make the whole project more successful. However, lets stay focussed here on simple economics. Once you have built a unit, at whatever final cost to the individual. In Rob's case less than 100 quid, because he scavenged parts and did the work himself. Your pay back is only a matter of time. With virtually no operating costs of the unit, and no doubt very little maintenance moving forward, you will generate enough electricity to pay off the cost to build. Once it has repaid the manufacturing costs the rest is all profit. Now that is what I call a great result.
Invest some time and effort and a little bit of cash for an indefinite period of reward. That's great economics if you ask me!
I cannot afford a commercial wind turbine, but I can copy Rob's work and afford, in my case, a couple of hundred Aussie dollars.
Great point, It's a garage project done on a tight budget and I think he's achieved an awesome result. It also looks like a very low maintenance design and could easily be upscaled for more output just by adding more coil packs and magnets. I believe his design must be more cost effective than a commercial model and he's also teaching and inspiring people in a fun way.
Love this series and your channel in general!
Nice job. Learned allot. Understanding what windpower can und cannot do.❤
Impressed and inspired! Will for sure build a similar wind turbine as a compliment to solar panels charging batteries. However, I would love to see the end result of this build, running a few months "on the roof"... :)
Now that is true repurposing or "up cycling" of many parts and demonstrating the model works. Thank you
Rob, this would be a great time to stick the meter in-line with the circuit to measure the actual current going through the battery. Seeing you're charging a 12V load, you could quite easily calculate the power from the current, and you wouldn't be measuring short-circuit current. Also, what's the open-circuit voltage?
Agreed. Even if it is *100W* it was only 100$ which would put this actually very high up the food chain with regard to cost/output.
What would be really really useful is a wind generator + graphene battery combo.
@@canadajim He hasn't shown more than 10W output.
@@evaluateanalysis7974 Exactly , it's a non profit con if you know what I mean . He does not even realise the ramifications of wind speed in the output calculation of a wind turbine specifically the velocity cubed component .
Pwind = 0.5 * ρ * v³ * A
where:
A is the sweep area
ρ is the air density, assumed to be 1.225 kg/m³ by default (you can change it in advanced mode)
v is the wind speed - the typical usable range is approximately 3-25 m/s
@@dongraham4760 Hi Don, do you know of any reliable instruction for a windturbine?
Enjoyed this series. Good information given out which will be of use to many others.
If I lived near a running water source I’d consider a water wheel for a constant power supply, coupled with a solar panel or two it would be a helluva saving on energy bill.
Yes current etc would be interesting 👍love it nice job
Awsome...can't wait to see what's next.
Why not put 38 more coils on the top of the generator, similar to how they're placed on the bottom?
How would that affect output?
this will be ideal for my next project
Rob, I make wind turbine's for fun and profit. We need to know wind speed (you have an anemometer and a multimeter...), rpm, volts output, current output. I mean, you have to know that it is above 12v to even charge your battery.....
If you notice he said the Voltage is 12V045 at that moment in time as he was charging the battery. The battery is of course a load and will lower the open circuit Voltage depending on the state of charge. A flat battery just needs a differential Voltage to charge it, so 12V is not really worth while for charging a lead acid battery, which should be charged at around 13V5, however as long as the differential Voltage is big enough(but not too high) the battery will charge.
Unbelievable smart machinery ! 😃😃😃😁
Great series, I have two questions: 1 Did you ever think of adding the same amount of coils on the top of the turbine. I have this question since you indicated that the amount of coils did not slow the turbine down. 2. What would it take to have either increase the surface of the vanes (make them wider) and/or could the vanes have a small lateral movement. They would be "teeter-tottering" not unlike a sailing vessel. When they go for the wind, they show more surface. when the turbine turns 180 degrees they would be "cutting through the air" lessening the friction from the vane against the wind. I am not an engineer, I am more a thinkerer than a tinkerer. I did some sporadic sailing when I still lived in Holland and was the guy that had to move the boom from one side to the other to catch the best/most wind.
That's awesome Rob! Maybe consider putting a buck boost circuit between the capacitor(s) and the battery as a rudimentary MPPT regulator... 👍👊👏
I'm going to add that to my electric bicycle powered by a 1.2V NiMH battery, that'll make it work.
You are such an intelligent and interesting man.
