3 Simple Ways to
Share What You Make

With Instructables you can share what you make with the world — and tap into an ever-growing community of creative experts.

PhotosPhotos

Share one or more photos of a project, recipe, or whatever you've made, quickly and easily.

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

Step by StepStep-By-Step

Share your step-by-step photos with text instructions of what you made so others can do it too!

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

VideoVideo

Share your how-to video. You'll need your embed code from a video site such as YouTube.

Get Started

Learn more & Get Tips

Print PDF

Favorite

DIY 1000 watt wind turbine

Step 5Bolt it all together

« Previous Step

Download PDFView All Steps

Next Step »

75 comments

1-40 of 75

May 23, 2010. 5:34 AMpaumavallyed says:

paumavallyed@yahoo.com,I had some trouble downloading the complete DIY 1000 watt wind turbine building process, my computer has some issues. I may have missed the finished product.
Question: In the first picture. It shows the man installing a few final parts. Do the electronics have a nose cone to deflect water, or what would protect these electronics. Do they need protection from the elements ? This is an amazing creation !
Very functional.

May 23, 2010. 6:30 AM

sspence (author) says:

There's no electronics (rectifier and charge controller) at the turbine, they stay indoors in the battery room. No nose cone necessary.

Oct 26, 2011. 7:38 AMdanlong says:

Hi guy, Should have done this last year when I first found it as I see wire has jumped and the price of the magnets almost triple as with just about any parts "alternative energy". (there's only a buck or two difference between the drilled and not drilled magnets).

So you are saying you pump AC to the house then condition it? What about ramping the the output voltage to 620VAC for transmission to reduce losses. I need to build a 130 foot tower because I'm in the woods in a valley, then another 200 feet to the house.

Also, I assume from the photo that your turbine is fixed directional. Any hints on omni-directional. I was considering a vertical turbine because our "prevailing" winds in Wisconsin, in this valley, could be any direction for days. But the vertical turbine, along with lack of efficiency, is noisy.

Thanks, Dan

Oct 26, 2011. 3:15 PM

sspence (author) says:

the turbine is not fixed directional. It rotates with wind direction. I have no simple way to ramp up the voltage, as it varies in both voltage and frequency. A 48v turbine would work well for that distance.

Feb 16, 2010. 1:28 PMdianarachel says:

I am really interested with alternative energy and am trying to build a wind turbine for my science fair project. I was wondering why you chose to use magnets and how well your design suited your enegery needs.

diana

Feb 16, 2010. 3:01 PM

sspence (author) says:

There are two ways of creating an alternator. With permanent magnets, or with electromagnets. Electromagnets steal power when it's least available, hence permanent magnets. This design is ideal for off grid use.

Oct 1, 2011. 7:38 AMtushar.gsi says:

Can you please send the details to tushar.gsi@gmail.com

Apr 4, 2010. 1:01 PMjwzumwalt says:

However, electromagnets have the advantage of being able to produce nearly full field power at a lower rpm. The field coil can be fully energized at low rpm. On a typical 50 amp aircraft alternator the field only requires about 2 volts at 100ma - a very small power draw.

Admittedly a power driven alternator (engine) has comparatively unlimited power at low rpm. On the other hand, a PM tends to regulate the field strength (generator potential) according to wind power available.

Apr 4, 2010. 3:32 PMmacrumpton says:

It seems like the ideal would be a regulator controlling the voltage to the coils based on the wind speed read by an anemometer. That way the resistance to rotation could be scaled accurately to the windpower available.

Dec 31, 2011. 3:17 AMsoundcrew says:

To reduce the strength of a magnetic field produced by the permanent magnets you could move the magnets further away. The Turbine could be spring mounted so that as the wind speed increased the magnets get pushed closer to the coils.

Dec 31, 2011. 5:36 AM

sspence (author) says:

too complicated for this simple design. A dump load controller does the job with no mechanical issues.

Apr 4, 2010. 8:29 PMjwzumwalt says:

In a normal alternator, the regulator is controlled by the output amperage. As the amperage goes up, a power transistor (or mechanical solenoid) begins to clamp the field voltage.

