A Wind Energy Harvester

[@Bunnunoox]

I love that you love what you do. I know just enough to mostly follow along, not enough to do it myself, but your passion projects brighten my day every time I watch. Thank you.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@kimchiman1000]

Have watched through your entire series on this concept, and just want to say that I very much appreciate the trouble you went to to make this available to the world. I believe that even a regular guy like myself might actually stand half a chance of constructing one. Thank you sir!

[@ianbutler1983]

Robert, Your enthusiasm and cheerfulness is contagious. Your videos really put a smile on my face, at a time when I need it. Thanks, it means more than you could know.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Wow, thank you

[@teyronnewreality]

That's amazing. I am nearly 50yrs old and retraining as an electrician but it is projects like this that really inspire me . This is very practical information. 💜🌞👍👍

[@Owlsrayne]

That's impressive in a low wind environment. That suspension arm is a big improvement in reducing the friction load. these videos have been very educational, thank you.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@jeffreyrood8755]

That's great Robert. Removing that bearing was a really great move in speed. Keep it up.

[@greensfarmland]

I think that this construction is perfect. Especially adding the rest of the coils this would be perfect for an added benefit along with solar. To be able to add some extra energy to the batteries when overcast, or even at night. Man every little bit helps. I believe this same concept could be applied to making a hydro turbine for a down spout from a rain gutter. We get lots of rain where I live.

[@rene-jeanmercier6517]

Hi Robert. Really really great. And that idea of one listenners to put it in the attic and take advantage of the air convection is also an interesting idea.

[@justanumber427]

haah love your joy when you first spin it! just so happy!! made me smile

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

lol - cheers mate

[@ielujskliw]

Love the guidelines, love the video - am intending to do something similar for my yorkshire coast home where it’s always breezy and often wild - would love to see how you would connect this to a battery etc and more info on how much output would be required to run a home’s electrics. 😊

[@SeanClarkeMusic]

I'm loving watching the journey unfold and the tech evolve as you gain new insights. Thanks for sharing, really inspiring stuff!

[@Dave64track]

Great project and it's moving with so little wind which shows that the improvements are working a treat. Looking forward to seeing it work when it's windy and connected to some lights. Keep up the good work.

[@f5dpylon]

0.14mWh no where near enough to charge even a button cell. Robert, the load is important. You don’t get energy for free. Get a variable resistor. Measure volts across it and amps going through it. Then decrease the resistance until it stops or produces too much heat. Take measurements then you will see Max power generated for a wind speed. Good luck!

[@f5dpylon]

I think he knows, that’s why he’s only ever shown us with it hooked up to extremely low power devices like LEDs. But it is kinda funny to watch him use a 1kW leaf blower and only yield 1mW out! (You can’t measure amps without a load, so I would guess he switches his meter straight from measuring open circuit volts to amp, with the meters internal shunt being the load perhaps?) Robert - lots of people here trying to help you out mate.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

you are missing the point here

[@Rcbeacon]

Exactly. The charge on the capacitors is tiny, not enough to do any work. The point of a wind generator is to produce useful power - energy. Put a real load on it, even if it's a 10 watt lamp and see how much effort is required to spin it to produce 10 watts. Then increase to 20 watts and do it again. This would be a good demonstration.

[@f5dpylon]

@@ThinkingandTinkering please enlighten us? Thought you were building a1kW wind generator?

[@zdzisawk5198]

Beautiful little piece of engineering .I am now smiling.

[@glennwebster1675]

Can't wait until it's finished and you ship it to me.... Great video thanks again.

[@RR-mt2wp]

Fantastic Robert its so free moving and quiet. Spot on bud.

[@morpher44]

By using supercapacitors, the Joule storage could be much greater. Also, in my location, it is when the sun is starting to set that the winds pick up from the ocean to the land. People on the coast can exploit the ocean breezes.

[@stevetobias4890]

This is bloody brilliant Rob. If you used a liquid rubber insulation on all electrical components and joints this same unit could be mounted on its side in a stream or a creek if you're fortunate enough to have one running through your property. That would harvest 24/7, especially after a decent downpour. Smaller units could even be used in your drainpipes running from the gutters on your roof. If you think about it this same project could be adapted in so many ways that your battery banks would never come near to running low (if you had adequate battery storage for your needs). Add in a decent inverter or two and say goodbye to expensive power bills. Even if you just ran all your household lighting with LEDs and a couple of appliances you would see a considerable drop in money paid to electricity companies. This would have to be my favourite project to date. Thank you and Merry Christmas 🎄

[@jasonwitt8619]

Yep, and yep, and 100% yep, you just said everything I was thinking, good bye power bill.

