Innovative Systems Design and Engineering www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1727 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2871 (Online) Vol.5, No.12, 2014 23 Design of Domestic Helix Vertical Axis Wind Turbine to Extract Energy from Exhaust Fans Sonika Chauhan (Corresponding Author) Department of Mechanical Engineering, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, 263145, Pantnagar, U.S.Nagar, UK, India E-mail: sonika.chauhan.me@gmail.com Ravinder Singh Department of Mechanical Engineering, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, 263145, Pantnagar, U.S.Nagar, UK, India E-mail: ravinder.singh.me@gmail.com Abstract The application of wind energy in power generation is increasing day by day. Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) are considered more efficient than vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) but with urbanization and limited access to wind in cities, VAWT may offer greater advantages, as HAWT are generally used in wind farms as large wind turbines. In many high altitude regions, average wind velocity is around 5-8ms -1 which can be utilized for electricity production, but in cities, that are at lower altitudes and are congested, the kinetic energy of exhaust fans can be used for electricity production. This paper describes the design of VAWT that can be used to generate electricity at domestic level using the energy from exhaust fans. Keywords: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT); Wind Energy; Design model; Innovation. 1. Introduction Many meteorological and topological regions in the world are conductive to level of wind velocities suitable for power generation. The kinetic energy of the wind varies with factors like latitude, altitude, seasons and geographical locations. The world is on the verge of scarcity of energy resources and most of the resources used are basically non-renewable sources of energy. Reduced availability of fossil fuels and limited capacity of the world to cope with the pollution caused by fossil fuel are the two major considerations that have forced the world to seek an alternative energy system. Power generation through wind is one of the most attractive solutions for safe and clean renewable energy resources. In recent years, the focus on wind energy has increased significantly for the shortage of resource and climate change [1]. European Union had set a biding target of a 20 percent renewable energy contribution by 2020, and it was estimated that wind energy could contribute one-third of this production [2]. However, wind power occupied less than 0.7 % of the 16% renewable energy resource in 2009 [3], indicating that there was a broad prospect for wind power. There are some rural areas having abundance of wind energy but are still facing the problem of electricity. Therefore, the wind energy can be a proper solution for these types of areas, rather than fossil fuels [4]. Wind power is now the world’s fastest growing energy resource [5]. According to an estimate there is a worldwide annual potential, with power of 10 KWH or 3.6 GJ. The available wind power possesses a huge potential that can contribute 5 times the world energy demand and contribute 0.4% of the huge sum of total energy. This work is an outcome of the motivation, to utilize the wind energy for electricity generation and to fulfill the needs of the rural residents. Small wind turbines are easy to install and affordable, and can easily provide enough electricity to power a home, business, or farm. HAWT are in focus of all wind energy related research activity for last few decades. However, research on VAWT is continued in parallel at a relatively smaller scale. Scientists and Engineers developed various wind turbine configurations and utilized different approaches for their analysis and determined the optimum conditions for the working of VAWTs. A closer look on the concepts leads towards the fact that VAWTs are suitable for electricity generation in the conditions where traditional HAWTs are unable to give reasonable efficiencies such as high wind velocities and turbulent wind flows. Another major advantage is that VAWTs are omni-directional, accepting wind from any direction without any yawing mechanism [6-10]. The major advantage of VAWTs is that being a standalone system it can be used at any location [11]. Even if an area that does not receive much consistent wind, one can still harvest energy from the air currents with a helix wind turbine. Straight, untwisted and uniform section blades of VAWTs are easy to fabricate and give the performance that is comparable with HAWT, with almost 40% extraction of wind energy [12]. In this paper novel approach to extract the energy from exhaust fans using vertical axis wind turbine with helical blades is demonstrated. Not only it is capable of generating electricity constantly when an exhaust system is in operation but also reduce the power consumption by the exhaust air system. It is an energy recovery system and not intended to replace fossil fuel for energy demand of a country. However, this system enables the