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I wanted to see how the Lenz2 would go as a water pump.

I collect rain water from the roof of my workshop in this 5000L tank. I also have a 1000L tank up the hill behind my place. There is a 12v electric pump with controller that keeps the top tank full.

The plan was to use the Lenz2 to help the electric pump.

I built a pump from a old air ram and check valves. The pump was mounted out to one side and I build a crank and connecting rod driven off the Lenz2's drive shaft.

It worked but I was having problems with air leaking past the piston in the pump, dropping its efficiency.

I remounted the pump vertically and made a bell crank to change the Lenz2's rotary action into a up/down action. Worked a treat, the Lenz2 pumped water for a few months until I replaced it with my Southern Cross windmill.

Next I wanted to mount the Lenz2 up on my main windmill mast, the higher the better, more wind and less turbulence. I made an adapter to fit the Lenz2 and a Smartdrive to the top of my tower.

The Lenz2 was a lot heavier than the HAWT windmill, you can see the bow in the tower at its lowered position, even with the straining wire. Once it was winched up in place the tower handled the extra load OK.

On average the windmill was making 15 to 20 watts most days, with a few peaks around 40 watts. Remember this is a small windmill, the wind area is only 1.56m². My HAWT windmill was about 3.8m² and it was making about 50 to 100 watts average.

What this does show is a HAWT is lighter and uses less materials than a VAWT for the same wind area. If you have clean wind, HAWT's are the better option.