[@stevetobias4890]

@@jasonwitt8619 I run all my household lighting and my electronics workbench from alternative power so I am partially off the grid. Once I expand my batteries I will start isolating appliances from the grid.

[@jasonwitt8619]

@@stevetobias4890 Nice and that is the goal for most of us that live outside of town also... Cheers

[@stevetobias4890]

@@jasonwitt8619 not just for those living outside of town. I live in a smaller country town but prefer to keep as much money as possible from greedy whore mongering companies that care more about profits than the well-being of the average person they supply a service to.

[@jasonwitt8619]

@@stevetobias4890 I agree 100%, no need to give the power company no more than we have too. Cheers mate

[@johnnysparkleface3096]

When I was about 12 I made my first box kite with scrounged sticks from other wrecked kites, and paper I bought from a hobbyist store. It flew beautifully. The wind is so much stronger up there. If you could build a hybrid kite-wind-power-generator that would be amazing.

[@robertpitt8418]

Everything in near perfect ballance great job, looks very promising

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@douglasbillington8521]

Really very nice how little it takes for this to generate electricity. Remarkable.

[@rodneyjack3309]

Excellent Robert! On the roof top or here in Alberta it'll spin no problem. I need to buld it.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

go for it mate

[@morpher44]

I had also been thinking about low-wind energy harvesting. A cell phone needs about 5 watts to charge. It would be great to have something that everyone could build, that is low cost, exploits very low wind, and generates from 5 to 50 watts. If it generates at nite when it is dark, all the better.

[@MrDertien]

Okay, cool build. A suggestion... Imagine rotating this on its side 90°, putting the blades on longer 'legs' as to resemble the paddle wheel of a Mississipi paddle steamer (river boat) as to keep the electric setup (rotor/stator) out of the water, then positioning this into a stream. Then in each paddle or blade, (for fresh water use in a river with a constant flow), mount (n-number of) the two rod pairs in the correct fashion to the water flow - one brass ('downstream') and one aluminium ('upstream') - so they generate electricity as used in your project video of the 'perpetual battery powered by water' setup. How many rod pairs will need to be seen, as the blade still needs to catch water efficiently. Would this add a few advantages over the wind generator being: - 1) In northern parts of the western hemisphere, where water always flows and is always available but wind does not always blow. - 2) ...therefore resulting in constant and maybe even superior RPM's, depending on what stream this is submerged in. - 3) and thus get a supplementary output on top of the rotator/stator electric bit, by generating extra energy from the water flow over the consecutive aluminum/brass rods, which is also dependent on the RPM's and the higher this is, the higher the extra current should be. Of course, not everyone has a steam flowing through their garden, but it could be nice for those who do, or repurpose some of those watermills that are still scattered and functional across Europe.

[@ryanlebeck259]

Good on you for solving that drag problem. That seems to perform better indeed.

[@bobfugazy4916]

Thank you Robert for the multiple follow-ups. What I see with this project is possibilities. If you plan ahead (who does that?) you can have these on hand or in place already when something bad happens with your power supply. Thank you for all the research and testing - your channel is one of my favorites.

[@endadalton]

Now it looks and preform amazing. Your so nearly finished.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Almost

[@campbellspears9979]

Brilliant, the potential for this is inspiring.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Think I've watched everyone of your videos on this project thanks for sharing gives me a few ideas on a project I've been wanting to try building my own Wind Turbine

[@thomasmoore4576]

That is totally awesome I got the same win or saying type of win I can't wait till I get me one built and thanks for sharing your knowledge you seem to have an endless supply

[@bs2592]

Loving this series. I wondered if you could use a washing machine drum or dryer drum and add some fins to catch the wind. or 2 rear bike axels to make the spinning section or generator.

[@binmanblog]

Such a small and stable footprint with so many options for incremental improvements. Multiple rings of coils across the diameter like tree rings. And to think this many from scrap. Awesome

[@kenrowe167]

Hi Rob. Looking good! The charge on a capacitor Q = CV (coulombs). The energy stored in a capacitor E = 1/2CV^2 (Joules).

