Evelyn Community Gardens-Deptford London
Hello,
I thought I’d share a few pictures of the results of my workshop here on this brilliant site. I have some knowledge of small renewable systems, and so I have been running a free renewable energy workshop at my local community gardens in SE London. This weekend we finished the installation. Shame there is no wind!
The whole system was put together on a budget of under £300, could have made it cheaper but we wanted it to be safe, and tidy.
The tower is made up of a scaffolding pipe with steel guy cable. The scaffolding pipe is bolted on to a base that is a readily available garden fence post foundation.
For dead men to hold the guy cables we used scaffolding pipe sections driven far into the ground with a sledge hammer.
The tower was my biggest head ache since no one really believed me about the scaffolding pole at the garden. In the end after silly extra safety measures like the picture above shows, we finally gained some courage to erect the tower with the 13kilos of turbine.
We didn’t build our three phase alternator, we bought one really cheap. Picture of me holding it, looking daft:
The blades hub and cone were made in fibreglass by a lad in Devon that has made a few, and tested them in high winds by the coast.
The alternator itself is 1100 Watts, and is wired in Star.
The Swivel came out of an old 70s swivel chair, which is the strongest thing we found without having to weld.
Here’s a picture of my friend Greg holding the beast:
The cable hangs down from the tale and is coupled to a slightly shorter cable that will tension first. Also at the tale a piece of bungie rope is holding the cable so when it runs out of turns and the wind stops the tale will go the other way.
The cable is fed down a plastic pipe that is attached to the scaffolding, runs underground in the same plastic pipe all the way to the tool shed where we have the electric panel.
At the panel, we have the rectifier, the turbine breaks, the ammeter to measure the turbine output, the voltmeter to measure the battery status, some fuses to protect the battery, and a shunt regulator (from Angus for sale on this site, thanks for the quick delivery! It is a neat piece of kit)) which is the only battery protection so far.
There are a lot of us coming to the garden, and we mainly want to rely on the manual computer. Which is basically turning the breaks on when we know the wind is going to be really strong, or when the voltage goes over 14Volts.
The installation site is not really ideal, it is surrounded by buildings, any expert in the field would be quick to class this as hippie madness but we have been here a while and we know this is a corridor of wind that comes from the Tames into this built up estate.
Also we have little things to power like, timers, water pumps and small lights. The only reward so far is a small light in the tool shed, which we have started using already.
Hope you enjoyed these pictures, come down see it working sometime, I will let you know how it goes once we have our first wind harvest…
Very Nice!
Looking like a great system there, where did you get the alternator btw? Looks very similar to the ones from renewablecomponents.
Just to clarify
'Which is basically turning the breaks off when we know..'
Shouldnt that be turning the breaks on? Seems more sensible to me but?
Also, I was wondering how you mounted the shaft?
Looking great ..
Forum Admin
http://www.reenergy.co.uk/
Good Evening Angus,
Good Evening Angus,
Thanks for the praise! The alternator is from renewablecomponents indeed. Except we visited their ebay account to buy one of their stepper motors instead at £47+delivery. They are no longer available, but they still sell 2000 Watt ones. Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I am aware there is no difference. During the test this stepper motor performs beautifully.
We were making competitions spinning it by hand, and this is a heavy 9 kilo machine, we were able to get 9-12volts. I do wish it was easier to work with, and I want to try different motors that are easier to mount. The shaft is extremely small for such a heavy machine, we scoured the market and local scrapyard for any sort of mounts that we could work with, in the end we found these military metal brackets from a truck that were just the perfect fit, although it looks a little over engineered and heavy, bolted from all sides. We used double nuts and locking washers, to make it as safe as possible.
This is not necessarily the end of development for this machine, I will consider a furling tail, and the wire fed down the scaffolding pipe with a different swivel system, maybe a charge controller with dump load? What do you think?
