DIY Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Any progress yet? If you haven't re-cut all your cardboard, maybe you should try my suggestion about a wire frame covered with a latex type material. The centrifical force created will make the clay crack and cause it to become water logged. If you use 3 or 4mm wire it will have great structural integrity, and it will be easier to replace the latex covering if it wears out.

reply to post by Anuubis


I've had to relegate the project to the backburner since uni re-started but have spent the last few months slowly gathering the equipment needed and have almost everything ready to start the design & build of MkII to be a serious off-grid setup

here's the gear so far...



3x 12V (6x2VDC cell) 100Ah AGM deep-cycle batteries...with another 4 to be added in the next 2 weeks




1000w output 12VDC inverter




Charge-controller with relay switch to divert to dump-load (will be to an immersion heater element) at 100% battery charge








And the heart of the system, a 2.25 HP 260VDC/5000rpm PM treadmill motor

According to the tech spec, it should produce a charge current (13.5V to charge a 12V battery) at around 300-350rpm

The reason for going down the treadmill motor design route is that it seems to be a simple tried & tested design and means that I dont have to start with the heavy fabrication-from-scratch of a scoraig wind alternator assembly so can get on with other aspects of the project

The plan is to build a basic horizontal-axis windatron following this design
to get all the components assembled and running to test the system out, then once any bugs are ironed out, can start to build the vertical-axis blade unit to mount onto the treadmill motor

reply to post by citizen smith

I think you should stick with the vertical design. Less stress on the frame, and it don't matter what direction the wind is from. Plus it'll spin easier with less wind.

reply to post by Anuubis


I see what you mean, the horizontal-axis design will just be a temporary set-up using blades cut from PVC pipe (easily a 'saturday-afternoon' job) solely to test that all the components are working together a-ok to charge the battery bank. Once I know that all is running smoothly I can progress with the vertical blade build.

I'll still be using the helical design but with a different design approach than MkI and use your suggestion of a skinned wire-mesh frame. As I now have access to equipment in the university workshops, I've been considering using stacked and incrementally-rotated 'S' sections made from perspex and cut on a laser cutting table for greater accuracy

I should be able to post pics of the rig working/charging as a HAWT in the next few weeks over the xmas break tho

reply to post by citizen smith

I discovered a source for the fan, and they are already balanced. I work for a demolition company, and we demo'd a city hall near where i live and it had six brand new heating units on it. I'm talking about the big ones you see on stores and office buildings. We recycle most materials, but i managed to scavenge three electric motors and and the cooling fans from them. The arms on the fans can be bent slightly to work on a vertical design, and they are really light. The motors on the other hand weigh about fifty pounds each.

I have a treadmill motor out in the garage somewhere. Now I will have to tinker with it.

Originally posted by citizen smith

And the heart of the system, a 2.25 HP 260VDC/5000rpm PM treadmill motor

WHERE do we find these things? I did some basic surplus site searching but haven't had any luck.

Originally posted by citizen smith

Awesome design

I'd stick with it. Fiber glass is to heavy tho.

Build your stack with a tough weatherproof but lightweight glue to stick the layers together. Then consider 'acrylic'izing' it. Use "WELD-ON #16" glue, which turns into acrylic as the solvent dries.
www.eplastics.com...

You'll have to make sure that all of the cardboard is saturated so it'll last. After using the weld on glue go over it with cheaper polyurethane just in case.

This setup may or may not cost more than fiber glass. It'd be vastly lighter. But you'll have to do a real good job of making sure its solid as you build it.

Have to think about how to fill the little holes, but you'd want to apply the "wet" process before sealing those edge holes. Maybe a sort of spray foam could be used to fill the holes after the "wet" process, but it might be a messy process. Let it dry, sand and smooth it, then go over it with remaining Weld-On & urethane. After it's all dried and cured, go over it with a solid coat of Rustoleum "professional" grade spray paint (the tall can) for both looks and durability. Each extra coat will get heavier, but add strength.

It looks like it's meant to spin one direction. If so you could consider leaving the wind-scopp holes open for more grab, but rain getting in there could weigh it down and help it age if the assembly isn't properly sealed.

Originally posted by picrat
i love the idea and design of the blades it is so simple and yet elegant ant it does not need to stick up 40 to 100 feet in the air.

Height is an issue. With DC, the further the length of the wires the more heat and losses that occur.

[edit on 6-12-2008 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

Originally posted by Anuubis
I discovered a source for the fan, and they are already balanced. I work for a demolition company, and we demo'd a city hall near where i live and it had six brand new heating units on it. I'm talking about the big ones you see on stores and office buildings. We recycle most materials, but i managed to scavenge three electric motors and and the cooling fans from them.

Those motors won't work. With AC you need generators. It's like a microphone to a speaker, or speak to mic.

With DC, the permanent magnet motors in the OP video there function quite differently.

Did these units provide "fans", or "turbines"?

'Air handler' turbines:


Air handler turbines are the best thing for moving air period[], but their weight might be an issue with capturing wind energy. I'm sure its been discussed someplace before.

