Bill's Blog

***UPDATE 11/07/2009 – Scroll down to bottom of page.

Over the past couple weeks, I have been reading about free – renewable energy. I was very much intrigued by the idea and became obsessed with learning as much about the fact as possible. I figured it would be a great weekend project to try to put together a homemade wind turbine.

The purpose of a Wind Turbine you ask? You most likely know that they make electricity, but did you know that you can use them to charge batteries, power a small device, or even lower your electric bill!!! Some small residential size wind turbines can put out up to 1000 WATTS in proper wind conditions. I have no expectations of achieving that much power from my homemade turbine, more likely it will produce in the 150 – 200 WATT range. Still, that is enough power to charge a 12v Deep Cycle Marine battery that can then be attached to a 750 WATT DC/AC inverter.

I did not include much information on the electrical side of the Wind Turbine on this post, as that is a sub project for this build.

I, of course, started by googling the subject and reading all the different ideas and plans out on the net. One site that I found that really got my attention was http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html. I recommend reading the contents of this site, as it has a lot of great information on it.

Step 1. - Acquire the needed hardware. There are two major components to a wind turbine. The propeller/blades and generator/motor. Of course the mounting and electrical system are key components as well. Here is a list of all the hardware purchased that I used to create my wind turbine.

PMA Motor (generator) – eBay
Blades/Hub – eBay
2ft x 4in Sched 40 PVC pipe – Home Depot
2ft x 2in Sched 40 PVC pipe – Home Depot
4in to 2in reducer – Home Depot
1in steel pipe flange – Home Depot
1ft steel pipe – Home Depot
6ft steel pipe – Home Depot
1in union – Home Depot
1in T steel pipe – Home Depot
Plexiglas – Home Depot

Step 2. - Build the main motor body. I decided to place my motor inside a piece of 4in PVC pipe to help protect it from the elements. The generator I purchased had a small lip on the front of it that was exactly 4in, so it worked out perfectly. To keep the main motor body snug inside of the PVC pipe, I used some pipe foam that I had laying around.

I was really pleased at how well the motor fit into the pipe. I was able to bolt the steel pipe flange to the bottom of the PVC pipe and cut a hole for the wires to run through.

Step 3. - Now for the tail section. I used a sheet of Plexiglass for the tail. I was able to use a reducer to transition from the 4in PVC pipe to a 2in PVC pipe. I cut a slit in the pipe and slid the Plexiglas in the middle of the 2in PVC pipe. I then used two bolts to hold the pipe and Plexiglas together.

Step 4. - Ok, now for the base. I needed to mount the unit on a base that would allow it to swivel, keeping the unit facing the wind. I used a 1in steel pipe union. I simply did not tighten the union all the way down. This allowed the base to swivel freely in the wind.

Step 5. – Put everything together and test it out! Unfortunately there was not hardly any wind on the day I put my wind turbine together. However, there was an occasional breeze. I was very pleased with how easily the blades begin to spin. Once I’m able to get the unit mounted properly, I expect it to produce a fair amount of energy. I will update this post with more photos, and hopefully a video of the wind turbine in action.

All Photos from the project…

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UPDATE 11/7/2009

Today was a fairly windy day, and was nice enough for me to get outside and mount the wind turbine to test it out. I was very please with the results. The turbine turned effortlessly in the wind and was easily putting out around 12v with only small gust of wind. As you can see from the photos below, I decided to pain my wind turbine a light shade of brown, so that it did not stand out quite as much.

Below are photos of the wind turbine in action… (the video is miss leading as it does not show how fast the blades are actually spinning, but trust me they are a blur).