As for the breaks you are again totally right, breaks off will let the turbine spin, breaks on will stop the turbine.. My mistake, I have corrected it now, didn't realise you could edit comments! cool. We basically used two switches to short the three phases together. When we tested it, it really seemed to work effectively putting loads of pressure and coming to a stop.
We are hoping we never use them when the turbine is spinning at all, maybe waiting until there is a break.
Thanks for the feedback, great to have someone to share ideas with.
Joao
verry nice joao
first i would like to say thank you for the great photos.
and the very good story that went with them.
yes you have done well with the budget you had.
its not easy working and building with a budget.
but you have sum nice bits there .
i also saw the nose cone made by the guy in Devon but thought he was in Cornwall.
im not sure how good your blades are .
and i think all in all your set-up is ok.
i am only learning as well . so cant give you much advise . i think you can make a lot of power there .
the wiring looks tidy . how menny bridge rectifiers have you got fixed to the heat sink.
looks like you got a few there.
so i will say well done to you and all who helped out.
so to all the gang there thanks for sharing .
jake the rake
Thank you!
Hey Jake!
There are more photos and there will be a short film about it too, I will post it when the guys in the garden finish it. Hopefully we will get some shots of it spinning. No wind yet!!!!
Yes we were tied to this budget from lovely Lewisham council. But at least we had something to buy a few bits. So we thought it would be a good idea to start with a good heart for the machine.
Yes the guy that made the blades is probably in Cornwall, it must be the same person we are talking about. As far as I am aware the blades are ace, I will let you know if they are well matched to this PM Alternator when we have wind. But they seem like they are going to be spinning very well.
I have been learning a while, and have done a few courses and have a few systems already. I find I learn more from speaking to good people like your self and from experimenting…
We made sure the wiring is tidy and tried to use good cables especially to and from the battery.
The rectifiers are 1000V 50A and we used 3, one for each phase. They are on a simple about 1mm thick aluminum plate evenly spaced, with screws and some “conducting paste” used in computer heat sinks for now, still hoping to find a heat sink, but will let you know if this overheats.
It is a pleasure to share these photos and information, I hope it inspires other communities out there. Knowledge empowers people. Energy is one of the basic ingredients to end poverty, through energy independence this can be achieved.
Get your community going
let the wind blow!!!!
The wind is blowing
This morning there was wind so on my way to work I had to check it out, and here it is:
You can see canary wharf behing, it really is built up around here, but when it blows it always blows exactly where we placed the turbine.
The cable is not twisting at all, it looks like there aren't going to be any problems. I am so happy!
Joao
Another small video with my
Another small video with my mobile for now. Last weekend there was a bit of wind average 8-11 mph according to weather sites for London. The voltmeter in parallel with the turbine output, after the rectifier was showing voltages from 0- to 12 -14 volts. I expect it is charging when it goes over 12volts, but haven't really noticed the battery charge increasing just yet.
The turbine doesn’t move in the slightest of breezes, but when it does get going it usually goes over 12 volts very quickly.
The wind in this site is extremely turbulent, it changes direction a lot and there are short bursts. The cable hasn’t yet wound itself! All good for now.
looks good to see it moving
thanks again for the clips.
its odd to see canary wharf in the background.
looks like you got power to use. but it will put out a lot.
if not then maybe you can think about putting it up a wee bit higher .
i was in your area a short while ago. it was a sunday so not to bad for traffic .
so its 11 march today and big winds all over the country .
and still more to come.
my gen is still in the building stage .i think i am the mark three now.
but what is holding me back is the mast.
i want to make a tower that will pivot in the middle.
its taken me a while to get the idea right
but basicly the pole will pivot in the middle .
so it can be lowered very easelay .
but i wonder what the council's comments on it will be.
i am in essex.
its the only problem with windmills and bad weather.
have you had the dump load working yet.
i bet monday it got a bit warm.
i cant see how to add a pic here. but will try later.
all the best to all at deptford