Homemade Wind Turbine

As electricity costs go up, and the cost of renewable energy goes down, interest rises in generating one’s own electric power, especially through renewable energy. Of all the types of renewable energy on the market at this time, the two most popular are solar power and wind power.

Some places are better for generating wind power than others, of course. The best places for wind power are those with strong, steady
winds well above ground level. Some areas that are great for wind power are not so ideal for solar power and vice-versa.

The cost of a wind turbine system includes the cost of the turbine itself and its housing, the price of auxiliary equipment like a grid interface or battery system, and the labor to install it. The last factor can be cut out by doing the installation yourself.

The other major saving potential lies in the turbine itself. If you buy a wind turbine fully assembled, you’re looking at a cost of approximately $2 per watt, or perhaps a little more.

The size of a home energy system should depend on what you want it for and the power consumption of the home, but most homes require about two kilowatts of generating capacity, which would mean $4,000 or more worth of wind turbines if they are bought from a retailer.

Obviously, then, it is possible to save considerably on the cost of a wind energy system by building one’s own turbines.

Wind Turbine Components

Wind generators for home use include the following parts: blades (like an airplane’s propeller, except operating in reverse) that catch the wind and turn a shaft; a mounting with a weather-vane tail that keeps the blades turned into the wind; a tower that lifts the whole business up to where the wind is blowing and on which the housing can rotate; and a generator.

The generator is attached to the housing, right behind the blades, rather than at the bottom of the tower. The wind turns the blades, the blade turns the housing shaft, the shaft spins the generator and that generates electricity. The electricity is then conducted to where the rest of your system will put it to work.

The easiest way to make the wind turbine’s blades is to cut them from sections of six-inch ABS piping. The piping is already curved, which lends itself to being cut into the proper shape.

Some people do make the blades from wood. If you really enjoy whittling, by all means do that; these will be very sturdy, long-lasting blades. However, the ABS version is a lot easier and works fine. Each length of pipe can be cut into four blades, three of which are required for each turbine, so that three lengths of pipe can provide enough material for four turbines.

Each piece of plastic is attached by a stub to a hub at the end of the shaft. The generator can be an actual generator made for the purpose of generating electricity, or you can rig up a permanent magnet motor to do the same thing.

In fact, an electric motor and an electric generator are essentially the same piece of equipment, the difference being which direction the flow of electricity and work go. So you can use a motor to make a generator, but it’s important to find a motor with a low rpm to high voltage rating.

A motor that converts low voltage to high rpms may be highly efficient as a motor, but it won’t do for converting the relatively low rpms of a wind turbine into electric current.

To make a wind turbine, in addition to these pieces of equipment, you will need some experience and proper tools for mechanical maintenance, electrician work, and likely concrete-pouring to create the tower base.

Most of the parts are easy enough to come by, though, on eBay or through other on-line outlets, and the design is not terribly complicated in itself.