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Copyright Notice
2006, Richard Lewis
No part of this document may be reproduced, transfered or resold.
Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the Law.
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Battery Safety
Make sure someone else is around when you work on or move
batteries
Install your batteries in a vented battery box, they emit hydrogen
gas when charging
Never install electrical equipment in the same compartment as
batteries due to explosive hydrogen gas
No smoking around batteries for the same reason
Wrap wrench handles in electrical tape to avoid shorting between
battery terminals.
Wear goggles and rubber gloves to protect yourself from sulfuric
acid
Keep a box of baking soda and a jug of water around to neutralize
any spilled battery acid
If you get acid on your skin, flush with lots of water
In case of acid in your eyes, flush with water for 15 minutes
and call a doctor
Towers can fall. So, whatever the height is, that radius around the
tower should be clear. Example - a 20 foot tower should be at
least 20 feet from the property line.
The blades are fairly heavy and sharp. They can do serious
damage if they hit someone. Always keep that in mind.
PVC blades must be painted with UV resistant paint. Otherwise
they will get brittle and may shatter under strong winds.
PVC blades will flex especially in strong winds. Make sure that
there is enough clearance for them to flex and not hit the tower.
Never try to stop the blades with your hands or any object. It is
better to short the output of the generator or to furl the blades to
the side if possible.
Don't install a wind turbine on a windy day. Wait until a calm day.
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Introduction
We can all see how gas prices and energy costs are rising. And there is
no indication that they will fall in the near future. In fact, all the evidence
points to higher and higher prices in the upcoming years. That is reason
enough to look into renewable energy but certainly not the only reason.
Some people purchase rural property for a very low cost. But it is so low
because there is no electrical lines run to the property. And it may cost
$25,000 plus just to have it run. Some people just don't trust that the
grid will always be there and would like some independence from it.
Whatever your reason for being energy self-sufficient, you are probably
looking into one of two things. Solar power or wind turbines.
I actually like both and believe that they compliment each other. This is
especially true when you have a very windy winter but overcast and rainy.
Then in the summer you
have good sun, but not as
much wind.
Why pay $1,000 for a 400 watt store bought wind turbine when you could
make a 1,000 watt machine of your own for only $150? Why pay $4,000
for a 1400 amp hour 12 volt battery bank when you can get one for free?
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This picture (to the right) is my first wind turbine made from a DC motor
and some PVC pipe. The DC
motor is 190 Volt, 16 amp
variety that I purchased off of
E-bay for about $80 with
shipping all the way to
Canada. It is about a 4 HP
motor and the blades are way
too small to really push it. The
blades are only 4 and a half
feet in diameter and they
should be about 7 - 8 feet. I
mounted this one on a 10 foot
pole. I will go into the math
and logic for figuring out blade
to generator sizing later in this book. I will also go into what you should
look for when looking for potential generators. I will show you how to
make the blades out of PVC and what to paint them with. They are free
except for the work that goes into it.
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You can check here to see what your average wind speed is.
US wind speed chart http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.html
World wind speed chart http://www.bergey.com/Maps/World.Wind.Lg.htm
Canada wind speed chart http://www.windatlas.ca/en/maps.php?field=EU&height=30
Here is the average in
Victoria, BC, Canada.
Notice, I get 4 m/s and 7
m/s about 10% of the
time. And 9 m/s about 6%
of the time. While 5 and 6
m/s is about 15% of the
time. So about 50% of the
time I have between 4 and
9 m/s. That is 9 mph to
20 mph about half the
time. About 35% of the
time it is less than that and
about 15% of the time it is
greater than 20 mph.
So, If I average 7 m/s or
15.7 mph and have a 7
foot diameter blade set,
then I would average about 225 watts and about 5,400 wh/day. In an
efficient house, that would be enough to supply my energy demands. But
in the typical house without energy efficiencies, it would take about 5 of
those turbines setup to meet demand. As you can see, conservation is
key to a good renewable energy scenario.
I know what you're thinking, Why can't I just make one big windmill to
cover all my power needs ? Well, actually it is a good idea except for a
few things.
