Tag Archives: Wind

Home Wind Generator: Most Important Individual Reason That They Don’t Succeed

You can often save a lot of cash you would ordinarily spend on energy with a home wind turbine. However, they do fail for a variety of reasons.

First of all with home wind turbine or any other home project you have to clearly say what your definition of success and failure is before you begin. I think the goal of any renewable energy project should be to pay for itself within five years. However you may think that just having a wind turbine turning and making a statement about user green energy consumer is success.

In any case, just get clear on what you define a success as before you begin.

The biggest reason by far is not putting the turbine in the best spot to optimize wind resources.

But, these are the other reasons they fail that are important…

The wind is different everywhere. This is probably the iceberg sinks most ships. At each location around your property there is what is called a microclimate. That microclimate is different in each location and has a unique wind signature for our purposes. You simply can’t make a generalized statement about the wind on your property.

You must uniquely examine the wind characteristics at a particular location that you might install the wind device. If you don’t, you run the risk of severely sub-optimizing your project and making a lot less electricity than you could otherwise make.

You don’t need to dawdle and the project too long in your analysis phase, but some time taken to get clear picture of which is the best microclimate for your residential wind turbine device and which one allows you to make the most electricity, will be time well spent. Just such a limit on how much time you’re going to allow for your analysis and stick to that. Then, push the button and move forward and just realize that you may have to do a little trial and error before you get this exactly what you want it.

A difference of just 1 or 2 mph over a long period of time can mean thousands of dollars less in savings. Over the course of time just a little bit of difference will make a huge impact on your bottom line. Even though it’s just a few miles an hour in wind speed, that translates into a tremendous amount of power because the cube rule of energy when production. That means that as your wind speed increases by 3 miles per hour, let’s say, the amount of power that you will get out of the turbine will be 27 times as much.

Summarizing – the biggest reason home wind turbine projects fail is they are not optimized on the front end. Don’t be one of these statistics. Do your work on the front and so you will have to do a lot of work on the backend.

Roger G. Brown has saved many hundreds of providers hard earned cash on their electric power bills. View Roger’s tips on how to spend less And read more about Wind Turbine Kit

My DIY Wind Turbine

 

This is my project and it is not finished yet, but I figured I would show it to you. It can be done and sometimes cheap. First of all we will start off with the supplies a friend gave me. Most of them were free. His son worked construction and he was building a house and had lots of extra stuff left over and he wanted to get rid of it. So I helped him out.  He gave me 30 – 8 foot 5/8 all thread some ¾ plywood and some kitchen lights. These are the ones that are 4 foot and recess into the ceiling. I paid for 2 bearings and the solid steel 10 foot rod. The real money comes when you make the generator but that’s the part that isn’t done.

Let me tell you how I constructed this out of those parts in our list above. The picture is above so you can see it as we are going through the steps. Step one was preparing the plywood. We need two round circles to start with.

Trick here on how to get them both the same. You need a table saw for this and you need to find the center of your plywood. You should also make the marks for the blades this is easier when the plywood is square. If you have 6 blades you need 6 marks should look like a pie with 6 evenly cut pieces. The more blades the smaller the pieces of pie. This really needs to be done right for balance. These marks are for the positioning of the blades so the marks need to be made on the inside top and bottom when the project is put together.

My plywood was already 4.5 x 4.5 when I started. Now you need to make a hole in the table saw (I had to add extra table panel on mine to use all the wood) about dead center of the blade. If the hole is 2 feet from the saw blade you should get a 4 foot round circle.

First take off the guard and lower the blade all the way down. You hold it down with some all thread or 4 to 5 inch bolt and I used a weight from an old weight bench and some washers and nuts. Put the plywood with the hole in it and put the bolt with a washer down through the weight then the plywood then the table saw. Now put the washer and nut on. Do not make this too tight!  The idea is to roll the plywood round and round until we get a circle.

Best results you need a very good blade or new. Warning: TAKE YOUR TIME!!!!! You just raise the blade a little at a time. Start very small to get a feel for it and spin the plywood slowly. Keep your hand away from the blade but firm on the board. Should look like this when you’re done.

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Now put the two round circles together and mark your hole for the all thread to hold the turbine together I used 5/8 all thread. Remember they were 8 foot so I cut them with a chop saw and use a die to clean up the thread. I used 4 of them. Also you need to mark the side with a “V” so you know what is top and bottom. If you use the V method then you will always be able to match them. These holes need to be fairly perfectly placed for balance.

It’s coming together now you will need nuts on both sides to lock it in. I bolted the bottom together first put the top on loose. I bet you are wondering where the recessed lights come into the turbine project. In the light there where two nicely shaped, rounded pieces of metal and two diffusers prefect for our blades. You will have to work on the next part, moving the blade around. The way I did was if you ever saw a blower cage or look at my turbine at the top to get an idea. Once you get where you want it then from the marks you made you should be able to duplicate the rest so they are all the same. I used small L brackets and screws to hold it together. Then tighten all the nuts up remembering about balance. Try to get everything the same your blades and the all thread. I started the all thread at the very bottom of the nut (flush). When you cut the all thread all should be the same length. If you really want to get technical you can weigh them. Also I doubled the nuts for security reasons.

Final thing is to get the bearings in straight. I only used a 1 inch solid rod I am going to go 1 ¼ 80 grade pipe with some stronger bearings. I hoped you like this article and hoped the pictures will give you some ideas on some junk your friend might have that you could put to use to make a wind turbine. I will keep you informed on the rest of the project as it comes along. Find out more about wind turbines here.

 

My DIY wind turbine was a great little project and I wrote this to give you some ideas if you just look around you could find some real gem out there. May be at your house or your friends house. I also built one of those generator type wind turbines I will do an article on that soon. I have some references here Wind Turbine Facts

DIY Wind Generator

Is it really possible to build your own working DIY wind generator? If so, is it really practical? Is a homemade wind turbine comparable to commercially sold and installed systems? What about parts – are they easy to find? These are the questions I hear most from my readers.

People like the idea of reducing or even eliminating their monthly electric power bill, but they are skeptical about whether or not they could really build such a machine, or if they do build it, if it will actually work and have an impact on their monthly bill.

The simple answer to all of these questions is “yes”. The fact is, a 1000 watt do-it-yourself wind generator can be built by just about anyone for less than $ 200 – and that includes the cost of the instructional materials. The project can be completed in about 2 weekends and there are many easy sources for all of the necessary parts.

Still, many remain skeptical. After all, a wind turbine that you buy and have erected professionally can cost up to $ 10,000. How could an average homeowner do it for under $ 200? Let’s address this for a minute.

Obviously, the components are marked up-just like any other retail service you would purchase. You are paying for wages and labor for the company that manufactures the system as well as the one that sells and installs it. In reality, the biggest part of the expense is in what I like to call the “knowledge cost”. Most people wouldn’t even know where to begin a project like this.

Then again, if you are a die hard DIY enthusiast like me, you already know that almost anything which seems complicated on the surface is for us simply a matter of following the right directions.

Here’s the bottom line. This is a fun and rewarding project that anyone with a few basic tools and modest project skills can complete successfully. It all goes together quite simply and the parts are all easy to find and/or make. The process of generating electricity from the wind has been around for a very long time. It is time tested and simple. Get the right instructional materials and let the wind blow away your energy bills.

You can learn a lot more about DIY wind generators here. You’ll find all the instructional information and resources you need along with our full page reviews of the best guides available.