How-To-Build-A-Wind-Turbine-On-The-Cheap

Learn how to build a low voltage DC wind turbine and what is required.

Introduction

I have read a countless books, mails, how to guides and the rest on how to build a wind turbine and none of the so called guides actually help, hence I will show you what is required, step by step.

The guides where OK but did not really get to the point, which was in simple terms what do I need to obtain to make one!

As you can see from the picture above, my wind machine is in motion and it is almost all of the time, so long as there is a breeze it is making free power to supply my battery bank, all day and all night!

My wind machine specifications

6 x Carbon fibre reinforced plastic blades 3ft long
1 x Circular steel hub 3mm steel (Home made) 150mm Diameter
1 x 10Ft standard steel scaffolding pole
1 x 4ft Angle Iron type steel for tail
1 x Custom mounting swivel bracket (Home made)
12 x M6 roofing bolts, nuts and washers for blade mounting
1 x Brooke Crompton 90VDC 3000W permanent magnet DC motor (PMDC)
1 x Length of 16MM 2 core copper twin wire for power transfer
1 x 600MM x 300MM x 5MM Perspex clear Perspex for tail fin
1 x Lucas blocking Diode to prevent batteries spinning wind machine!

A down to earth explanation of how it works!

The reason I chose this particular motor is because when you spin a PMDC motor then it produces DC, DC is what charges SLA batteries so PMDC motors are the ideal solution for a Homebrew wind machine, these can be found world over in surplus shops, look out for them!
So if we spin up a PMDC motor then we produce a DC voltage, the faster you spin it the higher the voltage will get.

When you connect a PMDC motor to a battery then the motor spins, this is using power from the battery bank to produce motive force, now if you where to manually spin the motor at the same speed as it was trying to go connected to the battery then effectively the motor would be producing the same voltage the battery was supplying, so the battery would not be under any load i.e. 12V battery connected in parallel to a PMDC motor spinning at a rate to produce 12VDC produces an equal and opposite electric force.

However, once you begin to spin the motor faster than the battery bank voltage then you are effectively charging the battery bank i.e. 12VDC battery bank connected in parallel to a PMDC motor producing 13.5VDC is charging the bank or in simple terms putting power into your batteries!

Now we could go into overcharging, regulating, desulfating, trickle charging and more but for now we have the basics in place and we are producing power and storing it in a chemical form (Batteries) for later re use.

More information

Blocking Diode
Purpose is to allow the produced voltage to flow from the wind machine (PMDC Motor) into the batteries but not the other way, so in wind the batteries will charge but in no wind the wind machine will NOT rotate.

SLA Batteries
Purpose is to store electricity in a chemical form

PMDC Motor
Purpose is to effectively use it in reverse to induce a current flow into the motor windings from magnets and provide us with a useful charging current at the right voltage.

16MM Copper cable
Purpose is transport our voltage from the wind machine to the battery bank with the least amount of electrical resistance, copper is a good electrical conductor but of course it has a resistive value, the larger the cross sectional area of the copper conductor, the less resistance we have. Big really is better when it comes to your cabling!

Generate-Electricity-From-Trees

Green Electricity Using Trees

Here is a simple concept I have wanted to try out for many years.

1. Tie a rope to the tunk of a tree 2/3rds the way up.

2. Connect the end of the rope to a ratchet driven generator (Permenant Magnet)

3. Wait for the wind to get up.

4. Create free power!

Simple idea to produce electricity and could be scaled up to generate massive amounts of power from the swaying of trees in the wind

Electricity-Free-Fridge-2-Pot-Fridge

Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!

This is incredible idea is an extension of the pottery water cooling vessels used though the millennia.

Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!

This is Mohammed Bah Abba's Pot-in-pot invention. In northern Nigeria, where Mohammed is from, over 90% of the villages have no electricity. His invention, which he won a Rolex Award for (and $100,000), is a refrigerator than runs without electricity.
Here's how it works. You take a smaller pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold. It's a natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator.

