I finally got some new blades for the wind turbine.  The old blades worked, but they were not yielding the results I was looking for.  The old blades had a large surface area and were heavy.  This gave them a huge amount of torque and allowed them to start in the slightest of breezes.  The issue is that on moderately windy days they won’t spin fast enough to reach the generator’s cut in voltage of 12V.  I purchased a set of 6 blades modeled after those on the AirX wind turbine.  The blades are made from a durable plastic and are designed to spin very fast: over 1000RPM’s!

I built a new temporary stand for the turbine so I could easily test it outside without the need to put up the 10Ft tower.  Today was extremely windy in Rochester with sustained 20-30MPH winds; a perfect day to test the blades.  The blades worked great and allowed the turbine to reach an open circuit voltage of 32V.

[flv]http://media.csh.rit.edu/public/New%20Blades.flv[/flv]

The blades look like they are spinning much slower in the video due to the camera’s frame rate.  No the blades didn’t stop and reverse, it is an illusion do to the camera.