It will be very interesting to see how long it will take to fill a leasure battery if you have one of them knocking about or one of ones you built👍😉
Hello Rob. If there was a white or other than black mark on the wheel we could appreciate the speed.
Cheers.
Amazing project. One question if applied the design to a exercise bike could that be a practical power source? I was thinking less weather proofing
Thank you Robert for sharing your time and efforts on this project. I have two thoughts about improving the design from the aerodynamic end.... First, the cost of the material for the blades is very low, and doubling the length of the blades would double the area of wind energy collected with no more effort or materials at the top or bottom where all the electronics and mechanics are. Second, the baffles can be increased in number and rotated counter clockwise maybe 30 degrees to bias the incoming wind to improve the efficiency of the blades collecting the energy. Adding and canting baffles would increase the wind pressure on the inside of the blades, while decreasing the resistance wind pressure on the outside of the blades. You would be in effect creating an aerodynamic stator on the outside of your aerodynamic rotor. Think of it this way... you actually have the mating of an aerodynamic rotor/stator pair with an electrical rotor/stator pair.
getting interesting .... hold on Robert! ... let me bring the popcorn. excellent!
I'm glad to see to took my advice on the dryer drum and coil now you have the generator! It would be just amazing if you would incorporate A water (RAM PUMP) gravity and enclosed tank system using squirrel caged as water A turbine and you literally have a endless power supply with water of course can be collected from rain on roof and stored in tank being main source of water and your supply and a recycled use of water supplying the ram pump in an all enclosed system! You can also make a trompe creating air pressure making a hybrid!
Get off the couch and go to the library and get some basic physics books , study !
Mechanically it is looking very good.
With the bridge rectifiers on the coils, they will stop back-flow, so you don't need the diode on the filter cap.
Also, with that many coils, I'm willing to bet that if you put a scope on the output, the ripple will be so low, you don't need the output cap, especially the few uF of a microwave cap.
So just connect the output of bridge rectifiers directly to the battery for the test. It will work fine.
In a more permanent setup, , the main problem is runaway at high winds. You'll eventually will need a dump load or a mechanical way of stopping it.
Last, if you are expecting something around 2KW, then at @ 12V, that's 166A! In your final setup you'll have to get much more beefy bridges than you have (and think about fusing... maybe just small sacrificial hookup wire to the coils?)
this was my fear, runaway is not accounted for here. Sure he doesn't get high winds often as he said but it only needs to explode once....
So if it is free running even when generating current would it be good to add another ring of coils above the magnets to double the output? If that is possible the maybe you could make say a four stage generator or as many as you want. All very interesting and thought provoking.
Greetings from Winnipeg CANADA
Rob, really enjoy all your builds (especially the past few months).
Nice to see the cool projects (i.e. Steam Punk stuff), and the practical stuff like THIS WIND TURBINE.
- When might we see what this generator can produce? PUT in on the ROOF :)
Thanks in advance!!
Just thought of a question --- And INDUCTION COOKTOP can be made from SPINNING MAGNETS to efficiently heat a METAL POT.
IS the BASE MAGNETIC ? Could the base be AFFECTING PERFORMANCE in any way?
Cheers!!
Mr Murray-Smith:
This is some inspired work for pig-headed VAWT enthusiasts like myself! Any chance of a video update with more field testing? Also, any chance of the shroud/cowling making a reappearance, or was it ineffective at concentrating the incoming wind?
Cheers,
Rob Capps
I'm looking at this with the thought in mind to build one myself later. I've done some layouts and i think i've worked out the electronics to make a design similar to this adapt itself per wind speed. I note that your graph ends at 22m/s (50mph, ish). I've not done the maths yet to work out the velocity at the outside of your drum but i'm trying to work out a way for it to deal with very high wind speeds, more to keep it alive during a gale than to maximise power - Did You work out if there's a stall speed for your blades? Eunice gave us a 122mph wind, that's maybe unobtainable but it'd be nice to be able to deal with the surprisingly common on the pennines ~70mph gusts we get.
I rally like this Build! It's really a Great wind power device. I am curious how things have gone for this over the last year?
Also, thanks for the Betz' Law info @1:23
Rob, Inspiring work. I will try to reproduce your design to light the house in the Colombian mountains. God bless you regardless if it works or not.
