Recently I saw a site (http://www.southcom.com.au/~windmill/cris.htm) that showed a windmill powered electrical system approx 20 feet off the ground. Anyhow seeing it got me thinking this: I see windmills around here that are idle due to the summer heat and no wind. How difficult would it be to build a system that could utilize heat (the way an attic turbine does) when the winds are not sufficient? Could it be mounted on the same tower?

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 28, 2000

Answers

Jay,

It is funny that you post this- I was just talking with my husband about this yesterday.

We live near the water in NW Washington and so we get a pretty steady breeze at all times and then stronger winds in the evening and during the winter. I was looking to supplement our power supply- use wind power and then supplement with regular power when there is higher demand/lower output.

Anyone done this before?

-- Amy Richards (tiggerwife@aol.com), August 28, 2000.

Hi,

You'll need to think in the terms of a 'thermal chimmney' to get the turbine to work. There are vertical axis turbines but they tend to be a bit expensive since you've got a whole different set of gearing to deal with. From my readings they arn't very efficient for 'personal' use situations.

You might be better off trying to figure out a way to use heat differential to get something to turn. I'll 'blue sky' for a minute and see what happens (HAH !)... let's see, regular cooking oil has a good working temperature in the 300-400 degree range. A little bit of solar-catching technology and you can get it to this temperature easily. Now you've got a *hot* working fluid. Any ideas where (or how) to get it to do some _work_ for you (besides cooking)? Maybe an indirect-solar steam engine turning a generator/alterntor with a generous sized flywheel?

Maybe there is something here that needs to gel a bit...

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), August 28, 2000.

I'm workin on'it. I've quit the carb system since Mr EPA says we can't use any vapor sy stems so this freebee electric power is loomin bigger and bigger. I don't wanna pay anything for it-to build it or to use it. The answer is right under our noses. Has to do with induced voltage and capturing "free" power from the earth. Yes! It's possible as I've done some work on it several years ago. So many times the answers are so obvious that we miss them. If it was very hard I wouldn't be able to find'm. I'm just a dumb old country boy, afterall. I'll post more as I get closer to attaining what I want, that I can share. I've run "things" off of captured power in the past. Almighty God put it here for us if we'd just listen! Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), August 28, 2000.

This morning driving by the windwheels on my way home from work, I could "see" one of hem towers in my mind covered in black with alternators mounted on the sides with pinwheels on the pulleys. Would be kina heavy on the hardware, but it might work to charge batteries. Anyone else feel like Thomas Edison staring at the clouds?

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 29, 2000.