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This instructable documents the process of my single rotor wind turbine. It is built with inspiration from Hugh Piggot and the folks at Otherpower.com. This is my first attempt at building a wind turbine, and I will try to include the mistakes I've made along the way so that other first-time builders can avoid them! Since this entire project has a budget of just about $1000, it is meant to be able to be completed by both newcomers to wind energy as well as those who don't have a lot of money to throw around. I also tried to use as much recycled material as possible, so a large portion of this turbine is made from a junked car and metal that was going to be thrown out by fabricators.
When I first began this project I had a decent grasp of electricity and electronics, which was helpful. I knew hardly anything about wind turbine design, but picked it up quickly with the use of several books and websites.
The books and works that have been most influential in the building of this wind turbine include:
-Windpower Workshop by Hugh Piggot
-Windpower by Paul Gipe
-Arc Welding Instructions for the Beginner by The James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation
-Otherpower.com as well as many helpful individuals on the Otherpower forums
If you want to know more about electricity or electronics, the book Teaching Yourself Electricity and Electronics by Stan Gibilisco is a great learning book and valuable resource to have around.
Here is a video of the final project.
(The whole thing about the modern day Don Quixote... yeah, I don't think it's right either.)
When I first began this project I had a decent grasp of electricity and electronics, which was helpful. I knew hardly anything about wind turbine design, but picked it up quickly with the use of several books and websites.
The books and works that have been most influential in the building of this wind turbine include:
-Windpower Workshop by Hugh Piggot
-Windpower by Paul Gipe
-Arc Welding Instructions for the Beginner by The James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation
-Otherpower.com as well as many helpful individuals on the Otherpower forums
If you want to know more about electricity or electronics, the book Teaching Yourself Electricity and Electronics by Stan Gibilisco is a great learning book and valuable resource to have around.
Here is a video of the final project.
(The whole thing about the modern day Don Quixote... yeah, I don't think it's right either.)
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Since this is my first wind project, I decided to work on something that is a bit easier to construct than a high-output "dual rotor" design. I also didn't have a lot of metal fabrication shops available to me, so I was looking for something that required little fabrication.
A Volvo brake rotor has become popular among homebrew windpower enthusiasts because of its wide availability and its relative ease of modification. Volvos have a reputation for being long lasting and their rotors are not much different. A trip to the junkyard landed me with a $20 Volvo 340 strut (rotor, spring, and everything).
A single rotor design only has one set of magnets that spin in front of a stator coil. This makes construction easier and less dangerous, since you don't have to use "jacking screws" to bring together two magnetic disks. This is dangerous because if you slip, you could very well break your hand or finger. With a single rotor design, there is much less chance of this.
One thing that many people don't realize about wind turbines is that the blades of a particular turbine are matched to its generator. This is all based on what is called "Tip Speed Ratio" or TSR. By matching the correct blade diameter to your generator, you ensure that the turbine will start generating at a certain wind speed. By having the right size blades and generator, the correct RPM and torque will be produced to generate the maximum amount of power safely (that is without overheating or over-speeding the turbine). Matching the blades to the generator is a very important aspect of designing your windmill, and many other aspects of the machine are based on the blade diameter.
For this particular design the blade diameter should be around 7 feet.
A Volvo brake rotor has become popular among homebrew windpower enthusiasts because of its wide availability and its relative ease of modification. Volvos have a reputation for being long lasting and their rotors are not much different. A trip to the junkyard landed me with a $20 Volvo 340 strut (rotor, spring, and everything).
A single rotor design only has one set of magnets that spin in front of a stator coil. This makes construction easier and less dangerous, since you don't have to use "jacking screws" to bring together two magnetic disks. This is dangerous because if you slip, you could very well break your hand or finger. With a single rotor design, there is much less chance of this.
One thing that many people don't realize about wind turbines is that the blades of a particular turbine are matched to its generator. This is all based on what is called "Tip Speed Ratio" or TSR. By matching the correct blade diameter to your generator, you ensure that the turbine will start generating at a certain wind speed. By having the right size blades and generator, the correct RPM and torque will be produced to generate the maximum amount of power safely (that is without overheating or over-speeding the turbine). Matching the blades to the generator is a very important aspect of designing your windmill, and many other aspects of the machine are based on the blade diameter.
For this particular design the blade diameter should be around 7 feet.
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I've really gotta update this thing though. Currently the turbine is down for repairs, a weak spot just above the weld on the tail's hinge pin gave out. I plan on redoing it almost entirely at some point but college has been keeping me busy.
If you've got any more questions, feel free to ask. One thing I can definitely say though is if you don't want to be constantly maintaining the machine make sure you don't cut corners. Do it right, or do it twice.... sometimes you gotta learn the hard way, eh? Best of luck.
Be sure to show us what you end up building, good luck!
www.scoraigwind.com/books/books.htm
If you've got any specific questions I can do my best to answer them, if not the guys at www.fieldlines.com can probably help fill in any gaps.
I think you want a more in depth analysis of the generator. Most homebrew wind power folks won't get that in depth. Basically Hugh's book would outline which generator plans seem to work best partly through trial and error.
I think to get the kind of detail you want, you might consider a different book with more mathematics. However that book might also depend on if you are making an axial flux or radial flux generator.
i have agree with u u r coment i have making for axial flux genereter. but i don't know which parameter using for generotor making, only 30 mtr tower bearing ,gue rope , tail van avalable here but genertor details not avalable
The wiring of the coils is basically a matter of your application and preference (eg. star, wye, delta).
Other than that I don't know much about that turbine in particular. I've seen a few around. It looks like there tower setup costs $650 as well as the generator. Don't forget the controls, wire, batteries, concrete, etc you might need.
I will say it is definitely less work!
Car alternators charge at a very high RPM, much higher than most wind turbines so reaching charging RPM can be difficult or require gearing of some kind.
Many people rewind the stator coils in an alternator with thinner wires to achieve higher voltages at lower RPM. It's a project and there is some figuring involved depending on the dimensions of the alternator and what power output you want from the thing.
I used this LCD: http://moderndevice.com/LCD.shtml I would recommend it. I wouldn't recommend their arduinos.... I bought two and couldn't get either of them to work, maybe it's just me.