Nice job! 👍 Depending on the max voltage/current expected from the turbine, I would have thought some form of regulator, post capacitor, might be prudent at some point to complete the electrical setup? But I'm sure you've thought of that already... 😁 I'm very interested to see the kind of power you'll be able to get out of it... 👍
I wish you did a current measurement as well as the voltage measurement. Also RPMs. With the blower holding the rotor at a relatively constant speed you could derive a nice windspeed to power baseline. 🙃
My thoughts exactly. You can quite easily derive a rough value for the RPM from the video though.
He has a workshop full of ammeters. He simply refuses to do it.
Need to find out what the SI unit of awesome is before doing any measurements.
@@gustavfenk4021 LOL!
@@matutolaYT
You can baseline RPMs not necessarily wind speed. He already has a chart for windspeed to power, so he must know what the RPMs are at a given windspeed right?
IT'S A GREAT IDEA FOR OUR MOTORHOME. ON A SMALLER SCALE. WITH A LOAD CONTROLLER AND A WAY THAT IT DOES NOT EXCEED A CERTAIN ROTATION SPEED WHEN THE VEHICLE IS MOVING. ALSO WORK WITH THE VEHICLE STOPPED. I'LL GET THIS IDEA OFF PAPER.
hey Rob, do you already heave any results. whow many times did it toke to load the battery
That's looking pretty damn slick.
If you're interested in finding what its actual efficiency is, all you really need, I'd have thought, is a big old resistive load current sink, like a toaster, kettle, or radiant heater coil, hooked up directly to the output, in a relatively steady wind, and measure what it's capable of pushing through it. No, that's not a realistic usage setup, but it should be able to give you an idea of what its actual output is for a given windspeed as measured with your handheld anemometer. Get a few data points, compare to your theoretical graph, and extrapolate if possible.
My guess is that you're not gonna be doing too badly, and like you've said all along, it's not really peak power that's important, but what you can pull out at low speeds, but that's still impacted quite heavily by the (electro) mechanical efficiency of your setup.
Would love to see how long it takes to charge my 425ah battery bank from a discharged state. I have a very small squirrel cage I salvaged from the fan of an air cooler. I am thinking of adapting this idea to give my solar system a boost but have coils on both ends of the cage. I guess the only way to learn is by giving it a go. Thanks Rob.
I guess the reason why this is an uncommon approach is that manufactures assume that if you're going to go to the effort of installing a turbine you'll put it somewhere windy.
That's great, We'll wait and see what happens then. Even if it is only 500 watts, that's a great deal if you get enough wind for it to do that consistently.
Thank you smart man
How about adding 3 or 4 wind guides. By doing so, you will get rid of negative push.
Wow, that is one smooth machine, looks really sharp in black. Maybe name it the deathstar 1.2kw :)
A 3 phase axial flux is the way to go. Number the coils 1-2-3/1-2-3 etc connect all the 1's in series,the 2's then the 3's in series to end up with 3 sets of output wires. The coils all go the same way, you make a make a mold fill with autobody resin only thickness of coils,then make another ring of magnets that attract opposite ring,powerful flux between them goes through the coils,makes an AC alternator that you convert to DC with a bridge rectifier to charge batteries you tube james biggar or muddy man videos good going mate. I love to repupose trash.We live in a disposable world which 900 tons a day ends up in the ocean
Do you have an update on this harvester? Did you put it on your roof? What was the yield?
Really nice to see that turbine finally seeing some use. I would suggest to remove your "anti-backflow" diode though, as its functionality is already included with the full bridge rectifiers and its just eating up precious voltage at that point. Btw, did you use schottky (0.4V DD) or just regular pn Diode Bridge rectifiers(0.7 DD)?
I agree. Anti backflow diode is not needed. Magnets seem pretty evenly spaced this time. Spacing coils on phase even distances, put them in series and only then use a bridge rectifier might do and would save the power lost on all individual bridge rectifiers.
I'm afraid the power target will not be met by far. Losing the cores and solid oven transformers was a bad idea in that respect. No matter what, it's a lot of fun.
Diode is needed so as to not keep draining the battery into the capacitor when the turbine is not producing power.