Alternators and generators have what is called the "coming in" rpm; the rpm where the voltage is greater than the power supply i.e. when they can start charging. For an alternator (engine powered) with self regulation it "comes in" at about 900rpm. An engine mounted PM generator is closer to 1700rpm.
Kudos for this DIY very simple generator design. I understand that simplicity has a certain beauty. However, where efficiency (not cost or maintenance) is truly being pursued, the most efficient setup would include a prop governor and voltage regulator using a electromagnet field control.

I personally hope to try this design and I will want to Keep It Simple (kiss). Later I will probably try to increase efficiency and complexity.

Info is on my site at...

zoomaviation.com\public\aircraft-systems\alternator-generator-regulator\

There is a home made regulator circuit in the regulator sibdirectory.

Thank you for your quick response and comments :-)

Jun 7, 2010. 8:25 AMaltenburgpj says:

I looked at your regulator circuit and like it a lot. As to your mention of what happens if the cable from the alternator to the battery becomes disconnected, I sat this. You can avoid this problem with two diodes, one diode from the + output of the alternator to the junction of the the 3.3K and 8.2K resistors, and a second diode from the high side of the field coil (where the light bulb is connected) to the junction of the 3.3K and 8.2K resistors. Since the voltage at both of these points is that of the battery plus the voltage loss in the cable from the alternator to the battery which is less than 0.3V (we hope) the diodes will not conduct under normal operation. If the cable from the alternator to the battery does fail in any way, the alternator voltage will rise, the diodes will conduct and hold everything in check. Your battery will still drain to nothing, but no failures will occur.

Jun 7, 2010. 9:19 AM

sspence (author) says:

There is no field coil on an axial flux, so all this supposition is moot.

Jun 9, 2011. 5:36 AMmaraghati says:

I also don't like people who boast sbout their knowledge just to prove others wong.

Feb 18, 2012. 7:58 PMsikkide says:

its wrong not wong! :)

Sep 27, 2011. 3:34 AM

sspence (author) says:

There's no boasting. This is about one particular method of building an alternator. so going off on tangents about items that don't even exist in this unit is silly. It's like asking about compressor improvements on a peltier fridge. A peltier fridge doesn't have a compressor.

Sep 26, 2011. 9:21 PMNarlo11 says:

I dont know squat about this but I do know that Science is based on proving someone wrong. Boasting is stupid though.

Sep 27, 2011. 3:35 AM

sspence (author) says:

There wasn't any boasting.

Sep 27, 2011. 8:39 AMNarlo11 says:

It was a reply to maraghati. More of a statement than outing someone of doing it.

Aug 14, 2011. 7:17 PMcunningfellow says:

I didn't think anybody was boasting to prove others wrong. I think that people here are sharing more (and sometimes alternative) information - and as I understand it, that is what this site is for. I didn't notice anybody trying to prove others wrong - just suggesting possible alternatives which may be improvements.

Personally I am glad to hear from people who know more than me - that way I get to know more!

Jun 10, 2011. 6:27 PM

sspence (author) says:

Was someone doing this? I don't see it.

Jun 7, 2010. 11:56 AMaltenburgpj says:

I was directly responding to the information in the post from jwzumwalt. I have understood your design already and since there was no field coil in the pictures, and you are using a PM motor, you are of course correct. But in order to utilize your design in both low air speed and high air speed to its maximum efficiency, a regulator circuit of some sort might be in order. BTW do you have any data on the output your generator produces at various wind speeds?

Apr 6, 2010. 3:05 AMhogey74 says:

I agree - the principle behind this design is excellent. It reminds me of how piston aircraft engines are designed to spin happily at the revs required by the propeller (around 2000 rpm) thus removing the need for gears etc. I like the idea of this kind of design for a planned off grid getaway - not super efficient but you can be pretty sure it will top your batteries up during the week.
A little off topic but I wonder about the potential for this kind of windmill to power "gravity batteries" - either a water pump or a heavy weight that is slowly winched upwards with the energy being recovered via large clockwork mechanisms. The English guy who invented the wind-up radio for Africa talked about the efficiency of this type of energy storage.