So, instead of perishable foods rotting after only three days, they can last up to three weeks. Obviously, this has the potential to change their lives. And it already has -- there are more girls attending school, for example, as their families no longer need them to sell food in the market.

Babington-Burner-Balls-For-Sale-UK

Our Babington Burner Balls are selling out as fast as we can manufacturer them!

The cold weather is setting in now and more and more people are looking into cleaner and cheaper ways to heat their homes. The Babington Burner Nozzles are the perfect solution to burning animal and vegetable fats easily.

The Babington Nozzle works on the same principle when a whale surfaces to breathe. It is not the whale spraying out water from it's blow hole but air blown out under high pressure and the water running over the whales skin creates surface tension (Thin film of sea water) when the air passes through the film of water the water is atomized.

We are proud to announce that our Babington Nozzles are now in full production and payments should be made to shop@homebrewpower.co.uk via Paypal for £39.99 - Free P&P within the UK and + £5.00 worldwide shipping.
We guarantee to send each individual Nozzle out within 5 working days of receipt of money.

Our Babington Burner Nozzles have the following specification:

Ball Diameter
50MM

Ball Material
1MM Thick Spun Brass

Air Connection
15MM Copper Compression Gland

Brazing Metal
55% Sure Silver M25T Rods 680 Degrees Celsius Melting Point

Atomizing Hole Specification
0.0135" Diameter Hole - Pillar Drilled @ 20,000 RPM

Air Pressure Suggested Rating
15 - 80 PSI - Set To Suit Individual Application

Finish
Acid Dipped, Hand Wired & Polished

Notes On Finish
Oxidization will occur when exposed to air - This does not affect performance
Construction

Hand Made In The United Kingdom

Babington Ball Usage
Clean Atomization of combustible oils & fats - Various Heating Projects


Chug from Vegetable Oil Diesel has added a link to my Babington Burner Nozzles, you can read about it HERE
Here is a really informative website for people wishing to know more about the Babington's

Another link to a really powerful Babington burner setup HERE

Homebrewpower Website is dedicated to information and news on WVO, WMO, CHAP, CHP, Solar Power, Solar Panels, Solar Hot Water, Wind Generators, Wind Machines, Solar PV, Alternative Energy, Energy Saving, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Neutral, Sustainable Living plus much more.

For more on Renewable Energy please visit
http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk

EMAIL Questions

Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

In larger battery banks, where you have multiple series – parallel strings of batteries, you run the risk of some batteries getting more “depleated” than others, and this degrades your pack performance.

A simple way to reduce this effect is to cross-tie your batteries. This is a not often used but important method of getting extreme life out of your expensive batteries.

See above diagram for details of Cross-Tied-Battery-Bank

The dotted lines show the cross tie cables. It’s also important to make sure your cables are large enough so that you are not losing power as heat through resistance.

If you have caps on your batteries, not maintenance free, check the water levels once a month and top them off during charging. Do not overflow.

Grid-Tie-Inverter-G83-Certification

What is a Grid-Tie Inverter?

A Grid-Tie inverter converts DC (Direct Current) from renewable energy sources such as Solar PV and Wind Turbines into 230 VAC (Volts Alternating Current). What is clever about a Grid-Tie inverter is that it synchronizes with the national grid's electricity supply frequency and back feeds the grid. This pushes electrical current back into the national grid and if the power your inverter is supplying is in excess of the power you are consuming then it will effectively run your electric meter backwards.

The clever part of a Grid-Tie inverter is that if the national grid supply is shut off then the inverter instantly senses this and ceases to create power. If this did not happen then the grid would still be energised by your Grid-Tie inverter (Extremely dangerous to a linesman / electrician working on a supposedly dead grid!)

In the UK a Grid-Tie inverter has to have a G83 Certificate to allow it to interconnect to the national grid system.

With recent advances in technology a Grid-Tie inverter can be purchased for around £100 GBP for a 200W version which will allow you to reduce your electricity bills. They can be added in parallel over time to allow for expansion. You can use them with many sources of renewable energy, some examples are: A Wind Turbine, Solar Panels, Micro-Hydro Turbines or even a Diesel Generator running on WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil)

The ever popular Windsave house mounted wind turbine uses the same setup described above to back feed the national grid system.

