Sunday, November 22, 2009

DIY Wind Generator For Cheap and Uninterrupted Power

DIY Wind Generator For Cheap and Uninterrupted Power

Wind is a type of solar energy. The irregular heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface plus rotation of the earth causes winds. This wind flow or wind energy when "harvested" by modern wind turbines can be used to generate electricity.

DIY Wind Generator: Principals behind the working

When wind moves over the turbine blades, it generates a lift. The lift makes the blades rotate and hence rotate the shaft. The rotating shaft moves a magnetic field in the generator which in turn creates electricity.

Wind turbine include following parts:

  • Gearbox - Gear box connects the low and high-speed shaft to each other
  • Blades - wind blowing over the blades causes them to lift and rotate
  • Hub - the sphere object used to mount the blades on
  • Generator - Generator creates at least 60-cycle AC electricity
  • Tower - Tower is the metal pole the turbine operates from. Tower is at least 100 feet off the ground so that the turbine can capture the least turbulent wind
  • Rotor hub - Rotor hub is the hub and hold the blades together
  • Yaw drive - Yaw drive is required only for an upwind turbine; it keeps the rotor facing the wind
  • Yaw motor - It provides power for the yaw drive
  • Nacelle - Nacelle sits on top of the tower and clings to the gear box
  • Low-speed shaft - It is turned by the rotor at a rate of 30 to 60 rotations every minute
  • High-speed shaft - It connects to the generator and drives it
  • Anemometer -Anemometer is used to measures the speed of the wind

DIY Wind Generator: How it works

Wind turbine generates electricity by spinning a generator. This generator is connected to the rotor, which is made up of three blades, which is then attached to a tower. To make the turbine face the wind, the rotor has a tail, which works as weather vain.

Our DIY Wind Generator is generally an electric motor. While the coils in the motor spins past the magnets, an electric current is produced. The power which is produced is stored in batteries, which are then connected to an inverter that changes the DC to AC, which can then be used to power your home.

DIY Wind Generator: Where to Place Them?

Preferably you should put your wind turbine where it's going to catch the maximum of wind. This implies that fewer the obstacles around your wind turbine the better it would be. The higher you can put your wind turbine the greater electrical output you will get.

Take care not to put wind generators right next to your house or under a tree. Try to find a place where the wind whips all the way through, and that's the place for your wind turbine.

DIY Wind Generator: Size of wind generator

As different Sizes of wind generator requires different Start speeds. So it is very important to consider the start speeds, which depends on the size of the wind generators. Larger wind generator starts at higher speeds in comparison to the smaller wind generator which requires lesser speed.

Wind generator generates electricity only when they spin. You should rather have two smaller output wind generators spinning than one larger one sitting stationary.

So opt on to wind energy which is inexhaustible, cheapest and eco-friendly renewable source of energy.

Ralph Somers, editor of DIY Wind Generator Forum.