The Windbeater Team Ramrod: Justin Hofflinger Ryan Jachowski Zeke Stannard Kyle Wachtveitl

Our Device and Team

How It Works and The Design Our windmill design acts like a weather station, catching any wind that is blown. The wind spins the blades which then spin our shaft, creating electricity. The shaft is attached to two ball bearings that allow it to spin freely. At the bottom of our shaft is where our generator is. The generator consists of magnet wire wrapped around a Pringles can. The shaft has highly magnetic magnets that when spun create our electricity. Our windmill’s frame allows for stability and a convenient place for our generator to rest upon. It also allows for our bearings to be attached and spin freely for our windmill to work.

Production Pictures

How much did it cost? ► Bill of Materials ► Magnet Wire$20 ► Bearings (Donation of 2)$6 ► Magnets (Donation of 6 and purchase of 2)$5 ► Wood (Scrap in Estabrook)$5 ► PVC Pipe (Scrap in Estabrook)$2 ► Posterboard$1 ► Pringles Can$1 ► Total Cost of Production$40

Efficiency Expected = 0.5 x rho x A x Cp x V3 x Ng x Nb = 0.5 x x.5026 x.35 x x.30 x.80 =.127 watts =.127 watts Actual: V 2 / R = watts (.3 volts) 2 / 6 =.015 watts Efficiency: 1-(E-A / E) x 100 = 1 – ((.127 –.015)/(.127)) x 100 = 11.8 %

Problems Building:  Blade Design  Bearings  Frame Generator:  Making it  Magnets

Conclusion After lots of brainstorming, tweaking and engineering, our windmill is a success. When problems occurred, our great teamwork showed with our creative problem solving and new ideas. Being given the task to build a windmill that generated electricity was a great project to work on. We learned a lot from our experience.