Yes,
why not make a
wind generator today. Make a wind generator at home,
use the electricity that is generated by it and you can
even sell off any surplus power to the grid and earn
some money. No raw materials are needed and no costly
maintenance is involved in the process. And what more,
it is cheap and easy too. So, go ahead and do it. Here
are the basic instructions and all you have to do is to
follow them.
First
of all, let me tell you what components are needed to make a wind
generator at home and then I will give you the idea
for locating them. In order to make a wind generator,
also called a wind turbine, you would need (a) a small
DC motor; (b) Blades to run it when held against wind;
(c) a battery or a battery bank to store the electricity
generated by the turbine; (d) an electronic control
system to save the life of the batteries; (e) a
converter-cum-transformer to convert the DC current
generated by the turbine to 120V AC for actual use at
home; (f) Some electrical wires, terminals and fuses and
(g) a tower to hoist the turbine so that it can convert
the wind energy into electrical
output.
As
for the first item, your best hunting ground would be
the local hardware store. Look for a small DC motor with
high rated rpm. Or you may visit an automobile junk yard
to fish out a workable alternator. This will be equally
as good. Moreover, you could possibly bargain it at a
throw away price since most junk yard stuff are destined
to melting pots. However, please make sure that it does
not create any untoward noise at a few turns as
otherwise it could perform more as a siren than as a
turbine when running in high
velocity.
Motor
selection part over, pay a visit to the hardware store
again to get hold of a 6” diameter ABS pipe that is at
least 24” long. When sawed lengthwise through the middle
line, you get 4 four equal sized blades for the turbine.
Now you need a hub to fix the blades and so another trip
to the hardware store is necessary. Select a hub that
goes freely into the motor’s spindle so that it can
rotate freely. Now, bolt three blades onto the hub,
maintaining the same slant and then screw the hub
tightly to the spindle and your turbine is ready for
testing.
Time
now is ripe to look for the charge controller and the
transformer-cum step up transformer, the ideal site for
both the items being an e-bay outlet. Take your time and
select the right type. The job of the charge controller
is to divert current from the batteries to any dummy
load when they are fully charged. Remember, overcharging
will shorten battery life. The charge controller can
also divert the generated electricity to the grid,
whereby you may earn dollars from it. The line coming
from the turbine should be connected to the charge
controller so that it can function as desired. Since the
duty of the converter-cum-step up transformer is to
convert the DC output from the generator coming through
the batteries to 120V AC, it should be connected at the
battery output end.
All
connections properly made, you should now hoist the
turbine to at least 10 feet high so that it can interact
with the availing wind.
Your personal wind power system can save you a lot of money on your electricity bills. Once it has been set up and it is running, the maintenance cost is almost nil, and it is hassle free as well. So go ahead and build your own wind power system and make your own small contribution to clean up the air. This manual will help you learn the essentials such as where in your home it will work best, how to set it up and complete the wiring, where to get the parts from cheaply and what are the safety precautions that are to be followed always.