[@dexterdixon2000]

So if there are 14x 1000uF (think that's what he said they were last episode?) caps at 8V that's E= 1/2 x (14x0.001) x 8 x 8 = 0.5J of energy Is that right?

[@kenrowe167]

@@dexterdixon2000 Yes

[@kenrowe167]

@@dexterdixon2000 He actually said they were 1000 Farads each but I think he miss spoke.

[@1967spark]

@@dexterdixon2000 That's 0.1mWh?

[@charlesdickens6706]

.....x² these days is written as x^2 and x³ as x^3 etc. I'll never get used to it. It's intriguing how the capacitor energy storage formula resembles the kinetic energy formula and thus it's easily remembered .

[@huwkelvinmorgan3575]

Wow that is awesome that is doing better than the military wind turbine video that is also on you tube if you search for it. i have been enamoured by this series of videos and watching your enthusiasm every step of the way as made me look into building my own. thank you for the content

[@hoofheartedicemelted296]

Hi Mr. Smith hope you're doing well. English wind is reliable on the coast of course, but if you want a reliable and steady source of wind inland you may want to try out the Asymetric Vortex Propulsion. It functions as an addition to this already made splendid Wind Energy Harvester. Best of luck Mr. Smith and thank you for your undertakings.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

nice mate thanks for the heads up

[@thornhedge9639]

For a moment I was slightly taken aback by the guy approaching from behind you wearing a mask. It took me a moment to remember all "THAT" going on in the world..... Ecstatic over the new developments. Really. really nice work! Now if I could only hear it spinning! Lol!

[@jameshoneyc]

Thanks for the videos. Great project...and good explanations Love your intelligence.

[@ajayvee6677]

Great work, Robert. I love to see you get so chuffed when things work out well. Others have suggested magnetic bearings which would be interesting to see you experiment with. Now that you are suspending the whole apparatus to reduce load on the bottom bearing it occurred to me that another way of storing energy in the lulls between the gusts would by suspending from a longer wire that twisted slightly, storing torque, and maintained the angular momentum by untwisting when the wind speed dropped.

[@JimmyLindstr0m]

Magnet aided bearings is what ive been pondering for the last decade.. This VAWT construction wuld be perfect for every variable in my reality Robert. I live where we have very small wind most of the time exept for a few stormy nights thrugout the year (i live in upper middle of Sweden at the east coast). I really need to harvest energy from wind! :D that is one of my life long quests. Thankyou for your effots Robert

[@rodciferri9626]

Awesome - that was just what it needed!

[@giveempie]

I watched 7 videos and enjoyed all. My only suggestion would be to use actual airfoils not just curved fan blades and the reason is because airfoils are pulled along not pushed. An example is a sail, the wind doesn't push the sail, it's shape creates vacuum and pulls the boat along. Sails are just adjustable airfoils. Vacuum has 10 time or so more power the regular pressure. If your still trying to improve your project I say try airfoils. DANNY

[@historyisfake9153]

I love it mate and am following a lot. Your ideas sometimes are like mine. You should leave it out over night and see how much charge you get in an 18650 battery. I bet it would already work but I agree with others with another top row of coils. You have the new arm to run cables down and fix a top.

[@BarryE48]

I would put gussets on the support. Bolts and nuts will eventually move under the weight of the rotor.

[@blesseins4658]

Thks Leo ...and if with some small stove in the center ...generates some heat to keep a minimum speed turns ...and if you put the coils or magnets nearer to the center ? ...speed would be faster ...friendly ...!!!

[@stevecummins324]

A Prony brake is a simple dynometer. A way of measuring the raw power of any rotating device. It's an adustable clamp the fits over a shaft, and allows rotation, But as dragging, clamp wants to turn How much can be reacted and measured on a scale, or via hanging weights. Known length Multipled by force, gives torque. Knowing rpm then allows power to be calculated. If not turning there can still be torque, but no power. Would probably find different wind speeds, and amounts of tightening, make different amounts of power available for extraction. Tighten clamp more, and torque increases, but rpm drops. If torque increases faster than rpm... Power would rise.