Solar-Panels-For-Shed-Summerhouse-How-To-Calculate

Renewable energy in your shed / workshop / out house / barn / stables or similar.

Below is what you need to know!

How much power do you require?

What you have to look at is how much power you want and for how long per day. Start off by listing everything electrical you are going to be using in your shed, for example:
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb
1 x 10 Watt Radio

Next thing to do is work out how long per day you are going to be in your shed per day, also whilst you are in your shed, how long are you going to be using each of your electrical appliances. Example below:

2 Hours per day in my shed on average. (Total time per day in Shed)
1 x 600 Watt Power Drill for 1 hour per day.
1 x 60 Watt Light Bulb for 2 Hours per day.
1 x 10 Watt Radio for 2 Hours per day.

Now for the simple math behind it all!

Drill - 600 Watts x 1 Hour = 600 Watt Hours or 0.6 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Light - 60 Watts x 2 hours = 120 Watt Hours or 0.06 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Radio - 10 Watts x 2 Hours = 20 Watt Hours or 0.02 KWA (Kilo Watt Hour)
Total use per day = (0.6 + 0.06 + 0.02) = 0.68 KWA Per Day

My rule of thumb is to double your estimate therefore 0.68 KWA x 2 = 1.36KWA

Calculating your Solar Panel size.

Lets assume that on average a typical location in the UK will receive 5 hours of bright sunshine per day (Wishful thinking I know!) Notice we are working with 2 known quantities now 1. Power (Watts) and time (Hours) this enables us to work out what we need easily.
Take our total load (1.36 KWA) and divide it by sunlight hours (5) = (0.272) This is the figure in KW that are panel will need to provide for 5 hours to enable us to place enough power in our battery bank to let us use our electrical equipment for designated time above (2 Hours per day) 0.272 KWA can be converted into Watts by x 1000 so: 0.272 KWA x 1000 = 272 Watts or a 272 Watt Solar Panel Is required!

Calculating your battery bank size.

We know from our calculation's above that our electricity demand is 1.36 KWA worst case, so our battery bank is required to put out a minimum of 1.36 KW for 1 hour (KWH) If we are going to use a 12 V (Volt) battery bank then we can start looking at the figures:
We know we need 1360 Watts for one hour.
We know we have 12 Volts DC from the battery bank.
Ohms Law states that P (Watts) = I (Current In Amps) x V (Volts)
So we have 1360 (Watts) = ? (I - Current In Amps) x 12 (Volts)
So without boring you too much if we divide 1360 by 12 We get 113.33 Amps!

Batteries are measured in AH (Ampere Hours) But note that the specified AH on a battery is normally measured over a 10 hour period so the drain on a measured AH is 1/10th over 10 hours!
Lets assume for our rule of thumb and to be sure we are going to double our needs so we require 113.33 * 2 = 226.66 AH (Amp Hour) at 12VDC. Easy!

Calculating Your Inverter Size.

(The thing that takes battery DC and makes domestic AC for use with household electrical equipment!
We know that we are going to be using a 12V DC battery bank to power the inverter so we know we require a 12V DC inverter!
We know we require a Max of 1360 Watts or 1.36 KW of power and lets factor in 100% to allow for losses and inefficiencies, this gives us 2.72KW.
So We would choose a 12V DC inverter at 3000 Watts or 3 KW.

Choosing a Solar Charge Controller.

There are many different kinds of solar charge controllers available in the current market, PWM controllers (Pulse Width Modulation Controllers) Electronic controllers and MPPT (Maximum Point Power Tracker) to keep this section simple you are best sending me an EMAIL with info on what you are wanting to do and I will suggest the best solution for your needs.

If you want more information please do EMAIL me and I will provide you with a free quotation for either supply only or supply & installation.

DIY-Wind-Turbine-Blades

How to make cheap, easy to build, PVC Wind Turbine Blades.

Most Renewable Energy enthusiasts have a good grasp of how to use a PMDC Motor as a generator to make a DIY Wind Turbine but the sticking point is usually how to make a set of good wind turbine blades.

