Build Your Own Wind Turbine
Author: Nick Molinar
Today, almost anyone can build their own inexpensive and reliable wind turbine with the proper guidance and information.
The blades, which we're all used to seeing, are connected to a hub in the center of the machine. The hub is attached to an alternator which generates the electrical current. As the blades encounter wind force, their shape causes them to turn the hub. Current is created by the alternator due to this rotational movement, and the current flows into the power system through the wiring.
The turbine’s blades are shaped into a “twist” that produces a greater pitch at the ends and a lesser pitch as the blade approaches the hub. The alternator's required speed of rotation and the blade length determine the pitch necessary for proper operation. To prevent a wobbling effect, the blades must also be balances, similar to the wheels on a car.
As already noted the current is created in the alternator. It most commonly includes a stator which houses magnetic rotors and copper wrapped coils. flows through wiring from the alternator to your energy collection or distribution system. Again here, compatibility of parts is important because efficiency will suffer if the wire gage, batteries and inverters aren't properly sized for the alternator, or if the total length of wire run is too long.
The tail assembly consists of a horizontal boom to which the tail vane is attached. The entire wind turbine sits atop a pivot point (called the yaw bearing). The yaw bearing is a swiveling devise which allows the tail to turn the turbine into the wind. Wind turbines must also turn out of the wind when their maximum speed has been exceeded, but just enough to still produce full or near full power. Once maximum speed is exceeded though, the turbine must also turn slightly out of the direct wind to reduce the speed down to just below full. This is known as “furling”. The weight and size of the tail have to be correct in order for the turbine to furl when it needs to.
Finally, it is highly advisable that every turbine should have some kind of electrical or mechanical "kill switch" for use during maintenance and periods of excessively high wind. Options for this include a mechanical breaking system or a switch that shorts out the alternator. However it is accomplished, the ability to shut the machine down is an important safety feature.
While this may all sound a little complicated, it really isn't. In fact it is completely achievable to build your own reliable and inexpensive home power generating wind turbine when following the right guidance and instructions. Learn more about how to build your own wind turbine here.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/build-your-own-wind-turbine-986577.html
About the Author
Nick Molinar runs DIYHomePowerGrid, where he discusses home grown power generation systems including solar, wind and automotive alternatives.
How much is a wind-turbine to charge a car battery and where would I get one?
I want to use a laptop in an isolated area with no mains electricity. I wondered how easy and costly it would be to rig up some sort of wind-turbine to charge up a car-battery. Any idea what sort of gear I would need, how much it would cost and where to get hold of it (eBay perhaps).
wind turbine car idea?
How about this idea. Came up with it out of the blue.
Throw ten or so batteries in the trunk of your car.
Convert car to EV. (Electric engine)
Create win turbine to fit on your car. Possbly mutlible ones in grill or somthing similar.
Connect turbine power to batteries for charging and at same time connect power to your EV engine to drive car.
Sum= Use batteries for city driving where wind could be minimum. Use Wind turbine power when on highway where wind is constant.
Man. Well, at least I tried. I’ll come up with another one son. Better then GM is doing…..
ok how about this when you use a wind turbine in a car that is a hybride car or hydrogen car and add some?
ok how about this when you use a wind turbine in a car that is a hybride car or hydrogen car and add some solar panels to add power
ok use electric car and use a wind turbine to keep energy with in the cars engine and store energy from the wind turbine in batteries to power the augselery things for the car.
Can a wind turbine placed on top of a small electric vehicle (100kg) charge a battery to drive the car?
is it feasible to charge the battery with wind turbine instead of solar panels. would i get enough power from the wind to charge the battery? or the DC motor driving the car would consume all of the battery charge before it will get charged from the wind turbine??
what about the wind powered cars?!! http://www.windturbineracer.com
the cars move with only wind energy.why can’t we convert this energy into electricity to drive the motor?!!
Would it be an idea of building a wind turbine on a car?
Say you have a hybride car and would build a wind turbine on the roof of it (or build it inside the car so it will catch a lot of wind) to gain some electricity back. Could this be an option to reduce the nett energy consumption? Why would or wouldn’t it be?
You could indeed make the turbine generate electrical energy which you could store in a battery. However, there’s a catch. By definition, turbines resist the wind (if they did not, they could not rob the wind of any energy). This means that any energy you capture in the battery will necessarily translate into increased wind resistance for your car, which makes your gas mileage drop (basically, reduces the amount of energy you can get out of a gallon of gas). So, in effect, what you are essentially doing is taking energy out of your car’s driving force (the chemical energy in the gasoline), and converting it into electrical energy in the storage battery); and meanwhile your car’s mileage will drop accordingly. The law of conservation of energy says that the energy you store in the battery cannot exceed the extra chemical energy used up by buring the gasoline to overcome the wind resistance. So in the end you are not reducing your net energy consumption. And in fact, you are using up MORE energy; because the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics says that whenever energy changes form (e.g. from chemical to electrical), at least some of it is lost from the system, in the form of heat.
Solar Cells are more suitable and available at just about every camping store. They also require less maintenance. The link below may interest you:
Noway. The car would experience more drag. The energy of the wind turbine is far too little to charge the battery that would be fully exhausted in the end.
Unfortunately it defies thermodynamics. In order to spin the turbines and generate power – the car will have to “push” harder. So what ends up happening is still a net loss.
If the car was stationary (in a parking lot or garage) and wind was hitting the turbines – it could feasibly generate power for later.
The whole idea is the amount of power that would be generated by spinning fans/turbines (in an ideal world) would be exactly equal to the amount of resistance caused by the fans on your car. But since the world is never ideal and there are always generation losses and power transmision losses – the net would be WORSE than not having them at all.
Sorry, I’ve thought of this before too – it doesnt work
the Pius has a solar panel already. It can make enough power to run a nice stereo. Problem is every time you go under a tree or a shadow, the stereo goes dead.