Why not use just a regular generator with that windmill, which would generate electricity for you, probably more efficiently, which you can use for light, heating, or whatever you want.
The article doesn't really do Tim justice. He's a bodger who is basically a genius for what I can only describe as Goblin technology. His projects are as much about fun and experimenting as having a result. In the first windmill video he acknowledged that he could just buy a small electric windmill, but that's not the point.
I mean, this is the dude who made a narrow gauge railroad and a compressed air locomotive to transport wood to his terrifying biochar chopper and crucible.
Does this have any benefit over just using friction to convert the rotation into heat? I suppose it would suffer less wear, but it also seems way more expensive.
As you said, friction would introduce more wear and maintenance. This gentleman's idea is to attach a windmill to drive the rotary induction wheel, which would essentially be "free" heat energy, and an interesting hobby contraption. Entertainment and a sense of accomplishment is probably his main goal.
Its not a brand new idea, just a different application of the principle. Induction generators already exist, and they can indeed be used with windmills, but to generate AC current versus heat energy.
More power to this fun and crazy inventor. Maybe he can find practical and reproducible use for this effect. If not, he's gonna have the most unique water heater ever invented. With this he could make a fully mechanical hot water heater that burns no fuel and uses no electricity. He would just have to make a mechanism to disengage a clutch at the top temperature.
Handling a pet peeve of mine. 3 seconds into the video, he talks about induction stovetops and shows a picture of a glass top radiant stove.
Radiant stoves are just slightly better than electric resistive stoves. They are not induction though they can look similar. People try them and hate them and assume induction is terrible when it isn't.
Induction stoves are no joke. Had one in a ski condo I rented and it boiled water faster than I could grind the coffee beans! Threw my whole routine off!
Nah, I've used my parents' induction hob and it's ridiculously fast to boil liquids. A half pint of milk was boiling over in 20s. Gas stoves can't compete.
TLDR: It boiled water in half the time using roughly half as much energy. Part of that may be due to the test pot being smaller than the burner, but this was the case for both stoves. It's just the induction doesn't heat the space around the pot.
