I’m a 19 year old engineering student and I live in Belgium, since I was 16 I’m working on extracting power from the wind. The first wind turbine was a school project but since then many changes are made. About a year ago I changed the Delco Remy alternator by the windy nation 500pma. On my wind generator is a 10 foot 3-blade rotor .The rotorblades are made out of 1,5mm aluminum shaped into the Clark Y-profile(NACA 4412). This is done by folding it around a mold and TIG-welding it together. To simplify the making of the rotorblades have a constant chord of 145mm(7.5inch) and a constant pitch (φ=10°). Since I have the windy nation 500, I switched over to a 24V system. Because of the larger diameter, I had to use a timing belt with a ratio of 1,75. The pulley on the pma is tapered so it fitted on the shaft. The wind generator has a furling security which is calculated to start furling at 18mph, to prevent the rpm’s from getting too high. The last few days we had good winds and I have seen 909,8Watt Peak!! Since November 18, I am logging the power output with a watt meter and currently I have already 8,8kWh!!
Great job! Looks like you have a nice working design! I am sure you already know this: I think you could see a dramatic increase in power if you raised your tower ~20 feet above the surrounding tree line in your photo.
Thats the VA number,,You are showing 80.5 watts in the pic,,,Nice build,I wish my first builds would of had furling tails as they might still be standing today..keep up the good work.
@windyguru: Yes, indeed I know that if I doubled the length of the pole, the power would increase dramatically. The only problem is I have a couple of neighbours and I don't wont the windturbine to cause them too much annoyance. @bluejay: on the right you see the actual power produced (80.5W), but on your left you can see the maximum power produced since the start of the measurements(909.8W). Sorry for the unclear foto, but it was a bit dark when I took it
Nice work and it looks like you have the Windtura 500 "dialed-in" very nicely! The belt drive setup appears to be a perfect match for your choice in PMA. Do keep up the great work and keep us posted.
