Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

[s/v Beth]

I put up one of those earlier threads (I think) Vertical axis wind turbine have define advantages for the cruiser- quieter, easier to get to motor electronics (on the bottom usually) and do not cause bird strikes. I am suspicious of install ready models without customer input. This is not a new idea. It just has to be engineered right. I plan on putting mine (DIY) next to the radar arch. Never liked climbing the mast to solve problems anyway.

[Mick C]

Had an email conversion with a person in the company. Was querying how the main would go if running downwind and fully out. The suggestion was that when the sail blankets the turbine it would not be spinning and you could install a bar vertically to stop the sail touching the turbine. Ok, understood. Now working on how the jib/genoa will cope tacking across these turbines. I too like the idea of having no spinning blades up top but will have to make sure this thing is practical. Would love to hear real stories from real installs on real boats.
Mick

[Hkalan]

Hello Mick,

Have you looked for any real stories from your side of the planet... Using Google Hong Kong I get nothing... Do a quick search when you have free time and let us know.

John from Kronos said there are a few units in commercial use, but I can't find anyone giving any more information...

Thanks,

Alan

[Mick C]

Originally Posted by Hkalan

Hello Mick,

Have you looked for any real stories from your side of the planet... Using Google Hong Kong I get nothing... Do a quick search when you have free time and let us know.

John from Kronos said there are a few units in commercial use, but I can't find anyone giving any more information...

Thanks,

Alan

Yes, nothing on google here except the usual videos from the boat shows...

[DeepFrz]

Interesting article here.

Wind Power: Are Vertical Axis Turbines Better?

[capn_billl]

The lower efficiency is offset a little by the fact that it is always, "facing" the wind.
And the fact that there is no need for rotating power couplings.

Most commercial turbines are still the horizontal ones, that leads me to believe no one has solved the problems with the vertical ones yet.

[Hkalan]

Hello

That was very interesting !

We all have such high hope to make power... The efficiency is just not there... And I agree that watching a VAWT is cool to sit and watch !!!

If the price was low, it would be fun to experiment with !!

Alan

[Hkalan]

Hello,

A friend I talked to about the Mast-R and VAWT, sent me 2 electric bike Hubs today. They are DC brushless generators, and are rated for 500w to 700w. He thought I could try to make my own style VAWT, and rather then use a single generator at the base... Have a generator at the top and the bottom... Where the spokes should attach on the outside, it would be a great way to attach the vertical blades...

Sounds like a fun project... need to start planning.

At a low RPM they do put out some good viltage. What do you think about the concept of 2 on 1 ?

Alan

[glhotka]

Alan,
I would love to know the outcome of that experiment. And on a flybridge, like in your case, a little easier to play with and test than 30 feet up a mast

[Hkalan]

Hello,

As I am in Hong Kong, I had to go to Mainland China for my norma work. I made a small denture in my travels to visit a factory that will work with me to make the VAWT blades that I want to mount the DC brushless generators on the top and bottom of the mount.

I am at a hotel in DongGuang China right now on a WiFi connection using my iPhone. Tomorrow I will post some info when I am back at the office.

This could be an interesting project. I am really curious to know what the start up wind speed will be when the generators are under load !!!

It should only cost $85 USD for the blade... And the free generators, it is an affordable experiment !!

Stay tuned... HAHA

Alan

[jgbrown]

A lot of e bikes use rewound turnigy motors, which are commonly available and easily replaceable. perhaps one of those might work well. I suspect there is a wide range of efficiency in electric motors, and gains there would be huge. A vertical turbine sounds awesome, I do wonder about the square scoop type, which supposedly have large gains over traditional blades.

[bluetriguy]

I currently use a Southwest windpower air breeze HAWT. It runs great, is practically silent (this is important as my trimaran is very light weight and has no 'mass' to absorb vibration - you do hear the blades whistle sometimes. I am happy with it but it has taught me a lot about what to expect - the first thing is that in most cases your turbine doesn't spin. The wind is just in most cases too low a speed (this particular one needs 6 knot winds to get it going). My boat 'Ceil' is anchored out quite literally in the ocean off of Long Beach CA. I'm off of Catalina Isl (NOT in the harbor) and even out there in the great big Pacific you don't for the most part get an average above 6 knots. Most harbors I would bet are similar or you wouldn't want to be there due to swell.

If you read the literature on AirBreeze they fudge the output (as do all solar, diesel, gas generator manufacturers) by clouding the verbage- the output is stated for 13.4 mph which is 6.0 Meters/second. If you are sailing you see this more often than while at anchor. It's a necessary evil I guess as they gotta pick a wind speed - but you need to set clear expectations with yourself before you buy. If we only had the AirBreeze we would need to run the diesel often as there are many days where the wind doesn't get up to 'start' speed. We use 120w solar along with the AirBreeze to fill in the gaps. Both go into two gel cells to run the house.

I mentor some kids in science and they are currently building a VWAT which we will mount on Ceil for testing. The VWAT they are building incorporates magnetic bearings to reduce frictional losses and (hopefully) allow the turbine to spin at little lower speed. If we can come close to the AirBreeze we will be ecstatic. If not it was fun...

As part of our test, the boat is left with systems on - (except radar), so the freezer, lights, radio are all live 24/7/365. With the AirBreeze and 120w solar we've only gone dark three times in three years. We use the excess energy (after battery bank is topped) to divert to a 5 gal hot water heater. The important thing here is that we have gone dark - meaning there were more than 5 days in a row with insufficient wind or solar to both maintain power and recharge the battery bank. (important to know if you are considering this type of thing - )

When the VWAT is online (fall 2012 hopefully) it will be monitored by a small cpu hooked to a cell phone that will allow us to log and display it's (and the airbreeze AND two 120w solar panels) outputs live on the web. I'll post a page for that when we (ok - it's kids so IF) get it online.

[careka]

What if you turn it horizontal and put bigger blades on it and lower it into wather behind the boat like the good old steam boats had, it will make a lot of power and not so much drag. it wil just run along, with two 500/700 watt .....
try it out, will be very nice on a cat.

and i dont think it need to be so wide.

[bluetriguy]

I thought that I'd share a positive note on the AirBreeze units. Ceil has had the AirBreeze off-shore for over three years. When the wind blows the thing does work. Several storms later and recordings of 79+ mph gusts on the anemometer tell us the turbine must be slowing down automatically.

Last month, Ceil had a fight in the night with a 70ft FerroCement boat in the neighborhood. The other boat won... the pic shows some of the damage done. The AirBreeze is mounted on a 10' mast on port side at the transom. Ceil was caught under the other boat's stern overhang and the mast was pushed forward until it peeled the 3/8" wood/glass deck skin up and tilted the AirBreeze into the backstay. Either the wind wasn't blowing or my karma was good as the blades did not get broken!

When I went out to Ceil a week later to repair the deck I simply rebuilt the area and pulled the mast back up. Later that day the wind did hit 7 mph (4 meters/sec) and the battery monitor showed a charge! No harm, no foul.

Thought I should show this as I do believe the AirBreeze to be a great product!

[NahanniV]

Anyone seen a MastR wind generator installed yet ?