Workshop: Building a Low Cost Wind Turbine for Offgrid Living - Melbourne

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Workshop: Building a Low Cost Wind Turbine for Offgrid Living - Melbourne

(21 posts) (8 voices)

Started 7 years ago by solarflower.org
Latest reply from solarflower.org

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solarflower.org
Member

Saturday February 1st and Sunday February 2nd - 10 am to 4 pm
Ceres - Stewart St, Brunswick East, Melbourne

My name is Daniel Connell, I'm a renewable energy and open source technology designer. For the last four years I've been working on setting up collaborative project spaces in Europe, and giving practical making workshops in Britain, Spain, Germany and New Zealand.
I'll be showing you how to build a simple low cost vertical axis wind turbine using salvaged materials. The turbine is rooftop-scale, sturdy, safe, quiet and efficient. Information will be provided on how to attach an alternator/generator for producing electricity, or air/water pump for irrigation, airconditioning, refrigeration, etc.

There are only 12 places available per day workshop, so early booking is essential.

The day will also include a presentation and discussion on methods and technologies for living offgrid, low-tech alternative infrastructure development around the world, open source hardware, and my upcoming on-the-ground building project through remote Australia and Asia which proceeds from the workshop will be funding.
Hot drinks and food are available at the Ceres cafe, you are also welcome to bring a lunch.

The workshop is $160 per person, or $145 if you pay the $40 deposit within a week of registering.
All tools and materials are provided. We will be making one three vane turbine as a group, which will then be donated to Ceres.

Registration is essential as places are limited. Please contact solarflower.org@gmail.com

Posted Monday 13 Jan 2014 @ 12:13:48 am from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

105 km/h survival test:
http://youtu.be/8oe6egO0YOc

If you're wanting to come along please send me an email (solarflower.org.gmail.com) sooner rather than later, as I need to know what kind of numbers to expect.

Posted Friday 17 Jan 2014 @ 11:03:26 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

http://solarflower.org/tutorial.php?lang=en&tut=vawt

"a three vane at 0.93 meters diameter and 0.52 meters height with a 50% efficient car alternator (the simplest and cheapest option) should produce 158 watts of electricity in a 50 km/h wind, and 649 watts at 80 km/h."

hardly ever get 50 km/h winds in suburbia
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml
30 max this week

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 6:17:38 am from IP #
franks
Member

Urban locations in Melbourne have average wind speed of 3 m/s (11 kph) & very turbulent (trees & houses do spoil wind clean flow)
also will need to have lots of height, hard to get a planning permit for the height of non turbulent airflow.

Its a waste of time..setting up a DIY wind turbine in metro locations.

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 6:41:58 am from IP #
Lance
Key Master

Yes, have to agree with Franks on that one, you will get almost no energy out of it, much more effective, cheaper and simpler to buy some PVs to be honest...

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 7:39:43 am from IP #
David
Member

franks said:
Urban locations in Melbourne have average wind speed of 3 m/s (11 kph) & very turbulent (trees & houses do spoil wind clean flow also will need to have lots of height, hard to get a planning permit for the height of non turbulent airflow. Its a waste of time..setting up a DIY wind turbine in metro locations.

On top of that to get the permit would also require full engineering designs & specs etc, signed off by a qualified engineer that applies to nearly built-up areas in Australia. Rural on acreage different. There is also typically a limit of 3m above the roof max without a permit and height limits to proximity of the boundary, and as already mentioned the turbine will be in the one of the worst wind zones, you could pick on.

A Pity really but a fact.

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 7:51:42 am from IP #
Morbo
Member

thats why I thought its a scam, taking $160 for something thats $20 to build (if you manage to steel an old bicycle for the wheels) plus the manual is in the www.

No idea how the wind turbines at Ceres are travelling these days, one fell apart ages ago.

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 9:27:27 pm from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

It's not a scam, it's a workshop. A cob building course'll set you back about three hundred plus, and that's mud and sticks. $160 is on the cheaper side. The tutorials are indeed online, it's an open source project, but I find most people prefer to be shown directly.
Also the workshops are funding my trip this year through remote Australia and Asia, working with people to design and build on the ground alternative infrastructure.

I've previously done these in places like Edinburgh and Fremantle, which are actually usefully windy. There's certainly parts of Victoria where these would be viable, but unfortunately inner Melbourne not so much.

In light of this I'll be upvaluing the workshop a bit and also showing how to make an easy and effective scrap makeable air conditioner.

Daniel.

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 10:15:42 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

The aircon would be handy.
And yes, sadly there are plenty people out there that never used pop rivets and need someone to show them how.
Guess there is always the possibility to funnel wind somehow, just work out the main wind direction.
I bought an anemometer and even if it feels windy, its only 3m/s or so, not much helpful in the burbs.

