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May 3 and 4, It has been an incredible month. For almost 2 years I played with this project. Researching in my spare time, toying with ideas and concepts, and seemingly committing any spare brainpower I had to its developement. What started as a project to save some money and help my family and the environment had taken on a life of its own. A few months after my research began, I started putting it all together as a white paper. Originally I did this for my kids, so they might understand some day what possesed their dad to spend so many hours on a single project. They were 1 and 3 years old when I really started digging into the project. When I started to build, my son found some of my work to be fascinating. Kids love anything that spins at that age. He used to come into the garage and just give it a push. To distract him and help illustrate the electricity, I hooked an old speaker to the output and threw some rice on it to really get an effect. He loved this. Click to see my son playing with the speaker and rice My daughter was too little to get involved, but she could watch it spin forever it seemed. After the initial unit was built, one level, rough alternator and working power generation, it was time to test output on something that would create more of a baseline. I spoke to a few people at work and my dad. The best idea came from two people, my friend at work, Bruce, and my dad. The suggestion was to use a lightbulb. They are a known quantity and have the power usage in watts listed right on them. Since I was not aware how much power I was making and only had a fraction of the alternator set up, I used a flashlight bulb for the original test. It was very exciting to see it light up. It was more exciting when it blew out! Too bad it didn't physically pop, that would have been even more exciting. Oh well. The bulb was intensely bright when it finally blew out. It was a 3volt Mag light bulb. Since there was a spare in the flashlight, I had to repeat the whole thing for my parents who were also excited to see it really worked. Several light bulbs and a half dozen friends later, I had to make improvements. The support system was too wobbly. The power was inconsistent. There was a distinct pulsing of power and last but not least, it was in my way. I could not mow the front lawn, the mower was behind the turbine on the side of my house. This meant I had to re-think the whole arrangement. It was during this thought process and rebuilding that I discovered the Maker Fair. I wrote in and asked to participate. I was greeted with a nice friendly welcome and assigned a great spot outside under two giant iron sculptures. I did not know this would be such a wonderful spot when it was assigned. All I knew was it was outside and was breezy the previous year and was simply identified as location 928. Now the pressure was on. I had a committment to get this all together with what I learned and put a working prototype together in a somewhat finished format and I had to make it portable to go to and from the fair. Portability was also important for placement in my yard and turns out to be an important feature for its future. I came to the conclusion that because it could operate in extremely high winds and that my yard experiences these winds regularly in the form of gusts, I needed a very sturdy support frame that I could guy wire to hold the unit in place. After using wood, then the fence in my yard and having a storm tear out an damage everything, I decided to weld a steel frame for the fair. Welding the frame was quick and strong. I even welded two casters to the bottom of the frame so I could just tip it and roll it like a dolly. This worked great. I packaged my deep cycle battery bank in a large tool box. I put the basic charge circuit and some wheels on a board to illustrate the whole working package. I thought I was ready. The weekend of the fair had arrived. It is May 1. I am supposed to go meet the other Makers. An opportunity to see the other exhibits, help out, talk to eachother without the public. Since the Makers will be stuck to their exhibits and answering questions all weekend, this is really a great opportunity. On the drive to the location, my car blew a spark plug. I thought the engine had died. I was only a short distance from the gate when it happened and figured I would worry about getting home later. I went and looked arround in amazement. I only stayed a couple hours because the thought of my broken car started to get the best of me. Luckily the car I drove was not the one I planed to transport the turbine in. May 2. My wife calls me at work and tells me there is something wrong with the brakes on the minivan, (the car I plan to transport the turbine in). That night, I take it for a ride and figure it seems ok, I will be gentle and pay extra attention, leave extra space. It seems to be OK. Just to be sure, I kept it out for a little longer. The symptom she described reared its head. The master cylinder went out! No brakes! Quick application of the emergency brake stopped the car and that was it. I was now thinking about skipping the fair. I have two small kids, and two broken down cars, a mortgage, economy declining, barely making it paycheck to paycheck. This was really too much. My dad, who always steps in and comes to the rescue, offers to drive. We took the seats out of his beautiful, pristine vehicle and carefully slid my raw steel cage complete with turbine installed into the back. Carefully strapping it in and blocking the amenities from the steel, we were able to transport the wind turbine to the fair. Originally my dad was going to help me at the fair one day and my wife the second day. My dad stayed with me both days. We were surrounded by curious and smart people all day both days. So much so, I went home with a sore throat and very sore feet on day one and day two was just as busy. We were both exhausted. It was on day one that my future began to change. May 3, was a very important day. May 3, was the day I met Mike. Mike introduced himself and asked if I had considered manufacturing this machine. This simple question led to an agreement with me and his company to bring these to market. Mike has a great deal of experience in production and distribution processes. With an open mind and a clear show of good faith on both parts, we made a committement to eachother and to this wind turbine design. Today, testing of manufacturer prototype number 2 has been very positive. It will be a short time now and we will be able to fulfill orders. I am very thankful to have met Mike, and also very thankful for my family and their support of my project when we did not have any idea where it might lead. |