@@gravelydon7072 Yeah sure but we are talking about something in the range of microamperes for the leakage current of the cap. If you are willing to forget about those microamperes, the capacitor just takes power to charge. Once its charged, it acts like an open circuit.
@@headlessxp4948 Even multi Farad capacitors have a discharge rate of under two weeks so the mA loss does add up. Maxell 2.7V 5F super capacitors will self discharge in 10 days as an example and may be under usable Voltage in less than a week. Discharge rates per one person's test showed from 5% overnight up to 50% in under an hour. So a blocking diode can help and as Robert is using used capacitors, we have no idea how they fall in that range of rates.
@@gravelydon7072 But we are talking about HV capacitors in the 10s of uF or even less and rated for more than 2kV and 10MOhms leakage resistance. Also, if those were to develop the kind of leakage you are talking about, they would dissipate about 0.003 ("the mA loss" -> i will be generous and say 3mA) * 2000V = 6W. At 6W of heat pumped into it, that cap would blow up after no time. This means that even at 2kV, their leakage current has to be lower than what you said ("the mA loss"). And since Rob is using those caps at 12V, the leakage current will be basically 0.
Wonderful job! I'm looking to make something similar if i just could have the same hand work capacity, anyway i'll start with a smaller turbine to install on a balcony so i think i could use a car alternator, to get smaller size but enought results
I live in an HOA subdivision. Esthetics count for more than increased home valuation. This wind harvester could be concealed within a seeming chimney (artfully painted) and take over the lighting load on a home.
Great job.
Thank you for such a well explained series. May I ask, will we be seeing this installed on a roof and charging domestic batteries? I'd love to see something like this completed and working. I think it would give me a lot more confidence to be the next penguin off the cliff.
If you were to have a way to double the speed of the coils passing the over the magnets without changing the gearing or wind speed. Would that double its efficiency ? And could you guess what kind of modification i am thinking of its relatively simple .if i had the proper materials i would do it myself.your projects allways get my brain stirring thanks for that .
I'm just working my way through this project. Sorry I'm late to the party. I'm finding it very interesting.
One question that has crossed my mind is, do you think it will ever generate as much power from the wind, as you have used to test it.
It's a beauty!
Hi Rob, when this project is completed and you've exhausted variations would you be willing to share schematic plans? This is exactly what off-grid needs along with solar and or water turbine.
I would be very interested to know what is going on inside the drum as far as air pressure is concerned.
Hallo and thanks.
What about installing a flywheel with cluch to it and then a generator. This might remove the wind up and down factor??
By adding more magnets and more coils to the top of the turbine you could double your output
Perhaps Rob needs to find out how much of the available energy his existing coils can draw from the fan before adding more?
I really like the simplicity with only one moving part. How do you intend waterproofing all the coils.
You could use the waterproofing spray that off roading groups use ?
Would they still work if u just embedded them in resin?
@@poseidon201 you could but if you had to replace a faulty coil that's a lot of hard work removing the resin
@@dazer123 sorry I meant individually. I mess around with leftover roofing resin. Its cheap as chips when you buy in big drums. Could you not put each coil in a tiny cardboard box, or something similar, with the wires trailing. Fill the box with resin to make a small block, then glue or clamp in place, so each can be individually replaced. ??
Can you deploy is alongside a commercial one? We can compare the Watt per buck and if the wind happens to be exceptional we have a baseline.
If the power is capped by turbine size wouldnt you get better results spreading the mots out between four turbines wired in parallel/series?
fantastic i wonder if you made the bottom disk a little bigger you could generate of both poles of the magnet by putting another ring of coils above in fact you could fit 4 generator coils to your device by fitting 2 coil systems to the top disk the possibilities are endless but you have demonstrated this very well
This has been a great series and I too have just binge watched the whole thing ( like MrMoekanz below said). If you are up to making any other modifications, I wonder if you would be interested in adding a Marx Generator around the bottom, near the coils before the charge goes into the larger capacitors and then into the battery for charging.
Did you ever get a power vs wind speed measurement to compare to the theoretical?
Yes how long will it take to charge the battery is exactly the data I am looking for!
What kind of open voltage do you have
just a thought, could you not use the other end of the cylinder with the same setup and double up the output?
You are so bloody awesome mate. I can't help but think its super efficient because you made it.