First, neighbors might not appreciate the 24 foot diameter wind machine
in their bay window. If you live out in the middle of nowhere then you can
pretty much do what you like. Although, the tower would have to be very
strong and expensive just to hold up to the incredible forces. Take a look
at this chart.
As you can see, a 24 foot diameter wind turbine would have over 1,500
pounds of force applied in just a 25 mph wind. While a 7 foot diameter
would only feel 135 pounds.
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Secondly, any windmill could have a problem or fail. That means that if
you have one big machine and it fails, then you are out of luck until you
repair it. But if you have 5 small machines then you would still have 4
machines functioning. That's 80% of your normal power production.
Why put all your eggs in one basket?
With the larger blade set you would also have to have carved wood
blades because PVC would flex too much at that size. That adds a lot of
expense or a lot of complexity.
Also, a larger blade set spins very slowly and would require either a
homemade generator designed for slow speed, or it would require the
use of extra pulleys and bearings to gear up the speed to match a
typical generator.
Just as an example, let's consider the 24 foot diameter machine and its
power production. Using the average here of 15.7 mph, we would get
2,650 watts average and about 63,000 watt hours/day. That is enough
for 3 average homes or maybe 6-10 efficient homes. That would be
overkill. The biggest I would recommend going is about 12 foot in
diameter with PVC blades. That would be 5 foot blades each and a foot
gap at the center between blade and the shaft. But the tower assembly
would be more beefy and you couldn't raise and lower it by yourself.
With a 12 foot rotor it would produce good power though. In this location
that would be 660 watts or 15,800 watt hours/day. That is a good target
for a moderately efficient house. You could produce about the same
power with two 8 foot diameter machines.
Really, the big issue would be the average wind speed in your area. If
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you live in a place that only has 8 mph average wind then you would need
16 wind turbines (8 foot diameter) in the above example. In that case, I
would suggest getting your daily watt hour usage down to about 8,000 or
less. That way you would only need 8 wind turbines. It's doable, but still,
that's a lot of windmills. If your average wind speed is more than 10 mph
then this picture starts to look a lot better.
So, to reiterate, the two big considerations are how efficient your house is
and what your average wind speed is. Hopefully, you can get your energy
usage down to 10 kwh/day or less. And if your average wind speed is 10
mph or greater, you are in business.
Another way to think about it is to just start off small. I live in a
subdivision and use windmills for small jobs. Like one windmill just
charges a battery and inverter pack for the tool shed. Another windmill
ties into my solar system and augments my solar, mainly for the winter.
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Qt Description
y
1 DC Motor/Generator with shipping cost
Price
Estimate
$50
$25
21 foot schedule 40, 1.5-2 inch steel pipe for the tilt up
tower- from salvage yard
Door or gate hinge for furling system
Free
$10
$10
$10
$5
$5
$15
$8
$10
Free
Total
$148
DC Motor/Generator
This doesn't have to be DC. It could be a permanent magnet alternator.
If it puts out AC then you would have to use diodes to rectify to DC. A DC
motor would also need a diode in line otherwise the battery bank would
try to spin the motor.
So, let me try to explain what to look for. First, the best place to start
looking is ebay.com. Search for DC motor. The main attributes you are
looking for are amps, RPM, shaft size and voltage. Here is a listing I'll
use as an example to help explain.
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For RPM look for 1800 or less as a thumb-rule. Let's say you are
going to be charging a 12 volt battery with your wind turbine. To figure
out what RPM it will have to spin in order to start charging the battery (cut
in speed), then we can do the following:
RPM = (bat volts / motor volts) x max rpm ===> (12/90) x 1800
That works out to 240 RPMs to start charging a 12 volt battery. If the
max voltage of the motor was 180 instead of 90 then that would look like
this:
RPM = (12/180) x 1800
and the RPM would be 120 for cut in speed.
Typically you would aim for 100 - 300 RPMs as your target cut in speed.
Next we will look at amps. Notice that this ebay listing doesn't mention
amps but it does mention horsepower. One hp is about 750 watts, but 1
hp at the shaft usually means about 850 watts of electrical power is
applied. So, if we take the 850 watts and divide by 90 volts then we get
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9.4 amps.
