Pete’s home made wind generator

Here is a link to a video of a Heath Robinson wind generator I made a few years back.

Its made mainly from bits of pushbike. The blades are made from plastic soil pipe covered with ripstop nylon. I just drew a long triangle on the pipe and cut it out with a jigsaw. The resulting blade had just the right twist. The turbine is rotating on a bicycle cassette pedal crank bearing and the generator element is a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub dynamo. The sturmey archer tends to vibrate as the magnets index round. I’d like to replace it with something more suitable but what?

Well things have moved along a bit. Here is what I have done:

I have changed the generator element to the motor from a direct drive LG washing machine. The 3 phase output from the motor feeds into a 3 phase rectifier.

I have mounted the whole thing higher up on a lamppost I bought from Ebay.

I fitted brushes to the mount so that the windmill can change direction without winding the output wires round and round.

I made the tail section much heavier to try to damp some of the gyroscopic forces.

I changed the fan design from 3 blades to 10 blades to reduce the rpm and gyroscopic forces and improve performance in low winds.

It now runs a 12v pond fountain fitted with a buck regulator to prevent the motor voltage going above 12v.

This wind generator not only runs my pond pump but also secures my reputation as village nutter in perpetuity.  Even the Jehovah’s have stopped calling.

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