Showing posts with label wind speed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wind speed. Show all posts

Monday, September 6, 2010

How Do Wind Generators Work?

How Do Wind Generators Work?

Wind generators or wind turbines are utilized for a number of factors however the primary reasons would be to produce power in the wind. This might sound challenging but it is feasible. You encounter power in the wind anytime somebody runs past you rapidly.

A second after they pass, you are able to really feel the wind that was produced. This wind which you experienced, if created in large enough quantities, could be converted into power. You might have observed the tall wind turbines standing in the fields whenever you drive by.

There is the older classic design windmill that was used to crush grain when the windmill blades would turn, the blades would turn a mechanism which was attached to some device that would crush grain for flour. You will find a number of various areas which are ideal for generating wind energy and based on where these places are, will depend on how much power is generated.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Homemade Wind Generators - Tips and Plans to Go the DIY Way

Homemade Wind Generators - Tips and Plans to Go the DIY Way

Homemade wind generators are the right solution as an affordable renewable energy source. Building a wind generator may be a daunting task if uninitiated to DIY or lacking technical knowledge, however this can be overcome with a good plan of action and the aid of a wind turbine design.

First of all, it should be found out whether a wind power unit is the right solution for your household electrical energy as opposed to solar power units. To do so, a wind resource assessment can help you decide for a wind turbine.

A wind resource assessment is based on Wind Power Density, which is the annual power available per square meter of turbine area. If you do not have a clue on how to get this information, check out NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab). They have maps for any particular area to help you decide on the feasibility of the project.

Once established that a homemade wind generator suits your purposes, check out ground clearance for mast positioning, as the blades should be as clear of obstacles as they can for optimal efficiency. The higher the blades, the stronger the wind, however a very tall mast requires an exponential amount of materials to build it, making it preferable to construct several smaller and shorter wind generators to contain costs and as a safety back up, should one fail.

Homemade wind generators of 1000 to 3000 watt can cost as little as $150 to $220 and take a weekend for construction. Materials can be purchased at a local hardware store or delivered by mail. The main components of a wind generator are: a steel pipe mast and its rigging, a nacelle (containing the motor), a Dc motor, the blades, a battery bank for the generator and possibly a DC motor analyzer software for maximum efficiency.

The blades can be either purchased or even made cheaply in few hours. Normally they are designed in a 3 blade set up to contain construction costs while providing good conversion of wind power into kinetic power.

To protect the blades and the mast from sudden, strong gusts, the windmill should have a cheap yet effective spring loaded system to allow the blades furling, which means the blades turn their edge to the wind beyond a certain resistance so as to minimize it and avoid breaking.

To allow the windmill to turn the blades facing the wind and get constant power, a simple tail will do the job. There is no need for complicated hydraulics or motor assisted mechanics like in large farm windmills. An important aspect of homemade wind generators is the battery bank to store energy from the generator. These can be found free or cheaply from old fork lift trucks and recycled back into life.

To do so it may be necessary to build also a homemade de-sulfator to pulse the battery back into action. This may seem like a complication, but a bonus point of making a de-sulfator is that these old forklift batteries can be recycled systematically and sold for profit as a stand alone business on top of the electricity savings, not just for the generator.

A DC motor analyzer software should also be complementary to a good wind generator design, providing critical data to optimize efficiency. It all sounds like a lot of hard work to do and it might even be, but it can save you $ thousands over ready made windmills. In fact, homemade wind generators avoid the hefty initial investment of ready made kits that could take a very long time to recover, while saving on electricity bills just as well.

If you do not have idea on how to build homemade wind generators, check out this website. It could save you thousands. Click on homemade wind generators.

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.