Interesting observations from the wind mast. I've had the two
anemometers set up on my wind turbine test tower, one about 2 meters
above the other. The software not only has a record of the wind
speeds, but it has the data for various wind turbines installed, and
works out what said turbine would produce if it was in the same
place as the anemometer. Had I had a Windsave installed at the
higher level, it would have produced over twice the power as the
lower position-(about a meter above the roof line). Just goes to
show how important a tall pole can be. Over the past two days, the
higher position will would have produced enough to run several low
energy bulbs all night - 0.57kwh.

I have a Windsave on order, an have specified the tallest pole they
do, 3.7m. I have an idea to have a tower right next to a tree, so it
pokes through all the branches, and plonk the Windsave on top some
day in the future. For now I'll have it house mounted -as that's
where the planners expect it to be!

The rep show a few photos of how its done, massive bolts are set in
the wall, using a special epoxy, then a hydralic puller tries to
pull each one out with a force of 4 tonnes, there are six bolts.
I'll reserve judgement of the mounting method for now.

Clive :-)


--- In Beyond_cheap_fuel@..., "Stuart Billinghurst"
<stuart@b...> wrote:
>
> I did ponder this setup for many hours but with the 1 wire to pc
interface
> that is not included in the weather station kit you're looking at
~ £100
> delivered.
>
> At present I have build a cup anemometer that I plan to test this
weekend. I
> built this using some bearings, steel tube, aluminium rod, a Drain
outlet
> cap (New), threaded rod, bicycle computer and 2 of My daughters
ball pool
> balls. Cost so far £17 this was for the drain cover, the rod,
bearings and
> cycle computer.
>
> I will collect and log the data with homevision that I already
have, next is
> to start building the direction equipment I found I had 4 opto
sensors
> (Omron E3Z-D81) this gives 16 different positions using a disk
with clever
> black and white markings, I have some spare bearings from the 8 I
brought
> and have made a working prototype of the data collection and of
the vane
> part just need to put them together hopefully this weekend, I'll
post back
> details + pictures when I have it all up and together..
>
> Admittedly the luxury of having homevision makes this a lot easer
but It
> could have been done with a 4 bit logic counters and the direction
direct to
> the other 4 bits and passed into a parallel port or parallel to
serial
> converter to log with some simple software. Total cost sub £30,
less if you
> can 'find' the bits and pieces around you, for instance after
purchase I
> found lots of small free-rolling bearings in old VCR's (the older
the
> better) If I get a chance I'll add in some ideas for non
homevision data
> collection methods to my weather site (that doesn't exist on the
WWW yet).
>
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Stuart.
>
>
>
> Please consider the environmental impact before printing this e-
mail.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: notify@... [mailto:notify@...]
On Behalf
> Of Miles
> Sent: 19 October 2006 18:15
> To: Stuart Billinghurst
> Subject: Re: Wind availability testing - have just ordered a wind
resource
> testing system
>
> Hello Stuart & all.
>
> You can get handheld electronic annenometers from around £30 up. I
> have one that cost £45 from ebay (Skywatch Xplorer4) there are
several
> manufacturers with similar products.
>
> If you want to monitor a site for some time you need to look at
> perhaps an Automatic Weather Statation (AWS). I bought (in the
UK) an
> AAG 1-wire device for around £85, you can get them from
> www.audon.co.uk, you can add other 1-wire devices & sensors later,
> look at www.hobbyboards.com, the software is free Windows based &
> Linux (oww) is available, I think there are people using Mac's too.
>
> There are also complete AWS', try Oregon scientific, LaCrosse &
Davis
> Instruments, Kestel etc. The UK weather shop sell almost all of
them
> I belive; there are several other UK suppliers. Most come with
data
> output & you can buy a wide range of software to log, analyse &
post
> to the web.
>
> My data is at
> http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?
ID=ILANCASH24
>
>
> Which also has info on selcting an AWS & software etc.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Miles
>
>
>
> --- In Beyond_cheap_fuel@..., "Stuart Billinghurst"
> <stuart@b...> wrote:
> >
> > I plan to do some trials up on the moors in the car with my wind
> instrument
> > and a hand held wind speed device and work out pulse per min per
mph
> etc etc
> >
> >
> > IF you can see any major flaws in my plan please tell me be fore
I
> find them
> > the hard way..
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Beyond_cheap_fuel@...
> > [mailto:Beyond_cheap_fuel@...] On Behalf Of James
Fidell
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 9:37 AM
> > To: Beyond_cheap_fuel@...
> > Subject: Re: [Beyond_cheap_fuel] Wind availability testing -
have just
> > ordered a wind resource testing system.
> >
> > Stuart Billinghurst wrote:
> >
> > > This still seams very expensive for what is a very simple
device
> (the wind
> > > speed part anyhow) as all you have to do is count rotations
for a
> given
> > time
> > > span say 60 seconds and log that result.. Looks like I will
have
> to build
> > > something, I'll let people know how I get on.
> >
> > I guess a fair bit of the cost is the software, which isn't
particularly
> > useful from my point of view as I don't use Windows.
> >
> > I guess it should be relatively trivial to build something that
would
> > spin in the wind and generate a pulse for each rotation. How
would you
> > calibrate it though?
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Latest Community energy project, the Boyndie Wind Farm share
offer,
> Check
> > out www.boyndie.coop, for a chance to own part of a wind farm.
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
>