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Forum Index : Windmills : Wind Generator for Heat Load only
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kent_323is Newbie  Joined: 02/11/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
I'm a newbie to the wind generator stuff, but I've known about it for a long time as my dad was hugely into this when he was alive. We had a large wind generator in the backyard that he built and ran. I remeber one time that as a kid the house was 80 F in the middle of winter and the oil furnace was off! The heat was from electric heaters powered by the wind generator! Fast forward 20 years, my dad has been gone for many years, and now I have a large shop on the place that needs heat. I have radiant tubes in the concrete for heat, however, I don't have a heat source yet.... in recalling back to my childhood I remember the wind generator producing lots of heat. Here's my question, How do I hook up a wind generator to a heating element? In my case, the elements would be on a water heater. I have plenty of load capacity, as when the water would reach a certain temperature, I would circulate it thru the tubes to dump the heat. I'd like to start small, and scale up as I go, so I'd like to build a small generator, and hook it to a resistance heater, and eventually have it hooked to the water heater. And/or have multiple small generators for the power. I've got the room, the wind and to tools to build this stuff, I just need some help on the design side of the electonics.... Motor recommendations? Wiring schematics? I've enjoyed reading thru the posts on this site, there's some great knowledge on here, and I'm sure you guys will have some good ideas for me. Thanks in advance! Kent |
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KarlJ Guru  Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178 |
evacuated tubes are 90% efficient and could be a good heat source, they are cheap too. need a big windmill to provide space heating. I'd think the evacuated tubes will need no maintenance and are frost tolerant too, only problem is what to do with the heat in summer. Karl Luck favours the well prepared |
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Downwind Guru Joined: 09/09/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2333 |
Hi Kent, Welcome aboard. What do you call small in the way of a generator? There is almost as much work in building a toy as there is in a practical generator. Like a F&P style. I would call a F&P small but practical. What voltage heating elements do you intend to use. As this might indicate what path you will need to go. For example 12-24 volt elements supplied direct from the mill or 110-240 volt supplied by batterys and inverter. The more information you can give might help others give better ideas to your questions. Sound like your father was on the right track many years ago. Might say its in your blood now. Pete. Sometimes it just works |
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oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686 |
Kent, It takes a big windmill to make any meaningful heat on an on-going basis. Most folk with manageable sized mills (say less than 4 meters), don't produce more than 3kwh most days, unless you have a very good wind resource... not common. 3kwh is small beans for floor heating, or even water heating, so unless your going for the 10kw jacobs, or similar, (which were likely to be found on farms in the days before the grid), you won't do much good. The best way to heat water is still the solar hot water path. You will get a decent sized installation for the price of a large windmill, and heat a whole lot more water than a small mill ever could. ..... of course, if the sun don't shine at all during the day...  ... but you won't be far from the power derived from a small mill anyway. 
...........oztules Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth |
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| kent_323is Newbie Joined: 02/11/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
I should clarify a bit. I want to start small, so the first step would be to have a wind generator that is tied to a resistance heater, producing hot air only. Long term plans would be for the hot water heat. Is a 1kw heater a reasonable small start? If possible, I'd like to skip using batteries, and dump all of the load into the heater. In the area I'm at, it seems like the wind only stops to change direction! Thanks for the advice so far, Kent Kent |
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| KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178 |
1kw is a decent sized turbine, call it 3+m diameter. my suggestion is get on to ebay, buy a chinese 2KW mill and tower kit. This will be a couple of thousand dollars. this would be a good start but do your homework! http://cgi.ebay.com/Powerful-2kW-Wind-Turbine-Generator-2000 -Watt-48-Volt_W0QQitemZ310178621839QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Def aultDomain_0?hash=item483816298f Spend a few hundred more on cable from the tower to the house and build the heater load per the instructions on this site. http://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/articles/BuildingEncapsu latedResistors.asp I personally like the fan in the PC box idea, you could put it in a location where you need the heating. Luck favours the well prepared |
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| KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178 |
BTW if you were heating the home.... http://cgi.ebay.com/Solar-Hot-Water-Evacuated-Tube-30-Vacuum -Tube-Panel_W0QQitemZ300362838822QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defau ltDomain_0?hash=item45ef053326 one of these will happily heat the water for 4 or so people 10+ months of the year. I have a 20 tube system in Melbourne Australia and I put a blanket over 15 of the tubes in Summer so it doesn't boil off too much water. in winter it heats 170L of water to 40 degrees a day so a quick shower is a must. 30 tubes I'd say would provide all your hot water year round winter is tough as radiated energy is 5x less thus home heating needs a huge area of tubes (say 4 of these systems) Karl Luck favours the well prepared |
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| kent_323is Newbie Joined: 02/11/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 3 |
All good suggestions, however, I'd like to build a wind generator system to gain the experience. I have the shop and the tools to easily build it. (vertical mill, bandsaw, welders, etc) My ultimate solution may include those solar hot water evacuated tube systems. I haven't seen a recommendation for building a system that eliminates the batteries/inverter, and is just tied to the dump load only. Kent |
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| KiwiJohn Guru Joined: 01/12/2005 Location: New ZealandPosts: 691 |
Kent, I think your idea is reasonable as to use a windmill to make heat and nothing else sure saves on rectifiers, batteries, inverters and most of the control circuitry. I have not contributed much to this site but others have and I am sure there is everything you need to know right here, somewhere! |
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| oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686 |
If your that keen, try this story for your interest. It gets around the control problems with simple capacitors. It has seen peaks of 3000 watts for a 12' system. http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/10/29/201016/09 ...........oztules Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth |
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| anteror Senior Member  Joined: 06/10/2009 Location: FinlandPosts: 189 |
This is useful; http://www.folkecenter.net/mediafiles/folkecenter/pdf/Small_ Scale_Renewable_Energy_Control_Systems.pdf In my experience there should not be contactors. PWM and it should have control to adjust to optimize the rpm /load for wind generator. All the parts etc oversized for safety. Antero Finland |
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