Posts Tagged home wind turbines

Designing a Home Wind Turbine

Posted by outside_voices on Wednesday, 14 April, 2010

A home wind turbine is device that converts wind energy into mechanical energy which is later converted into usable electricity.

It typically consists of the following parts:

• The blades – A wind turbine can consist of any number of blades from 4 to 20. Some special wind turbines have higher number of blades.

• The tower – The tower holds the rotating blades high up in the air so that the winds rotate them.

• The shaft – The shaft is responsible for joining the blades with the tower and for the smooth rotation of the blades.

• The generator – These home wind generators are what that generate electricity from the mechanical energy. It also stores power for future usage.

• The base: The base of the home wind turbine keeps it grounded to the earth.

There are many factors that affect the design of a home wind turbine and they are:

• Wind speed: The wind speed can be accurately measured with the help of an anemometer. It is not possible to determine the right kind of wind turbine without knowing the accurate wind speed.

• Wind direction: For designing a wind turbine, it is also important to know the direction from which the wind flows most of the time.

• Change in wind speed: Apart from the constant speed of mind, it is important that you know how the wind changes its speed.

• Change of wind direction: The direction of wind turbine not be constant, so it important to note the way it changes its direction.

• Obstructions on the site: It is best to install a wind turbine at a place without many obstructions. Look out for existing and potential structures that may affect the performance of your wind turbine.

• Wind turbulence: The movement of the wind is not always predictable. However, it is a great idea to understand the patter of wind turbulence in your site.

• Distance of wind activity from the ground: The height of the tower is dependent on the height of which the wind is active.

The designs of home wind turbines vary in the following measures:

• The number of blades
• Shape of the blades
• The height of the tower
• Types of generators
• The distance of the installation spot from the ground
• Distance between the tower and the generator

Install a Wind Turbine To Save On Electricity

Posted by outside_voices on Thursday, 18 March, 2010

Many of the changes that have been brought in the last century to our planet are irreversible, but what we can and must do is to ensure that these changes won't cause any more ecological disasters to Earth.

We can start by switching to alternative energies, and one of the most popular ones is using the wind to generate electricity. Let’s take a look at why you should learn how to build your own wind turbine and use it as a source of energy. All of us know that wind turbines have the ability to turn wind energy into mechanical energy and electricity.

Since the 9th century, farmers have begun using wind turbines for grain grinding, threshing, land drainage as well as water supply. Unfortunately but inevitably, starting with the industrial revolution, wind power generators were replaced by the use of steam and internal combustion engines.

Not long after, people realized that this whole evolution thing is going in the wrong way, and they decided to go back to the old trend of using wind energy as a type of ecological energy.

However, not everyone knows how to build wind turbine. The reason is because it isn’t really practical to build a wind turbine in heavily populated areas. Alternatively, for a rural community, this would be very much suitable.

Local authorities should make bigger efforts in gaining founds to develop and implement home wind generators, to supply most of the energy the community uses. There are states like California, for whom going green is one of the priorities, and they should be a model for the rest of the world. For instance, they have workshops to teach farmers how to build wind turbine. They are also loans provided to help them build a wind turbine.

For an individual to learn how to build wind turbine isn't really a difficult task as well. There are actually some instructional guides online that provides you with accurate information on the materials you need plus step-by-step instructions to get you started.

Wind Generators – Are They The Future For Powering Our Homes?

Posted by outside_voices on Saturday, 2 January, 2010

See more at http://www.diywindpoweredhome.com/

For the past couple of years there has been a substantial change within the public becoming environmentally conscience. One area people have started to look into are altered ways of producing energy. One of the alternative energy sources being thought up is wind energy. This is because wind is an energy source that is not depleting. There is no way for wind to deplete at any time; however, it isn’t always constant in all areas. So to make use of the power wind has companies are creating wind generators.

Wind generators are machines used to make energy, gather it, and use it for electrical power. Usually, a wind generator is in the model of a windmill, which is a propeller attached to an electric generator that is fasten to an electrical grid or batteries. Batteries are needed for storing the energy that is made from a wind generator. But, not all windmills need to have batteries. This is because if you are making a windmill for your residence then the house is used as a local utility. If wind speeds are down below what they are needed to produce energy then electricity will be purchased from the utility company. If more energy is produced than the house needs the surplus of electricity will be sold to the utility company. For a modern residential wind system batteries shouldn’t be needed.

There are two basic types of home wind turbines. Individuals can have a mast mounted or a roof mounted for their house. A mast mounted wind mill is free standing and is constructed in an open location to gather enough energy for 2.5kw to 6kw. The other design is the roof mounted windmill which is constructed on the roof of a home. This usually makes between 1kw to 2kw. Homes usually use 780 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. Depending on the wind speed a wind turbine will need to be at the size of 5 to 15 kilowatts to make a significant difference within your electricity costs.

