How I Built a Wind Generator in My Backyard for $150

Lately I've been spending a great deal of time working on ways to generate my own electricity. It isn't a necessity for me yet, but someday being electrically self-sufficient could really come in handy. My interest started a while back when I stumbled upon a how-to article on building wind generators from treadmill motors and PVC pipe. It sounded easy enough, so I decided to try and design my own. This particular design can be built for $100-$150 if you are thrifty and can regularly generate 50-250 watts (considerably cheaper than a solar panel of similar power output). Here's how I built it for those of you who are interested. Additionally, please check out my new frequently asked questions page for more information not discussed in detail here.

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Videos
Before we get into the details of how to build one of these, here are some videos of it in action. Each one demonstrates the behavior of the generator in a different blade configuration. Long, thin-bladed design (best overall)

Six-bladed design (low startup speed and lots of torque, but slowest)

Wide-bladed design (good startup speed, but also very slow)

How does my wind generator work?

Every wind generator, whether they produce enough energy to power a city or to power a small radio, works on these same basic principles... 1. The wind blows 2. The generator's vane (tail) causes it to turn into the wind 3. Blades attached to an alternator/generator experience the force of lift and begin to spin 4. The spinning creates electricity for us to use directly or to charge batteries Sounds pretty simple eh? Well, then how the heck do I build one? Read on...

Tools Required

Surprisingly, building a simple wind generator only requires very basic hand tools, and if you are desperate you won't necessarily need all of them. I used... Jigsaw (or a hacksaw and a lot of determination) Drill (2) Drill Bits (1/2", 7/32") Tape Measure Crescent Wrench Pipe Wrench Protractor (to measure angles for the hub) Sandpaper (various grits)

Parts Required

I wanted to be as minimal as possible with my design (I'm poor), so I took the already simple designs from around the web and made them even simpler. All of the parts are available at any local home improvement or hardware store, and the entire setup can be constructed in as little as a weekend. Many of the parts you may already have lying around, and lots of substitutions can be made (instead of 1" steel pipe for the tower, you could use an antenna pole for instance). Here are the parts I used to build my generator...

10" x 14" Steel Sheet 10" x 1/4" Steel Nipple 1-1/4" Floor Flange 36" x 1" Square Tubing 1/2" Bore Circular Sawblade (for hub) 5/8" x 1/2" Arbor (to attach sawblade to motor shaft) (2) Metal Straps 8" x 4" PVC Pipe 30" x 8" PVC Pipe (6" pipe works well too) A DC Permanent Magnet Motor (preferably Ametek 30V or 260V 5A treadmill motor) (8) 1/4" Bolts (with washers and nuts) (2) 1/4" Sheet Metal Screws 10-40 Amp Diode (the bigger the better)

All of the above parts (with the exception of the motor), can be picked up in a single stop to any large hardware or home improvement store. For the motor, the most popular types are old tape drive motors manufactured by a company called Ametek. The key is to finding a motor that puts out the highest voltage per RPM. For instance, the Ametek I'm using is rated for 30V at 325 RPM, making it excellent as an electricity generator (for a nice output comparison of the Ametek motors commonly found on eBay and other sites see TLG Windpower). However, pretty much any permanent magnet motor with a good volt/RPM ratio will do. Keep in mind that if you want to generate useful electricity, you will need to produce at least 12V to charge deep cycle batteries or run an inverter. My setup can easily achieve 300-400 RPM in a pretty average wind (for Oklahoma). These instructions assume an Ametek motor with a 5/8" shaft, but can easily be adapted to other motors (search ebay for "wind generator" and you will get a listing of lots of good motors).

Blade Construction

Arguably, the most important part of a wind generator are its blades. A lot of people like to carve their own blades out of wood or composite materials. However, for the rest of us, it's quite easy to make a good set of generator blades from common PVC pipe (and the efficiency isn't too bad either). A 2-3 foot section of either 6" or 8" PVC pipe will do the trick. Before we go any further, here are a few blade theory quickies...

The longer your blades are the more "swept area" you have to gather energy from and easier your blades will spin in low winds, but the slower your rotation speed will be The tips of the blades always spin faster than the base, therefore one needs to take into account the "tip speed ratio" (TSR) when designing blades (there is a reason why old farm windmills will spin all year long at 40RPM) The power that can be extracted from the wind increases by the cube of wind speed (something like P=k*v^3 k=constant of wind generator, v=wind velocity) According to the Betz Limit, only about 59.3% of power can be extracted from the wind (so in reality P=.593*k*v^3, assuming k accounts for mechanical inefficiencies in the generator motor) The higher you get the generator off of the ground, the more wind it will be exposed to (the general recommendation seems to be 25-50ft., but I've had decent results at just 12ft.)

Cutting the blades for this machine is very simple. You will need to cut your PVC pipe into 3 sections, two 150 degree sections and one 60 degree section (I've attempted to illustrate this VERY APPROXIMATELY in my favorite CAD program--and by CAD program I really mean MS Paint). The red lines are cut marks. You will want to use a good tape measure and possibly some construction paper or newspaper to mark everything before you cut. The 150 degree angles will result in wide blades that start up in lower wind speeds, however this will lower the shaft turning speeds. In practice, you will find that the optimum angle could be anywhere from 75-150 degrees. The best idea is start out with a wide set of blades that you can always thin out later if you need to. Remember, measure twice and cut once!

After the blades are cut, I like to go ahead and smooth out all of the edges. If you want to follow aerodynamic theory, you can round the angled (leading) edge and flatten the straight (trailing) edge, but in practice I haven't seen this make much difference with PVC blades. So, you should end up with something roughly like these...

Hub & Blade Assembly

The next obstacle is building a hub to attach the blades to. There are many types of ways that this can be done. I have used circular sawblades and scrap steel disks. I recommend the sawblade approach, as they are readily available and easy to drill through. You can pick up an arbor with a 5/8" or 1/2" shaft at any homestore that will attach directly to the sawblade. Using the 1/4" drill bit, you will want to drill 3 sets of 2 holes 1" apart which each set 120 degrees from the next (this is where the protractor comes in handy, unless of course you are a Euclidean purist in which case you probably don't need a protractor). Here is a picture to make it more clear...

It's a pretty simple idea, but circular sawblades have worked out very well for me as hubs. Be sure and get some sort of rubber covering for the tooth edges and/or file down the edges as best you can, because the last thing you want is a hub of death flying at you if your generator decides to rip apart!

After our holes are cut out and we are confident of our safety procedures, we attach the blades to the hub (note that the hub pictured was cut from scrap steel, more pictures to come later)...

Tail & Pivot Assembly

Now we need to build a spinning platform for our generator motor to rest on. To achieve this, we will use some square tubing, a pipe nipple, flange, and small sheet of steel. Here is my "CAD" draft of what I wanted my tail & pivot assembly to look like, and a real picture of some of the parts I used...

First, I recommend cutting the sheet steel with a jigsaw into a nice design for the the tail (Note: this step is quite unneccessary and ONLY for aesthethic reasons).

We then want to make a cut down the center of the square tubing. The length of the cut isn't that important, but I recommend about a 9" cut (this will help make balancing easier later on). We may then slide the tail metal into the hole and use the 1/4" drill bit to drill and attach the tail to the square tubing.

We will then want to cut out a weather covering for our motor. A piece of 4" PVC slips perfectly over the Ametek 30V motor that I use. I cut it out like so (note the side hole for the motor wires).

Then we go ahead and paint it all up to seal everything from the elements. I wouldn't recommend painting on your front porch like I did though...

After everything is painted, we can now put it all together. Take the floor flange and put it under the square tubing about 6"-7" from the head. Mark the holes and drill them out with the 7/32" drill bit (or any bit close to but smaller than 1/4"). Attach with the 1/4" sheet metal screws. Use the metal straps to secure the motor and cover assembly, screw on the pipe nipple and you should have something like this...

Tower Assembly
Every wind generator needs a tower. I built mine from some pipe fittings from my local hardware store. If you already have an antenna pole or electrical conduit lying around, then you can skip this section. Here is my recommended parts list for a small extensible tower...

(2) 5' Sections 1" Pipe (1) 1" Pipe Coupling (3) 1" Pipe Elbows (4) 18" Pipe Sections (2) 12" Pipe Sections

The tower base is pretty self-explanatory. Just hook up the elbows and pipe sections to create a base similar to this...

From there we can attach the 2 5' sections of pipe together to form a nice strong mini-tower for our generator to sit atop...

Finished Product
Now we are ready to attach the blades to the motor shaft with the arbor. You will also want to go ahead and attach some wire to the motor and run it to a device to power or a bank of batteries etc...

Here is a picture of the experimental design using six blades. It would spin in practically no wind, but would never get past 100RPM. At least it looked interesting!

Here is the battery bank I'm feeding into in parallel with solar panels. I am just using two 12V marine deep cycle batteries that can be found at any place that sells car batteries. I keep them in a standard plastic tub with a hole cut in the sides for 12V fans I cannibalized from a couple of old Mac G4s (not pictured). Be sure and put a diode between the battery and the generator so that current doesn't flow from the battery to the motor.

It turns out, cutting the blades a little thinner works better for my area. So I used the large white blades from the previous picture and thinned them out a bit. This resulted in the fastest shaft speeds as seen in first video at the top of this page.

Not too bad for a 22 year old kid from Oklahoma eh (I'm 25 now :))? Please feel free to use mycontact form if you have any questions, and of course I will gladly welcome your feedback positive or negative.

Inverter will not run my appliance (TV, VCR, Microwave, etc). For medical equipment users, see important information Consult the appliance manufacturer if it is compatible with a modified sine wave output from an inverter. This is especially important for computers and cordless power tools. Equipment not made to support a modified sine wave from an inverter or generator may be damaged if connected to the inverter. Check the appliance rating label, it should be listed in Amps or Watts. If rating is listed in amps, multiply the amps by 120 volts. The answer will be the watts required. This number should be lower than the continuous wattage rating of the inverter. If the appliance has a motor or picture tube, start-up surge must also be considered. Start-up surge is extra watts the appliance requires to turn on or "start-up". The start-up surge can be as high as 10 times its rated watts. An example of this would be a skill saw. The lights in the house can dim when the saw is first turned on. This dimming is the start-up surge. With the start-up surge in mind, select an inverter with a continuous wattage rating equal to or larger than the start-up surge. Microwave cooking power is not the power required to operate the microwave. It generally requires twice the cooking power. Check the appliance rating label, it should be listed in Amps or Watts. If rating is listed in amps, multiply the amps by 120 volts. The answer will be the watts required. This number should be lower than the continuous wattage rating of the inverter. IMPORTANT: Before operating medical equipment, such as a nebulizer, check with the medical equipment manufacturer. Majority of medical equipment are not compatible with modified sine waves. Will not run my "x" inch TV. It may...If the TV's wattage rating is below the continuous watts of the inverter. Some older TV's may need to be "Jumped Started" to turn on, meaning the inverter's power switch needs to be turned off/on/off/on several times (with the TV left on) to charge the TV's power supply. Once charged, the inverter will run it fine. It may part 2...Some new TVs may require to be plugged into the inverter (with the inverter on) for several minutes before the TV can be turned on. It could also be the lighter socket. The lighter socket wiring may be

too small to handle the start up surge. This will cause the inverter to shut down. Test this with the inverter connected directly to the battery. If it works this way then it's the lighter socket wiring. It may not...If the TV's wattage rating is below the continuous watts of the inverter. Newer TV's power on/off switch control internal software (computer) components which do not support jump starting. Use a higher wattage inverter or a different TV. See first bullet on modified sine waves. Why does my VCR run slow? If using a 140 to 400 watt inverter; Try connecting directly to the battery using a lighter socket adapter (Supplied with the 300 to 400W models). Could be that the lighter socket is dirty or loose or that the wiring to the lighter socket is too small a gauge to support an inverter. Turn the VCR on first, then the TV. This may allow the VCR's power supply to start correctly.

Another possibility if the VCR runs slow is compatibility. Running slow is an indication that the VCR does not operate correctly with a modified sine wave. What is a modified sine wave? To produce AC from 12 VDC a couple of steps or conversions take place inside the inverter. First step is the input voltage (12 volts) is increased to 145 VDC. Step two, the 145 VDC is converted to 110 VAC by using advanced MOSFET transistors. The resulting AC output from this conversion is called a "modified sine wave". It looks like a squared off sine wave.

View of a modified sine wave signal

View of a true sine wave signal

Some appliances do not work well or not at all with a modified sine wave. Consult the appliance manufacturer if it is compatible with a modified sine wave output from an inverter. This is especially important for computers and cordless power tools. Equipment not made to support a modified sine wave from an inverter or generator may be damaged if connected to an inverter. Unit makes a buzzing sound. This is a low battery voltage alarm. The input voltage is below 11 volts (GO-AC models voltage alarm is 10.5 volts) and the inverter is notifying you to check the battery voltage. Either recharge the battery or discontinue use of the appliance. If battery is not recharged and appliance is still in use, the battery voltage will continue to drop and the inverter will shut off to prevent total battery drain. The alarm will continue to sound until the inverter is shut off or the battery voltage rises above 12 volts. The unit will also buzz if using a smaller gauge wire (higher number) than what is required. Ex; A 500 watt inverter needs at least an 8 gauge wire when the inverter is up to 10 feet away from the battery. See What Size Cable Should I Use?. Overload or Red LED light illuminates. This is an indication that the inverter has shut itself off by: low or high voltage input (<10.5, >15.5 [GO-AC models <9.5, >16]) thermal shutdown (unit overheated) a start-up surge higher than the peak wattage of the inverter A shorted appliance

While trying to watch a TV for example, and the Red LED illuminates when the TV is turned on, try rocking the inverter's on/off switch off then on several times. This procedure "jump starts" the TV's power supply and helps the inverter get over the TV's start-up surge. The unit may also be defective if the LED is illuminated and no appliances are plugged into the inverter. This could be caused by an extreme limit of one of the above examples. If the appliance worked once then stopped, click here. Inverter works fine but shuts off (Red LED on) when engine runs. At this higher voltage, start up current for the device along with engine noise produces a false overload

condition. Simply leave device switched on, turn inverter off then back on. This should solve the problem. Fan stays on constantly. The fan remains on constantly with inverters that have a continuous wattage rating of 100 to 500 watts and our larger PI Series. Some larger models have thermostatically controlled fans and thus only come on when necessary. How much power does the inverter need from the batteries? As a rule of thumb (leaning on the high side), an inverter will require 10% of its continuous wattage rating from a battery. Example: A 300 watt inverter providing 300 watts to an appliance will require 30 amps from the battery. The same inverter providing 150 watts to an appliance will require 15 amps from the battery. How long will the inverter run on batteries? The inverter will run continuously if: The battery(ies) voltage maintains 11 volts (10.5 volts for GO-AC models) or higher (15.5 volts max 16 volts max for GO-AC models). Sufficient air spacing and ventilation around the inverter Not unusually high air temperatures (90+) Wattage is below continuous rating of inverter

To determine how long a typical battery will last we need to find the amp/hour rating of the battery. The cold cranking amps or CCA rating is only a number to compare manufacturer's batteries. Somewhere on the battery labeling there should be a "reserve minutes" specification. Simply times the "reserve minutes" number by .3 to get an amp/hour rating for the battery. For example; What is the amp/hour of a battery with 100 reserve minutes? 100 x .3 = 30 amp/hours How long will a battery last? A 300 watt inverter providing 150 watts connected to a fully charged 100 reserve minutes battery will last approximately 2 hours. To determine the power the inverter needs from the battery click here. 30/15 amps = 2 hours The higher the "reserve minutes" the longer the inverter will work. Vehicle Electrical System (alternators) A major consideration when installing large inverters (500 Watts and higher) is the charging system. The charging system must be able to keep ahead of the current drain from the inverter plus the drain of the remaining systems in the vehicle. Normal vehicle alternators range from 65 to 90 amps. For example a 1500 watt inverter supplying power to a 1000 watt appliance requires 100 amps from the battery. With the vehicle's alternator rated at 90 amps, this is a 10 amp drain for the battery. Using the above battery, the car will be dead within 3 hours! Not only will the car be dead but the alternator may burn out because it was trying to recharge the battery at its full output. Alternators do not like to work full out. A larger alternator, at least 20 to 30 amps more than what's needed will be required to keep the battery charged. A 110 or 120 amp alternator would be required in this application. If the 1500 watt was used at its continuous rating a 170 to 180 amp alternator is needed. What size cable do I use? Follow the chart below to choose the right size cable. Measure the distance from the battery to the inverter. The wire gauge needed is in red.

Feet from Battery 4 6 8

200 Watt 14 12 12

400 Watt 10 10 8

800 Watt 8 6 6

1200 Watt* 6 4 4

2000 Watt* 4 2 2

3000 Watt* 2 0 0

10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26

10 10 8 8 8 8 6 6 6

8 6 6 6 4 4 4 4 2

4 4 2 2 2 2 0 0 0

2 2 0 0 0 0 2/0 2/0 2/0

0 0 2/0 2/0 3/0 3/0 4/0 4/0 4/0

2/0 3/0 3/0 4/0 4/0 2/0(2 sets) 2/0(2 sets) 3/0(2 sets) 3/0(2 sets)

*Note Using multiple #0, #00(2/0), #000 (3/0) gauge wire may be required. 2 sets of #0 gauge cables can be substituted for one set of #0000 (4/0) gauge cables. 2 sets of #2 gauge are equal to one set of #00 gauge cables (2/0) Static Reception on Stereo's, CB's etc. Add a ground wire from the case of the inverter to ground of the vehicle or earth ground. See grounding tips first! Twist (make a coil cord out of it) the 12 volt input wires (thick wires may not be possible) and also the AC line cord. If receiving lines though the TV screen, add the in-line filter from radio shack (Radio Shack P/N 273-105) on the TV's power cord, (more than 1 may be required). Connecting An Inverter To A RV/Boat: Plugging the RV only into the inverter? Important: Add up the number of watts on all of the devices you wish to power. Divide that number by 10. This will give you the amps required to run the devices for an hour. Check the amp hour rate of the RV's battery by multiplying the reserve minutes rating of the battery by 0.3. For more information on amp/hrs click here. The amp/hr. rating of the battery should be higher than the total number of amps required by the devices. The larger the difference between amp/hr. rating of the battery (higher number) and the total Amps used (lower number), the longer the devices can be used. More than 1 battery may be required depending on devices operating and for how long. Keep the wire length for the inverter very short. This will eliminate any power losses to the inverter through the 12 volt cable. Shut off circuit breakers to certain appliances, such as microwave's and A/C units, before connecting RV to inverter. This will prevent any current surges that might shut down the inverter. Turn off the on board battery charger. The battery charger will only shorten the inverter run time. Switching the power from the line (shore power - boats) to the inverter? Important: If inverter is to be permanently mounted inside the vehicle (house or boat), a line switch is required to prevent damage to the inverter. Without this switch, 110 volts will try to enter the inverter as the inverter is trying to provide 110 volt output, (Assuming that the line is active). Have a qualified electrician install this switch. Line switches are available at any electrical outlet store. Note: Both the hot and the neutral of the plug must be switched! If not, damage to the inverter will result. Important: The AC ground and the DC ground can not be connected together! See grounding the inverter. Connecting an inverter to a house. Follow instructions for RV's Works one time but not now. It is possible that the inverter was overloaded when used the last time and damaged something inside. Use of the inverter in a dirty or loose lighter socket might of limited the current the inverter needed to operate. This forced the internal circuits to work harder and caused a failure.

See the Overload section for more information. Rechargeable Products Before using a rechargeable product (i.e., cell phones, battery chargers, lap tops) check with the manufacturer to see if it is compatible with a modified sine wave. Some appliances can be damaged if connected to an inverter or generator. For more information on compatibility click here. Will it run my "x" hp motor? To determine which inverter will operate the motor, we need to know what the wattage of the motor is and then add in the start up surge. Need to convert "hp" into watts first. Follow this simple formula - hp x 750 = Watts. One hp motor requires approximately 750 Watts. To convert Watts into hp: Follow this simple formula - Watts x .00134 = hp.

Once the watts are determined multiply that wattage by 10, (This number is on the high side. Smaller motors may require only 2 - 6 times the wattage), this will give you the start up surge of the motor. For more information on start up surge click here. What is the size and weight?

Model Inverter 140 Watt GO-AC 150 Watt GO-AC 200 Watt 300 Watt GO-AC 350 Watt GO-AC 400 Watt 500 Watt GO-AC 750 Watt 1000/1250 Watt 1500/1750 Watt 2500/2750 Watt

Size 2.0"H x 5.0"W x 5.5"L 9.75"H x 5.5"W x 2.0"L 8.75"H x 5.5"W x 2.0"L 2.0"H x 6.75"W x 5.5"L 11.0"H x 5.5"W x 2.0"L 9.75"H x 5.5"W x 2.0"L 2.75"H x 7.5"W x 10.5"L 3"H x 7.25"W x 14"L 3.25"H x 10.25"W x 13.5"L 3.25"H x 10.25"W x 18.5"L 6.5"H x 9.0"W x 19.25"L

Weight 1.8 lbs 2.0 lbs 2.0 lbs 2.4 lbs 2.6 lbs 2.4 lbs 6.5 lbs 4.5 lbs 7.25 lbs 10.25 lbs 19.3 lbs

If your model is not listed, see our inverter page for specs.

Do the inverters have Ground Fault Interrupt GFI connectors? Can I connect a GFI outlet to an inverter? GFI is short for Ground Fault Interrupt. You see these outlets in your bathroom or kitchen. They have generally 2 buttons on them labeled trip and reset. What these do is trip (turn off the voltage to the outlet) and pop out the trip button when the outlet senses a current difference between one of the thin plugs (known as "hot"[short plug] and "neutral"[long plug]). Water (condensation) generally will cause this. A defective appliance's wiring will trip it also. Our inverters do not have these outlets built in. GFI outlets work fine with our inverters. If a GFI trips when connected, double check outlet wiring and grounding of inverter. What is the current draw of the inverter?

Model Inverter PP140AC GO-AC PP150AC GO-AC PP200AC PP300AC GO-AC PP350AC GO-AC PP400AC PP500AC GO-AC PP750AC PP1000AC PP1250AC PP1500AC PP1750AC PP2500AC PP2750AC

12V Pwr Requirement @ Rated Output 14 Amps 15 Amps 20 Amps 30 Amps 35 Amps 40 Amps 50 Amps 75 Amps 100 Amps 125 Amps 150 Amps 175 Amps 250 Amps 275 Amps

Idle Current Draw In mA < 0.10A < 0.10A < 0.20A < 0.20A < 0.20A < 0.30A < 0.30A < 0.40A < 0.32A < 0.32A < 0.37A < 0.37A < 0.60A < 0.60A

How do I connect more than one battery? The following drawings show how to wire multiple batteries to an inverter. To connect 3 or more 12 volt batteries, the same principal applies. Simply add the additional battery(ies) in between the ones shown. Six volt batteries must be connected in pairs.

12 Volt Batteries Connected in Parallel. This doubles the current.

6 Volt Batteries Connected in Series. This doubles the voltage to 12 volts.

Do I have to ground the inverter? Models PP750AC and up have a ground terminal on the back of the unit. This will connect to ground of the vehicle, either to the negative terminal of the inverter, the chassis of the vehicle or the battery ground. If connection is inside a home, RV or boat; connect this ground to the AC ground. Note: AC and DC grounds must not be connected together! Damage to the unit will result. Example of installing an inverter to a house or RV:

Why does my voltmeter show less than 110 volts?

For accurate measurement of the output voltage of the inverter, a voltmeter with "True RMS Voltmeter" marking on it must be used. Typical brands of this voltmeter are; Fluke 87 and 8060A, Beckman 4410 or Triplett 4200. If your voltmeter is not one of these brands or does not have a "True RMS" marking on the unit, it will read 20 to 30 volts low. The modified sine wave output confuses non true RMS meters. For more information on modified sine waves clickhere.

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Home > My Projects > The Wind Turbine Part 2: Design and Materials

The Wind Turbine Part 2: Design and Materials

May 10th, 2010 Leave a comment Go to comments

Now that the general idea has been introduced, let us have a look at the materials and parts that make up the IBee Turbine design.

The Materials

~ 2 ft. of 8 Schedule 80 PVC pipe For the blades ~ 2 ft. of 6 1/4 thick PVC pipe For the body A desktop computer side panel For the tail An old AC motor For the generator A 1.5 x 3.5 x 8 block of wood For holding the body to the mast Several 6 and 8 stainless pipe clamps For holding the motor and the block of wood to the body A beautiful custom machined flywheel For holding the blades A 1 pipe flange For holding the body to the mast A 6 x 1 galvanized steel nipple For the pivoting assembly A 24 x 1 galvanized steel pipe For the pivoting assembly A 1 galvanized steel union For the pivoting assembly A 1 to 1.25 galvanized steel reduction For the pivoting assembly A 5 m 1.25 galvanized steel pipe For the mast Five steel brackets and appropriate wall screws For holding the mast to the wall A car battery For the energy storage A high power resistor For the charge controller A DPST switch For the charge controller A fuse For the charge controller A battery charge controller (for solar panels in our case) For the battery charge control A 75W (in our case) power inverter For producing 110 VAC A nice bedside table For creating a nice Energy station. ~ 10 m of two-conductor electrical cable For connecting the Generator to the battery An old computer power supply case For holding all the electronics components together Stainless steel screws, nuts, washers and lock washers, and a nail A nylon cutting board (or at least a piece of it) Cable ties Lots of bees No seriously, lots of them

Main IBee Turbine Components

The main components from another angle

Making the parts

We started building the turbine before the trip. This way, we were able to make all the complex components (especially the blades) in a known environment with all the required tools and comfort. This was a rather good move since this spared a lot of work in Ecuador and allowed us to use tools that were not available down there (mainly power tools such as jig saws, belt sander, and of course the Dremel).

Initial Gathering
In order to start the construction, we gathered at Pices dAuto Jarry. Mr. Plante (the owner) was kind enough to allow us to use his tools and warehouse to build the blades and the turbines body. On that construction day, the students worked very hard:

They made the blades following the MAKE instructions using the 8 PVC pipe. After realizing a smaller 6 pipe could fit almost perfectly the generator motor, they made the turbine body out of it. The pipe was brought in case we could not find the appropriate 8 pipe for the blades. They made and tested the electrical connections for the generating motor. This meant spinning the motor shaft very fast by hand and hoping for an LED to turn ON. What did I do meanwhile? Mainly look cool and be idle since they were working very well.

Construction Day

The Finishing Touches

After the initial building session was done, my work started. I had to finish all the started parts as well as creating some new ones that were missing. It is important to note that all PVC pieces were coated with exterior paint. This not only made them look very pretty but also protected them against UV radiation which is very damaging for such materials.

The Body
The turbine body is made form a 6 PVC pipe. The idea behind this for the body to be in one single piece that will hold the motor (generator) and the tale while being weatherproof.

The tube is slightly larger than the motor it carries and thus required three cuts on one end. These cuts and the natural flexibility of the tube allowed the motor to be held in place firmly when tying it with stainless steel pipe clamps.

Closeup of the motor clamped to the body Also, two cuts were made on the other end. This created a slit where the tale can slide in place. The tale was then held by using cable ties. Another slit was made in order to accommodate the various wires coming out form the motor. Furthermore, two triangular cuts were made on each side of the body. This resulted in a (hopefully) more aerodynamic shape, and in a significant weight reduction. his is important since the torque exerted on the mast by a (roughly) 20 kg turbine can be quite considerable depending on its length. It is important to note that all cuts in the body end in a circle. This is to prevent the cut from producing a crack because of the resulting weakening of the structure. I am not sure on how necessary (or effective) this is, but at least it gives me peace on mind.

The Finished Turbine Body

The Blades
The blades were cut by the students from an 8 schedule 80 PVC pipe by following the instructions in the Make Video. I simply added the finishing touches that included: smoothing them further, making sure they all weighted the same and had the same dimensions, drilling the mounting holes so they could be attached to the flywheel, and painting them. Quick Tip: The back of a box cutter is ideal for smoothing PVC (and other plastics I assume). Simply run it trough the surface back and forth until you get the desired result. I found this to be more effective than any other tool.

Making the blades Also, the mounting holes were drilled taking into account the fact that the blade tips need to be equidistant from one another once mounted on the wheel.

The Blades

The Beautiful Flywheel

The CIMME machined a beautiful flywheel based on a Sketchup drawing I provided. To my great surprise the flywheel turned out to be perfect and to fit flawlessly in the design. We had this piece professionally machined since it is crucial for the blades to be held firmly to the motor spindle. Also, its dimensions have to be very precise in order to achieve optimal balance and prevent any vibration or wobbling of the blades.

Flywheel Isometric View The flywheel was machined in aluminum using a CNC mill and sandblasted afterwards in order to increase its coolness factor.

The Flywheel

The Pivot
One of the biggest challenges to me was to imagine a good way of coupling the turbine to the mast that holds it up. The idea came to me that using a block of wood, some pipe clamps and a pipe flange would be a rather simple and sturdy solution. First, it was necessary to carve out a cylinder from the block of wood in order to be able to properly fasten if to the turbines body. This was done manually using mainly a wood knife.

First wood attachment prototype The preliminary version of the wood coupling evolved into a more sophisticated one as shown below. The latter is larger (increasing the assembly robustness), and features a hole and some cuts in order to allow the motor cables to go trough.

The wooden attachment The actual pivoting part was done by using a 1 galvanized steel pipe union. It was modified in such a way that it could turn (almost) freely. This was achieved by not screwing the union completely and adding a hole and a nail that acts similarly to a clevis pin and prevents the union to get unscrewed. Also, a nylon washer was added in between the the rotating metal parts in order to reduce friction and prevent premature wear. The washer was cut form an old cutting board. Finally, in order to attach this rotating part to the wooden attachment, a pipe flange and a nipple were used.

The pivoting part

The Tail
The wind turbine requires a tail so it can follow the direction of the wind. For this purpose we used an old computer side panel that we cut, drilled, and painted. The tail fits into a slit cut in the body as mentioned before and was fastened with four cable ties.

The finished tail

Coming up: Part 3: Building the Generator

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1. Rhythmtech May 28th, 2010 at 12:13 | #1 Reply | Quote The Old DC motor looks like a 2 speed AC fan motor to me. It appears that the cap leads go to a plastic box and there is a rectifier also connected. Was this motor converted to DC, how does that circuit work, it seems like it would be the most interesting part of the project to me.

2. Carlitos May 29th, 2010 at 00:35 | #2 Reply | Quote @Rhythmtech Sorry for that. I meant old AC motor. Indeed the electrical part id very interesting and i will publish further details about it soon.

3. Raymond July 21st, 2010 at 17:24 | #3 Reply | Quote @Carlitos Can you give information on the the old AC motor used, is it a perminent magnet type with brushes or brushless, is it a motor that was once used on the mains supply and adapted for this wind turbine, thanks Ray.

4. Carlitos July 21st, 2010 at 21:27 | #4 Reply | Quote @Raymond The origin of the motor is a bit shady since it was donated to the project by an external source. Ill post (eventually) more details on the electrical aspects of the project.

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Pivot Instructions
These are only recommendations. In this country you have the freedom to do what ever you want to this pivot. Of course it is up to the end user to assure its safe use. Since I have no control of this, I can not assume any liabilities.

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This custom designed "Ametek" pivot is made from inch and a half square tubing with machined washers, nuts, and a half inch pipe fitting welded on to it. The idea came to me after a response to a user of one of my adaptor plates. That is the reason for the six and a half inch spacing of the 3/8-16 nuts that are welded on the side. Because of that spacing this pivot mount can be also used to mount a "standard" automobile alternator. The problem with using a "standard" car alternator is that they "consume" energy until they spin fast enough to "cut in" and produce energy. For me this was about 11-13 mph.

After making several of these, I've realized the best way to figure the length of the "spacer" pipes is to cut them the same length as the body of the motor. It is best that they are square at the ends. This can be done with a hacksaw and file or better with a pipe cutter. You could also go to the hardware store and buy pre-cut pieces of pipe. That is where I bought the 3/8-16 "All thread", washers, lock washers, and nuts. The "All thread" should be about one inch longer than the spacer pipes. A washer at the pivot end of the spacer pipe gives a larger surface area to seat against. I would recommend using "Nylock" nuts. When I can't find them, I use a dab of "Permatex" gasket sealer on the threads. This never fully hardens so I still take it apart later, and is weather proof.

Speaking of weather proofing. In this picture please note the white washer looking piece on the front of the motor. This is actually the side of a milk jug that I cut as a spacer/gasket to go between the steel adaptor plate and aluminum motor face. I cut the hole for the shaft small and forced it on. This actual motor had been in service for many months ( you can tell by the rust on the nut and end of the shaft). A dab of silicone sealant where the wires come thru, a piece of duct tape over the rear bearing hole, and a good coat of paint finish up my weather proofing. The four screws that bolt onto the front of the Ametek motor can either be 10-32 (inch) or M5 (metric). This is the only fastener that is interchangeable between the inch and metric systems. I prefer the metric socket head cap screws. In this picture you can see that I used a red "Tupperware" style lid for my gasket/seal.

I calculated that a windmill with a 59" diameter propeller should use a 280 square inch area tail mounted on a 36" pipe. I put a dab of wheel bearing grease on the top of the mast prior to mounting the pivot and a touch on the side were the bottom edge will rub. Ideally the weight of the tail should balance the weight of the motor and blades.
Here is a link to instructions to a good mast erection. It just might give you some good ideas. http://www.bergey.com/Products/XL1.Tilt.IM.1.pdf
Many people have asked about purchasing a tail. A tail is an easy thing to make. Mine is just a piece of plywood sawn to 18" x 24" with some angled cuts. I used some electric conduit straps and carriage bolts to fasten it to the 1/2" pipe. Also the shaft adaptor is called a "motor arbor" and is available at your local "Ace" hardware store or online at www.harborfreight.com. These come in two different sizes 1/2" and 5/8" depending on the diameter of your motor shaft.

Copyright 2004 by Randy's Workshop page design: Randy Burmeister last update: 01/31/2005 06:50:55

New Homemade Wind Generator from Recycled Parts

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February 2009: I decided to give homemade wind generators a try again. I was so close back in 2001 and 2002, the making power part of it went great, it was simply a durability issue. The generator doesn't need to produce a lot of power, but it needs to be there all the time. For my next foray into wind generators, I decided to keep it small, see if I could make 40 watts or so in 12-15 mph winds and have it survive the days of extreme high winds and thunderstorms that frequent Northwest Iowa. Most of what I had left over from my first attempts at building wind generators I had sold. I did have one used trailer axle stub and hub in my inventory, as well as a good selection of already wound coils. I still had some magnets, but not enough of the kind I needed for an axial, dual rotor unit. I've had my eye (or bookmark) on CMS Magnetics for a few years. They seemed to offer a great selection of high quality magnets at good prices. I searched their inventory for the best deal on mid size magnet suitable for this generator. I found a 1" diameter by 3/8" thick magnet that looked like it might just work. It's a little small, and that concerns me, but at $1.50 each it's worth a try. I had a set of 10 coils, looks like about 60 turns of 15 gauge flat magnet wire in each. They were already soldered together and ready to use, I had glued the windings together with epoxy, so there wouldn't be any changing them. So I ordered 20 of the 1" magnets, that'll give me a single phase alternator, 1 pair of magnets over each coil. For the frame of the generator I scrounged up some used 1" x 3" x 1/8" steel tube. I wanted this generator to yaw out of the wind by tail furling. To do this, you need to offset the generator head from the tower yaw bearing. I wasn't sure exactly how much to offset, but looking at other wind generators to get an idea, I decided to go with a 4" offset.

The initial frame welded up. I drilled a 1.25" hole through the front tube and inserted the axle shaft into the tube, I gave it about 2-3 degrees of upward tilt to keep the blades farther away from the tower. Once the front was welded, I did a plunge weld into the back and into the shaft, securing it firmly in the tube. The front tube is 12" across, I drilled 4) 3/8" holes in the ends for the stator mounting threaded rods. The back tube has the tail pivot mounted to it, the yaw bearing will mount between the tail pivot and the front tube. You can really see how much offset it has.

Here's a shot looking down on the frame. This is the first time I've tried this type of tail pivot/furling design. But from what I've read, it works great. The pivot mounts to the frame tilted back 20 degrees. What this does, is it uses gravity to always try to bring the tail back down, in the middle position. Due to the offset head, the generator will always have a force trying to turn the head out of the wind, the weight of the tail tries to keep the tail in the center behind the generator. If the wind gets too strong, the weight of the tail is overcome and the tail stays parallel to the wind, but the generator head turns out of the wind. Increasing the tail weight keeps the generator pointed into the wind at higher speeds, decreasing the tail weight has the reverse effect, causing the unit to turn out of the wind sooner. So what's with the funky 45 degree angle of the whole thing? If we didn't have some extra force to hold the tail steady, the whole unit would shudder back and forth as the tail moved on its pivot. To get that extra holding force, we angle the pivot off to the opposite side of the offset by 45 degrees. That way the the tail is heading downhill all the time, and we can again use gravity rather than a spring to do our work. Of course, you need a stop on the pivot to hold the tail in position. Next picture will show that.

Close up of the pivot.

The tail pivot is tilted back 20 degrees and to the side 45 degrees, 2 pipes just slip over each other to form the pivot. To make a stop, I cut a length of pipe down the middle and welded it to the upper pipe so it hits the bracket to keep the tail from pivoting too far out. This allows the tail to pivot one direction only (towards the offset head) and gravity always tries to bring it back down to the stop I welded on the pivot. I used 1" schedule 40 pipe on the bottom of the pivot and 1.25" pipe on the top. I couldn't find any seamless pipe, so I had to chuck up the 1.25" pipe in my lathe and bore out the weld. The tail boom will be welded on the upper pipe.

Here are the 2 rotor plates with the magnets just stuck on for now. The rotor plates are 3/16" sheet steel. I had a couple of good size pieces laying around, so I used them. But, it's not necessarily an easy job making good, round disks out of sheet metal. Luckily, I was access to a large metal shear, so I took the sheet to a friends shop and sheared the plates into octagons (or close to it). Then I drilled a 3/8" hole in the centers, ran some ready rod through, bolted them together and chucked up the ready rod in my lathe. Then I could draw the plates against the chuck and turn them down to final size. I have a 15" swing lathe, so I can do this. You might have to have someone laser cut them... You really don't want to use a torch here, the plates need to stay flat and heating them may warp them. Once the outside disk was turned down, I chucked up the full disk in the lathe and bored out the center holes. The disks are now 10" in diameter with a 2.42" hole in the middle. All that was left was to drill out the 4 holes for the hub bolts. I drew the bolt pattern out on paper, transferred it the plates, center punched and drilled the 4 holes.

The stator mold ready for casting. The stator mold is a 3/4" plywood base with 1/2" plywood cut out to form the mold. I used a latex caulk to seal around the edges, then painted on two heavy coats of PVA mold release. You could use wax or something else as a mold release, but I've got PVA and it works great. Just make sure you use something good or you'll never get your stator out of mold!

The coils freshly embedded in polyester resin. Now here's where I almost made a huge mistake. I just about took it for granted my coils were wound properly, since they were already soldered together and had been used to bench test some magnet rotors in years past. This is just a plain old single phase alternator, and I'm certainly no genius when it comes to alternating current, (In fact, it almost seems more of a black art to me at times.) But I decided to check the direction of the windings on the coils. If memory served me, the coils needed to alternate, one wound one way the other the other way. I was pretty sure in the past, what I had done, was just flip over every other coil. But I

found 3 coils in the set of 10 were in backwards! So I managed to cut the leads, switch the coils around and solder them back in proper positions. No wonder this setup didn't work well, with 3 coils in backwards, that would have essentially canceled out 3 other sets of coils, making this a 4 coil alternator rather than a 10 coil alternator... I knew the casting of this stator wasn't going to be pretty. The coils were soaked in epoxy and set like rocks. I wasn't going to be able to compress them into the 1/2" mold like I would have wanted to. But I would make do, and hope for the best. I drew out the pattern in the mold where each coil must be placed, along with the path of the magnets. Then I placed a coil in its proper position and used duct tape to hold it in place. I considered using some quick set epoxy to hold the coils in place, that way I could remove the tape and add some Fiberglas cloth to reinforce the stator, but I really didn't have the height to work with. So this stator is not as strong as I would have liked, but since it's on a rather small machine, I think it will hold up the way it its. When I cast polyester resin like this, I only use about 1/3 the recommended amount of hardener. When the resin is cast in a thick layer like this, it heats up and sets too quickly, causing it to crack. They say an entire can of resin will eventually cure if just one drop of hardener is added to it. I'm not going to try just a drop, but you get the idea. Plan on the cure taking a couple hours or more, high ambient temperatures accelerate the cure too. So if you're working in hot weather, reduce the curative even more. In cold weather, increase the curative slightly. Before I started pouring the mixed resin in the mold, I made sure I had a supply of sticks, boards, etc. to level the mold.

Here's the mold closed up. In a perfect world, the mold lid would be drawn down on the coils to compress them as much as possible. A bolt through the center is an easy way to compress the coils.

Several hours later the resin had cured. You're looking at the good side of the stator, the bottom. The top side's not so pretty, but it will work. It's just over 1/2" thick with a few wires from the coils on the top side sticking up out of the resin. I'll have to increase the air gap some to make sure I don't have contact between the rotating magnets and the stator wires.

The alternator loosely assembled for the first time. The moment of truth was at hand, how would the alternator perform on the bench? Everything was loose and the air gap very wide, so I didn't expect great performance. For the first test, I just short the 2 output wires and gave it a spin. It barely turned, that was a good sign. So I hooked up the AC leads to my voltmeter and gave it another spin, this time it spun freely and the volt meter ran up to over 15 volts. Another great sign, over 15 volts spinning by hand meant the unit would have a low cut in speed. Next test was to run the output wires through a bridge rectifier to convert the AC to DC, I spun it up again and still got 15 volts,

now DC. I switched the meter to the high amp setting, then gave the alternator another spin. With much resistance to turning the meter read over 5 amps DC. Wow, this little guy was doing much better than expected. The last test was to connect a 12 volt lead acid battery, and see if I could spin it up enough to get a charging current into the battery. Sure enough, with a quick spin of the rotor the meter read about 1.1 amps charging current into the battery. I have a feeling I'm going to get a bit more than 40 or 50 watts out this wind mill in modest winds. I still need to be careful though, and not get greedy. There's going to be a lot of internal resistance in the coils, if I try to push too much current through it I'll turn the stator into a heater and melt things. I'll just have to work with the furling system to make sure it turns out of the wind before it's making too much current. The blades I used in the past were great low wind blades, since they have an aggressive angle and are not tapered they have a lot of torque and start in very low wind speeds. I was going to go with 5' blades, but I may just go with 6' blades instead. The theory, or plan for this wind generator is to produce useable power in low to modest wind speeds, and turn out of the wind sooner rather than later. I think I underestimated the power of these magnets. My largest generator used 1.5" magnets by 3/16" thick, I'm not so sure these 1" by 3/8" magnets aren't just as powerful. Of course, I ran two sets of 9 coils on that generator, so it would be capable of at least twice the power of this one.

One of the magnet rotors prepped by grinding the surface to give the epoxy a better grip on the surface.

A rotor with epoxy curing. After carefully adjusting the magnets on the rotor, I trimmed the outside edge in tape and made a round dam in the middle. I used melted wax to seal the aluminum ring to the disk. This is a high grade epoxy and should adequately hold the magnets in place. I did add some fiberglass cloth pieces for extra strength, but I doubt that was needed. The second rotor was done the same way, it's important to think through the positions of the magnets on the disk. They need to be in exactly the same place on each rotor in relation to the bearing hub bolt holes, but the magnets need to be mirrors of each other on the 2 rotors. That is, a north pole needs to match up to a south pole so the magnetic flux is drawn through the stator when installed.

Here's the start of the blade set.

I making these blades the same way I made them years ago. I was very pleased with the performance then, so I really didn't see any reason to change them. These are straight profile blades, no twist or taper. The stock is 1" x 4" clear pine, each blade is 3' long for a rotor diameter of 6'. To get the angle needed, I set my table saw at 6 degrees tilt and ran the end of each board in about 8". In the picture above the bottom board has had the 6 degree cut made, I used a fine saw to slice off the excess, as you can see in the top board above. Next was to cut the 120 angle cuts in the base of the board, these were made on a power miter saw. The next part is to make the rest of the board into a "wing" profile. I used a power hand planer to create the rough shape of the air foil, then a belt sander to do the final forming of the profile. A power palm sander was used to finish sand. I cut an 8" disk from plywood to form the hub of the blade rotor. I pre drilled the 4 bearing hub holes in the plywood disk. The 6 degree angle of these blades is a compromise. A greater angle is usually used at the base of each blade, and a lesser angle at the tip. I recall reading one of Hugh Piggott's documents were he stated the a blade without twist or taper suffers very little drop in performance. From my past experience I agree with that, and an added benefit is that the full width blade with the slightly steeper angle gives you better starting performance. The real reason I don't make twisted and tapered blades, is that I'm no master wood worker. It's much easier to make a good profile that's continuous along the blade length. I think I spent about 2 hours making this set, compared to perhaps a day or two to carve an elaborate set. The inexpensive cost of these blades comes into play too, less than $9 makes a very useable blade rotor.

Here's the rotor attached for initial testing. I used 3 screws near the points at the base of each blade to loosely hold the blades to the plywood hub, then I laid the assembly flat on the workbench and measured between each pair of blades, adjusting the blade angles slightly so they were all evenly spaced. More screws were added from each side to secure the blades to the plywood hub, the 4 bolt holes were then drilled through the blades. In the picture above I'm checking to make sure each blade travels through space on the same plane. I just used a ruler set to almost touch the end of the blade, one blade was about 1/2" off, so I adjusted the bolts on the plywood hub to bring all the blades in the same plane. I also checked to make sure all the blades were running at the same length, which they should be, and were. At the same time I tested for balance. With a free turning rotor, you can easily check for balance by gently starting the rotor turning, and watching where is stops. If it's out of balance, it will stop with the heavy blade at the bottom. You then need to add some small weights to the rotor to bring it into balance. This is the first blade set I've made where I couldn't find any weight imbalance at all, so I didn't need to add any counter weights.

The tail section after welding. The tail support is a 1" pipe, 34.5" long. I ground the pipe to "more or less" fit over the tail hinge pipe. I added a 1" x 1/8" length of angle iron for extra support. Two flat straps were welded on the pipe to bolt the tail vane onto the support structure. I should also note, I added another stop point to the tail hinge to prevent the tail from swinging into the blades during full furling. So there's one stop keeping the tail from going to the right (from behind), and another stop to keep it from going too far to the left. The tail stop is set to give the tail about 10 degrees offset right of square. That helps keep the generator straight into the wind when you take into account the yaw offset. After a couple of coats of paint on the blade rotor, and after fabricating a yaw bearing from 3" pipe, I was ready to install the unit on my roof top pole for some testing.

Here's the generator installed on the roof pole.

The roof pole was 2.5" schedule 40 pipe, so I picked up an 18" length of 3" schedule 40 pipe for the yaw bearing. I didn't want to weld the 3" pipe on permanently, so I welded the pipe to a 1/2" thick plate, then made some flat straps to bolt the yaw pipe to the frame. The tail was just a scrape piece of 1/2" particle board, it won't be on there long. I'll pick up a thinner and lighter piece of plywood and paint it for the final tail. I decided to make the run to the battery pack directly from the alternator output as AC, placing the rectifier on the battery side of things rather than at the generator head. Since this is a single phase alternator I only needed two wires either way, and it made more sense putting the rectifier inside. The first few hours it was up, the winds were very light and I was seeing charging current into the batteries of 0 to over 5 amps. I was using the 10 amp setting on my multimeter. Early in the morning I heard the wind pick up, and decided I better get the multimeter out of line, or I'd burn it up. So I installed a 30 amp meter I've had since my first time off grid.

Here's the amp meter reading some 28 amps going into the battery. The 35 amp rectifier on the right is mounted to an aluminum plate as a heat sink. By mid morning the wind had done a 180 degree shift and was now blowing all the way across the roof. To my surprise, the power output of the generator increased in pretty much the same wind speeds. Some of the increase may have just been the repacked bearings setting in. But I think the flow across the roof is less turbulent too, allowing for better power output. Either way I'm putting out way more power than my little battery pack can absorb, and more power than I can use at the moment. I'll have to decide if I want to buy a shunt controller or build one. I've seen them sold for as little as $35, so I may just go that way. For now I'm shutting the alternator down by shorting out the AC leads. In winds around 10 to 15 mph it pretty much stops the rotor blades. I'd like to see how the furling mechanism works in higher winds. But I'm afraid my small battery pack may not have enough resistance to keep the alternator pulled down in high winds. That, and the fact I don't have enough loads at the moment to help pull the batteries down. I may have to wait with gathering high wind data until I get a larger battery pack. For now I'll continue to let it run in modest wind speeds and see how it holds up. As for power output, I can already see it's going to do a lot better than I originally expected.

Science Fair Wind Generators

We have a variety of different ideas here for science project wind turbines. Some are our own, some were submitted by readers. Check them all out before you launch into a project!

DanF's Science Fair Wind Turbine Article Glen Hurd's VCR Motor Wind Turbine Covers the basic issues in designing a project. Information about choosing A successful project using a VCR motor as an alternator and surplus materials for generators and wooden rulers for blades. Also covers how to select the blades, plus links to relevant wind power correct motor from a junked VCR. theory articles needed for a science project.

Vern Van Zandt's Homebrew Permanent Magnet Alternator (PMA) Science Fair Project

A more powerful PMA than our hamster-powered alternator, built by his 10-year-old son, and very suitable for incorporating into a wind turbine science project.

Chispito 4-foot diameter Wind Turbine Ed Lenz's 3-phase Permanent Magnet Alternator VAWT Kit Plans, Parts and Kits Hamster-powered Night Light A 12 volt, 4 foot diameter wind turbine project that can make some real power for charging a 12 volt marine battery. Suitable for older students. Uses a surplus treadmill motor as a generator and PVC blades. Everything you need, including detailed assembly instructions, to build a 3-phase permanent magnet Yes, it's silly! But it worked, and alternator capable of lighting LEDs at low RPM. Comes with makes a great renewable energy blades for running it on fan or real wind power as a VAWT demonstration for hamster-lovers. (Vertical Axis Wind Turbine), and can be easily converted to run as a traditional Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT).

Kidwind.org Science Projects

Kidwind.org is a great resource of curriculum information and hard-to-find materials for the science teacher or parent who wants to teach kids about wind power. They give seminars to teachers around the country, and their webite is highly recommended!

Science Fair Wind Turbines by DanF

This article is an update of DanF's original article, still found at the bottom of this page. This update was originally printed in the November 2005 issue of the Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter.

From Anita: Dear Mr. Windbag: Im a high-school student and have a class assignment on renewable energy. We have all semester to build and test a project that saves energy or makes energy, and we have to document our results. Im really interested in wind power, and Id like to build small wind turbine that will light up a light bulb. Where do I start? Hi Anita. Wind power is fun to experiment with, and not that difficult or expensive. But you should first have realistic expectations of what kind of result youll be able to get with how much work and expense. Another important aspect of science projects (and required at science fairs) is demonstrating your use and understanding of the Scientific Method of observation, hypothesis, predictions, testing, and conclusion. Hopefully Ill be able to give you some good background knowledge so you can decide how to proceed with your project. First, it would be an excellent idea to familiarize yourself with how wind turbines extract energy from the wind, and their basic components and how they work together. Take a look at Part 1 of my Small Wind Turbine Basics article in the ESSN for the math involved its very simple. Familiarize yourself with Ohms Law a Google search will fill you in. There are also excellent introductions to wind power and wind turbine components at Windpower.org be sure to take all their guided tours, not just the one for kids. The two most important design issues youll have to decide on are:

Can your wind turbine fly outside in real wind to test your design and gather data, or does it have to fly inside using wind from an electric fan, such as at a science fair inside a gymnasium? Do you only need to show and measure power output on a meter, or does your wind turbine have to do something physical like power a small light bulb or LED, or make a small pump turn?

If fan power must be used, options for your turbines power output are more limited. But for younger students, fan power is the best way to go a very safe, fast and easy way to demonstrate wind power. The safety precautions needed are minimal. Fan power may frequently be the only option if the turbine must be demonstrated indoors. However, its very difficult to do anything with fan power besides making a meter move and measuring the results. Powering light bulbs and LEDs with fan power takes lots of extra complexity and expense but it can be done. The real wind can be from mounting the turbine outside on a tower, or from mounting it on a vehicle and collecting data while an adult drives slowly, on a rural road with little traffic and calls out the vehicles speed. If real wind can be used for power, more options for experiments are available, but everything must be built better and sturdier. The problem is that a small, experimental turbine designed to fly and make power efficiently in real wind wont even start to move with a fan, while a small turbine that can turn under fan power will quickly blow apart in real wind. Wind made by a fan is very slow and very turbulent, so it doesnt have much power available in it. As for choosing your load, whether its a light bulb, LED, charging a battery, or some other type of load, its simpler to first choose your generator and then decide on a load. Heres an overview to get you started. DC Hobby Motors

Many people decide to go this route, since a DC motor when driven acts as a generator, and its easy put a rotor on a DC motor, mount it, and let er rip! Its quite suitable for younger students who have not yet learned any more than the basics of electricity in class, and for classes that will not be studying electricity further. However, the results are usually disappointing as far as what loads you can run. The problem is that most DC hobby motors are made to spin at very high RPMs, many being rated 5000-10000 RPM. To get the motors rated voltage as output, youll have to spin it about 20% faster than its rated RPM. Most small wind turbines never spin faster than 500 RPM, with 1000 RPM as an absolute maximum on smaller ones. Many of them, especially if bought as surplus, dont have their ratings printed on them. However, there are DC hobby motors that do work at low RPM. Computer fan motors may be the right kind, but some are brushless and wont work for this application. To test a motor, youll need an inexpensive multimeter (available at Radio Shack). Youll need a multimeter for ANY kind of electrical experiment, so it will get used throughout your school career! Note! If the motor has more than 2 leads coming out, its the wrong kind and cant be used! Connect the multimeter to the 2 leads and set it for DC volts in the 2-12 volt range. Spin the motor by hand and record the reading, then try spinning it with a cordless drill set at low speed and record the reading.

The voltage you get using the cordless drill at low speed is probably the most you can ever expect from your project. The handspun voltage will be more typical. Compare your numbers to the following MINIMUM voltage requirements for some common loads: Red LED: 1.7v White LED: 3.6v Flashlight bulb: 3v to 6v Tiny water pump: 3v to 6v Battery charging: Voltage of battery, plus at least 1 volt, then another 1 volt for the diode. If you cant get to these levels with your motor, youll need to find another motor to test, try one of the other gearing or generator options below, or settle for just using a meter to measure your power output. The accuracy of your data wont suffer, only the visual drama. Analog meters (the kind with the moving needle) are much more dramatic to watch than digital! Theres also more to it than just voltage the amperage is also important in a real-world wind power application, because volts times amperes equal Watts and Watts are what power output is measured in. Volts are only potential power they dont do any work until a complete circuit is formed (like from your wind turbine to an LED). But the typical loads listed above are very low power, and most hobby motors should have no problem running them.

Another option is to gear up the the hobby motor to make it spin faster. Michael Arquin of KidWind.org came up with a really clever geared hobby motor system that boosts the output in the 1.5v-3v range, enough for almost any application, including water pumps, charging batteries or tiny demonstration hydrogen fuel cells, and a large variety of lights. You can order his kit from the KidWind Store. The gearing makes it harder to get the blades spinning but, once they are moving, the power output is excellent. There are plenty of sources for hobby motors in addition to KidWind. You can find them at local Radio Shack stores, online retailers like All Electronics, C&H Sales, and MECI and even by disassembling your little brothers motorized toys! Keep in mind that if you want to charge batteries with your experiment, youll need to put a diode in the line to keep the batteries from just spinning the motorand the diode will drop your output voltage by about a volt. Homebuilt Alternators

>While hobby motors are a quick and easy option, you can see their limitations ... primarily the high RPMs needed to get useful power out of them. If you have the time to spend, or are a more advanced student studying electrical theory, a homemade alternator can be an excellent choice. The unit can be designed from the start to generate usable voltage at low RPM! The most interesting alternator kit Ive seen is a small 3-phase unit available from our friends at Windstuffnow.com. The price is reasonable, and during my tests the performance was good enough to light LEDs under table-fan power. The unit is designed with a simple, easy to build vertical axis blade design, and it can be converted to horizontal axis. Michael from KidWind has already successfully tried this. The rectifier diodes to convert the 3-phase AC output to DC are included in the kit, and I recommend it highly. Another kit option is the PicoTurbine, with both a kit and freeon-line plans available. Its also a vertical axis machine, though it would be harder to convert to horizontal than the Windstuffnow design. If you are interested in designing and building your own small alternator from scratch, a good place to start is reading through my Hamster-Pow- ered Alternator pages for a design that can light LEDs at only 40 RPM it was originally powered by Skippy the Hamster, but could be easily converted to wind power instead of rodent power. Tape Drive Motors

Some larger tape-drive motors are powerful enough to get you into the realm of real wind turbines, with rotor sizes ranging from 3 to 5 feet in diameter and generating significant power. Such designs must be extremely sturdy, and can be quite dangerous in higher winds. So, this scale of project is best suited for a teacher and entire class to undertake, or an older, advanced student with experienced help. Some of these designs can produce up to 100 Watts in output at 12 volts! Perfect for charging a deep cycle marine battery. UPDATE--03/18/06----- Kit, plans and parts now available for a 4-foot, 100 Watt turbine.

It looks really slick, and uses a treadmill motor as a generator, with blades cut from PVC pipe. You can buy all the hard-to-find parts, or an entire kit, from the designer--click the photo above, or go HERE to velacreations.com. The plans are free and published on their website, if you want to scrounge up the materials yourself. To us, this looks like a great way for a high-school or junior-high student (who maybe caught the wind power bug building a tiny, science fair turbine in elementary school) to step up to making some real power that can charge a 12V marine deep cycle battery. And of course a great, inexpensive introduction to home-brewed wind power for any curious adult! More On Fan Power For fan power, youll need large, wide blades to get enough torque out of the limited wind to start things spinning. Blades salvaged from a table fan or homemade balsa wood blades, such as these shown here at a KidWind Seminar, are a good place to start experimenting. KidWind.org Turbine Parts also sells machined plastic hubs so students can experiment with different numbers of blades easily. With fan power, the blades wont get spinning fast enough for lift to help performance, so airfoils and twist wont make any difference in performancethough you might want to include these elements for demonstration purposes. Blades Here we come back to the issue of fan versus real wind power. In a good, efficient wind turbine design, the blades will be matched in size to the generators output in lower, more normal wind speeds. If the blades are too small for the generator, it will be difficult to start and will stall in higher winds. If the blades are too large, the generator wont be able to extract enough energy, and the turbine may fall apart in higher winds! None of this is an issue with fan power, but the problem then is that theres very little power available, and a good design for real wind would most likely not even spin under a fan. A good design for real winds would resemble the blades in this photo skinny and thin at the tips with only a small pitch, and thicker and fatter at the root with as much pitch as the wood thickness allows, plus an airfoil carved on the back for lift. These blades were made with a CAD machining system by a friend, contact me at My Email address if you are interested in trying a set.

Wide, multi-bladed designs, while great for fan power, will often break in real winds however, testing different blade designs in real winds makes for an excellent experiment. In my experience, computer fan blades are too small to work well in either real wind or fan powerthey dont sweep enough area to get spinning rapidly enough. Model airplane props are also marginalthey must be reversed (the curved side faces back

in a wind turbine blade) and that also reverses the airfoil. They are also difficult to get started spinning. Instead, I recommend carving your own blades or trying a set of the wooden ones similar to those shown above. We have some information available about blade design and carving for our big 10-foot wind turbines that can be scaled down for sceince fair blades. It's located HERE. Another good source of free blade information is at Scoraigwind.com.
Measurements and Meters

Once you have something working, whether from fan power or wind power, youll need to take measurements. In many experiments, only the output voltage is measured. This gives a direct correlation to how fast the blades are spinning, but is only part of the story. Watts (volts x amps) are the important figure, and measurement requires a load. The amperes will be determined by how large a load you attach how many LEDs or light bulbs, for example. If you built a system good enough to charge batteries, your load will change with how full the batteries are.

What you measure and how are dependent on the goals of your project. A digital or analog multimeter (for volts and amps) might be all you need. For an advanced project, you could even get a computer-interfaced multimeter (available at Radio Shack) that connects to a PC for data logging!

Here's another very interesting science fair wind turbine design.

In fall 2005, Glen Hurd posted a very fun, educational, and simple tiny wind turbine design on the Otherpower Discussion Board , and gave us permission to use it. Glens business is the manufacturing and wholesaling of custom LED lighting products and solar power systems. Thanks Glen!

This was a lot of fun. There was no stress about anything really needing to work, but it does! It started as killing time with stray parts, and grew into a simple little mill that has potential for a nice paper and project about wind power, from permanent magnet power generation to blade design. The 3 phase permanent magnet alternator is from a VCR. Only the bottom plate of the VCR was removed for the photo. Most of these motors are held in with 3 screws from the top, and are very easy to remove. First unplug the wires connecting the motors.

The large disk on the front of the motor was held in place by magnets and a small plastic washer on the axle. Often the shaft can be pushed, removing the assembly as the washer slides down the shaft, but sometimes they need to be cut off. Save the washer if it comes off easily. There seem to be 2 common types of this motor. The bad motor is subject to very strong eddy currents in the metal backing plate, and is not very usable because as the RPMs increase the drag increases to an extreme amount.

These motors are wired in 3 phase star, meaning the 3 phases are connected together in one place, and each of the 3 phases have the other end going out of the motor. An Ohm meter is needed to tell where the 3 motor output wires are located. The good motor in the photos has the common connections and output wires very easy to see and connect wires to. The traces or conductors on the circuit boards were scraped away with a utility knife, just to be sure no power was being fed to the circuits. The bad motor had 3 holes drilled to get the wires out the rear. Output wires are soldered to the ends of each phase. Dans note for a detailed explanation and diagrams of 3phase stator wiring, take a look at Windstuffnow.coms 3 phase basics page. You might also give this discussion board posting a look.

Each phase has the same Ohm reading. This good one is about 4 ohms, so from the common to any output is 4 Ohms. From any output to any other output will be 8 Ohms. From any common to any other common is about 0.4 ohms, but that is from the wires on the meter, and is almost the same as the ohm meter itself from test lead to test lead. Now seems like a good time to show the lighting wires. Red LEDs light quite easily, and I recommend only red LEDs. Other colors need higher minimum voltages to light up, and draw more current. LEDs only pass current in one direction, but the alternator makes current back and forth (Alternating Current), so each section needs a pair of LEDs connected backwards from each other. The resistor is to limit current so the LEDs do not burn out, but will have very little effect on the LEDs lighting up. LEDs also have the advantage of not conducting any current until they reach a certain voltage, and that helps get the windmill turning before there is a load dragging the speed lower. A regular light bulb will result in very poor, if any, operation. It can be fancy or simple, but the wires cannot touch each other where they shouldnt.

After the soldering is done the large disk with the magnet ring is replaced and a quick spin of the shaft should light the LEDs!
Now onto the blades.

Wooden rulers make simple blades. Part of the angles are ready to use! I removed the metal strip, marked and cut off 3/ 16 along that side, from 3 and 1/2" to the end. The blades are sanded for a trailing and leading edge. A bench mounted sander will make things faster and easier. The root, or center, is not changed. The root angle is needed later for fastening to the hub.

Ruler Windmill Blade Toward generator A hub holds the blades together and on the front of the alternator. It is not a motor any more! This hub is a donut of wood 3/4" thick. Use smooth, good wood. The chip board in the photo caused some problems later. The center hole is as close to the pulley diameter as possible. A set of hole saws helps make the hub easier.The hub is marked with 3 lines 60 degrees apart. Each line is marked twice and small holes drilled for screws that will hold the blades. The blades are marked and drilled with a bit that is a little larger than the screw threads. Now the blades can be attached to the hub. The more accurate everything is done the better. The hub should now fit over the alternator, and the blades should look something like this.

WIND

Some rulers have a lower or higher angle than others. This set of blades has 2 layers of a business card under one side of each blade to increase the angle as viewed from the end. About 8 degrees seems like a good angle. After the blade angles are adjusted if they needed it, a bit of wood glue is a good idea. Now for the frame to hold it all together.

This shows the main piece of wood with everything attached. The center is drilled for a 5/16 bolt about 3-1/2" long. The bolt is placed in the hole, then a washer (so it turns smoothly), then a tight nut. Next, another nut is screwed half way up the bolt. The end of the bolt, on the side, was smacked with a hammer to badly damage the last 3 or 4 threads at the very end, and the second nut was screwed toward the end until it is firmly held in place by the damaged threads. Then the alternator was screwed to the base. A suitable tail and tail boom were then assembled from scrap paneling and moulding, and attached. A good quality double sided foam tape holds the hub to the magnet rotor and shaft. That is why wood is better than chip board... nothing seems to stick very well to chip board, and chip board is damaged by water sooner. The blade assembly is then slid back into the alternator. Next, blade balancing is needed. One side will probably come to the top, again and again, after a few slow spins. The top is the lightest side, and a little extra weight to that side will help the windmill run much more smoothly. A rubber band around the hub, holding a couple washers or maybe a nut, should show how much weight is needed and where. The weights can then be screwed to the hub. Dont rely on a rubber band to hold any weights, because it will not! This tower is a section of 1/2" metal conduit. The photos show the 1/2" conduit inside a piece of 1" copper at the bottom because that is one of my test towers. The windmill nuts and bolt are simply placed in the conduit. This windmill can make about 8 or 9 volts AC per phase under a load of about 25ma when spun by a flick of the fingers. I have no idea what the RPM is at that time. These LEDs were placed in a half clear plastic tube in the first photo. The whole thing lights up very nice on a dark windy night. Red colored plastic red LEDs are hard to see lighting up in daylight. Water clear red LEDs show up when lit the easiest, by far, because as soon as they light they turn red! The blades could be a little shorter, maybe about 10 each, or even 9" for this particular alternator. Then the windmill would spin a little faster and the LEDs would light up sooner. This particular windmill needs about 14 miles per hour wind, steady, not gusting, to light the LEDs with the 12" blades and 24 diameter. Different alternators will perform differently, so your mileage may vary! The blades do not spin very fast at all in front of a fan. The air is too turbulent. They work far better outside. These blades could surely be improved upon, but these are easy to make, work well, and have a decent airfoil, good enough for a school paper. It is very hard (I can not do it at all) to light the LEDs by hand spinning the shaft after the blades are attached. The LEDs light very easy without any blades. For a school project that must be deomnstrated indoors under a fan, you might want to have an alternator for the windmill, and an extra to light the LEDs by hand, just so everyone can see it light up!

Accurate blade placement and making all the blades the same is important, it seems quite important for a decent balance. Good balance is important for the windmill to start turning in a low breeze. Danger! These blades get turning very fast. A blade that flies from the hub or hits a person will hurt, and could cause injury. Be safe! My next plan, if the coils can be removed, is a dual rotor alternator with 2 of the same magnets, or maybe HD magnets, mounted on speaker plates. The speaker plates will be drilled and threaded for all-thread shaft, and a set screw will be added. The air gap and magnet disks will be adjusted by turning the disks so the magnets line up, then tightening the set screw. There is no need for jack screws from disk to disk, the magnets are not dangerously strong. This should allow for maximum area in the center, and use of common bearings. Finding suitable bearings are always a major problem for me. >Dan's note: http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/10/4/22201/3047 This discussion board posting shows 2 more tiny alternator designs, much like what Glen wants to try on his next one. Be sure to scroll all the way down the thread to see photos of these clever designs! The homebrew wind power enthusiast community has some extremely ingenious people, and Im glad our readers have had a chance to meet some of them. Thanks again, Glen, and all of the other Otherpower Disscussion Board regulars too.

Vern Van Zandt's homebrew permanent magnet alternator

Completed homebrew permanent magnet alternator

Display at Vern's son's science fair booth

by Vern Van Zandt I had a pretty good chuckle reading about the Hamster powered night-light on the Otherpower projects page. It was also good inspiration for my 10 year old Son's science project at his school. His subject was wind power, the history, uses and present state of the technology. I also thought it might be good to build a small PMA to demonstrate to the other kids at his school just how

electricity could be generated. I had never built PMA before, but had a real itch to do so. So I set about building a small 'hand crank' version that uses the same size and type of magnets as the night light project, and #28 wire. Design Goals:

To provide a working model of a permanent magnet alternator (PMA) that could be SAFELY actuated by kids, teachers, parents, etc.. For this reason no prop blades will be placed on the rotor, fearing injury to young fingers, etc. Rotation of the rotor can be acomplished using a crank handle instead. Provide a simple, safe, and intuitive indication that the PMA is generating electricity. [NOTE TO THE READER: This PMA was never intended to be used as an actual wind machine! The materials used can not be expected to withstand long term use in the outdoors. It is strictly for demonstration purposes only... The selection of materials were based on what was on hand, and that could quickly be pressed into service.]

Construction: This PMA (Permanent Magnet Alternator) is intended to be a 3 phase unit using 3 series coils in each leg of a star configuration. Each coil has 300 turns of #28 enameled copper wire. The 3/4" x 1/8" magnets were stacked two deep in each position of the wheel, roughly 15 degrees apart (360 degrees / 24 magnets = 15 degrees/magnet). I didn't have any steel handy to fashion a backing plate, so the magnets were simply embedded in the wooden rotor. A steel plate would have increased the effectiveness of the magnets. Something for a future PMA perhaps. The rotor wheel is simply a piece of 1/2" thick MDF approximately 9" in diameter. This was something that I had left over from another unrelated project. I used a degree wheel to mark the radial position of each set of magnets. (photo) The distance from the center of the rotor was determined by adding approximately 1/8" spacing between magnets. If you're mathematicaly gifted, or just understand simple geometry you can calculate the exact placement of the magnets. Otherwise you can do just what I did and simply use a few pennies. A U.S. penny is (so far as I can tell) the same diameter as the magnets used, and can therefore also be used to check the fit in the rotor. You don't need 24 pennies, just a few will do. Place the pennies in an arc across the top of the rotor to get an idea of the radial distance from the center of the rotor to each magnet.

Once you've established a circle of pennies, use a compass, string and a pencil, or whatever you have that will draw a circle through the center of the pennies. The point at which the line crosses the circle defines where you drill a 3/4 inch hole (photos below).

Making the coils was easy once I came up with a way to automatically count the turns. I didn't have a lot of time to put this together, and I knew that if I tried to count hundreds of turns of wire, that I'd eventually mess it up and have to start all over again. I also didn't have time to build a proper wire turning machine. What I came up with was to build a coil form out of a 3/8" x 4" hex head bolt and a bunch of washers . I could chuck it into my drill press, and with a way to suspend the spool of wire feed it as the form rotated. The slowest that I can set the drill press to turn is 250 RPM. This was just about right for winding the coils.

A small micro-switch (Radio Shack #275-016A) was mounted on a piece of plywood, and connected to the counter via a battery, capacitor, and diode to a HP Universal counter(photo at right). The micro-switch is a S.P.D.T type with a metal 'trip' lever, and basically allows for the generation of an electrical pulse (supplied by the 9 volt battery) every time the switch is momentarily closed. A small bit of plastic gleaned from the bubble pack that the LEDs came in served as a 'cam' lobe to actuate the switch. It's a bit difficult to make out in the photo at right, but this was duct taped to the bottom end of the coil

form. Now I do realize that not everyone is going to have a universal counter just laying around the house. It just so happens that I also dabble in electronics as a hobby, and this one was procured several years back from a surplus supplier in California. The nice thing is, that it can be configured to count electrical pulses. By mounting a small cam to the bottom of the spindle to index with, or 'trip' the switch each revolution, I could simply turn on the drill press and feed the wire, watch the counter, etc.. This was still a bit of a juggling act, and several times things went wrong. But for a quick and dirty method, it worked well enough. When everything went correctly, I could wind a coil in a little over a minute. There are small LCD counter modules available from Red Lion Controls (like the 'Sub Cub', for example), and others, that should provide the same function provided you want to build something similar to what I used. Once the coil is wound, placing a small piece of duct tape over the coil to hold the free end of the wire kept the coil from unraveling from th form. At that point the coil form could be removed from the drill press. A small amount of children's rubber cement on the coil was enough to hold the turns in place while the bobbin or coil form were disassembled. Teflon tape around the 1 inch form helped prevent the coil from sticking to the form during removal. Still, removal of the coil probably required the most time, but produced some reasonably uniform coils. A couple of narrow strips of duct tape were wrapped around opposite sides of the coil to further hold windings together. Since the coils were circular at this point, I 'squished' them to make a somewhat oval shape that fit the width of the magnets. I suppose that a smaller diameter coil might work better (?), but a 1" form was all that I had (photo) . The white stuff is the Teflon tape. The finished coils were then sandwiched between two 1/4" thick sheets of clear plexiglass so that the magnets could be seen as they pass each coil (photo) . One can expect higher output if one of the sheets of plexi was replaced with thinner material, so that the distance between the magnets and the coils were reduced. But 1/4" is what I had on hand, and seems to work well enough for this project. Placing the coils was accomplished by laying the rotor flat with the magnet side turned up. One of the two pieces of plexiglass was placed over the rotor, and the coils were then placed so that there are four magnets for every three coils (photo). This means that the two end coils sit directly over one magnet each, and the middle coil stradles two