Amps = Watts / Voltage
But you should know that that 9.4 amps is in a motor sitting still with no
cooling. In a windmill, it will have lots of air cooling and sometimes even
cold and wet air flowing past it. I have typically seen 3 times the amp
rating coming from a generator. So, about 30 amps is what you can
expect from this one. Max voltage for a 12 volt battery while equalizing
would be about 16 volts. And at 30 amps, that would be 480 watts. If you
have higher winds and would like a higher output and you expect the
blades to spin much faster on average, you could use a 24 volt battery
bank. That would be 32 volt max with 30 amps max which makes 960
watts.
But don't get carried away with these numbers. Remember, your average
wind speed is still important. If your average is 15 mph and the windmill
isn't even spinning fast enough to charge a 24 volt battery, then what
good does it do you? If you used a slightly larger blade set and geared it
up using a pulley, then you could fix that. You would also have some
friction losses in the pulley system but the slightly larger blade should
compensate.
Here is another example. This is
one I purchased a few weeks ago:
1/2 HP Direct Drive 320 RPM
Permanent Magnet 36 Volt DC
Motor. Near new condition. Shaft
is 3/4" and made for a 1/4" key.
Measures 7-1/2" long plus 1-3/4"
for the shaft, diameter is 6-1/2". The
motor weighs just under 30 pounds
itself.
In the picture you can see
that it is 15 amps. I can get
that up to about 45 amps
and my batteries would max
at 16 volts. That makes
720 watts at about 600
RPMs and I could use about
a 7 foot diameter rotor to do
it in a 23 mph wind.
I know what you
thinking. How can I
more than the rated HP
of it? It is .5 HP and
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are
get
out
I'm
getting close to 1 HP. Well, it is all based on the air cooling effect.
Usually, the winds are stronger in the winter. Cold air is much more
dense than warm, therefore many more air molecules hit per square inch
on each blade.
Notice how low the RPM is. I could start charging at 107 RPMs. Actually,
to be more precise, I would say that a fully charged 12v battery is really
sitting at 12.7 volts. And I would have a 80 amp diode in line that would
have about 0.7 volt drop. So effectively, I would need 13.4 volts or better
to start charging. RPM = (13.4/36) x 320 = 119.1
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Paint
You need a good UV inhibitor to paint the blades with. Titanium Dioxide
is the key ingredient. Krylon makes a good one that is meant for plastics
Hub Assembly
The hub assembly consists of a 4-6 inch aluminum pulley with 1/8 to 1/4
inch flat steel pieces to hold the PVC blades. The inside diameter of the
pulley should match the shaft diameter of the motor.
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third flat stock you mount will have a gap between it and the pulley. It
makes it more stable to either put washers in that space or to use one or
two small pieces of flat stock (with a hole in it) as a washer.
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tip.
Cut this blade shape out of the
paper and place the new
template on the outside of the
pvc pipe using tacky removable
hobby spray glue. Line up
the offset centerline on the
template with the centerline
drawn on the pvc pipe. This
will put a twist in the blade so
that the angle of attack at the
tip is much smaller than at
the root of the blade.
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you can make one out of some steel all thread rod. The U-bolt is only to
hold the motor
down but it doesn't
provide support for
axial thrust due to
the wind. A small
piece of 2x2 wood
about 4 feet long
mounted
right
behind the motor
works fine and is
simple. This can
be screwed
or
bolted down and it
will prevent any
axial movement of
the motor because
it will be butted
right up against the
rear.
Place a heavy duty hinge between the motor mount wood and the yaw
bearing wood block. That will allow it to furl in higher wind. Also, a small
piece of wood should be added to the bottom of the yaw bearing wood
block. This will act as a stopper during high wind furling and keep it from
going completely vertical.
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To get the free cable you will have to call around to various hospitals in
your area. Ask if they have an MRI machine. Every few years they
replace their MRI power cables for troubleshooting or regular
maintenance. These cables are made up of 3 wires at 2 gauge each.
They usually just throw them out. You can get these and cut off the outer
sleeve and just use 2 of the wires.