[@BlueJDev]

I want one... Don't have a workshop though! Its Awesome.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@davidpotter9462]

I bought a Honda mag wheel for $20, 12 magnets, n52, for $40 , so I'm allowing the other $40 for wire and blades... which I'll make out of 6 inch steel tubing...In going to make the shaft horizontally but it will be a ducted one way blade with the wind only catching the top...I have my own idea and design that I have not seen anywhere else...the idea is, it won't overspeed that much in a high wind but it should, like yours, put out enough to help my 12 solar system batteries stay charged ( 510 amp hours at 24 volts) during cloudy days...I got ring magnets with a hole in the middle so I can attach them to the stainless steel brake rotor...we have a lot of storms here and sometimes the wind is 75 or so for a short spell, so I've been thinking about how to build this thing for a very long time so that it will last longer than a week out here on the wild prarie...oh, our average windspeed is 18 so I've got some to give away and itll be okay...yours is for very different conditions...yesterday we had winds 40-50 for most of the day, but today it was only around 25...I suppose that's why a windmill is rarely seen here...tears them up I think maybe idk...at my old house the wind got up to 100 a few times...I got tired of replacing shingles so I moved a few miles away...my figuring partly was, if it turns too fast, I can always put magnets on both rotors, or, lol I still have the brake calipers and stuff for the other rotor...that part will be unknown...it only has to make around 30 volts and a few amps to do what I want...I just don't like any of the designs I've seen so I'm gonna try something new...you sort of hinted at it, some designs are less than practical, they don't really work out well in actual use as in some pie in the sky theory someone had in a classroom somewhere...wait til they get out on the farm and then try it, I always said...I bought one of those inverter welders at Harbor freight a couple weeks ago it goes to 75 amps but it's pretty nice for an old man, it only weighs a few pounds...I had built a gasoline engine generator to run it so I have it mobile, now...handy that way...well it's good to see your wheel is progressing, , I've been off the grid the last couple of months, it's pretty cool and I've gotten used to free power now...I've only had 400 watts of solar panels but Im adding 200 watts this week...Im putting 2 panels in a frame of square pipe and making the 3rd one tomorrow, so that I can move them inside in case of hail....one panel got shattered last year so I replaced it and got 2 more..I'll be doing quite well when I get those other 2 out this week...it will make a lot of difference...(I don't think there are any rules for windmills here in tornado alley, they just look at you like, oh yeah, right, good luck with that)

[@clivehaynes2183]

Ever thought of extending the vane area by having a hinged edge on the vanes that folds in in the down side.

[@richardharries5551]

We've had wind and rain for days.........and days.....in Wales ;-)

[@lubbock2704]

Seattle, Wa can attest to this as well.

[@jimsmindonline]

Seems to be coming along nicely. 👍 Using a rectifier on each coil is an interesting layout i've not seen before. Like u said, i think the cap on each separate module is a bit unnecessary, they are all in parallel. You could consider going straight to a capacitor bank or battery without needing them at all. Then u could mount the bank away from the generator in a more convenient place. Also you could control the charging process more easily especially if you're ultimately going to charge a battery / supercap bank.

[@htmagic]

First! RMS, I'd like to see how well it works on the roof. Those cars and other items at ground level chew up the energy from the wind.

[@popuptoaster]

You have to be a bit careful putting stuff up on the roof in the UK, getting a turbine up high enough to see clean air can often require planning permission even on commercial properties.

[@htmagic]

@@popuptoaster Mother, may I? No thanks!

[@Earzone63]

Say the capacitors are 1000μF And call the Volts 8.5V after 10mins (in basically no wind < 1m/s) and the equation E_stored = 0.5 * C * V^2 and were there 14(?) capacitors per 1/16th (estimating for a the top+bottom coil capacitor network) call that 224 * C * 0.5 * V^2 = 0.112*(8.5)^2 = 8.1J Claiming a rated "1Kw" wind turbine as a ~= "100W" turbine because of the skew in Betz's law (jumping over the main argument here that I totally agreed with btw) ... anyway for 100W we want 100J/1s and in low wind you measured 8/600 or ~0.013W. But a charge Q=VC to the full 50V in 600s on the same 224F(arad) network is 280 KJ (!) or 1/33rd of my daily needs according to the British Nutritional Foundation. ! Although I got carried away there since it should be 280J, unless the capacitors you're using really are 1000F but that sounded like the realm of super capacitors. In any case 0.467W running 24/7 generates 40KJ

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I am sorry mate - it is not clear to me what you are saying - I meant to say microfarads by the way

[@erfquake1]

Excellent videos, every one of them. Question: This has been designed to scavenge the low energy wind regime, but what happens if you get a windy day with this setup? You mentioned that it was "self-limiting," but what does that mean? Electrically? Mechanically?

