<p>Having borne the brunt of regular power outage, students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) have developed a project to provide electricity by harnessing wind energy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Students H S Satish, Karthik M J, N Girish and Sharath M C — under the guidance of assistant professor S A Mohankrishna — have designed and fabricated a ‘Light duty vertical axis wind turbine’, which would help in providing power to homes.<br /><br />Speaking to Deccan Herald, the team members said even minimum winds of 3.5 metres per second were sufficient to harness the energy and convert it into electricity. <br /><br />The power generated by the wind turbine would range from 3W to 35 W.<br /><br />The advantage of using the wind turbine is that it can be connected to battery and used whenever needed. It can light up two CFL lamps. <br /><br />By adding alternators and two extra grids, power can be increased to light up to three rooms, they said.<br /><br />Explaining about the working of the turbine, they said it collects wind and converts it into electricity, which in turn produces a 12 volt output which is used to charge one heavy-duty battery. <br /><br />A small electricity generator designed for household installation is driven by a modified Savonius rotor (S-rotor). <br /><br />Rotors<br /><br />This type of rotor (which is vertical) was chosen instead of horizontal axis machine due to its simplicity and reliability.<br /><br />S-rotor consists of three simple scoops, where one side catches the moving air more than the other causing the turbine to spin. <br /><br />This design does not allow the turbine to spin faster than the oncoming wind. <br /><br />This type of turbine is simple to build, and because it is vertical there is no need to have a mechanism to keep it turned into the wind. <br /><br />The turbine frame is only one metre tall, which can be fixed to windows in households, which witness high wind speed.<br /><br />The group has spent Rs 13,370 for developing the wind mill.<br /></p>
<p>Having borne the brunt of regular power outage, students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) have developed a project to provide electricity by harnessing wind energy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Students H S Satish, Karthik M J, N Girish and Sharath M C — under the guidance of assistant professor S A Mohankrishna — have designed and fabricated a ‘Light duty vertical axis wind turbine’, which would help in providing power to homes.<br /><br />Speaking to Deccan Herald, the team members said even minimum winds of 3.5 metres per second were sufficient to harness the energy and convert it into electricity. <br /><br />The power generated by the wind turbine would range from 3W to 35 W.<br /><br />The advantage of using the wind turbine is that it can be connected to battery and used whenever needed. It can light up two CFL lamps. <br /><br />By adding alternators and two extra grids, power can be increased to light up to three rooms, they said.<br /><br />Explaining about the working of the turbine, they said it collects wind and converts it into electricity, which in turn produces a 12 volt output which is used to charge one heavy-duty battery. <br /><br />A small electricity generator designed for household installation is driven by a modified Savonius rotor (S-rotor). <br /><br />Rotors<br /><br />This type of rotor (which is vertical) was chosen instead of horizontal axis machine due to its simplicity and reliability.<br /><br />S-rotor consists of three simple scoops, where one side catches the moving air more than the other causing the turbine to spin. <br /><br />This design does not allow the turbine to spin faster than the oncoming wind. <br /><br />This type of turbine is simple to build, and because it is vertical there is no need to have a mechanism to keep it turned into the wind. <br /><br />The turbine frame is only one metre tall, which can be fixed to windows in households, which witness high wind speed.<br /><br />The group has spent Rs 13,370 for developing the wind mill.<br /></p>