Faroun Savonius Wind Turbine

http://www.vawt.tk Alternative energy is a must in the future and all of us would like to challange the idea that we can not change and be efficeint.

so i am taking that chllange to create my own style of Savonius wind generator.

in this Instructable i will include the steps that will achieve my Faroun Savonius Wind Mill.

the size over all will be approx 6 feet high and 2.5 feet wide
split into 3 main steps and each main step will split into mini steps.

Note:: that the sound that you hear in the movie is the leaf blower that is producing air to turn the wind turbine.

---

3 main steps are:

-Turbine assembly =TA
*blades
*discs
*shaft
*bearings
*assembly howto

-Cage assembly =CA
*top, bottom and sides frame
*wind deflection
*mount on a fixed roof or tower

-generator and battery assembly =GBA
*generator
*Rectifiers and battery connection
*testing

---

sure things may change a bit along the way but you will be the first to know.

bellow is the semi-final product for Faroun Savonius
so lets start.

Faroun

Step 1 Turbine Assembly / Blades

here we will disscuss the blade:
material,Size,shape.

in my Project i decided to use Aluminum for Material but u can use steel, Puck Board, or even a simple 5gal pale cut into 2 or 45gal drum cut into 2, so many options you have for the blades.

the size for my blade is 12.5 width, 6.25 depth, .125"thick, 20" circumference and 18" high.

i did not cut or roll the blades i bought them that way, yes i am lazy..lol... i was going to do it with 5gal pale cut into 2 but i figured i want to spend a bit of money just to see the max i can get.

so i have 9 blades, 3 in each section. each blade takes a third of the disc area. so each 3 blades sandwiched between 2 discs (discs are my step2).

faroun

Comments

[Mariolover24]

http://www(DOT)vawt(DOT)tk come up as a "phishing attempt" on the network I am on currently. Does anybody else have this problem?

[faroun]

i am not sure what you mean, however, the http://www(DOT)vawt(DOT)tk site is under my name.

sam

[gepettoman]

what does awg stand for

[drbill]

American Wire Gauge

[faroun]

lol...I am so sorry to say that I spelled it wrong, it is the "Gauge" size of wire.

regards

[Glenn Burrow]

I have a few suggestions:
Not to be rude, but your knowledge on the subject of electromagnetism is a bit thin to be building a generator. All your logic is sound, but a deeper understanding will take you very far. It is mostly mind-numbing stuff but a long grind through it all is worth your time.

You may also want to use Word or some other program to double check your typing. Sometimes in a complex explanation, a single wrong word can really change the entire idea of the sentence. And being someone who is annoying enough to correct people often - I recognized many spelling errors. You will be appreciated greater if you convey your ideas in a more professional manner.

Design wise, a Savonius turbine, like other vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) are designed for simplicity, reliability, and not having to change to face the wind. By adding wind "funnels" you do increase efficiency in several directions, but you also end up greatly decreasing efficiency in other directions.

Also, one thing to remember with belt drive systems. They rely on FRICTION to operate. And as I am sure you are aware, friction is the greatest enemy to efficiency. Well lubricated gear systems or a chain and sprocket system end up more efficient and more reliable, making up for the added difficulty in construction.

One last thing to this now lengthy comment. I have always designed things with a thought left in my mind by an old high school teacher: KISS (Keep-It-Simple-Stupid). Oddly enough, the SIMPLER the design ends up, the better they seem to work. If it is not necessary to the end goal, remove it.

I may be only 16 but hopefully I will soon be the possessor of several patents for various things I have designed. I wish you the best of luck and happy building.

[faroun]

Great comment and highly welcomed.
you are correct, I do have a problem spelling and not explain my design correctly.
since this design a I have moved on and have invented few different vawts and hawts.
also, I have built 12 serpentine axial flux, not traditional coils.
please check me out at youtube my name is emagnets.
http://www.youtube.com/user/emagnets?feature=mhum

regards

sam

[Mak5]

Great work man. I have played with some of the N50 magnet generator designs all over the web and was trying to establish the most efficient coil design. I was playing with number of coils vs. gauge of wire vs. thickness of the overall coil vs. saturation of coil in magnetic field. All of these variables seemed to play a role in the Power (voltage vs current) output of each individual coil.

You mentioned you had to have a 10 mph wind to produce anything worthwhile... I found that If you use smaller gauge wire in your coil the magnet can travel slower by the coil while still producing (almost) the same power output....

I'm sure someone out there has already worked out the math on all of this but from experimenting I found the thinner gauge wire to produce better results at lower RPM as well has higher RPM.

Again, great work, thanks for posting!

[faroun]

it is great to figure things out on your own, i have uploaded few videos on youtube to show coils vs magnet results.
thanks

sam

[merlehanna]

Love this, helping my son look for energy saving ideas for his school project,, would love to incorporate this..Great Instructable!!!

