homemade vawt vertical axis wind turbine barrel part2

[choochinbigtime420]

its a very good prototype, but i think your problem is aerodynamics, barrels pick up the wind but also have a lot of drag in the wind.

[teedermcdribble]

@choochinbigtime420 Thanks for the comment. We have a lot of these barrels laying around the backyard so I decided to cut one in half and see what would happen. I'm sure the shape could be better to reduce drag but the biggest thing hampering it is probably my bearing setup. The bottom is an old ford waterpump and the top is the sprocket shaft from an old garage door opener. It was fun to mess around with and incorporate scrap parts on hand. I suppose that it kind of worked for a $ 0 budget.

[itsandbits1]

somewhere on here is a calculation of what the average human can output in energy for an hour on the bicycle generator; (500watts?) Probably too high. This would be at an efficient rotation speed; easier for the legs to rotate the drive a little faster than 1-73, think of peddling up a steep hill. Then also you need to take into account the efficiency of your generator to turn energy into power. a motor as a generator may be only 50% efficient so you only get that much of your pedal power back

[itsandbits1]

don't give up on having some cheap fun at home. You learn a lot about several different aspects of the pprocess of making something for yourself and the fact that you got this to run and it looks well put together should give you some satisfaction. Choosing a more appropriate generator will increase this satisfaction and by going to double u double u vawts dot net you can find a lot of info to do this.

[teedermcdribble]

@itsandbits1 Thanks for the comment. It was fun building the barrel and the 2 different sets of blades. The best part was that most of the material was laying around here anyways. I suppose the main letdown was that the treadmill motor had to spin so fast to do any good. Right now when I pedal my bike one full rotation it turns the treadmill motor 73 times. I can shift it still but top gear seems ok for me. You don't have to pedal very fast but it takes a little muscle to pedal. Good workout.

[James12345cb]

Hey, I like your video on your vawt. I just made my first VAWT video, I'm looking on suggestions before I decide to build a working model. If you search for " VAWT, Simple easy to build, powerful" you'll find it. any comment welcome.

[teedermcdribble]

@James12345cb Thanks for the comment. I put a bike rim on the bottom and tried to gear it that way but it would barely turn. It would probably need 2 barrels for that much torque just to get it going with no load on it. I just put the treadmill motor under the rear of a bicycle and can pedal to charge my batteries now. It's set up right in my room and the batteries are in the other room. It's easier to pedal when the system is off, but I can still get up to 12 volts while it's on. I'll post soon

[michael970]

Hey as long as you had fun building it than it was worth it.Maybe some more gear reduction.If you cut the end of the hub off so you just hav the reverse threaded part you can than bolt a small pully to the motor than get a bike rim and a belt and you will have some big gear reduction.Just keep on plugging along with it till you get some power.TAKE CARE keep us posted