A simple connector for the end of these large wires (besides using
expensive crimps and crimping tool) would be to use a small piece of
copper tube about 3 inches long. Trim about an inch of rubber off the
end of the wire and stick the copper piece on the end. Use a propane
torch to solder from the inside of the tube. After it cools, smash the end
of the copper tube with a hammer to flatten and drill a hole through it. It
makes a great cheap terminal.
The cables should be attached with a few zip ties or coat hanger wire to
the side of the motor mount wood block parallel to the pivot point of the
hinge. You want it parallel because if the two wires get tight, they will try
to either furl the motor or they would prevent furling.
The two wires would then hang down loosely on the side of the tower.
They should be secured to the tower closer to the ground. A rubber
bungee cord should be connected from the hole in the motor mount wood
piece and run down to the yaw support bolt through the tower. It should
be almost snug so that the windmill can turn 180 either way before trying
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to resist the turn and bounce back. This will keep the cord from getting
wrapped around the tower.
The Tower
I'll assume you have picked up 2 pipes (21 feet each) for the tower. Cut
one of the pipes in half. Dig a hole where you want to mount the wind
turbine. It should be about 2 ft x 1 ft and about 2 feet deep. I prefer to
take 2 T fence posts (6 feet tall) and hammer those into the hole so that
about 2 feet stick up above the hole.
This is a tilt up
tower and will
need a pivot point
close to the top
of the two 10 foot
pipes. Obtain a
long bolt about
10 inches long or
use all thread
and
a
metal
sleeve for the
rotation point.
Fill in the hole
with
cement.
Then slide the
two 10 foot pipes
over the T posts
and down into the wet cement. Let it harden for 24 hours unless you
have the instant cement. Still it is best to let it sit until the next day.
Then, mount the windmill tower to
the base with the 10 inch bolt or
allthread. It is best to do this
without the windmill and yaw
bearing in place. Pivot the tower
into the upright position and
temporarily secure while drilling
another hole toward the bottom of
the two 10 foot base pipes. This
will allow another 10 inch bolt to
secure the tower in the upright
position.
After that has been
drilled and tested for fit, lower the tower and place the windmill and yaw
bearing assembly on top.
The guy wires are not even necessary unless the tower is taller than this
or if the blade diameter is greater than 7 feet or if you live in a high wind
area. But if you use them, it is easiest to make the connection half way
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up the tower.
The Battery
Seen below is a couple
of forklift batteries I
picked up for free at the
post office. They were
going to pay a recycler to come
and take them away. These are
24 volts each at 740 amp hours.
If I divide these so that it is
effectively four 12 volt battery
banks, then that would be 2960
amp hours. If I had to buy 6 volt
golf cart batteries to equal that, it
would take 28 batteries and would
cost about $1800 Canadian. Fork
lift batteries are good for about 20
years while a golf cart battery is
only good for about 5. One heck
of a good deal here.
There are really
two ways to get
fork lift batteries.
One is free but
trickier and the
other is simple but
costs
about
3
cents a pound or
so.
Let's talk
about free first.
You should start
by calling the post
offices in your
area and ask them
if they have any
old
fork
lift
batteries they are
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going to get rid of soon. If they say yes, then tell them you are running
tests on old batteries in an attempt to rejuvenate them for use in
renewable energy applications and to help the environment. Also, tell
them that you would be willing to sign their environmental protection
forms to promise that you will dispose of them correctly when you are
done.
If you have a 1/2 ton truck you can pick up maybe one 24 volt bank or two
12 volts at a time. Also, remember that you will have to get them off the
truck somehow. You will need a hoist of some kind that can handle the
weight. Some 36v and 48v batteries weigh 3,000 to 4,000 lbs. A 12v
usually weighs about 700 lbs or so. If you can't take them off the truck
somehow then you can call a fork lift sales company and use them to
deliver the batteries. They usually charge about $50 to $70 an hour for
their services. But they have a large flatbed truck and plenty of fork lifts
to move the batteries.
If the post office doesn't have old batteries, try any of the warehouses
around you. These types of businesses don't change their batteries out
very often, maybe every 3 to 5 years. So they end up calling a recycler to
come pick them up and they have to pay the recycler for the service. The
trick is to find someone who is planning on changing them out soon but
hasn't called the recycler yet.
