MAXIMISING THE EFFICIENCY OF A HUGH PIGGOTT STYLE WIND TURBINE
IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
The need to find ways of maximizing the
efficiency of a 1kW Hugh Piggott style
wind turbine arose from an Engineers
Without Borders—Warwick rural electrification project in Tanzania. Having invested
resources of both time and money into
building and installing two turbines it
made good sense to utilise these resources fully.
In systems engineering we observe the
system as a whole and each of its component parts. The findings are laid out in the
following format,
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
as solutions have already been implemented.
Working in a remote community in a developing country meant it was difficult to
get all the tools and equipment desired so
Figure 1: The Hugh Piggott style wind turbine installed in
Kemgesi, a rural village in the Mara region of Tanzania.
some trial and error had to be used.
Mechanical Efficiency
To reduce mechanical loss are friction
in the setting of the stators and rotors in resin was
to clamp shut in a plywood template during the setting period and use a fine grade of sand
paper to finish the surface (see figure 2 and 3).
Figure 2: Rotor straight from mould.
Figure 3: Sanded rotor surface.
The air gap of the existing turbine
Before this project the wind
turbine was producing
about 20V, after the
changes detailed here were
made it produced around
60V.
Figure 4: The wind turbine generator side view to
demonstrate air gap.
reduce from approximately 13mm to approximately 3mm.
At medium to high speeds vibration was noticed in the turbine by the noise it produced
grease was used to reduce the friction and loss due to noise.
Electrical Efficiency
Corrosion in the wires connecting the inverter to the plugs as seen in figure 5
rewired with higher gauge wiring (also less power loss).
Figure 5: Corroded wiring
Wires were connected straight to the battery terminals
(crimp) connection as shown in figure 6.
Figure 6: Battery and connection.
replaced with improved
Dust and dirt on electrical components
training of end user to ensure maintenance
(for example, dusting) to limit losses due to heating of product.
Elaine Meskhi, School of Engineering, Dr Stan Shire
For quantitative data on the efficiency of
the wind turbine the input needs to be
measured (wind speed data) and the output voltage and current (power). Unfortunately there are problems associated with
the retrieval of this data from a community
with no internet connection and poor road
transport links to the major city where
EWB-Warwick has contact with a local
NGO. Devices using SD cards will be used
when funds become available and data can
be collected bi-annually.