Posted Saturday 18 Jan 2014 @ 11:04:17 pm from IP #
franks
Member

I think its a bit rich to charge $160 for a bunch of chardonnay greenies for a feel good cause.

Posted Sunday 19 Jan 2014 @ 1:02:53 am from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

I was thinking of a wind funnel for cooling a large building in Fremantle, but one with a vane so the inlet turns into the wind.
Doesn't seem to have been done before, and I'm not sure why...

Posted Sunday 19 Jan 2014 @ 1:31:33 am from IP #
Morbo
Member

-the funnel has to be seriously big. Better utilise locations. Like t-section in a street.
-cheese making workshop is about $100. Suppose teaching someone how to use a power drill is a bit more effort. Better don't tell them the 150W side of things

Posted Sunday 19 Jan 2014 @ 3:55:41 am from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

Depends how much wind you're looking to catch, but generally, yes. For the Freo building I was looking at the option of funnelling air down into the basement so it could displace cool air up into the ground floor.
Killed by an inexplicably warm basement.

158W is for a half size turbine with a car alt. Full 6 vane with a nicer alternator you're looking more like 500w at 50 kph, and over 1.5kw at 75. Some places do reliably get that kind of wind.

I'm mostly designing systems which might only take 50 watts to run, such as the aircon and the fridge. These would be effectively powered by 20 km/h wind and therefore free to run.
Melbourne averaging 10, there's not much you can do with that. Running them electrically is totally an option, but I mostly design for developing world situations so try to keep things simple.

So saying tho I get quite a few engineers through the workshops who want to see how to make something that will take over 105 k winds from 0.3mm aluminium sheet.

Posted Sunday 19 Jan 2014 @ 4:07:10 am from IP #
mordeeb
Member

No point me taking you up on that offer, our wind where i live rips the trees out of the ground! 120 kms, and thats on a nice day. I suppose thats what happens living in the Alps.

Posted Monday 20 Jan 2014 @ 9:19:00 pm from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

I don't actually know what the fail speed is. It was pretty happy at 105 km/h, could be as high as 120.
There's not a lot of people other than my father who will lend me a car to use as a wind tunnel...

Posted Monday 20 Jan 2014 @ 9:24:16 pm from IP #
Morbo
Member

planes used to be made of canvas and paint and did more than 105km/h?

Posted Tuesday 21 Jan 2014 @ 9:31:06 am from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

This turbine kind of uses some aircraft wing design principles to give it its strength, but without the wood and wires.

Posted Wednesday 29 Jan 2014 @ 12:34:17 am from IP #
David
Member

Morbo said:
No idea how the wind turbines at Ceres are travelling these days, one fell apart ages ago.

There was a small one (5kw's if I remember correctly) sited more or less under Transmission lines a turbulent wind zone location, it broke off and fell down as a direct result. Shows what can happen when a poor location is chosen, they replaced that one with PV. Something to remember.

I really like wind turbines I went to the trouble of training and obtaining certification + accreditation for the design and installation of them. Locations where they will be of value are limited unfortunately.

Posted Thursday 30 Jan 2014 @ 7:05:02 pm from IP #
Tabs
Member

Could someone please alleviate my ignorance. Why can't a bank of small very sensitive turbines around 2 feet across be used to capture the slow breezes?

Posted Tuesday 13 May 2014 @ 3:49:18 am from IP #
Benny
Member

Because its not worth it. If its a slow breeze it has very little energy in it and a turbine 2ft across would give VERY low output.

Posted Tuesday 13 May 2014 @ 4:06:08 am from IP #
solarflower.org
Member

It's true if there's no wind then there's not really anything to work with, and you should probably look at other energy sources (like I I'm having to in New Delhi right now).
However, if you absolutely have to use turbines, and you're only looking for a little bit of power then yes, a bank of cheap and easy vawts is a reasonable way to go, due to their much lower cut in speed (I got mine slowly turning the other day by holding it and walking forward, and not a quick walk).

The real advantage to having multiple turbines tho would be in high wind situations. Most hawts will brake or furl themselves off the wind for danger of exploding, and this generally happens around 60 km/h or so. A vawt, on the other hand, does about a sixth the rpms (at six times the torque) and is often lower mass, so doesn't need braking etc other than in extreme (as in hurricane) wind speeds.
And since the power in wind goes up by the cube function of the speed, if you have one turbine that stops accelerating at 60 vrs say ten for the same cost which can go quite happily up to a hundred, then if you do get occasional seriously windy weather the ten will gather orders of magnitude more power.

Posted Tuesday 13 May 2014 @ 9:43:21 am from IP #

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