4 ms·

Hi all, this is my turbine build process, based on Ed Lenz's design. Thanks for the attention and input. I can answer any questions you have.

mabbo 6y ago
Two questions: 1 - how are you converting the energy into electricity? The materials don't seem to mention that piece. 2 - How do you convert variable energy like wind into something stable and usable? IE: how do I hook this input into a household power system? Edit: Ah, there are some answers to these questions at the bottom- I missed that part.,
- Daniel_Connell 6y ago
  1 - There's a couple options in terms of alternators / generators. Hoverboard wheels are good in terms of cost and availability (in Western countries at least) and do a decent job tho will need to be geared up with a belt or similar to produce 12V charge voltage in realistic winds. Direct drive washing machine motors are usually high enough voltage to direct drive, tho can be a little tricky to source. Motorbike alternators will usually do a sufficient enough job, and are highly available in most parts of the world. 2 - The electrical side of things, ie charge control, batteries, load diversion, inversion, etc really needs to be tailored to each individual situation. We've got this Facbook group going: https://upload.facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/ https://upload.facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/ for figuring out that side of things and others.
  - mrfusion 6y ago
    Maybe a broken gas generator would be a good option too? I’d guess the ICE component normally fails well before the generator part.
    - Daniel_Connell 6y ago
      Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I've not come across any, but sure they'd be sourceable if specifically looked for.
Daniel_Connell 6y ago
Firstly, yes this turbine can be easily made for less than $30, including the alternator (but not usually the pole, charge control, batteries etc). At the moment I've got a particularly good contact with a local printers for the alu sheets and a full six vane version is costing me about $22 total. The sheets are usually pretty easy to find, just ring around any printing companies in your area which do offset printing and you should find someone to sell them used to you for about $1-2 each. Sometimes they just give them to me for free. Any ~0.3mm alu sheet will work just as well, but will cost more if bought new. Steel will work structurally, but is a lot harder to bend and cut so won't really work with the process documented in the tutorial. The turbine (as in the general Lenz2 design, not my specific build) has been independently tested to about 25-35% mechanical efficiency, and does particularly well in turbulent and low clearance wind conditions compared to most horizontal axis turbines. My website is indeed a bit bad. Sorry about that. Anything else you'd like to know?
- MayeulC 6y ago
  1. Where do you source parts for the pole? 2. How did you do these animations? Blender? 3. Do you have any relationship with lowtechmagazine.com? Nice project, thanks for documenting it :)
  - Daniel_Connell 6y ago
    1. It's usually just standard off the shelf items. Square steel tube, steel rope, turnbuckles, thimbles, D clamps, cable clamps. 2. Modeled in Rhino, everything else in Maya. I've not used Blender but I hear good things. 3. Not directly, but I'm a fan.
wombatmobile 6y ago
How did you make this terrific animated video?
- Daniel_Connell 6y ago
  Modeled in Rhino, everything else done in Maya. From a technical point of view it's fairly basic, bit of work tho. This one needs a bit of an update, and got a couple other bits of tech on the list for same...
tomcooks 6y ago
Thank you for giving all these gifts out for free in the world. You could easily have made a paywalled site or sold everything in an expensive course, but you decided to share. Thank you very much, keep it up and ignore the chronic complainers, no amount of good will and effort is ever enough to keep them from typing away (instead of doing). Cheers!
- Daniel_Connell 6y ago
  Thanks.
theamk 6y ago
Hi Daniel, Wanted to let you know that page layout seems to be broken -- entire bottom part is blank, and content appears in small window in top-right corner. Seems like I am not the only one, too [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24867413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24867413
- Daniel_Connell 6y ago
  Yeah that site has been cobbled together by various mates over the years. Had a lot of people offer to fix it for me, but no one's really come through. Paid a guy, who somehow made it worse...

mabbo 6y ago

Two questions: 1 - how are you converting the energy into electricity? The materials don't seem to mention that piece. 2 - How do you convert variable energy like wind into something stable and usable? IE: how do I hook this input into a household power system? Edit: Ah, there are some answers to these questions at the bottom- I missed that part.,

Daniel_Connell 6y ago
1 - There's a couple options in terms of alternators / generators. Hoverboard wheels are good in terms of cost and availability (in Western countries at least) and do a decent job tho will need to be geared up with a belt or similar to produce 12V charge voltage in realistic winds. Direct drive washing machine motors are usually high enough voltage to direct drive, tho can be a little tricky to source. Motorbike alternators will usually do a sufficient enough job, and are highly available in most parts of the world. 2 - The electrical side of things, ie charge control, batteries, load diversion, inversion, etc really needs to be tailored to each individual situation. We've got this Facbook group going: https://upload.facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/ https://upload.facebook.com/groups/windturbinemakers/ for figuring out that side of things and others.
- mrfusion 6y ago
  Maybe a broken gas generator would be a good option too? I’d guess the ICE component normally fails well before the generator part.
  - Daniel_Connell 6y ago
    Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I've not come across any, but sure they'd be sourceable if specifically looked for.

Daniel_Connell 6y ago

Firstly, yes this turbine can be easily made for less than $30, including the alternator (but not usually the pole, charge control, batteries etc). At the moment I've got a particularly good contact with a local printers for the alu sheets and a full six vane version is costing me about $22 total. The sheets are usually pretty easy to find, just ring around any printing companies in your area which do offset printing and you should find someone to sell them used to you for about $1-2 each. Sometimes they just give them to me for free. Any ~0.3mm alu sheet will work just as well, but will cost more if bought new. Steel will work structurally, but is a lot harder to bend and cut so won't really work with the process documented in the tutorial. The turbine (as in the general Lenz2 design, not my specific build) has been independently tested to about 25-35% mechanical efficiency, and does particularly well in turbulent and low clearance wind conditions compared to most horizontal axis turbines. My website is indeed a bit bad. Sorry about that. Anything else you'd like to know?

MayeulC 6y ago
1. Where do you source parts for the pole? 2. How did you do these animations? Blender? 3. Do you have any relationship with lowtechmagazine.com? Nice project, thanks for documenting it :)
- Daniel_Connell 6y ago
  1. It's usually just standard off the shelf items. Square steel tube, steel rope, turnbuckles, thimbles, D clamps, cable clamps. 2. Modeled in Rhino, everything else in Maya. I've not used Blender but I hear good things. 3. Not directly, but I'm a fan.

wombatmobile 6y ago

How did you make this terrific animated video?

Daniel_Connell 6y ago
Modeled in Rhino, everything else done in Maya. From a technical point of view it's fairly basic, bit of work tho. This one needs a bit of an update, and got a couple other bits of tech on the list for same...

tomcooks 6y ago

Thank you for giving all these gifts out for free in the world. You could easily have made a paywalled site or sold everything in an expensive course, but you decided to share. Thank you very much, keep it up and ignore the chronic complainers, no amount of good will and effort is ever enough to keep them from typing away (instead of doing). Cheers!

Daniel_Connell 6y ago
Thanks.

theamk 6y ago

Hi Daniel, Wanted to let you know that page layout seems to be broken -- entire bottom part is blank, and content appears in small window in top-right corner. Seems like I am not the only one, too [0] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24867413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24867413

Daniel_Connell 6y ago
Yeah that site has been cobbled together by various mates over the years. Had a lot of people offer to fix it for me, but no one's really come through. Paid a guy, who somehow made it worse...