Windmill

A few months back, teachers at Vidyavardhaka school in Mysore called me to gain some knowledge on climate change and renewable energy technologies. Their intention was to participate in a national level science project. I suggested them various simple things such as a simple biodiesel project, a carbon sequestration calculation project, a school level tree nursery among others. However, due to the mere charm of it, they wanted to do a windmill. And so, 3 months later we have a partially working windmill:

Windmill designed using cycle wheelKids working on the windmill Testing the windmill on my bikeWindmill fixed on the terrace of the school building

The windmill was based on the design of Ted Baer. Anil and Suraj too joined in the effort to get this working. The Windmill needs to improved further and we are yet to run it at its full potential. The chain sprocket system which we used to couple the cycle wheel with the moped engine is not aligned properly and a lot of tweaking is required in the geometry of the blades as well.

Credits of this work go to: Anil, Suraj, the teachers of Vidyavardhakka, kids and the school lab assistants.

Category: Education

8 Responses to “Windmill”

  1. G V Krishnan
    November 8th, 2009 at 10:59 AM

    Would it generate power?
  2. Ravi K S
    November 8th, 2009 at 9:27 PM

    Good Going.. :)

  3. ashwin
    November 9th, 2009 at 1:16 PM

    Yes. The windmill did generate power. We obtained about 100mv of voltage before fixing the gear ratios. After that, we are yet to test. There are more technical problems to fixed however.
  4. ashwini
    November 17th, 2009 at 6:51 PM

    Ree!!!….Neevu eshtu easy aagi wind mill maadiddiri….
    Naavu ondu wind mill design maadoke,saaviraaru specification tagondu calculate maadi, wind availability check maadi, adikke graph haaki, wind speed eshtu anta check maadi, yava altitudenalli fix maadidre maximum velocity ide elli maximum efficienty sigutte anta nodi, “gust” or “nocturaljets” occarance estu frequent ide anta tale keduskondu, yava generator combination, grid terms and condition enu anta ella dina gatle lekka haaktane irtivi….neevu super aagi wind mill design maadiddira bidi….Really good one ree….
  5. ashwin
    November 17th, 2009 at 7:46 PM

    @ashwini: It can be done in simple ways. And sometimes, it is more fun to do it this way. However, if you need better efficiencies, you need incremental improvements. Incremental improvements always take too much effort. I didn’t take that effort in this case :)

  6. Vanita Masakal
    November 21st, 2009 at 9:46 PM

    super.. I read your’about me’…it’s good :)

  7. ashwin
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:29 AM

    @Vanita: Thanks. You reminded me that I have to update my about me. :) Its been an year since I last updated that page.
  8. S.K.Pandit
    July 3rd, 2011 at 5:15 PM

    you are very good

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