Below we will show you how it is done with cheap, accessible materials, for little or nothing.
PVC Wind Turbine Blades are becoming more and more common for homemade wind turbines. The raw material, PVC pipe, is easy to find, cheap, easy to work with, and performance is more than acceptable for a small basic wind turbine generator.

PVC wind turbine blades can simply be bolted onto a Permanent Magnet DC Alternator or suitable Stepper Motor and you already have a basic wind turbine.One of the most difficult parts of making your own wind turbine is producing turbine blades. Wind turbine blades go through enormous stresses and must be made to quite exacting tolerances if they are to balance and not send destructive vibrations through your wind turbine resulting in a catastrophic failure of your wind turbine.

In strong winds the flexibility of the PVC blades is useful as it takes some of the energy out of the wind preventing the wind turbine generator from excessive spinning (Overrun) and being damaged. Obviously you need to take care to ensure that the blades cannot bend back far enough to hit the wind turbine mast.Individual wind turbine blades can be cut out of the pipe using a jigsaw or hacksaw blade, or a one piece pair of blades can be made.

Below is an example design of a one piece (two blade) PVC wind turbine propeller.This design may be adapted with more turbine blades to fit a 3 blade or even 5 blade turbine configuration setup.

How-To-Make-Biodiesel-Bio-Diesel

Learn more about how to make Biodiesel.

I have hand picked some information on the processes and techniques of producing your own 'Green Diesel Biodiesel'


Make Biodiesel At Home Article

How to make Biodiesel at Home

Before we go into the details of producing small amounts of Biodiesel at
home we must first stress the importance of safety. The chemicals used
in the process of making Biodiesel are dangerous and if used without
taking the correct measures to protect yourself can cause serious injury
or even death. Please, please be careful and make sure you are in a well
ventilated area with access to running clean water.

MATERIALS REQUIRED

1 litre of Vegetable Oil- new (SVO) or used (WVO)

NaOH (lye / caustic soda), at least 6g. This is often used as a drain
cleaner and can often be found in your local supermarket.

Methanol (at least 250ml).Used as an Antifreeze, can often we found in
Motor supplie shops

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED

1 to 2 litre Plastic Bottle - I often use an empty Vegetable oil
container

A measuring cup

A scale

OR

A teaspoon

A container to mix the methanol and NaOH (methoxide) Not plastic. Heavy
duty glass is recommended

A Funnel

OIL PREPERATION

If you are using waste oil (WVO), take one litre and heat to at least
120 deg c to remove all water. If water is present the oil will spit and
pop, when the water is removed this will stop. Be careful - this can be
quite a violent process. Then Allow to cool

If you are using new vegetable oil it should not contain any water so
just heat to 55deg c when you are ready.

MAKING THE METHOXIDE

WARNING Making Methoxide is dangerous. Methoxide is highly toxic. For
this reason, the safety of the design of equipment and workspace should
be carefully considered before use, and protective clothing and a
respirator should be worn during handling. Only as much as is intended
to be used immediately should be created.

'YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED'

Take 250ml of Methanol and add 4g (about half a Teaspoon) NaOH.

If you are using Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) just use 6g- 7g NaOH (about 1
level teaspoon)

Methanol and NaOH do not easily mix. Start with the methanol at body
temp (not warm). NOTE that as you mix the two chemicals the temperature
will increase. Do not panic... is normal. You will need to ensure all
the NaOH is disolved in the Methanol, this could take over ten minutes.

After **ALL** the NaOH has disolved you may need to top up with fresh
methanol as the process may cause some evaporation

MAKING THE BIODIESEL... the final step

When the Oil's temperature has dropped to 60 deg c or less, using your
funnel, pour the litre of oil into you dry plastic container. Take your
methanol/NaOH (Methoxide) and add to the oil. Ensure the container is
sealed securely then shake vigerously for about 15 seconds.

