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garrymile

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Joined: 16/09/2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5

Posted: 11:30am 16 Sep 2009

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I have built a large tank on a windy site in Ireland, which I am going to heat with epdm solar panels, to give me free space heating at night and into the fall.
I reckon we get more wind energy here than sun, so I have the idea of using a VAWT to drive an induction motor inside the tank, using a series of reversed magnets rotating inside an iron cylinder. Because the turbine shaft is straight down, I thought I would anchor the drive mechanism directly below the VAWT in the tank, so I have no gears or angled drives to worry about.
I did see a forum on this but I can't find it any more as the last posting was about 2006.
I reckon it will be much more efficient (and a helluva lot cheaper) than converting to electricity and then using that to heat, say an element.
Anyone got any ideas how I could do this?

steve t

Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5119

Posted: 12:50pm 16 Sep 2009

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Hi Steve

Is this the forum posting you were looking for?

http://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/forum1/forum_posts.asp?T ID=230

Glenn

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

garrymile

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Joined: 16/09/2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5

Posted: 01:18pm 16 Sep 2009

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Yes it is, thanks very much.

I also thought about driving a heat pump, as suggested in that forum. There is an interesting forum on this on "refrigeration engineer" site. Not being in that field myself, I thought this would be easier to get going, then maybe develop onwards.

That forum just stopped in 2006.

steve t

electrondady1
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Joined: 12/02/2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 208

Posted: 03:20pm 18 Sep 2009

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greetings from canada to my commonwealth brothers

you didn't give much information about the tank.
if it is strong, perhaps the top could be used as a bearing mounting point
run the central shaft of the vawt down to the bottom of the tank and use a disk type mag rotor .
use the bottom of the tank as as the eddy current heat source.
you might want to use the types of mags that have retaining screw holes in them .
otherwise the mags might end up stuck to the bottom of the tank.
an alternative method may be to place the mags on the bottom and rotate an aluminum /copper disk in close proximity.

Edited by electrondady1 2009-09-20

garrymile

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Joined: 16/09/2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5

Posted: 05:51pm 18 Sep 2009

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Thank you for those comments elctrondady1. My tank has a pumphouse beside it. This is of 6 inches concrete and I had thought of putting a similar roof on to pass the vawt shaft through and then anchor to the botton.
I am concerned at using the concrete base as an eddy current heat source, however, as I would lose it into the ground. Have other ideas on that one but your ideas on magnets in rotors are similar to mine (and next-door brother-in-law, who is the engineer around here!).

Isn't aluminium or copper worse at elctromagentism than iron?

steve t

garrymile

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Joined: 16/09/2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5

Posted: 05:54pm 18 Sep 2009

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The pump house, by the way, is about 8 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet deep. The tank itself is about 7,000 gallons (UK not US). One long sidewall is also the sidewall of the tank.

steve t

electrondady1
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Joined: 12/02/2009
Location: Canada
Posts: 208

Posted: 09:16pm 18 Sep 2009

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oh!, so the tank is concrete?
sorry, i was thinking it was made of steel.

both copper and aluminum are non magnetic but they will react to the alternating magnetic field by forming eddy currents and heat.
7,000 imperial gallons is a lot of water.

garrymile

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Joined: 16/09/2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5

Posted: 11:34am 19 Sep 2009

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Thanks for those snippets of information - very useful.

The tank is large as I have built a large (but cheap) solar panel system. It will be highly insulated, so the heat should keep well into the fall (and possibly into winter) and give me underfloor heating for free. If I can boost that thro the cold seasons with wind-generated heat, I can get even more life out of it.

steve t

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