[faroun]

you welcome, you can make as small as you want it to be, from tin cans or pop bottels..

regards

sam

[mr thrifty]

faroun's link is dead.

[faroun]

if you mean the video link then go to youtube and search for emagnets user

you will find all my video. you should check out my latest "Column turbine"

regards

sam

[rapidprototyping]

There was one design that used a older tape drive motor it was dc as well like your tread mill motor and you could mount it directly to the shaft. once you have it then you have an on board source to feed the alternator you started with more then one something will gell. likely develop wings and fly.

[rapidprototyping]

There is a company call AIR that makes the countrys best selling small wind turbuine there neodenium generator is designed to produce electricity from the wind. it has proven track record and is available seperately from the HAWT the one i'm speaking of costs five hundred fifty dollar of turbine complete how much the generator cost seperately i'm not shure. Designing the generator into the turbine eliminates the loses due to gear reduction or transfeer through belts or chains so direct drive is the solution. One fan type HAWT has the generator built into the tips of the fan turbine. In addition to your existing bearings on both ends of the shafting one might look at reducing friction further by the inclusion of sapphire bearing points. this or other hard materials could greatly reduce friction. Every one really wants a levatating savanious rotor so if we can get one thats made foam core protected like a surfboard with firberglass and levitated and so lightweight a slight breese with turn it then it's a go

[rapidprototyping]

keep the (A-Vas-E-A) idea design a better frame support . I think he was trying to suggest the avasay might rotate out side the support frame so maybe it ought to be round like a small trampoline frame some how it also has to move 360 degrees freely in the wind maybe intergral to the cental axel shaft on seperate set bearings. It would have to be guided by a wind vane not into the wind as HAWT tail does but ninety degrees to the wind to creayte an avasay effect. We need get the science on this avasay effect percentage gain vs expense and effeciency it's actually not about effeciency or design but what works well for the masses a desig made for common recycable materials that anyone can build or buy cheaply will produce more watts then a corporate build turbine that un affordable and produces electricty for only those that can afford it. In a disaster having a source for fresh charged up batteries may make hugh difference just having lights and communications. So charging a cell phone battery or couple AA is worthy goal as well and there so many out there they are almost free if not free.

[rapidprototyping]

making the right kind of lightweight durable weather proof stand is as difficult as building the turbine. Add the difficulty of fabicrating a generator and all the necessary electricals and storage it becomes a difficult project. but then alot of design and thinking was generated but your effort yours alone probably had dozen spinn offs. I admire you greatly for open sourcing your design and helping others with there's you are a great worker as others have said. The ultimate wind turbine will come form all previous attempts and those awh haw monents will be worth it when your gen spins in the wind and the meter says its producing as it should be. The rest you guys get your geners up and spinning so there's always more to bewtter upon. SmaLL or large does not matter in modeling prototypes it's learning the elements of overall design.

[rapidprototyping]

in the photo showing the weld it shows the seam is closed not to concern you too much but if you remember how an airplane wing gathers lift the pressure under the wing on back side matters. wind approach the rotor has no place to go within the rotor. If it were allowed to escape there might make a difference. Something was mentioned on one of the sites that showed rotor layout it showed the design all gaps eliminated vs gaps left and claimed the gap allowed pressure to excape. If thats so a mod there might help going to be hard to do now it's assembled. or an avasay has been shown to enhance this pressure differential an avasay (a - vas- E - A) channels wind towards the rotor usually when the rotor is built into a hillside or from a naturally occuring feature of the land or building landscape. thumbs up on the all aluminuym design. and great thought on the three blade desig as well. A pipe frame can be constructed using some pipe fitting and a pipe threader or these days a metal chop saw may work faster and better. Again great looking design and good choice Aluminum turbine my shaft was solid is yours solid or hollow?

[rapidprototyping]

A helical design savanious might have a design advantage as cutting component pieces all alike might be performed on cnc router or by the use of pattern routing. please try not to use plywood or wafer board though there inferior materials that warp and delaminate. I suggest a foam core and fiberglass coating as they build surf boards. I have seen a wire cutting machine on here for making cuts in model air plane building they use a kind if foam that this wire melts. I suggest to you that in the whirly gigs i have seen one model was helix made of fifty or less sticks of demensional wood with a common center bored hole off set and turned slightly asque to form a helix shape like a DNA model. by the addition of two or four discs this helix could be formed totally in foam core then coated with fiberglass,polymere,powder coated with flexable coating and kept extremely light weight ridgid and weather resistant and very well balanced. for first prototype I'd suggest sticking to designing the turbine till it feels right looks right and is mounted right then use avable formulas to build a generator to charge batteries.

[Hoolaput]

awesome generator man!!
2 questions where did you buy you're magnets and how much and
was placing the magnets so hard because it was attracting to the plate or to each other?

