Heat your House with a Mechanical Windmill

[JamesR]

Thought this would be interesting for some folks here.

Could potentially reduce photovoltaic needs by more than half by replacing heating needs with a windmill.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/ ... -windmill/

[jacob]

Unlike a commercial household sized electric turbine, these are BIG. The mechanical mill equivalent of a few room-sized space heaters has a rotor diameter of 20 feet!

[zbigi]

Unfortunately, the article does not mention anything about the noise generated by such windmill.

[jacob]

I think hooking the windmill up to an air compressor is more interesting.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/ ... ge-system/

Thanks to the Amish, conversion kits, albeit expensive, are available to turn common electric tools like table saws and routers into air tools. I will say, though, that unless you're working all day running a production facility, hand tools are quite adequate for all household jobs.

[zbigi]

I will say, though, that unless you're working all day running a production facility, hand tools are quite adequate for all household jobs.

Does that include renovation? I can't imagine e.g. trying to drill a hole in a concrete wall with a hand drill.

[jacob]

Does that include renovation? I can't imagine e.g. trying to drill a hole in a concrete wall with a hand drill.

Your walls are made of concrete? Still one hole is not a problem by hand. However, dozens and hundreds will take time and sweat. For one-off jobs, hand tools are often faster than power tools. The difference being that hand tools require no initial setup before applying sweat effort. Whereas power tools require initial setup but then require no effort to run ... and run again. In that regard, it's a bit like scripting when it comes to computer problems.

[zbigi]

@jacob
Not mine walls, but the flat I grew up in has concrete walls, as have millions of other flats in Poland (reinforced concrete was most common building material used for flat construction during communism). I tried to drill a hole with a hand drill once, and practically failed to even make a dent. I'm not sure even a regular electric drill would be up for the job, everyone around here uses hammer drills.

[jacob]

I'm not sure even a regular electric drill would be up for the job, everyone around here uses hammer drills.

It's impossible to get through concrete, rock, or stone with drilling alone. To get through it by hand, you'd take a chisel (or a mason drill bit which has a de facto chisel at the business end), hammer it, rotate a bit, hammer again, occasionally clear out debris. Without the "hammering"-part you'd get nowhere.

It's useful to understand how drilling works. For wood, hand augers have a screw tip that drags the cutting part in. (This is impossible for concrete or stone). Standard drills require the operator to push the bit in. (This is also impossible going through rock or stone). Hence the hammering in order to pulverize the first layer and move forward.

[zbigi]

Thanks for explanation. Sounds like a lot of work Manually doing things like grooves in the walls to put electric installation in (not sure how they call them in English) might take days. Your whole no-electric tool approach seem best suited for wooden frame houses, that are so popular in the US and Canada. There, the materials to work through are either wood or just drywall.

[Jim]

It's impossible to get through concrete, rock, or stone with drilling alone.

Normal drilling is actually the more common way of putting holes in concrete these days. A concrete hole saw bit is used, which looks much like a hole saw you'd use for wood, that you'd chuck up in a regular drill. The concrete hole saw bit has vacuum braised diamond edge that drills a nice clean hole in concrete. These bits are pretty expensive. Here are some (relatively) cheapo home Depot examples.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Tools-Power ... 68Z1z0vsda

That being said, a rotary hammer, or a hammer drill, is the more common homeowner method, and typically cheaper. You won't get a nice looking hole, and you'll have much more mess, but it will work. One major advantage of the diamond hole saws is that they will chew through rebar without issue, unlike masonry bits for your rotohammer which doesn't like trying to hammer through steel.

I lived in a home with fully cured 100 year old concrete walls and put a lot of holes in them, using all the aforementioned methods, including hand tools. The other option (which may or may not be appropriate) is using a rotary saw or an angle grinder with a masonry blade. You can score the concrete and then get to work with your hand tools or what have you.

[white belt]

I think hooking the windmill up to an air compressor is more interesting.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/ ... ge-system/

Thanks to the Amish, conversion kits, albeit expensive, are available to turn common electric tools like table saws and routers into air tools. I will say, though, that unless you're working all day running a production facility, hand tools are quite adequate for all household jobs.

I went down this research rabbit hole yesterday. I'd be interested in something like this as well, although the economics of it (like many "off-grid" solutions) might not make a whole lot of sense in an urban/suburban area. If I'm in a suitably windy area, I might try to implement it at my next living location starting this summer.

Like you mention, the Amish already do this. There are conversion kits not only for typical electric tools, but also household appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and ceiling fans. As one would expect, there is very little video documentation of such things, but I did find this example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc0b4aBOyBw

The metal style mechanical windmills were used across the USA last century to pump well water and nowadays are quite popular for decorative purposes. New and restored versions seems to start around the $2k mark. Nowadays, there's a company that makes them for purposes of pond aeration. I'm sure there are DIY options, perhaps even plans if one has some experience in metal working. Obviously going even lower tech with wood is an option.




I think there has also been some research* in combining such a system with solar collectors, but that seems less tested and also to increase complexity by an order of magnitude. I'm not sure if it's feasible at a household level, but it's an interesting concept because there are a lot of efficiency gains from bypassing electricity conversion all together.

* = https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 7X2300059X