Does anyone have experience with wind power at b-man?

[nick]

Heya folks,

Noticing the high price of PV panels, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with wind power at b-man? I've searched on this site and the AEZ site but haven't found much.

I'm thinking of getting an Air-X 400 W mini turbine instead of PV panels:

http://shop.altenergystore.com/itemdesc ... q~~Tp~.htm

I'm looking for someone with actual, hands-on experience with something like this and especially how many hours a day of good breeze you got, how much power you were able to generate and how hard or easy install way.

Thanks!

-n

[Tiahaar]

There's some discussion (and photo's!) about wind stuff over in this thread: http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=8689

For my wind turbine I bolted a 2" pipe to the floor and ran it out a hole in the roof of the bus to mount the gen/blade unit on. My theory was that if it wasn't sunny it would probably be windy...last year was good for wind power! At least for me the turbine was mainly a "helper" to the solar array, taking the edge off night-time lighting demands on the battery bank. I needed the solar to charge the batteries during the day (the wind turbine by itself could not have kept up...sorry I didn't have meters on it last year to see how many watts it put out, guessing 50-150 watts at 30mph wind speeds).

Is this helpful? Glad to talk more on this stuff, get feedback from AEZ people too.

[calsur]

Nick,

I am WAGing here. Thats a Wild Ass Guess. But you have not been to BM before? Go before you try something like this. See the reality. Just my 2 cents.

[robotland]

http://www.makezine.com/

Scroll down a little- In today's topics are instructions for a simple Savonius turbine and charger setup. I plan on building a few of 'em to decorate my structure with, but doubt I'll bother even wiring them to a battery given the impracticality. A couple of trolling motor batteries run my lights for the week, and I don't bring anything that needs to be recharged on-playa.

[Tiahaar]

Savonius turbine and charger setup...

Nice article! Didn't someone put together a very large one out on the playa two years ago? I don't remember seeing how it turned out.

Nick: one note on the Air-X turbines is that they use internal slip rings (to get power from the generator down the mast wires) that I'd be worried of getting dirt in and fouling the connection. I don't know if there are internal generator brushes. The "Hornet" and similar PMA units (permanent magnet alternator) have no internal brushes and at least the Hornet design doesn't use slip rings either...they just run a heavy set of wires down the mast and don't worry about the wind twisting them a bit.

My DC motor-turned-generator does have brushes and it got dusted good last year, the shaft still spins freely and the bearings seem well sealed so I'll put it back up this year as-is. No slip rings in my unit either. Calsur is correct too...you gotta be a hard-core gadget junkie to have fun tinkering with this sorta stuff on playa...I plead guilty

[robotland]

I'm thinking about a Vast Array of teensy little Savonius rotors- Perhaps a dozen or more- That would be primarily decorative but that might be capable of charging a battery for a nighttime LED....Step One will be dissecting a solar pathway light and trading the PV for a little DC motor and rotor.

[nick]

Thanks for the info for those who have been informative -- anyone have a feeling for how many hours of wind we got, on average last year? I've done some digging online and can't seem to find a "wind history" or forcast as it were...

-n

PS: Calsur, thanks for your concern, this will be burn 5 so I am fully aware (although never fully prepared) for the challenges!

[phil]

how many hours a day of good breeze you got

Drop an email to airport at burningman.com and see if they kept track. I know they have a weather station of sorts and measure wind speed and direction. If they didn't keep a log, they might know geeks who did. (And as you know, BM is the kind of place that attracts those kinds of geeks. :->)