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Wind powered ceiling fans | |||||||||||||||||
I'd like to try designing a ceiling fan system for a home (or business) that would be powered by a roof-mounted wind turbine and be completely mechanical, not connected to electricity at all. In the summer, we run ceiling fans pretty much all of the time. It allows us to go longer without the air conditioner, and to set it at 78-80F when we do turn it on. But ceiling fans aren't free--they use 70-100 watts each and I'm running three of them. But if I could power them with wind, I'm not saving much money, but I'm guilt-free. Initially, I thought that a mechanical shaft system might be good, but if I can instead run this as a hydraulic system, I can power multiple fans from one reasonably-sized turbine. I think a small accumulator could store hydraulic fluid that is at a lowish-pressure and the individual fans could run with regulators to keep a constant speed. Winds die-down in the night around here, but I don't need the fans at night, either. I realize that a wind-turbine and regulators, lines, accumulators, etc will cost quite a bit--maybe I could use a kind of low-pressure hydraulics like my car's convertible-top--that uses plastic hoses and valves, etc. Of course I could make electricity and charge batteries, then power the fans, but I find that every time you change the form of energy, you're likely to lose quite a bit. Besides, I like mechanical systems. Does this idea have any merit? Would anybody want it?
hrench, Aug 22 2008
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Too much engineering, but might be something to play with. You could have a roof turbine running a main drive shaft, with your ceiling fans ran off of it.
The easy way would be a solar chimney.
It would work but the features would be less than with a regular electric fan. Questions are: How would you change the speed of rotation of the fan for low medium and high settings? Also how do you maintain a constant speed?But it would probably have to also be built into the structure of the house and wouldn't be portable.But if you just don't want to open up the windows because it would let cold air out then you might try better insulation and the energy saved from good insulation could then be used to power a fan.
Nice concept. Hydraulics are most efficient when used for high pressure, low flow-rate applications. A direct mechanical drive would be simpler and avoids the risk of messy fluid leaks.
You would have a governor and a linear transmission. It could possibly be done purely mechanically or with the assistance of electronics.
I'd say "open the windows," but I could see this working in larger/divided buildings.
There's another way that this could work. Bernoulli's principle says that higher wind speed equals lower air pressure, which is why chimneys force air upwards through them as wind blows across there tops. So supposedly you could make a solid state vent built into the house, that just uses the same principles as chimneys, and creates air current just like a fan. They say some ancient structures incorporated this into there designs for natural air flow down passage ways.