Alternative Energy
Wind and Bicycle Power
Choluteca, Honduras
Group Members: Robbie Schram, Justin Letts, Ben Weekes
May 23, 2013
Table of Contents
• Wind Generator
• Overview
• Project Goals
• Bicycle Generator
• Overview
• Project Goals
•
•
•
•
Implementation in Country
Project Summaries
Recommendations for Future
Acknowledgements
Wind Generator
Overview
• Why?
• Supply green sustainable energy to the vocational school
• Supply electricity to storage container
• Charge tools
• Power fluorescent lights
• Serve as a learning opportunity for students
• Produce systems independently
• Capabilities of “green” technology
• Avoid expensive power grid in Honduras
Overview
• Last year’s team built a mostly working system
• Completely wired to storage box
• BUT the blades did not spin quick enough to reach 12V
• Tried a gearing system out of motorcycle parts to fix
• Not enough time to perfect
• Once back in Columbus, new gearing system and motor sent
• Some internal parts broke
• Gearing system “persnickety”
• Wind blade broke
Scope of Work
•
•
•
•
Purchase new motor
Design and construct new wind blades
Be able to connect blades to motor
Fully operational Wind Generator
Bicycle Generator
Overview
• Why?
• Multi-Purpose Generator:
• Exercise
• Educate school patrons and people at clinic of
maintenance/health and fitness
• Alternative Energy
• Human Powered
• Environmentally Friendly
• Charges phone batteries
• Bicycles are easily accessible
• Replicable and Portable
Overview
• 2012 initially built fully functional system
• Alternator 1 – Burned out
• Alternator 2 – Malfunctioned
• Connection between bicycle wheel and alternator did not
work as intended
• Drum-driven system
Scope of Work
• Improve connection between bicycle and alternator
• Deliver two working bicycle systems
• Both using new alternators acquired and tested during class time
• Belt driven system
• Build prototype in Columbus to test alternators
• Safely secure electrical components
• Design and construct project with extreme user in mind
Implementation in
Country
Work Schedule
• Wind:
•
•
•
•
Tear down old windmill: 1 day
Install new motor and blades: 1 day
Trouble shooting: 2 days
Testing/Calculations/Instructions: 1 day
• Bike:
•
•
•
•
Modify and wire old bike stand: 1 day
Fabricate and wire second bike stand: 1 day
Trouble shooting: ½ day
Testing/Calculations/Instructions: ½ day
Monday May 6, 2013
•
•
•
•
•
Toured vocational school
Inspected old windmill motor and electrical components
Inspected second bike stand
Took down old motor and motor plate
Drilled new holes to mount bracket for new motor
Tuesday May 7th, 2013
• Mounted new motor to wind armature
• Assembled new blades to fly wheel and fit to motor
• Raised pole, but it did not turn to face wind
• The new motor is quite heavier than old
• Needed to push with pole to face wind
• Countermeasure idea: to balance armature by adding weight
to tale, regrease pole
Wednesday May 8th, 2013
• Modified old bike stand to accommodate new alternator and
belt design
• Wired bike stand and alternator and wrote directions for use
• Showed students at school how it worked and tested with
clock radio from one of the offices of the vocational school
Thursday May 9th, 2013
• Balanced wind armature with scrap metal rails from the school
• Regreased pole
• Raised pole again, but windmill did not turn to face wind and
only produced 9V even in highest winds
• Countermeasure proposal: bigger tail, cut out sections of fly
wheel to reduce drag as well as weight on shaft of motor
Friday May 10th, 2013
• Fabricated second bike stand
• Needed to accommodate for different wheel and belt size and
different model of alternator
• Wired second bike stand and tested again with clock radio
• Began cutting out large sections of fly wheel
Monday May 13th, 2013
• Finished cutting out flywheel
• Clamped on longer tail cut from sheet metal found at
vocational school
• There was a break-in at the school and the 220V extension
chord was taken so we couldn’t weld the tail
• Raised pole to test new fly wheel and tail
• Turned to face wind easily and produced a top voltage of
17.5V
Tuesday May 14th, 2013
• When arrived at school, windmill was turning to face wind just
fine without extra tail
• Decided to add tail anyway to ensure windmill will turn in
even light winds
• Instead, made tail smaller and rebalanced the armature
• Painted tail and raised pole for last time
Wednesday May 15th, 2013
• Spent day rewiring and soldering circuit board for windmill
• Found diode was fried and searched for replacements in
Choluteca and had staff member search for one while he was
in Tegucigalpa for the day, but could find no suitable diode
• While testing second bike setup, ran into problems with the
belt wobbling and coming off
• Added pond liner to wheel to prevent wobbling
Bike Channel
Wind Summary
• With modifications to fly wheel and tail, the wind generator
works perfect mechanically
• While in Columbus, did not anticipate the need of a
replacement diode
• Could not find an adequate diode in Choluteca or in
Tegucigalpa
• Ordered a diode online and sent to next mission group going
to Choluteca (Leaving today, May 23rd)
• Once installed, wind generator will be able to power
electronics in the storage container at the vocational school
Wind Cost Analysis
Wind
Price
Location
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
PVC
Aluminum Plate
Pulley
Motor
Hardware
Rope
Free ($200)
$19
$21.80
$198
$16.51
$9.97
Speer Mechanical
Stargate Metals
eBay
eBay
Lowe's
Lowe's
Post-Trip
Diodes
$49.34
Solaire's/Coleman Air
Honduras
Pre-Trip
Locktite
Paint
$6.23
$11.98
Lowe's
ACE
With Free PVC
$332.83
Including Price of PVC
$532.83
Total Cost:
Bike Summary
• Finished project with two working bicycle stands
• Adequately charge battery and power electronics as effectively as plugging
them into the wall
• Larry decided to send one of the bike generators to a family in Siete de
Mayo to observe how the Hondurans use and take care of it
• Second bike is currently at the vocational school, but we are unsure of
future location
Bike Cost Analysis
Bike
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Pre-Trip
Honduras
Honduras
Honduras
Honduras
Price
Location
All City Auto
Wrecking
Alternators
$202.43
Inc./Woody's Auto
Salvage
Threaded Rod/Hardware
$20.51
Lowe's
Wood
Free/Scrap
OSU Lab
1st Bike
Free
Roger Dzwonczyk
Rechargeable Battery
$19.95
Batteries Plus
Inverter
$32.01
Harbor Freight
Toolboxes
$12.76
Lowe's
Decking screws, hookup wire, hardware
$83.28
Lowe's
Casa de Empenos
2nd Bike
$35
la Union
Battery
$25
WGM
Bike and general
$10.90
WGM
Total Cost:
$441.84
Recommendations
• Wind:
•
•
•
•
Research new blade material
Send wind speed sensor to vocational school
Wire up new diode
Exchange current wind battery for old solar panel battery
• Bike:
• Move one of the bike stands to the clinic
• Design and construct stand for front wheel of bikes
• When buying bikes for futures stands using same design, ensure
rear wheel channel is wide
Acknowledgements
• We would like to thank first and foremost Dr. Roger
Dzwonczyk and Miriam Cater, without whose wisdom and
expertise we could not have completed our projects so
successfully
• Special thanks to:
• Larry and Angie Overhault
• Vocational School Staff
• Dr. John Merryl
• Patrick Bosch
• Professor Jeffrey Huston
• World Gospel Mission