Wind Turbine

Hello,

From all accounts they are not regarded as feasible but just wondering if anyone has built (as an experiment perhaps) or bought a smallish wind turbine, vertical or otherwise?

Iv'e looked at them over the years but never found anyone who had tried one and what the results were like in a typical UK rural location?

Thanks Peter

This might be if interest: **LINK**

And many people use small wind generators on boats and maybe caravans too - https://www.marlec.co.uk/wind-power/boats-and-marine/

Edited By John Haine on 05/12/2022 14:01:41

Thanks John,

I've seen lots of articles like that over the years but it was more of the prctical experience and just wonderered if anyone had experimented with a smallerish one bought or otherwise?

Peter

They need to be scaled up to be reasonably useful, size matters

Local authorities don't like them (planning issues)

Farmers can put them up with permission

Yachts have used tiny ones for decades for small scale use, I've also seen a few for roadsigns in the country

Big is better because the amount of power obtainable is proportional to the square of the blade length. So if a 33cm blade has a goodness factor of 3419, then a 100cm blade is good for 31400, and a 1000cm blade gets 3140000. It's why commercial turbines have blades the size of a jumbo jet wing.

The other secret is location. Well away from ground clutter, because the resulting turbulence severely reduces their efficiency. Large flat open plains, hilltops, and off-shore rather than backyard installations. A 30 metre tower wouldn't get me much in my sheltered inland location, whereas a turbine 100 metres on top of a nearby hill is almost always spinning.

Dave

On the route back home from my Daughters I pass a house with a wind generator in the back garden and I have to say I rarely see it turning

H

What happened to those wind sails rotating on a vertical axis and carrying adverts that one used to see on the pavement outside shops? The seemed to function even in light winds but looked potentially hazardous.

Big turbines also benefit from being a long way up off the ground. Boundary layer means that wind speed near the ground is lower. Here's some guff on vertical axis wind turbines. There are some close to the Pier Head Liverpool

You have probably already seen it but a search for 'Scoraig wind turbine' will find you Hugh Piggott the king of the DIY wind turbine. Unfortunately planning regulations are designed to make small turbines impossible in most locations. You need about 10ft span for 1Kw and above 12ft they become a bit unwieldy for an amateur.
Biggest problem now I think is availability of the magnets as China controls the supply. I've not looked at it for about 10 years since I found I wouldn't be allowed one though it would be ideal on my windy hilltop location.
I recently heard of a new system being developed. You know how tall thin metal chimneys have to have a spiral strip up them to break the eddies that would otherwise cause them to waggle themselves to bits. Well the idea is to deliberately exploit the waggle at a resonant frequency then make a generator that uses that vibration. it ends up as just a vertical pole so not much for protestors to grumble about. A line of small ones would look like a line of fence posts but might not generate much.

On 29-November … it being a pleasant day after several rainy ones, and the car needing ‘the cobwebs blowing out’, I had a jolly to Llandudno for a few hours.

The massive offshore wind-farm was clearly visible, but … to the best of my knowledge not one of the turbines turned blade whilst I was there.

Emperor’s New Clothes ? … or just a rare day with no wind available ?

I know not.

MichaelG.

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynt_y_Môr

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 05/12/2022 19:31:49

According to gridwatch, wind is doing 10% right now, which is a lot more than it was doing last Monday. It must be windy somewhere in the UK

Here's a bit of info from The Centre for Alternative Technology
https://cat.org.uk/info-resources/free-information-service/energy/wind-power/

Gridwatch is HERE
http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 05/12/2022 23:42:27

Give us a clue as to what you mean by ‘smallish’.

Chocolate teapots on house roofs are all expensive failures.

Proven 2.5kW and 6kW were successful when situated in the right place. There are others, since Proven, as a company, disappeared.

Maybe you need to describe your typical rural location, too?

.

Must pay them a visit … probably next Springtime

Haven’t been since the early days: **LINK**

https://cat.org.uk/visiting/plan-your-visit/history-of-cat/

MichaelG.

Thanks for all the replies. I've been to the CAT a few times over the years and always found it interesting and inspiring even in the times before climate change became a recognised issue. I also got the literature from Hugh Scoraig a few years ago which convinced me they needed a steady supply of wind to generate anything useful and it was a no go for me.

What I see is a lot of interest around small vertical axis machines, which are not so effiecient, on Utube and the like and also lots of 500w+ verticalaxis amchines on Ebay and just wondered if any of the MEW crew had tried one or even knew of one which worked hence my original post,

Thanks once again Peter

.

Thanks Frances

MichaelG.