My first hho generator seems to produce ok but I failed to seal it properly so I need to go back and play some more.
What do you use your HHO with?
I mean how do you use the gas to generate?
@@garethb5729 I want one for my car, one to replace my blow torch and I'd like to make a workshop heater. I'm not sure if I understand the question mate
@@karlmyers6518 ok yeah sweet. That's what I ment.
Do you want any tips?
@@garethb5729 Yes please, I went for. Fairly simple setup with a 2ltr mayonnaise jar , really fine stainless mesh and bicarbonate soda. I might look at buying some gas fittings. I now have a couple of microwaves to make more amps but each setup will probably be a little different for different applications
@@karlmyers6518
316L grade stainless works best.
Car.
The ignition source occurs a few degrees before dead center for standard fuel.
Change this timing too a few degrees past dead center.
Torch.
About an egg cup size of HHO sounds like a shotgun at point blank range.
Keep your bubbler small. Make it on demand, don't store it. And pay extra attention on your flashback arrestor. Tbh I haven't spent much time on torches, far too scary for me.
Heating.
Pump the HHO through a catalytic converter and it recombines into water. Red hot with no flame.
Love this guy! He is an engineer version of Anthony Hopkins- the Welsh actor :)
When i remember correct, your original wind generator had a diameter of 1m. On the height maybe 50 or 60cm. Now you went smaller where i would have expected that it would make sense to keep the diameter but maybe increase the height to 1 or 2m.
What i like in the design, the generator is working with small forces.
What If You Made Another Set Of Magnets & Coils For The Top Side End, Thus Doubling The Output? Thanks
That is an incredible build, well done to you fella. I'm a heck of a newbie when it comes to electronics, and I'm wondering you'd do a simple tutorial on how to wire stuff like that up from the magnet down to a capacitor and battery etc. I have no idea what a full bridge rectifier is... 😅
I do know that a rectifier changes AC to DC, that's all.
So...
When are you gonna finish this series and measure the amount of energy this turbine makes??
Curious. If you were fortunate enough to have 2 or 3 drums does one gain anything other than possibly torque?
how about fences on springs and how they would move but not fall to use as a power source?
If you take your "hub"-motor and take permanet magnets to work under tha coils to! Can that increes the current the WAVT counterclockwise and the magnet under the coils clockwise! Thanks for a great project to follow!
Any new update? Have you installed that the turbine on the roof yet?
I spin things all the time with my air compressor and a blow gun
22 m/sec. 50 miles per hour. Sounds practical.
have you managed to work out how much energy it is generating for you in the UK on a monthly basis (from real world test)? did it store battery ok? brilliant vids btw!
I'm really loving your generation videos and is making me think, need more be storage and control system for real world use.
Am i being thick in thinking that if some of the coils were LV HA windings if would give and over all increase before boosting? Take care and stay safe, Mike
Hi Robert how did your turbine build go in the end I don't think there is another video after this one.
Regards Martin Steele
How much does the turning blade rotor weight? and how much does the whole thing weight? The rotor has the magnets, plus the blades, plus the two flywheels(top and bottom connecting the blades), and whatever hardware... I'm very interested in knowing the rotor's weight. Thank you.
Hi! I am new to your channel today and have watched all of the wind harvester for less than £100 videos. Please will you put one up of it on the roof and share the results. Also, I am amazed that you haven’t been snapped up by Dyson or Tesla!
You shouldn't need the blocking diode; with the bridge rectifiers which do the blocking already.
Is that projected wind over Watts graph at sea level or from your roof ?
Dear Rob,
I think this system is brilliant!
If you compare the price for this to a solar pannel where you get off 1 sqere meter abotut 250 W under optimal circumstances.
But the main thing is: A solar pannel you cannot create by yourself, but this Wind Turbine!
Hope many people will copy this instead cying about tale of tears in the winter time using Photo Voltaic only.
As a matter of fact, you CAN create a solar panel yourself if you check, say, Robert Murray-Smith's videos on the subject. Surely not as potent as this generator but still, an opportunity for being a wise ass not wasted now.
is there a build video for this particular one?
Looking forward to out door live test.
Why the extra "blocking" diode when all the outputs are coming via bridge rectifiers? The storage capacitor/battery can't discharge back through the coils with bridge rectifiers in the way.