Eirbyte Blog

Hugh Piggotts new book

office — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 08:43:02 +0000

Hugh has just published a new book

Buy it from Smashwrods

A very “hands-on” guide to every step in the process of building a 2 metre diameter wind turbine for battery charging. The turbine will produce 800kWh of energy on a site with 5 m/s mean wind speed. It uses more durable ferrite magnets for longer service life. The ebook is packed with colour photos and diagrams to clarify the text.

We built one of these turbines on our workshop in Leitrim in 2012 with Hugh and it impressed us with its output. See this post

Lifting a wind turbine

office — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 15:43:26 +0000

This video shows our land rover in action in Co Clare. It has a hydraulic winch that we sometimes use to raise and lower wind turbines. It’s remote controlled and a lot faster than the tirfor.

Erecting a wind turbine in Co Clare from Eirbyte on Vimeo.

Wind Turbine Building Workshop Braganca Portugal

office — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 22:32:25 +0000

We just finished a wind turbine building workshop near the village of Gimonde in the district of Braganca North Eastern Portugal.

Here is the crew in front of the 2.4m turbine

We built a 2.4m 12v turbine for the workshop organisers CoraNE

Making the coil winder

We worked in the veranda of the function room at an agri-tourism location, a working farm – Quinta das Covas, with holiday apartments, restaurant, bar, pool and a flock of sheepWinding the coilsAlthough this is Portugal the temperatures were about 2degrees and very chilly in the shade so we often carried the workbenches out into the sunshine to work. We used local pine wood for the blades, some knots however pretty good wood for carving.Rotor timeSoldering the coilsGetting the moulds readyCutting out the islands Action stations!Placing the coils in the mould, some resin is already in the mouldPouring the resinThe blades are getting nicely carved downThe paparazzi have found us again – RTP, one of Portugal’s four tv stations came to have a chat with the workshop participants You can see the flock of sheep grazing in the background, ironically near the garden bar-b-que. The sheep are accompanied by a shepherd all day as they wander around the groundsDrilling the four holes for the hub in the blade assemblyNice tail, it’s an oak leaf, the emblem for CoraNE, the organisation who put the workshop together

4.8m wind turbine update

office — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 20:27:54 +0000

We ran a Build Your Own Wind Turbine workshop in 2009 where we built a 4.8m wind turbine. Now after four years it looks like the turbine might be flying in the new year. The mast has been made and the steel is undercoated. Next big job is to get the mast up the hill and that will be quite an undertaking. Another job is to wind new coils for the alternator, the coils were originally wound for a battery system (24vDC) however now the turbine is to be grid connected so it needs new windings in the alternator.

The frame

Base of mast beside tractor front wheel

Hinges to be bolted to the ground plate

Base

14m mast and gin pole