Technical Specification

Sunday, 06 June 2010 09:15 Roland Valckenborg
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The HughPiggott wind turbine is a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) with permanent magnets on a rotor disc driven by wooden rotor blades. The magnets induce a voltage in the electrical coils in the stator. This alternating current (AC) will be converted to dual current (DC) by a set of diodes. The system is configured in such a way that a voltage of above 48V will be reached at a cut-in wind speed of 3 m/s. At higher wind speeds, the surplus of voltages charges 4 deep-cycle batteries in a series configuration.
A tail will keep the blades always upwards in the direction of the wind automatically. At a wind speed of about 10 m/s, the tail will rotate in the direction of the blades gently. This prevents the blades from getting a higher velocity, which could damage them. When the batteries are full in this situation, an electronic load control will divert the electrical power to dump loads. In case of emergency, any operator can easily break the wind turbine with a normal main switch.
The peak power of the 3 meter model is 1 kW. However, this power will only be produced at strong winds (of about 10 m/s). Therefore, one cannot use this value to make easy calculations of energy production. Personal experience of Roland Valckenborg and also other users of HughPiggott-turbines throughout the whole world estimate that the produced power amounts about at least 2 kWh per day - which is equal to about 750 kWh per year - for a location with an average wind speed of 5 m/s. Some people claim factors more than this.
Of course the power yield is very much dependent on the exact wind distribution. A better estimation of the performance of this wind turbine will be available after one year of continuously measuring wind speed and electricity production. Because of this exploratory character of the first turbines, no financial profit will be made by the manufacturer. Customers who like to participate in the first serie, only have to pay for the building materials and electronic equipment (load control, batteries, metering).

The HughPiggott wind turbine is a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) with permanent magnets on a rotor disc driven by wooden rotor blades. The magnets induce a voltage in the electrical coils in the stator. This alternating current (AC) will be converted to dual current (DC) by a set of diodes. The system is configured in such a way that a voltage of above 48V will be reached at a cut-in wind speed of 3 m/s. At higher wind speeds, the surplus of voltages charges 4 deep-cycle batteries in a series configuration.

A tail will keep the blades always upwards in the direction of the wind automatically. At a wind speed of about 10 m/s, the tail will rotate in the direction of the blades gently. This prevents the blades from getting a higher velocity, which could damage them. When the batteries are full in this situation, an electronic load control will divert the electrical power to dump loads. In case of emergency, any operator can easily break the wind turbine with a normal main switch.

The peak power of the 3 meter model is 1 kW. However, this power will only be produced at strong winds (of about 10 m/s). Therefore, one cannot use this value to make easy calculations of energy production. Personal experience of Roland Valckenborg and also other users of HughPiggott-turbines throughout the whole world estimate that the produced power amounts about 2.5 kWh per day - which is equal to about 1000 kWh per year - for a location with a fair amount of energy. Some people claim factors more than this. We prefer to give honest expectations.

Of course the electricity production is very much dependent on the exact wind distribution. A better estimation of the performance of this wind turbine will be available after one year of continuously measuring wind speed and electricity production. Because of this exploratory character of the first turbines, no financial profit will be made by the manufacturer. Customers who like to participate in the first serie, only have to pay for the building materials and electronic equipment (load control, batteries, metering).

Last Updated on Monday, 14 June 2010 08:50