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!

How-To-Make-A-Wind-Turbine

Learn how to make a wind turbine from recycled parts with little or no money.

Many ask if it can be done. Well yes it can be done. Many of the parts used in small scale wind turbines can be found in scrap yards or your local tips.

To make a DIY wind turbine that is capable of producing DC (Direct Current) then you require the following items.

1. PMDC Motor (Permanent Magnet Direct Current) 50 to 1,000 Watts and as high voltage as possible 90–140 are the best.


2. A Blocking Diode To Suit.


3. Some PVC pipe for the blades.


4. A Tail Fin.


5. Scaffolding Pole To Mount


6. Mounting brackets.


7. Some suitable cable


8. Lots of constant, non turbulent wind!

For a more detailed explanation of how to make a wind turbine then visit our DIY Wind Turbine page.

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.

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!

DIY-Renewable-Energy-Control-Panel

Well today I got my House control panel up and running.

I had some trouble getting both the digital ammeter and digital voltmeter working at the same time! I have asked a couple of people for advise and came to the conclusion that the problem was the 5VDC battery pack, when both meters where connected at the same time, the voltage from the wind machine was back feeding via the common neutral!

Problem solved with 2 x isolated battery packs...

More pictures of the setup on my homepage www.homebrewpower.co.uk


Andy Mahoney

Making-A-DIY-Wind-Turbine

Through the night!

Tonight and into the early hours of the morning I have been setting out the basic template for www.homebrewpower.co.uk Nothing too flashy, just simple to navigate and read.

Must get the wind generator painted tomorrow as long is it is not raining I am going to do it first thing.

Had a pretty lazy Sunday today, done more thinking than doing but it all counts.

Anyone out there is interested in a 36VDC Soneil battery charger, very professional and expensive! Give me a mail molesmail@gmail.com and I will consider selling it. I purchased it when I was looking into other voltage systems prior to deciding on 12VDC as my prime storage voltage.

I'll post some pictures of the wind generator once I have done tomorrow.....