Wind Driven Hot Water

[Drawbar]

I have one of those jobs that allows you to free think for 40 hours a week since the job itself is mindless (machinist), so this week I was thinking of ways to save on my propane bill. I live on a hill so wind would be a nice way to take the edge off my heating bill for my home.

Now wind could be converted into several possibilities of heating water, but electric hot water is pretty inefficient. So this got me to thinking of a friction type device to heat up a tub of water. I could not come up with anything so I started thinking about how hydraulic implements on farming equipment really heat up when you put them under a load and the oil is diverted through a relief valve.

So here was a thought up to convert wind power to heat that would help heat my home.

Basically I have a windmill the runs a plunger that compresses hydraulic oil through a relief valve. This oil is then run through a coil inside a tank of water before returning to the windmill plunger. As the windmill spins and plunges the oil constantly through that relief valve, the oil inside gets hot which heats up the water in the insulated storage tank.

When that tank gets hot enough, and my home calls for heat, a temperature switch starts a pump that pushes that heated water into a water jacket surrounding my main boiler loop.

I am not sure if it would work or not. I mean I am sure the oil would get hot pretty fast, but I am not sure how fast it would heat a tank of water. If it was a fairly cold day my home would probably need more btus then the windmill could provide, but for every btu the windmill produces, that would be one less btu I have to get from propane.

This was just an idea I thought of and thought I would share. If anyone wants to throw darts at it or just discuss it, (Or have me explain my idea more fully or in a better way), feel free.

[SkooliesRock]

Ok, here's my dart ;) On a small quantity of oil, you might be able to substancially raise its temp, but the much larger amount of oil required would be overcome by stand-by loss, and the fact that there's little torque in your windmill pump, so you'd be limited in the amount of oil you could work at once. At least from the way I see it.

[MadTripper]

Take a peek at this article when you have time. Perhaps a refregerant instead of oil would be a better option.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004689.html

Tripper

[AlchemyAcres]

I have one of those jobs that allows you to free think for 40 hours a week since the job itself is mindless (machinist), so this week I was thinking of ways to save on my propane bill. I live on a hill so wind would be a nice way to take the edge off my heating bill for my home.

Now wind could be converted into several possibilities of heating water, but electric hot water is pretty inefficient. So this got me to thinking of a friction type device to heat up a tub of water. I could not come up with anything so I started thinking about how hydraulic implements on farming equipment really heat up when you put them Runder a load and the oil is diverted through a relief valve.

So here was a thought up to convert wind power to heat that would help heat my home.

Basically I have a windmill the runs a plunger that compresses hydraulic oil through a relief valve. This oil is then run through a coil inside a tank of water before returning to the windmill plunger. As the windmill spins and plunges the oil constantly through that relief valve, the oil inside gets hot which heats up the water in the insulated storage tank.

When that tank gets hot enough, and my home calls for heat, a temperature switch starts a pump that pushes that heated water into a water jacket surrounding my main boiler loop.

I am not sure if it would work or not. I mean I am sure the oil would get hot pretty fast, but I am not sure how fast it would heat a tank of water. If it was a fairly cold day my home would probably need more btus then the windmill could provide, but for every btu the windmill produces, that would be one less btu I have to get from propane.

This was just an idea I thought of and thought I would share. If anyone wants to throw darts at it or just discuss it, (Or have me explain my idea more fully or in a better way), feel free.


Nothing really wrong with your idea.... I assume that you have a mechanical mill in mind?
An electric mill would be much more efficient......if you can generate the juice.....and convert it to heat that's 100% efficient...

Recirculating water past a DC element would be a very easy thing to do.


~Martin

[Catalpa]

I know what you mean about the hydraulics...I caught a hose on the axle once while trying to make a tight turn with the haybine and it really hurt when it sprayed on me. I'm picturing hydraulic line though, you know, the big rubber hoses...would you circulate the oil (or refrigerant) in the large hoses, or maybe make a radiator like framework with copper or something?

What about using the sun on a south facing wall of your house or garage? I saw a fascinating article in MEN of a man who made the whole south wall of his garage a solar water heater; he stored the water in a home-made tank and used a small pump to circulate it in a underfloor heating system. I'm planning to incorporate something like that in my new home.

[Drawbar]

I have been looking at solar collectors for awhile now, but last week at a fair where a company was advertising solar hot water systems I found the missing link.

Perfect Vacuum.

It seems that a perfect vacuum is the ultimate in insulation. The system had these tubes that were on the roof and these tubes were vacuum sealed. Then there was a thin blue membrane over a ¼ inch copper tube. The ionized water inside heats up, and maybe even boils. That steam ruses up and hits a heat sink that is connected in series with other tubes and that circulates to heat your hot water.

I was thinking trying to get a perfect vacuum in a collector tube would be hard enough,let alone doing it for 150 tubes or whatever. I am thinking building one would be doable, and then using like a half-pipe collector to heat that one pipe up to provide domestic hot water. You still got the problem of building some sort of solar tracking system, but at least with the vacuum information, I no longer have to be concerned about ambient air affecting the solar gain.

[Clair_Schwan]

I think you are on a better track now with solar collectors. Heat air or water and just move the heat to where you want it.

Anytime you convert from one energy form to another, you're losing efficiency. Wind is mechanical, then the hydraulic pump is another convervion, then there is the thermal conversion, and then finally using the thermal energy to heat the house. It's not efficient. You'd be lucky if you could heat one room using that method.

I'm using a homemade hydronic system, and you'd be surpirsed how much wood heat it takes to get 40 gallons of water hot. Even at 150 degrees, the water is back to ambient temperatures overnight when pumped through just a handful of baseboard heaters, so maximum efficiency is the key.

I'll be constructing a couple of devices to capture heat from the sun and pump it into the house using a recirculation system. That way I am just reheating air, not heating it up from ambient temperatures. This type of system should be sufficient during spring and late fall, but won't be enough to heat the house during the dead of winter.

No matter what you end up doing, insulation will be a key factor in effectiveness.

Keep us posted on your inventions. With rising fuel costs, it will be very important to become self-sufficient. I believe in doing something about the problem, not just complain about it, so my focus is homemade hydronic heating and an outdoor furnace.

Clair

[crafty2002]

With a wing mil, there is no better way of producing heat than with an electric heater.
Sure, hydrolic fluid gets hot, but that is with a 200 or better HP engine.
You are talking about a huge windmill to get 200 HP from.