Leave your Biodiesel to "set". You will notice that after about 10
minutes the glycerine or "soap" will settle from your mixture. It will
take a day or two for the Biodiesel to completely separate. You will see
two defined layers - the Biodiesel and the glycerine.Typically the
glycerine layer is about the same or a bit more than the amount of
methanol used.

Now remove the Biodiesel from the container leaving the glycerine and
you are ready for the washing...

WASHING YOUR BIODIESEL

Although the glycerine or "soap" and water has separated from your
Biodiesel - it will still need washing. Please do not violently shake
your unwashed Biodiesel as it will form an emulsion that may take days
or evn weeks to fully seperate. The gentle approach is whats needed.

Wash One:

Pour 1 litre biodiesel into a a clean and dry plaric bottle.

Gently pour in 500ml water (body temp).

Replace bottle top.

Now GENTLY rotate the bottle end for end for about 30 seconds.

After 30 seconds place bottle upright.

Only If you have been GENTLE the water and Biodiesel will seperate
immediatly.

You will notice the water is not clear.

Remove top and using your thumb as a stopper, turn bottle upsidedown and
drain the water using your thumb as a valve.

You have finished wash one.

Wash Two:

Pour in another 500ml water and repeat wash one, except rotate GENTLY
for about 1 minute.

Drain as in wash one.

You have finished wash 2.

Wash Three:

Again pour in another 500ml water and GENTLY GENTLY GENTLY shake bottle
for a minute or so.

When water and biodiesel seperate discard water in same fashion as
before.

Wash Four:

Another 500ml water and a bit more aggitation for about 1 min.

After seperation of water and biodiesel Drain as above.

Wash Five:

You should now be able shake fairly vigerously.

If the washing has been completed sucessfully the water should be almost
clear. Be aware that in your later washes you should be able to shake
mre violently although it will take considerably longer to seperate
because the water forms tiny bubles in the biodiesel that take time to
settle out.

Your washed biodiesel will be VERY CLOUDY and much lighter in colour
than the unwashed biodiesel a. After a day or 2 settling and drying it
will clear

Your Biodiesel is now ready for use!

DIY-Wind-Turbine

Basics!I have read countless books, mails, how to guides and the rest on how to build a wind machine, in the end I ditched them all and did it my way!The guides where OK but did not really get to the point, which was insimple terms what do I need to obtain to make one!
My chimney mounted wind machine!

As you can see from the picture above, my wind machine is in motion and it is almost all of the time, so long as there is a breeze it is making free power to supply my battery bank, all day and all night!My wind machine specifications6 x Carbon fibre reinforced plastic blades 3ft long1 x Circular steel hub 3mm steel (Homemade) 150mm Diameter1 x 10Ft standard steel scaffolding pole1 x 4ft Angle Iron type steel for tail1 x Custom mounting swivel bracket (Homemade)12 x M6 roofing bolts, nuts and washers for blade mounting1 x Brooke Crompton 90VDC 3000W permanent magnet DC motor 1 x Length of 16MM 2 core copper twin wire for power transfer1 x 600MM x 300MM x 5MM Perspex clear Perspex for tail fin1 x Lucas blocking Diode to prevent batteries spinning wind machine!

A down to earth explanation of how it works!The reason I chose this particular motor is because when you spin a PMDCmotor then it produces DC, DC is what charges SLA batteries so PMDC motors are the ideal solution for a Homebrew wind machine, these can befound world over in surplus shops, look out for them!So if we spin up a PMDC motor then we produce a DC voltage, the fasteryou spin it the higher the voltage will get.

When you connect a PMDC motor to a battery then the motor spins, this is using power from the battery bank to produce motive force, now if youwhere to manually spin the motor at the same speed as it was trying to goconnected to the battery then effectively the motor would be producing thesame voltage the battery was supplying, so the battery would not be underany load i.e. 12V battery connected in parallel to a PMDC motor spinning ata rate to produce 12VDC produces an equal and opposite electric force.However, once you begin to spin the motor faster than the battery bank voltage then you are effectively charging the battery bank i.e. 12VDCbattery bank connected in parallel to a PMDC motor producing 13.5VDC ischarging the bank or in simple terms putting power into your batteries!