[@a.wilson1979]

The higher the height, the higher the wind speed. This relationship takes exponential form, but its function depends on the value of wind speed, roughness of the soil surface and the value of the air temperature gradient near the ground.

[@colouroboros9993]

that's such an awesome built. students could build these at school and take them home and suddenly everyone would have wind energy harvesters

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I like that idea

[@stevecummins324]

Capacitors are great things. Not often taught/realised... But capacitors can be used for direct step up of voltage. Just got to vary the capacitance wrt to time. Energy in capacitor remains same but if capacitance drops... To keep energy the same, voltage has to increase. Something like anodized aluminium placed in water inside a copper pipe is a fairly simple water level variable capacitor. (trying to use such as timing cap in 555 circuits for variety purposes including manometer pressure sensors is how I found out about the voltage step up. The cmos 555 timers were suffering "random" odd behaviour and failures) When capacitor are discharged their voltage falls, making it harder to use their energy... If the capacitance fell The voltage could be maintained. Instead of copper pipe... A gavanized bucket, with a hole in it.

[@stan.rarick8556]

One thing to consider is some sort of brake to limit speed in high winds..............

[@tg_privat]

As you say. Awsome! :-) Even better than I hoped it would be. It is very pleasent to see, how smoothly it runs now. Maybe it would be smart to check the angle of those blades. They are actually wings/sails. They generate a force (lift) which is somehow perpendicular to the wing. This force is pushing your turbine to turn around. And it should be tangential to to the outer cyrcle of turbine in the spot, where the blade gets max amount of the wind. If it is pointing toward the axis or outward of the axis, part of the blade lift force is lost to pushing turbine together or tearing it apart. In other words, you are throwing wind energy away. And in your case, every small amount of this lift force matters alot (small force and large lever). So It would be helpful, to test a single blade in some kind of wind tunnel, and find the right angle, at which the blade is generating most lift. And also find the direction, this lift force is pointing at. Complicated. Probably easier just to make some kind of mechanism, to adjust turbine blade angles. Maybe for version 2. And then, for ver. 3 make blades more wing like. and get even more lift at same windspeeds. Thicker in front, and thinner at the back, to get higher air speeds over the top of the wing, lower air preasure and bigger lift. Maybe put them in shrinkwrap. Would make significant difference. Ask someone, who knows things about sailing, virtual wind, etc.

[@mikehardy7060]

Really impressive, getting power from such a low wind speed

[@sumdumbmick]

I've been randomly jumping through your videos on this, haven't seen them all yet, but I am definitely inspired to try something similar with the scrap parts available to me. So thank you for the ideas! I am curious, though, if you've thought about adding in a centrifugal governor. I'm probably wrong, but my naive intuition is that while it would slightly increase the starting speed, it might also keep the thing spinning long enough in (some) low wind conditions to continue generating into lower speeds once started. I do expect if there is a possible benefit there, it'll be small so it may well not be worth it even if it can work, but my intuitions are too fuzzy on it to have any confidence one way or another.

[@MarioAbbruscato]

yeah! Happy to see new improvements in this project. But how does the wind really play in the corner of each house? Always interesting. Everyday.

[@overunityresearchchannel]

Very very nice Robert this generator has come along way i am going to build on now that i have a welder keep up the great work man chears :)

[@JohnnyMotel99]

These would be perfect fitted down the side of motorways, harvesting the draft from vehicles.

[@FloraSlimesOfficalYT]

Cool. Ireland has no benefit from solar panels on roofs but would be great benefit off safe wind cathers on roofs for hosehold power and heating 100%. Great job. Whish You be rich soon. Only needs to be made safe so no cathers fly around in storms after few years use.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

for sure mate

[@1967spark]

A food factory in Downpatrick has recently installed an extensive system on it's new roof, of course it is premature to know if it is going to be viable, but these types of companies are generally prudent with their finances as margins in the food industry are small.

[@FloraSlimesOfficalYT]

@@1967spark great

[@chriscook9047]

Robert I'm going to copy your design here in Ghana on my farm it has no power grid supply and we intend to build about 30 of these low wind turbines on 6mt high posts and we are right on top of 300mt high hill we will store in batteries to power all low energy products will keep you posted

[@johnwilson3668]

Hi Robert I am glad you have gone the way I suggested in Part 5 and ditching the iron core. Your idea of the overhead arm has reduced the friction by a large amount . The only thing missing is the disc of opposing magnets sandwiching the coils between opposing magnetic fields. This would double or triple the output.This is easy to prove or disprove on a simple test rig. Rule on magnets for new experimenters . Like poles repel . Unlike poles attract

[@dexterdixon2000]

Is that a toroidal flux scheme you're describing?

[@johnwilson3668]

@@dexterdixon2000 I would say you are correct. With a single magnet the field is normally radial from north to south around the magnet . When two magnets are held at an optimal distance apart this causes straight lines of force between the two magnets . When the coil passes between the magnets it is passing through a more concentrated field . The only caveat is that the size of the coils must be fully enclosed in the magnetic field. If the coil is too large the unexcited wire will pull the output down

[@dexterdixon2000]

@@johnwilson3668 when you say opposing do you mean north facing north or north facing south? The former is toroidal flux (less common but a good choice for diy) and the later is axial flux.

[@johnwilson3668]

@@dexterdixon2000 Hi Tom The disc's should have magnets placed NSNS and so on . The corresponding disc should be SNSN . The two disc's are locked together and rotate as one with the coil disc held stationary between them . Therefore it will alternate north pole on top plate south pole on bottom plate .Then the next pair of magnets will be south pole on top plate and south pole on bottom plate .This arrangment will carry on around the two disc's . There will be opposing magnetic around the disc NS SN NS SN.The magnets must attract each other around the disc but in a NS SN pattern around the disc. ALL MAGNETS AROUND THE TWO DISC'S MUST ATTRACT EACH OTHER If this is not clear I will post a Drawing you can download in the next reply. Jacking screws must be used to put the disc's together until they rest on spacers otherwise they will be assembled violently

[@dexterdixon2000]

@@johnwilson3668 I understand that configuration. It is also possible to have the magnets alternating but repellelling between the plates. This forces the flux lines out through (all) the sides of the coil and is called toroidal flux (I think). It's the scheme used on Proven (now SD wind) turbines.

[@308dad8]

You’ve come a long way and tested different kinds of coils, glad to see the answer is the coils need only be copper windings no type of core necessary. That’s ridiculously free spinning. I have wanted to build wind turbines that would spin in the low winds we get here, and thought I needed permanent magnet motors and you show me all I need is a few spoils of copper wire and a bunch of magnets. No motor needed. I like the squirrel cage design for its omnidirectional orientation to the wind as wind frequently shifts out here. We get more high speed wind than you claim but not constant and mostly during cooler weather, hottest days tend to be still. Could the coils all be connected in series then put through a bridge rectifier and large capacitor to accomplish the same ends or do they need to be individually rectified?

[@Scott_C]

Nice so when will it be producing that 1kw? Or is just charging those capacitors be enough proof for you?

[@1967spark]

At a guess it might produce about 1kWh in about 3 days

[@Scott_C]

My guess is that if he had a full ring of those turn table coils he could produce 1kw in a day of steady 7-9km/h wind. Which isn't bad.

[@1967spark]

@@Scott_C with that size of impeller? Not possible. At 9kph, it would be least 9 days to generate 1kWh.

[@Scott_C]

@Bottle Studio Not if it's cloudy or the days are short, e.g.: winter. Also wind blows all day and night. Remember this turbine is more of an energy scavenger. And is an exercise of: "can you make a wind turbine that can produce 1kw with scavenged materials?". A solar array is not that.

[@1967spark]

@@Scott_C It is an interesting project, especially in terms of the construction, but the expectations of potential output must be realistic. The amount of energy available for a given size of turbine is determined by the velocity, impeller efficiency and air density. Given that this project is aimed at lower wind speeds and the relatively small size of the turbine the maximum output at average wind speeds (less than 10mph) is going to be only 25W. That doesn't include any inevitable losses which would probably reduce the average output to much less. At a guess it will be less than half that, especially if battery storage is involved. Well designed alternators are about 75% efficient, but typically less than 60%, batteries about 80-90% again depending on circuit design) But that said it could potentially provide enough power to illuminate a modest sized room.

[@FPChris]

Would two bicycle rims weigh less than the chair legs?

[@markmilligan6616]

Robert, anyway to improve the bearing by maybe investigating magnetic bearings?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

for sure mate

[@darrenhumphris7522]

Hi Rob, if you double the length of the blades, does it double the output or is it marginally better is there a formula to calculate how much wind you can catch to the diameter?

[@mehmetozturk9477]

another efficient a day. Thank you.

[@craigmccarthy9484]

Could you put another set of magnets and coils on the top too .double it up.or even on the outside aswell 4 sets

[@garywillis5790]

Looking good mate.

[@splodman]

You say farad several times - I think you mean microfarad? 1000 farad supercaps at those voltages would be large and very expensive.

[@Teknopottu]

That he means. Happens to many of us.

[@ThisRandomUsername]

Yeah. I just did the maths on his last video with 1000uF capacitors and it came out to something like 280uA of current. I think Rob's made a bit of a blunder here, but I'm interested in seeing what the true value is.

[@peterdkay]

@@ThisRandomUsername He charged it to 10V. Joules=1/2 * V^2 * C = 0.5 Joules. (still very small)

[@markgeurts258]

Cool! I think it would be awsome if you make some permanent magnetic bearings and make the whole thing really frictionless!

[@teslacoil4335]

@@colinhamer6506 there are commercial magnetic bearings that are insanely stable, really cool stuff

[@BensWorkshop]

I'd be interested to see what it does higher up.

[@Cooliemasteroz]

It’s looking good.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@morpher44]

I wonder if you could make a combination kite and wind generator. The kite structure could bring it up high, and then up there a spinning generator could be exploited. It would make sense to transmit the power down using AC to the ground via the kite cable. For hydroelectric, there are devices you can throw into a stream to generate power. It would be interesting to have something you could throw up into the sky to generate a bit of power. Perhaps a low-power-drone could bring it up and hover. If the power generated is greater than the power consumed by the drone, you win.

[@Yaman-D-Chhaya]

Rob Sir it's now seriously awesome, thanks a ton for considering the friction part and modifying the ring bearing, it seriously will now perform wonders when you place more coils and magnets on top and bottom but Yes must say that is a lot of effort, I wish I could have lent a helping hand to you in doing that amount of work, great to see it spin real silent, and in very light Breeze actually that can't be felt on hair even😂😂😂😂😂 loved this video a lot thanks a ton for sharing this, Love respect and very warm regards from India👍👍🌹🌹🙏🙏

[@martinlicht1969]

Nice concept to truly "Harvest Energy".

[@sorushflummi411]

Apparently One can simulate a electrical Load pretty good with a Brine Solution compare with the last two Videos of AvE

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@conductiveinkalternative918]

It is awesome. Clad to see more videos on this.

[@garthdev]

Where I'm from the bearing you made is okay. In the high end of hifi turntables (30-100K) use magnetic or air bearings. So why didn't you use two apposing ring magnets which really would be friction less. Although there would be some work through the magnetic field I bet it would spin even better than what you have???

[@atikalove9]

Was thinking of this in the other video.. great idea.

[@martinwinfield2935]

Thanks that's a great result, even only partly installed with coils. Have you considered the higher wind speeds and when to apply some sort of brake to stop damage.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I was wondering about that mate - aren't VAWTs supposed to be self limiting?

[@bugz000]

@@ThinkingandTinkering having held a squirrel cage fan from a machine during a repair, to very high winds atop a hill for fun, the speed did seem to plateau pretty quickly, from what i gathered; more blades = less time for the wind to access the surface of the blade at high RPM's = energy input drops = self regulating i think in theory, less blades would allow for higher speeds but also require higher speeds to start it, more blades = lower starting wind required but will plateau very quickly

[@rossmckenzie9446]

Correction: microfarads... not farads. You could increase the voltage by using schottky diodes instead of your 1N4007 ones.

