Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I disagree with comments that turbulence is not a consideration for siting VAWTs.
While wind direction is not a factor, turbulence definitely is. Turbulence can cause average wind speeds to drop significantly below the laminar flow airspeeds.
Turbulence is caused by obstructions in the air flow, like trees and buildings. These cause the air to swirl and may cause wind direction to vary significantly.

Tony

Hi guys,
I read this thread with interest. Hope I am posting this the right spot. If not please move it where it is more appropriate.
We'd need to lift water with a preferably traditional Au windmill to about 17-19 meters high - to water tanks on roof deck in Vietnam where the main has very little pressure. We want the wind mill to save power and look iconic, possibly sitting on the roof. But budget is an issue -- so it might come down to putting it together and make it look good that way. I am a building consultant in Melbourne and have no mechanical or electrical training.
Oh...and the idea is to have aquaponic pans covering the roof to help cooling.

Until I read this thread thought the wind mill was a good idea. Now I am not so sure...
Any help welcome.

Leddie

In an earlier post I wrote.
"While this has been posted before I think this is one of the easiest windmills to construct, note the bottom left pic of a fence top version and his neat flexi drive shaft for pumping. http://www.greenwindmill.com/urban.htm"

These windmills are designed for low tech construction and require little support ie non above the sails, they will sit on roofs easily and are unlikely to kill anyone if they collapse. They are scaleable.

Need to take the " of the end of the url address for it to work

And Tony tags in for the KO!

Nothing wrong with a bit of spirited disagreement fellas, its up to each of us to realise that any opinions are NOT a personal attack or a shut down. See how much choice info has come from these last few pages?

Good stuff.

Steve

southern cross

I can confirm all of the above attributes,except the roof mounting part.
While they probably wouldn`t kill you, they can certainly deliver quite a good smack in the head if you get too close

www.nurl.us/7nx

ok everyone we have another site that might interest some of you regarding fisher and paykel wind generators plans and wiring instructions. not sure if it was posted earlier but worth a shot.
www.yourgreendream.com

Those washers are really sought after by hobbyists, huh?

Fixed one for my boss, was spewing, wanted to gut it for the motor.

7 pole i think?

Psst how many you want to buy

i'm not surprised!

F&F, if they're the right ones junk the motors out of them and offer them on the right forums.

He's just pissed off with the trees .



From his patent I think (smart bloke).
If you're daft enough to stick your head into anything solid and moving you probably should not be allowed a Hills hoist .

If your trying to makethe windmill on a budget I wouldn't use Au in the construction.

Sleepe -- thank you, I checked the link, and definitely without the " ;-)

It looks a bit fragile...how much would you scale it up to lift to a hight of 19m.

The blades seem horizontal, so we would need to build it tall above the roof plane. But I like that swinging is not a problem. It also looks like a generator that operates an electrical pump...That might address the height problem.

Stuart said:


:) that's a fair remark, actually. But the client is very proud of his adopted country and wants the windmill to be a special statement on his commercial building -- I can relate to that. He wants it to be a kind of visual draw-card.

I just looked up some wind data for the area. Yesterday it was 7-20km/h at an 19m altitude -- which is luckily our height. The average wind speed is 1.5 mps-2.5 mps, and the 20 year max reaches 34 mps in tropical cyclones but they are rare.

I like the effectiveness of the solution Sleepe proposes. And may be we could make those sales large enough to make it look attractive...But I am afraid it might become to 'top-heavy' the spinning would become a problem. Then again the rural examples showing a scaled-up version...I take what you say is that because the traditional Au windmill is mechanical -- might not generate enough power, or turning it to a generator is not a good idea.

The sail windmill looks like it would self-destruct in the first wind storm. (I do like your movie though Hex!) A regular horizontal sail windmill is not flapping the sails on every revolution, they are normally staying full as they go around. Maybe this would work better with rigid curved sheets rather than fabric that flaps a million times per day. Why isn't it more like a wheel with like 12 or 24 sails instead of just four that seem to be getting in each others' way?