Now we could go into overcharging, regulating, desulfating, trickle charging and more but for now we have the basics in place and we are producingpower and storing it in a chemical form (Batteries) for later re use.

More information:

Blocking Diode Purpose is to allow the produced voltage to flow from the wind machine(PMDC Motor) into the batteries but not the other way, so in wind thebatteries will charge but in no wind the wind machine will NOT rotate.

SLA Batteries Purpose is to store electricity in a chemical form

PMDC Motor Purpose is to effectively use it in reverse to induce a current flow into the motor windings from magnets and provide us with a useful charging currentat the right voltage.

16MM Copper cable Purpose is transport our voltage from the wind machine to the battery bankwith the least amount of electrical resistance, copper is a good electrical conductor but of course it has a resistive value, the larger the cross sectionalarea of the copper conductor, the less resistance we have.

Big really is better when it comes to your cabling!

Solar-Cookers

Solar Cookers or Solar Ovens are very simple, easy to build cookers that use the power of the sun to cook food.

Open fire wood cooking is a huge problem in developing and poor countries. Cooking in a poorly ventilated kitchen on an open fire can cause respiratory diseases and premature death over time. Many poor countries are in hot climates where the population receive many hours of bright daylight for much of the day. Solar cookers are a simple, clean, environmentally responsible way of cooking hot vegetables and meat.

The principle is simple enough. Create a box or enclosure with an open top that is well insulated and has a reflective / mirrored finish on the inside of the container. Inside you place a blackened / very dark, non reflective pot with your raw vegetables and meat in and finally place a clear (Glass / PVC) lid on the top and pop the box in bright sunshine until your food is thoroughly cooked.

More reflective shutters can be added to direct more sunshine into your solar cooker for better results. The preferred material for the reflected surface is Mylar or Melinex but can be substituted with tinfoil, turkey foil or polished stainless steel.

Notes on Mylar: DIY Solar Cooker enthusiasts usually utilize Mylar as it claims a 65% reflectivity.

Something I have recently come across is Diamond Reflective Mylar that claims a 99% reflectivity, how true this claim is I have no data on but I am going to be building and documenting 2 solar cookers and comparing the efficiencies to see what benefit there is using Diamond Mylar over traditional Reflective Mylar.

External Website Links


http://solarcookers.org/
Read and purchase Solar Cookers / Solar Ovens

http://solarcookers.org/basics/how.html
The basics on Solar Cookers / Solar Ovens

http://solarcooking.org/
Large website for Solar Cooking

http://www.sunspot.org.uk/ed/
Fresnel Lense Solar Cooking

http://journeytoforever.org/sc.html
Journey To Forever's slant on Solar Cooking

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm
Build It Solar provides some interesting information

Welcome-To-Renewable-Energy-UK-www.homebrewpower.co.uk

HomeBrewPower Project Mission Statement:

HomeBrewPower is dedicated to providing interesting projects, reviews and case studies for Renewable Energy Projects. Many renewable energy projects can be applied to homes and businesses. Wind Turbines are a great DIY project to start off with for producing some of your electrical needs. Of course some may want to learn about Solar Hot Water, Micro-Hydro turbines, Geothermal Heating, Energy Saving or running your Diesel Car on 'Carbon Neutral' Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) We are constantly updating each and every page and adding new ones all the time here at HomeBrewPower, check back regularly to see what we are working on.

HomeBrewPower Installation Services:

Specializing in the design & installation of UK Off-Grid power for Remote homes, buildings & boats. Systems include Solar PV, Wind Turbines, Micro CHP & Solar Hot Water. 12, 24 36, 48 & 230V Systems tailored to suit the clients power requirements.

We like to work on bespoke / one off domestic living spaces such as: Woodland Low Impact Houses, Eco Houses, Boat Homes, Isolated Properties, Custom Built Homes, Yurts, Dome Houses, Straw Bail Homes, Reclaimed Building Material Homes. Anything that requires all the creature comforts of a traditionally built home but without the restraints of Grid-Tied Electricity.