Something to note here is that these batteries are used hard and put
away wet. They don't take very good care of them. They work great in
an 8 hour shift at first. Then, after a few years, they seem to not last as
long, maybe 6 hours of heavy use or so. That is still 75% capacity and
would work great in a renewable energy home. But I'll show you how to
rejuvenate them to 90% or better.
The easier way to get batteries isn't free but it is much quicker. Find a
fork lift sales company as close to your house as possible. Then tell
them what you are doing and they will usually sell the batteries to you for
whatever the scrap guy pays for them. They will even deliver for you. If I
were to get those two 24 volt batteries from the local fork lift place, it
would cost about $60 for the weight of them and about $70 to deliver. So,
only $130 for the two massive batteries. Not bad.
Important note - try to look for batteries that are in descent shape. Check
the voltage before you get them. Aim for 10.5 volts or better for every 12
volt section. This is after a full charge and after a few hours of sitting
there. For example, a 24 volt battery should be 21 volts or better. You
can still repair them if they are lower, but it is much harder to do and they
probably have shorted plates or are way to sulfated.
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WARNING! Be aware that all lead acid batteries will release Hydrogen
and Oxygen gas when they are being charged or discharged. Any
spark near the top of the battery could cause an explosion. When you
are connecting or disconnecting a charger or even a load, then you
should always turn the power off first. That way it doesn't spark. This
is true even if you are just adjusting the cable clamps.
The battery should be in a ventilated compartment or outdoors. You don't
want a buildup of these gases in your garage or home. Besides, there
are small lead particles mixed in the gas and you don't want to
concentrate that in a garage for you to breath in.
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AC plug
1 Run Capacitor (for low setting - 10 to 30 MFD)
1 to 4 Run Capacitors (for High setting - 30 to 80 MFD)
GFCI pluggin
2 SPST switches (house light switches work fine)
1 SPDT switch (two way house light switch)
1 stainless steel bolt 2 inches long by 1/4 inch diameter
25 amp fulse
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This version is nice because it has a pluggin for a simple digital meter
and with a flip of a switch you can read the current to the battery, or
battery voltage. It also has another switch for a high or low charge
current setting. In the above design I used a standard spring loaded
speaker wire quick connect box. I used light switches for the on/off and
the hi/lo switches. I used a spdt light switch for amps/volts switch. I
used a GFCI socket inside instead of an isolation transformer for safety.
I also show a pair of 80 MFD capacitors for my high section charging.
Actually, it parallels those along with the 24, giving me 184 MFD. That
would be about 7.6 amps of charging and about 1 amp at the low
setting. You can use some more capacitors in parallel, but remember to
make sure your switches, wires, fuse and rectifier can handle the
current. The fuse should be just under what the rectifier can handle. If
you hook the battery up backwards, this fuse will blow instantly. I used
25 amps for my fuse because I had a 30 amp full wave bridge rectifier.
For every 24 MFD (microfarad) you use, that is 1 amp going to the
battery. If you are using 240 volt system, then it is 16 MFD for every 1
amp.
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Notice the 1/4 inch stainless steel bolt (about 2 inches long). It has to
be stainless, not plated or galvanized. And the wire connections must
be exactly 1 inch (1.026 inches to be exact) apart. This is your shunt
and when you select amps on the switch above, you need to turn your
meter to milivolts. A reading of 5 milivolts would indicate 5 amps for
example. A reading or 8.9 mV would be 8.9 amps. When you switch
back to volts, you will have to turn your meter back to the right range
unless you have
an
autoranging one.
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Cell #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Cell #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
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Formulas
Power is in Watts
V is velocity in miles per hour
Diameter is in feet
TSR is Tip Speed Ratio - blades in this plan = TSR of 6
R is radius in feet
In this section I will discuss some handy formulas. The easiest way to
explain them is by example:
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Example 3: To make 300 watts in 18 mph wind, how big should the
blades be?
