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Forum Index : Windmills : tangled/twisted wires

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adric22
Regular Member

Joined: 06/08/2008
Location: United States
Posts: 47
Posted: 08:36pm 05 Aug 2008
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When building a windmill, how do you run wires down the pole without worrying of them eventually twisting themselves too much? After all, the windmill is going to spin around with the change of direction in the wind.
 
CraziestOzzy

Senior Member

Joined: 11/07/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 135
Posted: 12:50am 06 Aug 2008
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Have a look at (link) and
A search on the WWW will raise more answers for sure.(link)Edited by CraziestOzzy 2008-08-07
http://cr4.globalspec.com/member?u=25757

http://www.instructables.com/member/OzzyRoo/
 
Dodgeman

Newbie

Joined: 19/07/2008
Location: United States
Posts: 33
Posted: 01:24am 06 Aug 2008
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In my experience with a small dc mill,, The mill rotates randomly, about the same one direction as it does the other, I had wires taped to the outside of the pole (with some slack at the top to allow for some spinning) for almost a year, I never had to take it down to unwind the cord.
Keep in mind, this was a fairly small mill with small speaker wire.

I will be building something to let me run the wires inside the pole for my new larger mill. I have decided on a neck assembley from a motorcycle, a bicycle neck bearing would also work for smaller mills.

I am referring to the part (neck bearing assembley) that houses the bearings which allow a person to turn the handlebars and front wheel.
 
windlight
Guru

Joined: 03/03/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 331
Posted: 12:15pm 06 Aug 2008
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If the site of your mill is clear of turbulance the turbine does not, in my experience twist up the drop cable. If you have trees or building causing turbulance you will most definatly have problems.

allan
"I like this place and willingly could waste my time in it" - (Act II, Scene IV).
 
KiwiJohn
Guru

Joined: 01/12/2005
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 691
Posted: 09:03am 07 Aug 2008
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The chances of the wires twisting more in one direction than the other will be influenced somewhat by where in the world you live! Australia, if I remember correctly, has a more or less permanent high pressure system over the island continent and wind patterns are in many places influenced mostly by local effects such as sea breezes for example. New Zealand on the other hand sits in the path of a continuous sequence of weather systems that migrant around the world at these lattitudes giving a more or less consistent sequence of winds. If I had paid more attention 40 years ago when I should have been learning this stuff I would be able to tell you what the typical sequence of winds are in NZ, but I didnt so all I can say is some places will be different to others!
 
Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5117
Posted: 09:55am 07 Aug 2008
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In the winter months my windmill does the rounds a couple of times per day, so I need to "unwind" it. My drop wires goes down the middle of my tower, and at the bottom I have a quick conect plug. Every few days I just unplug the drop wire and let it unwind itself.
In summer the wind is mostly from the north east, and I can go for months without unwinding the drop wire.

Glenn
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
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