DIY Axial Flux Wind Turbine: New Blades = More Power!

Get the plans here: https://renewablesystemstechnology.com/1-kw-axial-flux-hawt.html

Hit a new peak output with the new cedar blades. I wasn't expecting much of a change in power with these new blades - they're almost identical to the previous set except they have a bit more surface area in the root section to help with startup torque and are 2" longer, but I'll take more power - no complaints here lol! I'll be doing some upgrades to this turbine once I can get access to the rest of the tower sections that are currently buried under 3 feet of snow; specifically raising the tower another 16 ft higher (minimum), and making an entirely new rotor with 5 ft blades instead of 4 ft. They will also have an extremely large root section that will wrap around the nose cone to take better advantage of that area. If you look carefully, you'll notice that the widest part of the (current) blades is close to 12" away from the centre of the rotor - if that root was carried on over to the nose cone then I think I can reach startup speeds as low as 1-2 mph. Some would argue that the benefit isn't much because the cut-in speed is still higher, but the faster the rotor can build up momentum from a dead stop, the faster it will reach cut-in speed - it's a matter of saving time, not increasing power. The current blades also have a tip speed ratio of 6 (to 1). The next set of 5 ft blades will be designed with a TSR of 7. With the higher TSR coupled with the larger swept area and higher tower, these factors in particular WILL result in quite a bit more power. The pma design itself has produced up to 1000 watts for other enthusiasts (rotor size and wind speed varied), so I expect the upgrades to enable this turbine to safely produce at least 1 kW in high wind scenarios.

Website: https://www.resystech.com
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