Steve:
I can appreciate the issue of budget. I was a little unaware of the actual situation and how the organization is financed. I now get the picture!!! What we can do for ourselves....

Another cool aspect of a discussion like this is that we get to learn new things. I have never before heard of a Savonius rotor wind turbine. They seem totally cool. I googled it and found some interesting stuff such as this link. This guy built a turbune using simple aluminum sheet and large diameter PVC pipe. He also used a DC motor from a tape drive as a generator. The DC motor as generator seems like a good idea to me. In his article be pointed out the need to provide for an up-converter to change the generator output up to a suitable level for charging the battery.

Michael Karas