HSU Domnicana Renewable Energy Team 2012

# Discussion

## Obstacles

One of the biggest obstacles faced while working on the project was the unavailability of power. The power was often off completely during the otherwise most convenient hours to work, and when it was on, it was unreliable due to strength of the current through the extension cord.

Another obstacle faced while working, but didn't notice for a while, is that the gear placed under the turbine was off centered. This caused the chain to tighten and loosen while spinning, either giving too much resistance for it to spin the gears fast enough, or making the chain loose enough to fall off.

Our last obstacle faced was the wind speeds during our work hours. The low wind speeds made it very difficult to test how much energy our system could produce on a day with strong winds. The uncentered gear also made it harder to determine how well the system could spin in the wind because the extra resistance slowed it down.

# Next Steps

The next step for this system would be to reduce the friction that is occurring in the gears. Reducing this friction would allow less wind to spin the turbine, making it easier to give more power to the classroom below. Increasing the efficiency would also reduce the payback time.

Reducing the friction can be done by getting a generator that is a better size for the system.

Another important part of improving the system would be to get more data. By using an anemometer to measure the wind and a multimeter to measure current and voltage, we could find what wind speeds and what gear ratios produce the most, useable energy.