If you are looking for either a complete package or just a helping hand. design or advice

then please contact us by clicking here

Our areas of expertise are listed below

Solar PV Installations
Wind Turbine Installations
12VDC Installations
Micro-Hydro Installations
230VAC Off Grid Installations
Energy Saving Lighting Installations
Carbon Neutral Energy Points (Small solar setup to provide power to 1 of more sockets at home)
Eco Product Reviews
Eco Evaluations

Lister-CS-Generating-Shed-Video

In my humble opinion, one of the best things to come out of England in the last century was the fine Stationary Engines produced by R A Lister. In particular the Lister CS range of single cylinder Diesel units. They have been known to run for thousands of hours without any maintenance other than topping up the fuel!

Below is a fine example of a well restored Lister running what appears to be a ST Type Generating Head, producing 230VAC.

Here at HBP we have 3 Lister CS Engines, 2 x 6/1 units and a 3/1.

Enjoy the video!

Solar-Hot-Water-Beer-Bottle-Solar-Hot-Water-Heater

Beer + Sunshine = Hot Water
A Chinese farmer has made his own solar-powered water heater out of beer bottles and hosepipes.
“I invented this for my mother. I wanted her to shower comfortably,” says Ma Yanjun, of Qiqiao village, Shaanxi province.
Ma’s invention features 66 beer bottles attached to a board. The bottles are connected to each other so that water flows through them.

Kind regards


Andy Mahoney
Home Brew Power
Off-Grid Power Installer - UK)
www.homebrewpower.co.uk
Mobile: 07504 50 50 89
HomeBrewPower Yahoo Group On Carbon Neutral Power
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homebrewpower/

Off-Grid-Solar-PV-Project-UK

Project;Wood Forge Off-Grid Power To Remote Forge.

Home Brew Power comes across many bespoke projects in the alternative / renewable power generation business. Odian Wood Forge in Kent is a fine example worth a mention.

We are providing a solar setup to supply the forge with single phase 230VAC power to feed the extractor fan and forge fan motor. the Solar PV panel will charge a bank of SLA batteries via a charge controller which in turn powers a PSW (Pure Sine Wave) inverter. The system has been designed to allow additional sources of power to be added, if required, in the future.

The forge will be in use approximately 4 hours per week. The remainder of the time the autonomous RE (Renewable Energy) system will replenish the batteries.

DIY-Solar-Hot-Water-Heater

DIY Solar Hot Water Heater - Doug Kalmer

Monday, 16 January 2006

This is an article written by Doug Kalmer about his DIY solar hot water heater:

"This Photovoltaic (PV) pumped hot water system has been working well, with no maintenance, for years on my house.I am now past the point where the money I invested in the solar water heater equals the money I would have spent on electricity to heat water. Most of the year, we have more free hot water than we can use. Consider the fact that in the next five to eight years you are going to pay the cost of a solar water heater,whether you buy one or not. I kept costs down by doing all of the work myself, and buying a used collector panel, but still created a long lasting, efficient, high quality system.

I started by looking in the yellow pages under "Solar", and found a plumber in the nearest large city, with spare collector panels. I bought a 3`x13` aluminum collector with copper tubing and tempered glass cover for $100, guaranteed not to leak, but I tested it first, anyway. Assuming the collector needs to be freeze protected, a non-toxic antifreeze, usually propylene glycol, is pumped through the collector, to the heat exchanger tank. The simplest way to circulate the anti-freeze is with a 12 volt pump directly wired to a small photovoltaic panel, this eliminates the need for controls of any kind. When the sun is heating water, the pump runs. I bought a matched set of a 10 watt 12 volt solar electric panel, and bronze magnetic drive circulation pump from Zomeworks. The most expensive single component was the Heat Exchanger (HE) tank. I looked at what is available, and most are built around the ordinary glass lined steel water heaters, which have a limited lifetime. For less money, I had a stainless steel tank built with 50' of 3/4" soft copper tubing in the lower half as my Heat Exchanger. It holds 85 gallons, and acts as a preheater for the regular electric water heater. Non ferrous stainless will outlast me.

