Week 4

Review of Week 3 Activities:

• Began preliminary designs of the turbine.
• Researched into the components of the electrical storage system.
• Discussed materials acquisition, and purchased PVC and 55 gallon drum.
• Contact outside sources for guidance.

Week 4 Activity Overview:

Now that the design plan of the turbine and the general electrical components are known we will begin to discuss the desired result of our final product and what components we need to implement in order to achieve the desired results.

Week 4 Tasks:

• What is required to charge our 12V battery system?
• What are the average wind speeds in certain areas?
• What type of generator is the best fit to charge the battery?
• What type (AC/DC) of current does the generator output? What is needed?
• What is the minimum amount of RPM's we need to achieve to generate this amount of energy?
• Research the equations that are required for accurate projections. 
• Identify potential problematic areas.
• Research what components work best for what is needed and what fits our bottom line.

Useful Links:

Battery Charing:

http://www.pepboys.com/parts/batteries/diy_charging/

http://www.homepower.com/articles/solar-electricity/equipment-products/ask-experts-battery-charging-rates

Calculations and Conversions:

http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/electric/index.htm

Help From a Friend

As we have come to find out, researching details about savonius wind turbines and electrical systems yields more questions than it does answers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because you learn a lot, but it often leads you down tangental paths that can leave your head spinning. We consulted a friend in the renewable energy industry to see if he could help us focus our researching efforts. Joe from Preparedness Experts Group provided us with some useful websites that contained articles that addressed many of our questions (the link is at the bottom of the page and in the tutorials page).

Although the DIY blogs that we have been reading have been very helpful each person's wind turbine is unique, and since the blogs are often informal they do not give a clear picture of the overall setup of the wind turbine generator. The link Joe provided helped to put this into perspective and this graphic was particularly helpful:

This graphic provided us with a clear overview of the major systems. Our design does not follow this exact system, but it gives us some key features to research and implement into our design. 

Joe's provided link:

http://www.homepower.com/articles/wind-power/basics/what-wind-electricity

Helpful Links

While researching the design of a savonius wind turbines we have found a lot of do it yourself blogs that have been very helpful. Since the goal of our design is to be simple, constructed from available components and easily reparable, these “backyard” wind turbine blogs give great examples of rugged, manageable designs that suit our needs. These blogs are also helpful because they often point out different examples of issues they came across and how they managed them. Here are a few other blogs that we have found helpful:

http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/

http://www.macarthurmusic.com/johnkwilson/MakingasimpleSavoniuswindturbine.htm

Week 2

In Week 2 we split our group in half with one half focusing on the turbine design, and the other half focusing on the electrical circuitry and storage. The first 3-4 weeks of the term are dedicated to learning about the mechanical and electrical design of the turbine. None of our group members have had any experience with generating and storing electricity, so it is necessary for us to learn the fundamentals of electrical circuitry, generation, and methods of storage as well as the principles behind the mechanics of the turbine. 

Cyril used Creo to create a preliminary design of the turbine:

Side View:

Top View:

Top View:

Side View: