Introduction of new member

[Mark Selvek]

Hi folks,

I am happy to be a part of this community! My name is Mark Selvek. I am a Technology Education teacher in Victor, NY. Victor is located just South East of Rochester, NY. I am at the high school level. I teach a couple different engineering courses (Digital Electronics, and Principles of Engineering), as well as some electives, one of which is Energy and Power. I have been wanting to build some type of wind turbine for some time, and I think this class is the perfect opportunity to introduce my students to wind power and renewable energy in general. My plan is to have my students each build a scale model of their own design, using a small DC motor as the generator. In addition to this, I would love to be able to build a larger, more realistic and functional turbine after school with any interested students. Any ideas, pictures, plans, etc from anyone who has built one from used parts etc would be greatly appreciated. I'm not looking to power the whole school or anything, maybe just something big enough to run a light or something a little bigger. Thanks and i look forward to reading your posts!

-Mark

[Paul Bailey]

Hi Mark : Welcome to the group. Search around through the differant Forums here ,Lots of interesting Energy discussions and homebuilt Wind stuff here. Happy reading.. Paul:)

[Stewart Corman]

Greetings Mark and welcome to the board.

I know of two major home RE projects near your area which would be eye candy to your kids.

One fellow recently hosted an RE session that was written up:
http://solarrochester.com/tour.asp (third house down "Powell")

http://home.rochester.rr.com/antpowell/
he also flys a 10 ft Otherpower bird on a 45foot tower

why not drop him a line to the email addy listed in article


the second one is Dave B flying an 18footer on an 85 foot tower, just outside Buffalo who posts regularly on Otherpower:
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/7/28/54213/5474

his buddy fabricates the blade for him:
http://royalfabrication.com/index.htm
that's Dave standing in front of the 18 footer


Models? hmmmm
like this:

http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r203/scorman1/Experiment/

BTW, I have been collecting bookmarks for two years on this technology and could forward a listing to you ...they will be unedited, but worth more than you are paying for them

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Mark,

Welcome to Green Power Talk!
An idea for a 'larger' project might be Hugh Piggott's turbine plans (http://www.scoraigwind.com/axialplans/index.htm). They can also be scaled to make a different (smaller) size turbine if needed. Don't forget to post back here with pictures/progress if you embark on building a turbine! We want to hear about it. :)

-RoB-

[Mark Selvek]

Stew,

Thanks for the reply, and thanks to all the others who have replied so far. I was actually referred to this forum by a friend and fellow tech teacher who teaches in Owego, NY. Nate clued me in to your work after he saw what you had created and knew i was interested. I would be very interested in whatever you can send me on building my own turbine, also on building small models. Will I be able to have my students use small DC motors I have here at school for their model, or will they not work. I have a surplus of them. Would it be worth purchasing Hugh Piggott's book on the brake drum wind mill? it sounds like it would be simple to build. Or can I find enough info on the net? Thanks again for letting me pick your brain.

[Rob Beckers]

Mark, the plans from Hugh Piggott I was referring to are actually his newer axial flux design plans, not the older brake drum design. I've read the book/manual, it contains step-by-step instructions on how to build a wind turbine. IMO worth the small expense, even if you are going to build another design since it illustrates a concept and gives lots of tips on the little details that are always the hardest to get right.

Hugh also has good and very accessible theoretical info on wind turbine design and how/why they work. Worth an evening of reading (http://users.aber.ac.uk/iri/WIND/TECH/WPcourse/index.html).

-RoB-

[Stewart Corman]

Mark,
If you can't find it on the web ..it isn't worth looking at ;)

the best place to start is the basic science in simple terms is located in Hugh Piggot's tutorial:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/iri/WIND/TECH/WPcourse/index.html

no fancy math other than exponents ...

but nobody does equations anymore, which is why I created an Excel calculator which was posted on this board:

http://www.greenpowertalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=146&d=1177504271

the second area of "learning" and a fun activity for the kids to work with is finite element modeling of airfoils as done in a GUI with JavaFoil ..this way they might understand why diff blades look differently ...a flat plank will work ...just not that well!

I really type slowly, so it might be easier to get you on a cell over the weekend to walk you through this stuff....so send me an email and I can send you a list of bookmarks and you can give me your phone # and best time to jawbone

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott
scorman@stny.rr.com