Wind generators are showing more and more interest as fossil fuels continue to lessen. Homeowners are seeing higher cost in electricity as fossil fuels persist to decrease. People are now searching for different ways of fixing this problem. Companies in the past have started developing products for home wind mills to allow people to start making their own energy. People are now able to start building their own home windmills through many different online resources.

Current Breakthroughs in Home Wind Turbines

Posted by outside_voices on Friday, 13 November, 2009

Wind power technology has been available for decades and has been steadily getting better and better. It has only been used for residential production of power in the past decade or so and has seen great improvements in both design and efficiency during that time. Modern wind turbines can be a great source of alternative power for many homeowners as they are quieter, smaller and generate more electricity than ever. Homeowners can now find guides and plans that teach how to build a wind turbine.

The biggest issue with early types of wind generators was that they were big and needed a very strong and consistent wind to get them turning. Because of their size and height requirements, they were not a good fit for many homeowners even though they generated sizeable quantities of power. Because of the residential areas in which these wind generators were being used, they needed to be mounted quite high up in the air. They had to be higher than other buildings and trees so that they would be exposed to as strong of a wind as possible to allow them to produce their maximum energy. In order to accomplish this, the wind generator had to be mounted at the top of a heavy duty, and often ugly, tower which was expensive and could cause complaints from neighbors. To make matters worse, there are restrictions on tower height or wind turbine installation in many towns. Large, open areas, free from tall buildings and trees were a better fit for these old, large units.

Modern wind turbine designs have reduced the size of the turbine and helped homeowners with smaller lots or in areas with trees or buildings. more modern designs require much less wind to spin and are much smaller than older types as well. Because of innovative construction materials, newer wind generators are also much lighter than older models. This means that they don’t need to be mounted as high as the older wind turbines and can still produce a good amount of energy from a smaller wind. Another improvement in these more modern wind turbines is their blade design which allows them to be more efficient with the wind they receive and quieter as well. These more recent wind turbines are also much quieter and more efficient thanks to their blade design. This can allow many homeowners who live in smaller neighborhoods to install these more recent wind turbines and generate green energy without causing much disturbance to their neighbors.

Another advantage to these more modern wind generators is that because they are lighter, they can orient themselves more quickly and actually generate power sooner than their larger counterparts. For a wind generator to work, it has to be able to rotate into the wind for proper blade orientation. This is usually accomplished through the use of a tail rudder. Before the bigger wind turbines could even produce power, they needed a strong wind to orient them properly so they could begin spinning. In many cases they could miss a smaller wind completely and never generate power. These newer, lighter wind turbines require less wind to orient them and can start spinning more quickly as a result. So, the older, larger wind turbines were spinning less often even though they would produce more power when they were actually spinning. Because they spin more consistently, the newer and smaller wind turbines will produce nearly as much energy over an entire year as the heaver ones. Lastly, because of their size many of the newer wind generators can be mounted directly to a roof and eliminate a lot of the cost of installation for the older versions. For any homeowner looking to produce renewable power from a passing breeze, a homemade wind turbine can be the perfect alternative.

How To Build a DIY Home Wind Turbine

Posted by outside_voices on Friday, 23 October, 2009

A home wind turbine is specially crafted to be environmentally friendly and cost saving. With the presence of harmful greenhouse gases in our environment today, it is recommended to have one of these home wind generators to reduce the amount of pollutants being produced into our environment.

The home wind turbine generates usable electrical power by spinning a generator. This generator is attached to the rotor, made up of three aerodynamic blades, that is then attached to a tower/support. To maintain the turbine from facing the wind, the rotor has a tail, which acts as weather vain.

In general, the generator is an electric motor. When the coils in the motor spins past the magnets, an electric current is produced. The power produced is stored in batteries, which are connected to an inverter that changes the direct current to alternating current, and this can then be used to power your home. The advancement of motor efficiency is the main reason why home wind turbines have become so popular among homeowners.

Taking your area's wind conditions into consideration, the tower/support can vary in length. If you are living near the sea where the wind power is more significant, the tower/support can be shorter, but in low-wind areas the tower/support will need to be taller to catch the required amount of wind.

Over time, the blades have improved drastically as researchers developed lighter, stronger, more efficient blades, with the capability of turning even in the lightest breeze. Back in those days, wind turbines had five blades, and looked identical to windmill water pumps, but recently they have moved to three blades, taking the form of over-sized airplane rotors. Like the tower/support, the blades vary in size, base on your wind conditions and energy requirements. Build your own wind turbine and benefit from all its features today.

Benefits of a home wind turbine:

  • Achieve tax breaks and lower electrical bills
  • Power appliances, charge batteries and generate water pumps
  • Environmentally friendly machine
  • Increase your efficiency and never worry about power outages again
  • Ease of Use