Downwind

Simplicity is always the key to reliability. Due to the fact that you have no overspeed control you could simplify things by making the generator a down wind machine. Don't worry about Tower Shadow it's mostly hype. If you look at pictures of the D.O.E.'s big MOD'S 1, 2, and 3's you'll see that they are all downwind machines. These machines were originally developed by N.A.S.A. and a great deal of wind tunnel tests were performed. They discovered that the stationary tower created less vortex vibrations than a machine with blades moving upwind from the tower. Now we have to use some common sense here. You wouldn't put this little generator on a 1 foot diameter tower either. Many of the worlds most successful machines are downwind configurations.

Just remove the tail, turn the blades around so that they rotate in the proper direction. Set them so that the blade tips are out from the hub about 3-5 degrees. The wind will arrange the rotor properly and you will have less Yawing created by the blades vortex traveling around the tail. This is a problem that plagues many small commercial turbines that have no yaw dampening device. There is an added benefit to this approach, your turbine will operate in lower winds. The rotation of the hub, just for the sake of argument lets say counter clockwise, will drive the rotor slightly to the left, about 7 degrees or so depending on wind speed. This phenomenon increases the angle of attack of the blades in relationship to Apparent Wind, thus creating more lift and more available power.

Offered by Jay.

Excellent idea, I like it. Simplifies the design. Could use a small low wind resistance counter weight to balance the weight of the generator, instead of the tail fin. The lawn mower wheel itself tends to block the wind and will naturally swing around to a down wind condition.

Offered by Mike.