Storage Tank containing Heat Exchanger

Proper sizing of the system is important. Plan on at least 20 gallons of storage tank size for each of the first four people and 15 gallons for each additional person per day. You should have at least 40 square feet of collector area for the first two family members, then add 12-14 square feet for each additional family member. Keep tank size at a ratio of 1.5 gallons or more to one square foot of collector area to prevent overheating.

Besides the pump, panel, HE tank, there are a few other parts to the system:

1) A pressure gauge (0-60psi) will let you know the closed loop has not lost it`s charge of antifreeze.

2) A solar expansion tank allows the solar solution to expand as it heats.

3) A check valve above the tank to prevent thermosyphoning at night.

4) A pressure relief valve.

5) A hose valve at the lowest point for filling and draining. It really is a reliable, efficient system, we do no maintenance to it. I can read water temperature going in to my electric water heater, and most of the year, it is above the 120* setting of the thermostat.

It's your choice-you can invest in solar now, demonstrating your support for sustainable energy, and getting free hot water after your payback period, or continue to pay ever-increasing energy bills, which indicates your support for maintaining the status quo."

Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 January 2006 )

275A-PMA-Alternator-Generator-For-Sale-In-The-UK!

I stumbled on this auction tonight HERE a 275A (Amperes) PMA Alternator!

This would be perfect for using coupled to a Lister CS Engine Fuelled on WVO

I will be contacting the seller to see how many of these he can get hold of

Andy

DIY-Protos-Stove-Clone

Homebrew Protos Plant Oil Stove

After reading with interest all about the Protos plant oil stove and seeing the potential in the burner I took it upon myself to recreate the burner part of the unit.

Some things I changed for simplicity are on the vapourising element I only have one feed from the oil supply, the other end I have capped. My test unit is constructed from Micro bore 8mm copper tube, unsuitable for long term use but easy from a fabrication point of view.

I managed to create a 0.5mm hole by reaming out the tube with a drill bit and then pecking through the final copper tube with a sharp nail.

I placed my Protos burner into my Turk burner unit previously fabricated and connected it to my oil supply via a peristaltic pump at 0.5L per hour delivery.

Igniting was achieved with the help of a propane blow torch, this easily got the unit up to working temperature.

My Protos clone is in (Alpha) testing right now and I will bring some more details on how it performs in due course.

Homebrewpower.co.uk has recently undergone extensive redesign.
I hope the new layouts are much easier to navigate.
Please note the navigation links to the far right hand side of the website.
The Picture Album is now fully functional with ALL my work and progress so far, take a look and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

If you have surfed in on www.homebrewpower.co.uk then feel free to bookmark the website. The concept of homebrewpower is to provide you with an up to date portal rich in projects, files, info & pictures all related to creating sustainable, eco, green, carbon neutral heating & power in your backyard!

Main topics covered are as follows:

Micro CHP / CHAP creation & installation
Green power generation
Eco power generation
Energy saving practices, tips, hints & projects
IMAG Generators 1PH & 3PH
Alternative energy
Green Energy
Latest Eco projects and builds from around the world
Eco building products
Solar Panels Photovoltiacs
Solar heating


Enjoy & Have a good look around.

Andy Mahoney
Homebrewpower

Solar-Hot-Water-Panels-DIY-Installation

Solar Water Project - My First Attempt

When I came across the idea of heating water with the sun I set out to purchase some Solar Water Heating Panels. As everything I do here on Homebrewpower is funded from the items I sell (Look at the For Sale Link to the right) then of course I could not afford to purchase new, nor would I have wanted to. I have a desire to see how things work for myself and never rest until I have my head around a project.

I purchased a couple of old solar collectors from www.ebay.co.uk for I seem to remember £100.00 for the pair. They were in a poor state and needed stripping and a little bit of homebrew style reconditioning to get them to work

The picture you see here is nothing more than a mock up at the bottom of my back garden to prove the technology would actually work!

They did but nothing like the solar evacuated tubes you can get now. I will post some info on them in the near future as I want to cover them for every ones benefit.

Andy M