===> (square root( 300/((.00477)(18^3)))) x 2 ===> 6.57 feet
Example 4: How fast would the 7 foot blades in this book be spinning in
25 mph wind?
===> ((25)(6)(28))/7 ===> 600 RPMs
Example 5: If the 7 foot windmill in this book is spinning at 300 RPMs,
how fast is the wind blowing? ===> ((300)(7))/((6)(28)) ===> 12.5 mph
wind
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The blades are 5 feet long each and there is a 6 inch gap from the shaft
to where the blades start. This will give you a 11 foot rotor in diameter. It
will spin clockwise in the above picture, but you could make the blades
reversed if needed. The motors and the bearings can be mounted on 3/4
inch plywood, or you could use steel plating if you like. I prefer plywood
because it is so much easier to work with. You just have to paint all of
the wood you use with a good marine paint so it will last a long time.
Notice in the above picture that the pulleys on the main shaft line up with
their respective pulleys on the motors. In other words, one motor sits a
little bit further back than the other.
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The motor mount holes in the plywood have to be slotted so the pulley
belts can be tightened. You want them tight enough so they won't slip at
higher power.
The shaft is 1 inch diameter and about 15 to 25 inches long. This fits
nicely into 2 bearings meant for a 1 inch shaft. On the left end of the
shaft, you can see that there is a flange screwed on. It is screwed onto a
6 inch galvanized pipe, 1 inch inside diameter. If you wanted to swap out
blades to a smaller set for the winter, then you can just drill a hole and
use a cotter pin to secure it after you slip it on the main shaft.
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Getting Started
What you will need to get started:
QTY
Description
Price
1
3
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
free
$12
$3
$4
$4
$100
$15
$15
$15
$15
$10
$10
$10
$3
$4
Total
$220
The flange is centered by making sure that the edge is the same distance
to the scribed marks on the tubes. Then the flange is welded to the tube
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steel. If you don't have a welder you could make one using my battery
welder book ( http://www.poormansguides.com/welding-clickbank.htm )
or you could pay a welder to do it for you.
The 1 inch (6 inch long) water pipe is screwed into this. You can then
weld it too so it doesn't come unscrewed. This is slipped over the 1 inch
shaft. Then you can drill a hole through the pipe and shaft so you can put
a cotter pin in. Separate the two pieces until later.
The motors and bearing assembly will be mounted on a piece of 3/4 inch
plywood. At the bottom, just under the main shaft, mount the heavy duty
hinge. The bottom of the hinge should be a 2x4 block. Here you should
mount the 3/4 inch flange. This is where you will put the 3/4 inch water
pipe going straight down. This is the furling and yaw system. It works
just like the smaller 7 foot diameter windmill discussed earlier.
Also, make sure that the blades are out far enough from the platform so
that they can't flex backwards and hit anything.
The motors will be wired in parallel, but with a twist. Each motor may not
be identical, and they don't really have to be. So, wire the negative for
each motor together. Then run each positive wire to it's own rectifier.
Then run each rectifier to it's own fuse (appropriately sized).
DC Motor Analyzer
This program will allow you to test different aspects of your windmill
before you put it together. In this sample I show two motors. Both are
120 volts, 3000 rpms and 17 amps (that is why I show 34 amps in the
amp section). At 11 foot blade and a gearing up of 5 to 1, I can expect
3,060 watts at 31.2 mph. If you hold your mouse over the chart in the
program it will show the expected watts as you move your mouse.
Notice the wire length is set to 0 feet. If you put in a length and a wire
gauge, it will compute voltage drop as well. A 30% voltage drop is all the
program will allow. If you go over this it will let you know. I always do my
computations set to zero feet in wire length. Then when I've decided on
all other factors, I switch to the actual distance and play with the wire
gauge.
Also notice that this is going into 24 volt battery bank. If you went into a
12 volt bank it would cut your power in half and you would need to
decrease the size of the blades to about 9 feet.
The program is actually very easy to use, just play around with it for a few
minutes and it will all make sense.
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F.A.Q Section
Q: How long is a forklift battery rated for? Does it last longer than
golf cart batteries?