Apr 6, 2010. 6:58 AMmacrumpton says:

The hydroelectric storage is a great idea if you have the appropriate landscape for it. It also has the bonus that you get some free energy when it rains, and you could get pressurized running water to boot. I suspect the clockwork/weight hauling would be very complicated and tricky. I would go for compressing air with the windmill before either of those since compressed air can be used by many tools directly and there are lots of compressed air motors (to drive generators and other stuff) available off the shelf. Compressed air does waste energy releasing heat as you compress it, but if you are clever you can use that to preheat water for your water heater. When the air decompresses it comes out cold, which could be used for cooling as well.

Sep 24, 2010. 12:54 AMhogey74 says:

Yeah as I look around for some land out of town that's on my mind. I was in New Zealand recently and got to meet the guy who built this awesome house I had read about (google taheke mud). I did not know that he had bought his place based on its suitability for a little hydro set up but he explained that he was making enough power to run a stack of adjoining properties! He wants to sell into the grid but the local government are about 30 years behind the curve. He is using a running stream whereas I would be pumping water.
Re - clockwork mechanism - yeah I doubt I will be prototyping that - it would need to be off the shelf. I don't know if that english guy is still kicking but maybe you could just super size his mechanism? He was talking about using dried up wells as a hole to suspend a heavy weight in and winch it up using a windmill.
re - compressed air - very interesting. Some company here in Oz recently sold their energy recovery tech for large vehicles to the US army - I think they compress air while braking and use it to accelerate later. Air tanks are cheap and the compressor could presumably also act like the "turbine"?

Sep 24, 2010. 3:16 AM

sspence (author) says:

Sounds overcomplicated and very lossy, and not at all on topic for this instructable. I'm going to be cleaning up the comments by deleting off topic discussion. People come here to learn how to build a 3 phase ac alternator.

Oct 22, 2010. 3:50 AMhogey74 says:

I see what you mean but I think its cool that your instructable has stimulated so much discussion!

Apr 6, 2010. 1:21 PMjwzumwalt says:

The government experimented with storing energy by compressing air in the ground (especially at night). For example, using old oil fields. I do not know what the result was. Who knows? Maybe a sealed pipe would not leak much in certain parts of the country! Perhaps a pipe 50 or 100ft down in the water table might be sufficient for a small home. It would be a fun experiment.

Apr 6, 2010. 3:15 AMhogey74 says:

... and I like the governor / variable pitch idea too - something very simple that would enable useful rpm in very light winds and maybe feather the blades in the event of over speed. This whole thread is giving me lots of food for thought!

Apr 5, 2010. 6:02 AM

sspence (author) says:

The voltage regulation is accomplished by a dump load controller on the battery bank.

Feb 17, 2010. 7:06 PMdianarachel says:

thank you so much

Aug 13, 2011. 6:21 PMKrb686 says:

How many KW hrs. do you think this turbine could produce in a year? I am just curious because I've read the average middle class American uses around 11,000 a year and I would like to know what percentage of this can be made from the turbine.

Aug 13, 2011. 7:08 PM

sspence (author) says:

It varies with location, but 600 kWh / year is a safe bet.

Aug 5, 2011. 8:41 AMantling says:

Good project! A must try for me.
We lived close to the sea.

Jul 25, 2010. 5:07 PMrapidprototyping says:

the most important thing about prototyping is falling down and getting back up looking for better way to do it take lighting are led's any better then edisons incadesent light bulbs certainly not any cheaper. or maybe we took wrong turn way back then and should have been on low voltage all along our devices seem to be working fine on it. My 12 volt weed eater does lots work

Jul 25, 2010. 4:52 PMrapidprototyping says:

right generator wrong rotor. try a savanious rotor and have that same cat cut your discs and cut 15 aluminum pipe in half so cat and weld it all in one unit then balance that whole thing like they do tires when you mount them. here is photo of the one i built in 1980 wish it been all aluminun and had magnets holding it up off its bearing also consider a saphire bearing on bottom center pivot point. love the build my own generator concept best atenpt so far i'd say the other guys power electronics weren't bad. one with tilt up tower