Has anyone managed to build an effective wind power heating system?

Does anyone know enough basic physics to tell me if this idea is practical?

Vertical axis wind turbine comprised of, say, four half oil drums mounted on a tipped up truck axle and coupled to an old car engine.

Remove carbie and exhaust system.

Retain water pump and maybe alternator.

Take out the valve push rod mechanism and replace valve springs with very light springs.

Fit a non-return valve in each spark plug hole, connect all together.

The engine is now a (rather crude) but very cheap air compressor.

Make a simple heat exchanger by fitting one pipe inside another with space for water to flow between.

Pass output of the compressor through inner pipe and fit a pressure release valve (say 50psi ?) at far end.

Pass water through heat exchanger and engine cooling jacket.

My general theory is that although the engine is a poor compressor most of losses it has are in the form of friction and at least some of those will be picked up by the water in the engine cooling circuit.

The compressed air will be at higher than ambient temperature and hopefully it will give some of this heat up when in the heat exchanger.

So lets hear all those opinions please.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 24, 2001

Answers

I'm no physics professor... but I doubt its practical/efficient to try to create any usable amount of heat from friction or the compression of air, especially with wind as the main source of energy. I say usable heat as in... if original water temp is 40 deg F and you managed to get it to 43 deg. F, its still just cold water. The amount of energy put into a system such as you've described would be substantial when compared to the amount of heat it created. I'm rather partial to fire when it comes to creating heat. :)

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), June 24, 2001.

will it work,, sure,, if you can build it, with no leaks. But to build up usaable heat,, it would have to be spinning pretty fast,, and the barrel turbine isnt designed for speed,, it to catch and turn with the slightest wind. Then you would have to worry about looosing the heat. Engines are designed to stay cool, even without the radiator,, the same breeze thats turning the turbine,, will cool the engine block, unless you could put the block inside your house,,, use it as a conversatioon piece??

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), June 24, 2001.

John, I do not believe that the 4 barrel halfs would ever gain enought torque to turn the motor, the large air compressors used for jack hammers and the like on construction sites are built from V-8 engines with one bank compressing air while the other bank is running on gasoline. The engine would need steady and consistant turning, not a feature of wind power, plus the engine would be one large heat sink to start with. The more links between the wind and the power output unit, the more friction and resistance you would gain. The barrel halfs might turn a single cylinder air compressor coupled through a right angle gearbox but without enought heat to do much good. There is a possiability that the releasing of the compressed air could be used to assist the turning of the turbine but that would involve a closed pressureized, well machined device that might work with a large flywheel. Air driven motors are available (W.W. Grainger and Co) but they take excessive amounts of air, pressureized to turn them.

I would think that a water driven wheel would be a more consistant source of energy for this concept and would have the torque needed.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 24, 2001.

It is more cost effective to look into solar or geo thermal. A 100 ft flue pipe loop buried under three feet of soil can provide 68 degree air which can be vented with a solar battery powered fan very cheaply.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 24, 2001.

in theory, sure. in reality it'd take a whole lot of wind to turn all that dead weight. Unless you have steady 20mph+ winds, it doesn't sound feasible.

-- nobody (nothing@nowhere.no), June 24, 2001.

As others have said, the idea as stated isn't likely to work. However, all is not lost. There have beed tests done on how to best use wind power to heat water. I think it was in a back issue of homepower magazine that I read about it, but it may have been elsewhere. Anyhow, the result was that using a windmill to turn a water pump, but with a very restricted output caused friction in the pump to heat the water. This was far more efficient than generating electricity to heat water. This was for domestic hot water, not heating a house.

There is a company that sells wind-driven water pumps that use an air compressor on the windmill and a venturi lift to pump the water--the idea is the same as a jet pump, only you send compressed air down the well and not high-presure water. If I was going to homebrew something like this, I think I'd start with the compressor from an old fridge.

==>paul

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), June 24, 2001.

Thanks for the input guys (and maybe guyesses).

The site in mind is on a hilltop, VERY windy as there is nothing but ocean between it and the Antarctic continent. Temperature rarely falls below freezing however. Just a little bit of heat in this generally unattended building would be very nice. Any wind system must be very rugged able to handle occasional 100knot gales.

I will be looking further at the simple friction principle.

Thanks all

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), June 24, 2001.