How To Build a Wind Turbine At Home?
This article is to give one a basic outline on how to build a wind turbine at home.
There are some very basic parts and some more difficult ones involved in such a system.
The fairly easy parts are the blades, the tower and the motor. Some people will endeavor to make their own DC motor, but for the sake of sanity, and because it won’t cost you any less to just buy a used one, we’ll stick to purchasing.
Jump on EBay or Craigslist or whatever place to buy used things catches your eye that day. Maybe your uncle owns a scrap yard or maybe you are a DC motor dealer yourself. Either way, obtain a permanent magnet DC motor that is rated for high DC voltage/high current at a low rpm. You want it to produce at least 12 volts DC at an rpm attainable by your wind turbine, say 300 rpm. You should be able to find one for less than $100 if you shop around.
If you still want to know how to build a wind turbine at home, head on over to your local home supplies store. You’re going to want to pick up a 24 inch long piece of 6-inch PVC pipe, a piece of sheet metal about 12 inches by 10 inches, and a 3 foot piece of 2×4 wood. Keep it cheap! Also, grab a piece of PVC big enough to protect your motor and some clamps to strap it to the 2×4. Any sort of housing will do, maybe even an old mailbox!
Attach the housed motor, shaft end out/wires in, to one end of the 2×4. Screw your piece of sheet metal to the other end. This will act as a tail to keep your turbine facing into the wind.
Now for the blades. This is a bit tricky. Are you sure you’re still curious how to build a wind turbine at home? Jeez, you can’t be stopped!
Cut your 2 ft PVC pipe lengthwise into quarters. Take a 5cm by 5cm rectangle out of one end (this is the end you will bolt to your turbine), and then taper down from the edge of the missing rectangle (5cm in) to the other end, ending your taper one inch above the end corner instead of making a point.
Do this to each quarter of PVC and you have four blades.
Find a hub that will fit your motor’s shaft at a scrap yard, or just take a decent hub of aluminum to a shop and have the desired hole cut. Now drill holes and fit your blades to the hub. Fit the hub to the motor shaft and secure it.
You have now gone almost completely from not knowing how to build a wind turbine at home to being quite capable.
Drill a hole in your 2×4 where your tower/mount will fit. Insure that it is at a point of good balance for the turbine assembly, probably closer to the motor. This is where you will run the wires down to your electrical controller and power system. Whether you have batteries and are off the grid, want to attach your rig to a 100 ft tower, or just mount it on a pipe to the top of your residence, you now know how to build a wind turbine at home. The next step is up to you!
Related posts:
What do you have to say?
