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Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 9:18 pm
by Stan

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:19 am
by AGT
I do like his videos, watched them from the start when he was still in his traditional house working from the garage!

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2022 9:37 pm
by Joeboy
That was excellent. Cheers Stan. (& Kris).

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 3:45 pm
by SafetyThird
oooh, added that to the watch list. His videos are always good value.

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 3:57 pm
by Oldgreybeard
What I like about his videos is his honesty and complete lack of bullshit. The man seems to be as straight as a die, as well as being damned competent at pretty much everything he takes on. I know just how much work it takes to build a house, and I didn't have even 5% of the challenges he's had to overcome.

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:34 pm
by openspaceman
Yes coupled with his ability and willingness to tackle anything this design from basically scratch is impressive. Not following wind power much (mid surrey and trees all around preclude it as an option, I'd be lucky to get to 10% of potential capacity) it was the first I had seen of that offset furling idea.

I do have a 1.5kW brushless permanent magnet motor from a cordless mower which I would like to do something with, it produces 28V open circuit when spun at 2000rpm.

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:43 pm
by Oldgreybeard
The offset furling gear is a Hugh Piggott design, as is the design of the whole wind turbine, this is the drawing from Hugh's book:

Hugh Piggott WT.jpg
Hugh Piggott WT.jpg (91.3 KiB) Viewed 2193 times

I can't remember whether he went on one of Hugh's courses when he built the first wind turbine or whether he just used Hugh's book: https://scoraigwind.co.uk/a-wind-turbine-recipe-book/

I went up to Scoraig many years ago to learn about Hugh's designs and was mighty impressed, he's evolved the design over dozens of iterations, learning from all the many failures over the years, to the point where his designs are probably the very best home made wind turbines you can find. They are most probably a lot better than many of the ready made units, too.

I would love a wind turbine here, but we're at the bottom of a steep sided valley:

Our house.jpg
Our house.jpg (42.99 KiB) Viewed 2190 times

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:55 pm
by openspaceman
I actually remember Hugh Piggot making one of these using a Volvo wheel hub. I simply had not appreciated the elegance of having the spinning turbine working against the sail effect of the tail until I saw the explanation on the video.

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:14 pm
by openspaceman
I am now a bit disappointed Kris did not acknowledge the designer

Re: Kris Harbour rebuilding a 2kW axial flux turbine

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:32 pm
by Oldgreybeard
openspaceman wrote: Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:14 pm I am now a bit disappointed Kris did not acknowledge the designer
I think there may be mention of Hugh Piggot in one of the earlier videos, when he was putting up the first wind turbine.