Either way, I would hang onto them even if they're fans, and stock up on old drills and all the rest. These things might become quite handy and / or valuable...

[edit on 6-12-2008 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

A good source of DC motors to use as generators is electric weed whackers. You can find them at pawn shops garage sales and second hand stores for little money. I know there not as good as the tread mill motors but there plentiful and cheap so you can play with them a lot more then you can with the tread mill motors.

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
Yes they have fans, and the type of motors they are, they work on the same principal as a corless drill. Just a hell of a lot bigger.

reply to post by Anuubis


Hmmm... So AC units have DC permanent magnet motors in them?!? I wasn't "service", so I never actually disected any of the old ones we demo'd to replace.

About what wattage, and RPM are these things?

reply to post by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
The heating units we demo'd had both cooling motors and Air turbine fan motors. They were huge units. I'll have to get the output info tomorrow, they're in my garage and it's about 15 below so i'm NOT going outside

reply to post by Northern Raider


you are correct about the difference in voltage needed . i sell offshore dirt dikes and atvs these batteries need to be charged up to 13.7 volts or they wont kick the machines over -13.6 won.t start.one good thing about the 125 cc thumper bikes is that they run on the old starting system of points and condensers -turn the key and kick them over and away they go no battery needed -and the other emp effected parts can be removed and replaced with wires.

I was watching a show last night on the history channel about Nicola Tesla and it gave me an idea. With any generator we build it would have to be large and heavy to have a significant power output. Not too mobile in a sitX scenario. Also with any amount of load on the generator it makes it harder for the wind to turn the turbine. You then run the risk of damage to any one of the parts because of stress. A simple solution would be to go with a smaller motor and build a small Tesla coil. They had one about four feet tall and with a supply of 120 volts it had an output of 500,000 volts. I know we wont need that kind of power, but with one about a foot high you could have enough of a power output to supply two or three houses and there would be almost no load on the generator. Parts will last a hundred times longer and the setup would weigh about ten or fifteen pounds if you go with a smaller motor.

reply to post by Anuubis


I am wondering if that's all there is too it why hasn't it been done already.
I am asking a legitimate question here not being a smart Alec. What would be the draw backs of such a system?

reply to post by citizen smith


Wow. I mean wow. Er... wow. Where do you get all these wonderful toys?

I didn't even know this thread was here (not very observant is 'ol Nirgal).

I'll definitely be perusing this one in the coming weeks. Keep up the good work and maybe you'll put Drax out of commission.

reply to post by angryamerican

There are no drawbacks to it at all. It was done by Tesla back in the the early 20th century in Colorado. After he died the U.S. government seized all of his patents and papers.

Years ago, when living on a small island in the Caribbean, we had a very simple, yet efficient, home made wind generator. It was based on the childs toy pinwheel design.

It was made from two pieces of metal tubing or light weight pipe welded together to form an X. Ours was about one meter (or three feet) wide. Between the arms of the X we attached bits of sail cloth to match the design of a Pin Wheel. The X was then directly attached to an old VW Alternator. No belts, just directly attached to the shaft. The wind blew, the pinwheel spun, and the alternator cranked out juice which we stored in batteries. It ran all the lights we needed.

Total cost to build was FREE, as the materials were found as scrap. You can get an alternator from a junk yard these days very cheap, and alternators are specifically designed to charge car batteries so the output is perfect. For pipe, use Electrical Metal Conduit about as thick as a finger or thumb. EMT is good as it is strong but has thin walls so it is light weight and easy to work with. For the Sail Cloth, those blue tarps found all over the world are perfect. Perhaps you can find an old torn one for free online or at a lumber yard.

It is very easy to build in a short time. With planning and the materials at hand, you could get one up an running in a leisure Sunday afternoon. While I prefer the "egg beater" verticle design you are working on, the pinwheel is probably the easiest one to make.

As for your project, Cardboard might not be the best choice for making a form. If you can get your hands on some of that rigid foam insulation used in housing. The Pink or Blue panels. You can cut the blade sections out of that. Glue them together in a stack, and then hand shape them to smooth out the steps. Finish it with an epoxy coating and you have the perfect mold for a fiberglass pull off. Foam is a very common material for making molds out of and is very easy to work with. You can cut it with a kitchen knife, or make yourself a 'hot knife' from a bit of steel wire and a variable transformer. Shaping can be done with a sureform or coarse sandpaper. From start to finish with the mold, you could do it in one day or two perhaps.

You could also even choose to leave the foam intact inside the blade as it would add strength with very little weight. This would have the advantage as then your fiberglass layer could be thinner for an additional reduction in weight. It is also less time consuming and demanding than trying to perfect a wire mesh form. For testing purposes, you could skip the fiber glass layer and set up the blade to check for wind spin without the motor attached.

Just a thought. Good luck on your project and keep us posted.

Hi guys,

Just wandering if this could help you :

Oups ... link didn't work :
Here's it :

www.youtube.com...://www.rue89.com/american-ecolo/le-new-look-de-l%E2%80%99eolien-americain