HA-1 To HA-3
The Early Days
It all began with a bicycle Dynamo, and a pair of aluminium blades, attached to a brush shaft cobbled together by myself and held aloft by my youngest son Gavin. Later to be named as HA-1 it lit a bulb and the bug had got me.
It was very soon followed by a Sturmey Archer bicycle Dynohub HA-2 but this time with multiple alloy blades mounted on an old school BMX Chainwheel power disc, with a bicycle frame and forks adopted as a yaw mechanism. When the wind blew we had a light at the back door albeit not a very bright one. A lot was learnt from this one, including how to make rectifiers to convert AC to DC voltage, Different blade configurations were tried, 3 blade, 5 blade, fat ones and skinny ones. varying degrees of twist were experimented with until the optimum was reached.
I discovered fairly quickly that alloy blades had a very short lifespan as metal fatigue kicked in fairly quickly. Gyroscopic forces are very destructive and combined with nature give any wind turbine a severe battering.
On a trip to Armagh I managed to acquire a 24v dynamo off an old Perkins engine that had been used to power a standby generator. The dynamo field windings were reconfigured to 12v for a lower cut in speed and a 6' single wooden blade was carved, in an attempt to gain higher revs and more output. Wooden blades became the norm and everything from then on is based on our own carved wooden blades. HA-3 must take the prize as the worst turbine we ever made not to mention a lethal weapon. Unfortunately like HA-1 no pictures of HA-3 have been found.
It all began with a bicycle Dynamo, and a pair of aluminium blades, attached to a brush shaft cobbled together by myself and held aloft by my youngest son Gavin. Later to be named as HA-1 it lit a bulb and the bug had got me.
It was very soon followed by a Sturmey Archer bicycle Dynohub HA-2 but this time with multiple alloy blades mounted on an old school BMX Chainwheel power disc, with a bicycle frame and forks adopted as a yaw mechanism. When the wind blew we had a light at the back door albeit not a very bright one. A lot was learnt from this one, including how to make rectifiers to convert AC to DC voltage, Different blade configurations were tried, 3 blade, 5 blade, fat ones and skinny ones. varying degrees of twist were experimented with until the optimum was reached.
I discovered fairly quickly that alloy blades had a very short lifespan as metal fatigue kicked in fairly quickly. Gyroscopic forces are very destructive and combined with nature give any wind turbine a severe battering.
On a trip to Armagh I managed to acquire a 24v dynamo off an old Perkins engine that had been used to power a standby generator. The dynamo field windings were reconfigured to 12v for a lower cut in speed and a 6' single wooden blade was carved, in an attempt to gain higher revs and more output. Wooden blades became the norm and everything from then on is based on our own carved wooden blades. HA-3 must take the prize as the worst turbine we ever made not to mention a lethal weapon. Unfortunately like HA-1 no pictures of HA-3 have been found.
HA-4 our first 3 Phase Turbine
Front view showing water pump bearing
From design to construction
by Chris (Techie) & John (Donkey) the story of our 3 phase PMG turbines from HA-4 to our latest the HA-6 3FP
After more research and dogged determination in mounting the Rotor/Stator from Chris HA-4 was launched, our first 3 phase 3 blade PMG turbine with wooden carved blades.
Only someone who has attempted to mount a rotor containing several magnets around a laminated core stator and keep .5mm equal clearance can begin to understand the frustration. I left for work one Saturday morning having spent several nights failing to get it together satisfactorily, in truth I had decided to give up. On arrival home that night Christopher asked me if I would weld something for him. On arriving in the workshop I was absolutely amazed to see the rotor revolving, he had spent the entire day positioning then tacking with welder to find it wasn't right, then cutting off and repeating the progess endless times. In hindsight we were torturing ourselves and HA-5 when it was born mounted on a tailor made shaft was a much better solution.
by Chris (Techie) & John (Donkey) the story of our 3 phase PMG turbines from HA-4 to our latest the HA-6 3FP
After more research and dogged determination in mounting the Rotor/Stator from Chris HA-4 was launched, our first 3 phase 3 blade PMG turbine with wooden carved blades.
Only someone who has attempted to mount a rotor containing several magnets around a laminated core stator and keep .5mm equal clearance can begin to understand the frustration. I left for work one Saturday morning having spent several nights failing to get it together satisfactorily, in truth I had decided to give up. On arrival home that night Christopher asked me if I would weld something for him. On arriving in the workshop I was absolutely amazed to see the rotor revolving, he had spent the entire day positioning then tacking with welder to find it wasn't right, then cutting off and repeating the progess endless times. In hindsight we were torturing ourselves and HA-5 when it was born mounted on a tailor made shaft was a much better solution.
The Detail
This turbine which had a strange box section frame worked after a fashion, all be it on direct drive, as we had no batteries for storage. Output was good enough to power 12v bulbs and with some home made reflectors gave reasonable light. An old Volvo car water pump was the bearing used to support the generator shaft (well it was suitable for wet weather use). This machine evolved into HA-4 MkII and eventually MkIII with different blades and Tip Speed ratios. At last we had battery backup ( old tractor battery ) and I used it for lambing ewes and lighting the cattle shed. Mounted on a shed roof at the back of the yard it never got clean air from any direction although it was mechanically reliable, but not very efficient. Voltage loss on the 12 volt lighting circuit was big. A New rectifier had to be made, this time we were rectifying 3 phase to DC for to charge the battery. On one occasion it became a "Runaway" blowing all the bulbs we had attached.
Around this time I was reported to have been seen watching Coronation Street on a portable TV in the lean-to ( the one and only time ) from power supplied by our own wind-turbine.
After a period of a couple of years a decision was made to make a new machine HA 5 which could be closed down on stormy nights to avoid any further chance of a "Runaway".
Estimated output from HA-4 was around 40 watt in a 15 mph wind, but on occasions at very high revs peaked at over 150 watt. Sorry no Rated Output, Techie was still only a kid and figures weren't something I was worried about then, just get them darn bulbs to light!
Cost in the region of £8.00 - £10.00 + Endless Hours on cold winter nights = Great satisfaction when the light came on.
Around this time I was reported to have been seen watching Coronation Street on a portable TV in the lean-to ( the one and only time ) from power supplied by our own wind-turbine.
After a period of a couple of years a decision was made to make a new machine HA 5 which could be closed down on stormy nights to avoid any further chance of a "Runaway".
Estimated output from HA-4 was around 40 watt in a 15 mph wind, but on occasions at very high revs peaked at over 150 watt. Sorry no Rated Output, Techie was still only a kid and figures weren't something I was worried about then, just get them darn bulbs to light!
Cost in the region of £8.00 - £10.00 + Endless Hours on cold winter nights = Great satisfaction when the light came on.