A: Forklift batteries are rated for 20 years while golf cart batteries are
only rated for 5 years. They are both considered "traction" batteries and
are deep cycle. In comparison, running your house on a large bank of
car batteries would only last about 6 months of heavy cycling.
Q: I know someone with a small windmill that produces 400 watts,
but, My God, that thing is loud. How loud will your homemade
windmill be? I have neighbors you know.
A: I've gone through about 10 iterations of blade testing and all of them
have been quiet, even in high winds. The only difference is that most of
those designs weren't as efficient as my latest. These blades start
spinning in about 3 mph wind. They start charging a 12 volt battery at
about 5 to 12 mph wind (depending on generator used)
Q: Can I power my house from one windmill?
A: Simple answer is yes, but it wouldn't be practical for most. In this
book I look at practical. People use way more power than they think.
"Could you power your whole house with 1 solar panel?" Well, yeah, if it
were really big! In the book I look at the power you use and talk about
conservation being key. Another main concern is average windspeed in
your area. Then I show equations to figure out how much power to
expect. On the average, most people would need about 2 to 10 small
windmills on their property to become energy independent. Remember,
it's not how powerful the windmill is, it is all about average wind speed. A
10,000 watt windmill with a 20 foot blade will only produce about 250
watts in 8 mph wind. But in 16 mph wind, it would be 8 times that...or
2,000 watts.
Q: What if I would rather have one big one instead of 10 smaller
ones?
A: First reason is tower strength. A 7 foot blade set will have a loading
of about 86 pounds of force from a 20 mph wind. A 21 foot blade would
produce about the same power as 9 smaller windmills (7 foot) but the
same wind would push on the tower with 775 pounds of force. And
since the generator and tail are bigger, then you are looking at a very
strong and expensive tower. It may take a small team just to raise it.
Also, the bigger the blade, the slower it spins. So you will need to gear
up the output or use a homemade generator. But if you are going to add
more complexity, you might as well drive 2 motors at the same time and
make twice the power.
And,
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reason, then you have no backup. Why put all your eggs in one basket.
Isn't it easier to build a small generator that you can install by yourself
and build more as needed?
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circuits.
# of Blades
Watts
RPM
------------------------------------------------3
467
480
545
320
I didn't feel that the extra effort was worth it though. I found that RPM is
very important. Most DC motors need at least 200 to 300 or more RPMs
just to start charging a 12v battery. So in the above example, the 3 blade
would be charging nicely while the 6 blade would not. Remember, watts
available in the wind is not translated to power to the battery if you can't
get the speed to match what the generator needs.
Also, an odd number of blades is better for any imbalance situation. So if
you wanted to go more blades you should go with a 5 blade design. Also,
you should make each blade a little thinner than my plans if you go more
than 3 blades. Otherwise, that TSR number will be closer to 3 instead of
4.
The disk load due to wind would be about the same, slightly higher.
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the efficiency. So if you wanted to use 35% instead, for example, you
could divide by 0.3 then multiply by 0.35. Or use 0.00557 as your
coefficient instead of .00477.
If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you would
need 8 windmills.
If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and you
would need 5 windmills.
If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you would
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need 2 windmills.
====
If you were running at 24 kwh per day or 1 kwh per hour on average,
things look a lot better.
If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you would
need 2 windmills.
If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and you
would need 2 windmills.
If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you would
need 1 windmill.
Don't know if you can get your energy usage down that much. And I'm
not sure what your average windspeed is.
Do you use electric heat? Just trying to figure out why you have such a
large energy consumption.
Also, my book focuses on 7 foot blades up to about 12 feet. Any bigger
than that, you are looking at big expensive towers.
Q: Great Publication! From what alternator did you use for the
diode assembly in your pulser circuit? Salvage yard or rebuilt?
A: That alternator was off a chevy minivan engine. It had sat outside for
2 years. I just took it apart and cleaned up the diodes and heat sink. So
it is definitely used. It's funny too, as I was experimenting, it arced and
sparked as I made various mistakes. But it still works like a champ.
Those things are pretty tough.
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May your windmill never cease to turn, may you batteries always
have a charge, and may you learn something every day for the rest
of your life.
Richard Lewis
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