[@bobkelly2447]

Robert ! Have you got this wind Harvester on the roof yet ? it seems your so busy tinkering with different ideas that you get off track very easily.... I know the feeling too well...lol... I am thinking of building a Vertical wind generator like this here in Northern California, near the border of Oregon. the problem is that I doubt it would be of much use to me. sure it could run my LED lights in the house and shop through a 12vdc inverter to 110vac and that's all well and good BUT... I can't run the 220vac well on something like this even with a different inverter as it draws 20 amps(something like that) obviously, with a big enough bank of batteries I could do exactly that, but the expense becomes too much at some point. .... you mentioned in passing in one of your videos that this wind turbine is self limiting ... perhaps that is why you have not added a brake to it ? if that is the case that makes this thing 5 times more useable up here as I have personally seen 91 MPH winds here ! and I would not like to have to chase my wind turbine down after a wind storm ! LOL... your addition of the 1000F capacitors to each coil and rectifier is a fantastic move you solved the problem I was having by that one move thank you ! ..... a word of caution to you on mounting this thing to your roof, even though your winds are mild in comparison to those here a very sturdy anchoring point is definitely needed the peek of a roof can double the wind speed at times if you get 30 mph winds that is converted by the roof area to above 60 mph winds and it could literally rip that thing right off the roof and leave you with a big repair ! .... My Roof will have to be re enforced and use lag bolts through the roof joists to be able to withstand the load ! going overboard on the instillation is warranted here !!!!!

[@PVflying]

Most entertaining video series ever 👌

[@aspudkicker]

I take it that because you added the capacitors up to get 14000 microfarads you have the capacitors connected in parallel?

[@BaliFoodTreePlanter]

Innocent wondering... Would you be able to add continuous controlled waterfall to design as the driver of horizontal version? I am beginner at this.

[@popuptoaster]

Are you going to be able to electrically brake it when the wind gets up to high or do you think it will need something mechanical to stop it?

[@Yaman-D-Chhaya]

You can electrically brake it, all you need to do is short the outputs and baam it stops, in fact a electrical mechanism can be set using relays that open at a certain Voltage, now this Voltage can also be controlled with use of MOSFETS or a simple variable resistor to trigger brakes, very nice query friend!!🌹🌹 God bless 👍👍🙏🙏

[@popuptoaster]

@@Yaman-D-Chhaya Yes, I know the principles, this thing has a lot more mass and comparatively a lot smaller electrical components than is usual though, that's why I asked.

[@Yaman-D-Chhaya]

@@popuptoaster You are absolutely right, but it's always a mystery with Rob Sir what he would come up in his final design, lolz but the build is great and so is your point too mate👍👍❤️🙏🙏😂😂😂😂

[@trevuk01]

coil on its way :-)

[@joshblick]

"scavenged with tiny amounts of beer that have been paid" :)

[@Equelan2]

You can do supercapacitors yourself for more energy storage and also they will act like batteries.

[@energycrafts8206]

Robert, you are having WAY too much fun, especially when you are harvesting energy from almost nothing! Pun intended.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

lol - cheers mate

[@crafter2u]

seems to me the rotor needs to be less weight and the wind vains should be bigger just saying, good luck

[@safffff1000]

Who owns the building you work in, will they allow you to put that thing on the roof to gather more wind?

[@annamolly1261]

I wonder what would happen if you painted the inside of the blades black and the outside of the blades white... I only ask because on a sunny day the difference in thermal pressure might be enough to reduce the initial wind speed. Tiny tweak that can make a difference for harvesting at lower wind speeds.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I like that idea - I think you have something there for sure

[@andrewknots]

Fascinating series. I rather suspect your capacitors are 1000 microfarad

[@riccardociannella2689]

great stuff Rob! always inspired by your vids. I'm sure this has been thought of and is probably in the comments somewhere a thousand times already . so If the vertical wind blades where free to rotate on a pivoted (off center) but restricted to only turn 90 degrees . as the blades move to the direct wind side of the wheel rotation. the blades could create optimum drag and lift. as the blades moved to the back wind side the wheel rotate (pushed by the wind) to rotate 90degrees. thee blade would be side on to wind having almost no resistance in drag to the wind as the wheel rotates back, the wind pushes the blade back to optimum lift/ drag position again. reducing your loss gains you some power.

[@635574]

If the internal support even needed when its held at both ends like this?

[@wobbers99]

very good point.