[faroun]

i got them at www.magnet4less.com
their prices are ok.
the magnets were difficult to install, they were attracted to each other.

regards
sam

[steve22]

Faroun, I think your circuit would be improved with a 3 phase rectifier circuit.
I have used them before, and they are set up a bit different than what you used.
It involves using 6 diodes, and should improve your setup by at least 15 percent. There is a web site that shows it here...http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_3/4.html Hope this helps, Steve

[faroun]

OK, thanks I will check it out. every little bit helps. regards

[afbcom]

 I believe that is how it is already configured, the full wave recitfiers that are in this circuit are connected in parallel.  The coil inputs appear to be connected between positive and negative terminals.  In essence like the above drawing.

[faroun]

Thanks afbcom for the clearifications, i am not pro at this, so please correct me if i am wrong. others need to do it correctly.

regrads

sam

[mahesh.ganpate]

i have downloding the coil winding video can u pls send which site avalable all vidios

[faroun]

all my videos are on youtube.com.
there are few more ideas on how to coil winding on youtube, seach for them.

regards

sam

[mahesh.ganpate]

hi . nice u r bild up hvat design but sir im made of 500 watt horigantal axis wind turbine . then can u  sugess me blade size and pmg roter rpm and any website address.

[faroun]

go to my site www.wrapwind.com and then go to Download and there you will find all kinds of information. take your time searching.

regaRDS
SAM

[VoltsAndBolts]

.
.

This looks like a great project!

If your interested in topics like this feel free to check out my forum on “Sustainable Energy”

At http://www.voltsandboltsonline.com/index.php

.
.

[Fik]

How did you keep the magnets to stick to (or fly away from) the previosly glued magnet at its side? Did you use some sort of non-magnetic mold or guide to hold each magnet while the glue cured?

[faroun]

i used the JB weld to stick them on. I used spacer between the magnets while they were drying, you have to keep an eye on them because while they are drying, they may shift a bit so you need to keep them in line, the spacer help or make an aluminum template.

regrads

sam

[boat9899]

I have a thought if you cork screwed the blades up would that in addition to the cage force air up  or down there by removing it from the assemble?

[faroun]

i see the point you are making, yes it is worth looking into, but i am bussy at this time to try the cork screw method.

regards

[faroun]

hi there guys, i have made a new wind turbine style and call it The "FAWT Silo" (fixed axis wind turbine Silo) maybe later i can do an instructable on it, but for now you can visit my site at www.wrapwind.com to see how i did it. regards

[vonKaos]

How many RPM at your wind turbine? I think the projet is very impressive and the form of the blades amazing me. Thanks.

[faroun]

this savonius was rated to spin at 300 rpm only. my V8-4" spins at max 450 rpm, check it out. also i am working on a FAWT Silo. all on www.greengoogle.ca .regards

[zaista]

Hi everyone! Because I did a Google search for this very reason - making electricity; I'm new to Instructables. I'm overwhelmed with this site and all it has to offer. Faroun, bhunter736 & mikejedw I've been reading and re-reading your projects with great zest. I have no training in this area but I'm learning so much from all of you. Believe it or not, I'm trying to plan a project of my own that is on a much smaller scale where I'm using bits of each of your projects. I hope this is okay with each of you. Thanks so much for the inspiration! Zaista

[faroun]

Zaista, i am happy to hear that we can somehow inspire any one. Bhunter is great fellow in helping others with thier Projects. when i decided to start this project i had no idea where to start, but with a bit of reading on few sites i was able to understand that the trick is in the balance between the alternator and size of the blades. i did a custom alternator because i want to know how it worked and after many coils winding and magnets placing i finally got it, but at the same time i read the same thing that explaned what i did but i had no clue what the heck the were talking about!, the point is I am a person that needs to make it from scratch to be able to understand it. i hope you are able to read and get the balance better than I. you are welcome to any info on my post, the only return is to post your findings for others to be inspired. all the luck note: i am still working on my project for the better. Best Regards Faroun

[zaista]

Hi Faroun, I bought some books on Electricity for beginners so I could hopefully get up to speed on what I need to know to get started on my project. Why I don't just duplicate your project, I don't know. I guess I'm a rebel. LOL. Anyway, I'm trying to use some points from a few of these wind turbines on Instructables and I've scaled down yours for the size to be easier for me to handle. I've searched the books and am still perplexed about how to figure out how many magnets (and what size and strength), what size wire (and how many winds), etc. I've read that the wire should be as thin as possible but I've also read that too thin wire can be "fried" if you send too much electricity through it. I've read that the magnets should be strong but too strong of a magnet can "drag" and require higher wind speeds to rotate. To make a long note much shorter, here's my question for you. Is there some formula for how many magnets, coils, sizes, strengths for the size of the base of the unit or is it strictly a guessing game? Thanks in advance for your advice. Confused, Zaista