Hi Sam, and welcome to the board.

I think the VAWT your talking about is the design by ED of WindStuffNow. If so, wait a couple of weeks. He is taking his design to the local wind tunnel test facility ( would be nice to have a local wind tunnel ). He plans to do a heap of testing and then let everyone know about his results. I want to build a larger VAWT, about 2 meters hign and 2 meters wide, but will wait till I see his results.

Yes you are right about using two F&P's and ofset them to reduce cogging. It works. But its a bit fidley to set it all up, a single F&P windmill is a lot easier to build. I've read it takes 2.85 Nm to move a normal F&P past that first cog. Once its moving the cogging is only small.

Glenn