Instructables and Such

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Dan Selden

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Apr 26, 2012, 1:54:02 PM4/26/12
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Instructables:

I've been looking at Instructables concerning wind generation since they tend to require more common objects (seems solar gets expensive really fast). Here are a few that seem doable… a combination of pinwheels (which range in size) and windbelts. Windbelts seem like an awesome solution for an urban environment… imagine a building facade covered in them… they would be a lot less visually intrusive than pinwheels and they don't take up as much room (volume wise). The city is a giant maze of wind tunnels and it would be interesting to see more attention given to this particular wind technology.

PINWHEELS
query: "Pinwheel energy"

query: "wind energy"





WINDBELTS
How to Build cheap VHS Tape Windbelt Generator

Windbelt Redux 21st Century



Natalie Jeremijenko

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:11:39 PM4/26/12
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I have a quick and inexpensive way to do a high resolution wind visualization in situ ... from there u can actually calculate the "burstiness" of wind supply ... 

erstwhile, I have just sat on a dozen final thesis projects on wind generation. 

I would be game to do it for high altitude wind --when it get very interesting. and makes so much more sense. 
demo scale of http://www.jobyenergy.com/ or http://www.makanipower.com/ or skyenergy ... 

Is the micro-hydro-turbine on the way? can we talk about install soon?
And solar is more promising than it looks, furthermore, there is a tax break that needs to be taken advantage of by people b4 december, so there is urgency on this.



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Natalie Jeremijenko, Environmental Health Clinic
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Affiliated faculty in Computer Science
Affiliated faculty in Environmental Studies
The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
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Dan Selden

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:41:42 PM4/26/12
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I'd love to work on some of the high-altitude stuff. What's the first step?
Reminds me of this project that came out of MIT

Dan

Ed Borden

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:45:09 PM4/26/12
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Remember, DIY and accessibility is the name of the game here....

Dan Selden

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Apr 26, 2012, 3:53:53 PM4/26/12
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it would be interesting to see a DIY high-altitude wind balloon

Albert Chao

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:08:05 PM4/26/12
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I'm thinking of some sort of kite/lightweight structure maybe? A series of small kites that are linked to form some sort of net above the ground?

Ed Borden

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:10:56 PM4/26/12
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Doesn't this require constant supervision/upkeep? It's very cool, but
no one is going to deploy this as an energy solution on their house...

Dan Selden

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:20:48 PM4/26/12
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I think its important that these DIY systems remain relatively easy to maintain but I think part of the point of DIY energy is to put people in closer touch with their consumption… people will come to understand it better by learning to implement and maintain these technologies. This won't happen if they simply buy a device that they can install and then ignore. There's definitely a happy medium.

Ed Borden

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Apr 26, 2012, 4:26:56 PM4/26/12
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Right, but the interaction has to be enriching. Take the AirQualityEgg for example.  We added this concept of the Egg that sits on your desk that you interact with.  But we removed any requirement of changing batteries or calibrating sensors.  I think we need to think in the same vein here.

Natalie Jeremijenko

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Apr 26, 2012, 10:35:28 PM4/26/12
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I would --put it on my house, that is.
The issue is that the wind is so steady and reliable up there that once it is up it is up they fly themselves. that is the central idea. with clever controls.
but like any tech/project yes it would likely need tending. even solar panels with no moving parts do.
But to do this could be doing it for one house or one small city park or bldg (or imagine tethering to big allis stack?)---how else cld u do it---but there would be more energy generated than the house/facility would need. Double the wind power (and u get much more than that in HAWP) and u get x8 (2x2x2) the power output. Which means micro-enterprise and good incentives to do it...

it is ambitious and spectacular -- which is a great --and like balloon mapping, can be very convivial.

I am just saying that energy works at various scales.
And perhaps little windturbines that can fall and kill aren't the most strategic thing, or the only thing we should focus on.�
I am into dinky and doable,� but we could also aim higher -- so to speak.

Ill catch up with the rest later.



April 26, 2012 4:10 PM
Doesn't this require constant supervision/upkeep? It's very cool, but
no one is going to deploy this as an energy solution on their house...

April 26, 2012 4:08 PM
I'm thinking of some sort of kite/lightweight structure maybe? A series of small kites that are linked to form some sort of net above the ground?





April 26, 2012 3:53 PM
it would be interesting to see a DIY high-altitude wind balloon

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 3:45 PM, Ed Borden wrote:


April 26, 2012 3:45 PM
Remember, DIY and accessibility is the name of the game here....
April 26, 2012 3:41 PM
I'd love to work on some of the high-altitude stuff. What's the first step?
Reminds me of this project that came out of MIT

Dan

On Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Natalie Jeremijenko wrote:


April 26, 2012 1:54 PM
Instructables:

I've been looking at Instructables concerning wind generation since they tend to require more common objects (seems solar gets expensive really fast). Here are a few that seem doable� a combination of pinwheels (which range in size) and windbelts. Windbelts seem like an awesome solution for an urban environment� imagine a building facade covered in them� they would be a lot less visually intrusive than pinwheels and they don't take up as much room (volume wise). The city is a giant maze of wind tunnels and it would be interesting to see more attention given to this particular wind technology.

Albert Chao

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Apr 27, 2012, 12:21:19 AM4/27/12
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I see your point Ed. I would think, for the most part, anything flying or tethered, etc, would require a bit of (unwanted?) maintenance. Perhaps, the kite, airborne wind turbines, balloons, etc. could start more as an event and experiment, similar to the collaborative effort by Public Lab and Air Quality Egg? Although this mapping effort is still likely to continue, it is not likely that you can keep those balloons up in the sky forever to monitor the skies (because of helium scarcity, control, intensity of winds, etc.).

@Natalie, I also really do love the dinky and doable.

On the smaller scale note, here's a product closer to the ground that may be of interest: http://www.humdingerwind.com/

Albert

pare [dse]

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Apr 27, 2012, 7:17:03 AM4/27/12
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I can imagine incidental 'seasonal' wind harvesting at times when the wind is strong. Collectively going out to make use of temporary strong wind period, harvest energy and collect it for low wind period.
When its done have a harvesting feast!
This way the effort is focussed on temporary high reward action.

René Paré


René Paré

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