Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wind Generator Plans - DIY

Wind Generator Plans - DIY

With more of us realizing that energy prices are headed nowhere but up we've decided to take measures to reduce our energy bill. The problem is that renewable energy still costs an arm, leg, and your spleen to get. That's why we decided to build our own renewable energy system starting with a wind generator. We figured that would be the most cost effective way to generator a lot of electricity.

The problem was we needed some wind generator plans. The first plans that we bought seemed to be by a guy that wanted to prove that he was smarter than us. We couldn't understand a single thing he was talking about.

The next couple sets of plans that we bought were too simplistic to be of any real use. That's when we decided that we should develop our own wind generator plans to help the average person build a wind generator.

The problem, according to many people is that it seems like such a complicated project. I mean, your putting up a wind generator that you built yourself. All of those parts have to come together and it has to work. That's what seems daunting.

It's a lot easier if you think of a generator somewhat like separate modules. You have a bunch of little things that you have to build. Each part doesn't take a long time, but it's quite easy. As soon as you take this step building your wind generator seems like a piece of cake.

Let's start with the blades and hub. This is a fairly straightforward task and only involves a little cutting with a jig saw and some drilling. You'll need some 8" PVC pipe which gets measured and cut. I did say PVC pipe... we discovered that cut right it works great as blades.

You'll need to sand them down and coat them with some UV protective paint as sunlight makes PVC brittle. We snapped a couple blades before we figured this out. The blades get mounted to the hub (usually a pulley) and you've finished them.

The body can be made from leftover PVC that you have from building the blades. The motor gets mounted in the one end and the tail gets mounted in the other end. The body's main job is to keep water out of the motor. On the bottom of the body you'll need to mount a flange. Attached to the flange is some 2" steel pipe. This allows your wind generator to be mounted to your tower.

Your tower is simply an old TV tower. We discovered this quite by accident actually. I was at a friends helping him re-shingle his house and climbed down the TV tower to the ground because the ladder fell down. It hit me... these were very strong and I could probably get it for free.

He gave it to me because he'd switched to satellite a couple years ago. You'll need to dig a foundation and pour some concrete in it to mount the tower, but it's not really that hard. All you need to make sure of is that your tower is level... no leaning towers here.

Once your tower is up, climb up and mount your wind generator (TV towers conveniently have a 2" hole in the top for mounting). It seems to be the law that whenever you're working on a wind generator it's never windy so you might need to wait a couple days before any wind comes by.

That's pretty much it... simple wind generator plans can make the task much easier than you think it is.

I built my own solar panels and a wind generator and saved well over $30,000. I get a cheque from the power company because I produce more energy than I use. If you'd like to learn how you can do the same check out Wind Generator Plans.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Home-Built Wind Generator Power - What You Need to Know

Home-Built Wind Generator Power - What You Need to Know

The majority of people who are researching residential wind power are looking for an answer to a particular question on renewable energy such as information on home-built wind generator power, do it yourself wind turbines or vertical wind turbines.

Homebuilt wind generators come in many differing shapes and sizes from vertical wind generators through to the single blade wind turbine however all have one common goal and that is to produce wind power energy. The following is important information that you should know before considering which wind generator is the right choice for you.

Can you build your own wind power generator?

You bet! And the best news is that you don't have to be Tim 'the tool man' Taylor to take on a project like this either. Building your own home wind turbine is something that can be done on sliding scale from small wind turbines that power small appliances all of the way through to large wind turbines that can power entire communities.

I have had many people send me pictures of their completed residential wind turbines who have had almost no experience in construction or do it yourself projects.

What type of wind generator is right for me?

Ultimately this question can only be answered by you. The most common turbine for home wind generators is the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine. The Horizontal Wind Generator is usually constructed as a pole that raises a three or four blade fan into the sky.

The Vertical Wind Turbine is also becoming a more common wind turbine design for residential wind power configurations due to the way the turbine blades spin. The vertical axis turbine is comprised of a center pole with blades that spin on a vertical axis meaning that it will require less room to operate when compared to the horizontal wind turbine.

What does a home-built wind generator cost?

Wind turbines can be constructed out of a range of materials that can be found at your local hardware store. You can build your own wind turbines for as little as $100 using the easy to follow wind turbine below which will take you step by step on the way to building your own wind generator.

Still not sure if residential wind power is right for you?

The best suggestion that I can make to you is to have a look at how simple these wind generator plans are and simply have a go. The materials to produce homebuilt wind generator power are inexpensive and the construction time is minimal - why not invite your friends around and start a wind turbine project?

You'll end up saving a huge amount of money on your electricity bills and will have your own home-built wind generator to be proud of. Get started on your new turbine with our easy to follow wind turbine plans.

Barry Lee is the author of the popular wind power website Residential Wind Power which provides fantastic information on vertical wind turbines and wind generators for home use.