PVC turbine Orust, Sweden Sept 2010.AVI

Wind turbine with blades made from 160 mm diam PVC pipe. Rotor diam 2m.
Housing made from same PVC pipe. Double air-inlets angled in wind direction with outlet at the back for generator cooling. 2-pole power feed allows 360 degrees rotation without cable twisting used swivel-weel with ball bearings. Wind direction blades made of aluminium. Erected on a 3,6 meter tall wooden pole with four metal wire supports. Base attached to concrete block and metal support with two bolts allow one person to handle maintenance. 12V to 220V 50Hz 100W inverter connected for show, but will connect to a deep-cycle lead-acid battery instead. Housing designed for Ametek PM motor, but video shows operation in very slow wind without generator installed. Still working on electronic controls. A PIC microcontroller will handle charge control and switching to a 12V kettle heating element when battery is full. Planning to install wind speed, RPM and current sensors which will be fed to the microcontroller. Communication from micro fed to serial bluetooth modem with 100m range. Datalogging can then be done in-house and in real-time for finding optimal RPM at a certain wind-speed. Feel free to add comments, suggestions and questions.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• PVC wind turbine
• home-made wind generator
• HAWT

[AbsolutViking]

@natedogg1026 Tried to look for video you suggested, but couldn't find it. Sounds quite messy! I have reinforced around 1/3 of each blade closest to the hub with aluminium profiles which is assumed to ease tension at the hub-plate. Also, the PVC is not very brittle. It looks like there are three-layers when you cut through it, with the inside layer being softer. When I bend a long cut-out spare piece of the PVC it does not snap at all. Only deforms. I wonder if there are different types.

[natedogg1026]

No, never happened to me but have chatted with many that have had theirs explode. Actually just the other day on MR Benelli's new vid. Sometimes when they break they will throw the rest of the rotor out of balance and actually bust off the generator making it fly off the tower! I have seen the remains of that happening. Not pretty. Figure if ya got a 50 MPH wind with a 5-1 TSR they are traveling about 250 MPH! They will throw shrapnel several hundred feet. Just a word of caution. Take care.

[AbsolutViking]

@natedogg1026 Thanx for word of advice. You sound like you have experience of that happening before? I am quite concerned about blades braking for the sake of safety. I agree, proper blades would undoubtedly work better, but the point of this project is to make it cheap. In order to not compromise on security, maybe it's a good idea to attach a metal wire along the entire length of the blades which is secured at the hub-plate. In case of a blade breaking, at least it wouldn't fly away.

[natedogg1026]

Looks like you did a nice job building/designing it but heed my warning. PVC blades will brake. They will snap in high wind. Make take a while but they will fail. The rest looks great but buy some blades. They are fairly cheap and will work better than anything that can be made with a pipe. I applaud your efforts but keep it safe especially if there are kids around.