magnets. While I may not have it exactly right, this is somewhat similar to the configuration described at the windstuffnow.com site . The coils are interleaved such that each coil represents a part of each leg of the star. There are three sets of three coils so that each leg of the star has three coils connected in series. In theory this also allows for a total voltage at least three times that of a single coil. In practice, it also depends on correct phasing of the coils with regard to the magnets. [Those of you who have already built one of these certainly understand this much better than I]. Once the coils were positioned and connected, two inch wide clear tape was used to hold them in place. At that point the second piece of plexi was placed over the top of the first. I also assembled the bearing on the hex bolt 'shaft' as the sections were joined (previous photo). One big challenge was how to quickly, cheaply, but effectively mount the rotor so that it could be turned and also maintain a fixed distance to the magnets. I eventually used a small Bronze bushing that just fit over a 1/4" hex bolt. Using a variety of washers and some Lithium grease, I was able to suspend the rotor in front of the coil - plexi 'sandwich'. The bolt extends through the entire width of the machine and is secured with a lock nut. The bronze bushing also extends through the entire width. 'End play' was adjusted using washers at each end of the bolt, in addition to tightening the nut. This allowed the rotor to turn without allowing the bolt to slide back and forth exessively. A nylon washer (or two) between the rotor and the plexiglass gives the two pieces sufficient clearance for rotation of the rotor, and minimal contact. I also assembled a circuit board with two bridge rectifiers, a 3300 uF cap (to act as a bit of a storage reservoir and filter), and three LEDs (photo) . The rectifiers change the multiple phases of alternating current to DC. The capacitor 'stores' a certain amount of charge that can be used to help fill in when the voltage falls during the alternating cycles. Without it, the LEDs tended to flicker as the magnet induced pulses of current surged through. Another way of looking at this, is that the averaging of charge smooths out the electrical 'bumps'...so to speak. For some reason, some of the kids (and parents too) actually thought that the capacitor was a battery. This lead them to the conclusion that I was somehow 'cheating' and the alternator really wasn't doing anything. That took a bit of explaining on my part... With exception of the wire and magnets, everything else used in this project was obtained at the local hardware store/home center and Radio Shack. The alternator really does a surprisingly good job of lighting 3 high intensity LEDs (connected in parallel) and still maintaining about 2 volts loaded. Unloaded voltage was around 3.5 . By turning the handle and then counting revolutions for ten seconds, I was able to estimate the RPM at around 150. One down side if you will, was that the clear packaging tape wasn't as good a choice as I'd hoped for securing the coils and some of them sagged or fell out of position. When this happened the alternator seemed no longer capable of lighting the LEDs. I would venture to guess this was because the phasing was disrupted enough that some of the currents bucked rather than boosted the energy developed by the remaining coils. All in all however, this small PMA was a fun addition to my son's science project(photo at top of article), and the kids appeared to be genuinely amazed when the LEDs glowed bright red. I've since thought about building an 'actual' wind machine, something with 18 coils, ball bearings. Cast the coils in resin and mount blades to the rotor...well, you get the idea. For power source, I also thought about driving it with a small gas powered engine, using a pulley and V-belt. We get wind where I live, but it's rather inconsistent and certainly not year-round. Reducing the RPM of the gas engine would be simple, and that way I could make it portable... My thanks to Dan Fink for inviting me to write about this, and for putting it up on the Otherpower web site. I think it's a great site for anyone even casually interested in building PMAs , regardless of how they are driven. It is hoped that this article is of interest to others as well.

The rest of this page is about an older project of ours. We keep ALL of our projects up on

the internet for anyone that's interested...but we are no longer pursuing many of these older ideas.

The frame is made of PVC pipe, the tail from a video game CD, and the rotor from a computer fan. The generator is a small DC hobby motor. It will light a small bulb using an electric window fan for power.
How to build some very simple demonstrations of wind-generated electricity

UPDATE 6/1/2005 -- DanF attended a seminar put on by KidWind.org, hosted at NREL's National Wind Testing Seminar. The kidwind folks are out there giving seminars around the country, teaching teachers how to teach kids about wind power, with hands-on experiments.

Kidwind seminar at NREL NWTC, Golden, CO, 2005

Michael Arquin of KidWind also found a great little motor for these experiments--many folks have trouble finding suitable DC hobby motors. He also came up with a gearing system so the motor will spin faster with a table fan. Plus machined hubs for easily blade mounting and adjusting their pitch. All available for reasonable prices at the KidWind.org Store. Ed Lenz of WindStuffNow.com recently came up with a REALLY cool science fair size wind turbine where you build your own 3-phase alternator. This takes the project to the next step, so students can get into the electrical theory behind wind turbines too.

The kit is available for a reasonable price HERE.

UPDATE 12/2003 -- we have received all kinds of email about this project! Some folks have been successful (CLICK HERE to see pictures and graphs....) and others have had trouble. In almost all cases the problem is finding a suitable little motor.....if the motor needs very high rpms to generate power, it won't work for this experiment. Testing the motors you have available by spinning them by hand into a voltmeter will give you a good idea of if it will work or not. You want good voltage at low rpms. You might also want to check out our Hamster-powered alternator. Since Skippy the Hamster could only produce low rpms on his wheel, we custom-built this little alternator to work in the 40-60 rpm range. This makes it very suitable for wind or hydro experiments.

The intention of this project was a quick, small and easy windmill that would be buildable by a kid with very little adult supervision. It seems to be science fair season all year 'round up here at Otherpower.com headquarters. We get many requests for information about science fair projects, and hope this page will help kids and adults alike...at heart, all the Otherpower.com staff are kids! As a result of the experiments, we've come up with a variety of different ideas for science fair projects. The current projects on this page are very simple thanks to the use of small DC hobby motors as generators. The only test equipment you'll need is a cheap DC multimeter, available for $5-$15 at Radioshack. These projects are suitable for even a 3rdgrade science project (with adult supervision, of course). We hope to add some more complicated wind projects in the near future, involving more advanced students building their own alternator by winding coils, attaching magnets, etc. For more detailed research information regarding wind power (you'll need lots of background information for a science fair project!) we suggest searching GOOGLE for 'wind power,' and checking out some of the web pages listed in our Wind Links. The Basic Parts of a Wind Generator Even in a giant commercial wind generator that puts out thousands of watts of electricity, the basic parts are still pretty much the same as in a toy wind generator!

Rotor--The blades and hub (the part that holds the blades on), which begin to spin when the wind gets above a certain speed. This is called "start-up" speed. The blades get their energy from slowing down the wind, extracting energy from it. Most commercial wind generators have 2 or 3 blades. Some only have 1 blade, and a counterweight for balance! More blades make a wind generator start up more easily in low winds, and give higher torque but with a lower rotation speed. Fewer blades mean harder start-up, but better performance at high wind speeds and faster rotational speeds. The backs of the blades have an 'airfoil' on them, shaped just like the top of an airplane wing or the front of an airplane propellor. This airfoil provides lift, which allows the blade tips to spin at a speed that is FASTER than the actual wind speed. Generator--The component that makes electricity when it is spun by the rotor. Some wind generators produce alteranting current (AC), in this case the component is an 'alternator.' Wind machines that produce direct current use a 'generator.' In both cases, however, the electricity is produced by magnets moving quickly past coils of wire--or coils of wire moving quickly past magnets. The hardest part of selecting a generator for a commercial OR toy wind generator is the rotation speed required to put out the amount of electricity you need, at a certain windspeed. More on this later! Tail and Yaw Bearing--To effectively slow down the wind and harvest power, the wind generator must always face directly into the wind. The tail (properly called a 'vane') lets the wind itself point the machine correctly, and the yaw bearing is simply the assembly that lets it rotate.

Fan Power versus Wind Power The first consideration is, what do you want to DO with the wind generator? For our simple projects here, the objective is to make just enough power to light up a small flashlight bulb using wind provided with a multi-speed electric window fan...since for a science demonstration you'll probably be in a classroom or gymnasium. And of course remember the well-known 'wind anchor' phenomenon--as soon as you erect any size of wind generator, all natural wind will immediately stop for at least a few days! If your project allows you to use outdoor air flow such as an actual windy day or a vehicle, it will be much easier -- and all of the designs presented here will work. Even strange, unique, and silly designs will still start up and function with enough wind! If your project must work indoors with a fan for power, you must design the unit to start up in very low winds. The air flow provided by a fan is VERY turbulent--it is difficult to make a toy windmill spin fast enough to make enough power. A combination of a many-bladed rotor and a free-spinning generator are needed to get enough rpms to light a bulb. Choosing a Rotor We recommend having 3 or 4 rotors of different kinds and diameters available for testing. This will prevent multiple trips to the hobby store during your deisgn and testing!

Model Airplane Propellors--One of the simplest options is to buy an inexpensive ($3 to $6US) plastic or wooden 2bladed model airplane propeller, and mount it backwards. It will style your machine like a commercial wind generator. Good sizes range from 8 to 12 inches in diameter. In a wind generator, the flat sides of the blades face into the wind, and the airfoil sides face away from the wind, the OPPOSITE of an airplane propellor. However, a quick experiment shows the problem with reversing the propellor...suspend the propellor on a straightened paper clip, and blow on the flat sides. The airfoil is pointed the wrong direction...it's opposite the direction of rotation! However, upon close inspection of the propellor, you'll also see that the airfoil carved into it is very minimal...just barely an airfoil at all. Because of this factor we've found that model airplane props still work just fine for this experiment. However, they are hard to get started with an electric fan because of having only 2 blades. You should be able to get one started at around 15-20 mph in a vehicle or in the wind, depending on the generator and prop size.

Windmill built with 2-blade model airplane prop mounted backwards. Though this unit works while testing in the wind or from a vehicle, it will NOT start up in the wind from a box fan...for that you need to use a computer fan blade prop.

Computer Fan Blades--These multi-bladed units are an excellent and cheap option. The multi-bladed design allows them to start up very easily, at mere walking speed or in front of an electric box fan. Old computer fans are easy to scrounge up for free, and are also available at electronics stores. A diameter of 4 to 6 inches will work well. The hardest part is removing the blade from the fan assembly...since the assembly has to turn into the wind, you can't really use the bracket that contains the fan. Adult supervision is required for removing the fan blade, it may take some cutting and prying. But it's well worth it! Portable Fan Blades--Removed from cheap desktop electric fans, these usually have 4 or 6 wide blades, and also work very well. A diameter of 4 to 6 inches is just right. Again, supervision is needed for removal! Choosing a Generator

By far the simplest and easiest choice for a generator is to use small DC hobby motors, available at any local or mail-order electronics store, including Radio Shack. Once again, we recommend having a variety on hand for experimentation. They work as motors when you apply electricity to them, but they ALSO work as generators when you spin the shaft! Get a variety of

different voltages and speeds if possible. Lower-voltage versions (such as 3 volts) start up the easiest, but their output will be limited to 3 volts at high speeds. 12-volt versions will make the most power, but may be harder to start up. Anything in between works just fine too! The key thing with selecting a hobby motor is to buy the ones that have a toothed sprocket already attached to the tip of the shaft. This will make securely mounting the rotor MUCH, MUCH easier for you. See picture below.

Be sure to get hobby motors with a sprocket like this already attached -- it makes things MUCH easier!

Initial Assembly and Testing Better to make sure things will work right for you before assembling the whole thing with glue! Carefully drill a hole in the EXACT CENTER of the fan blade hub, slightly smaller than the diameter of the sprocket. You want the teeth of the sprocket to catch the plastic or wood of the blade hub. Gently heating the plastic of the hub with a match will soften it and make this operation simpler, and allow you to test it before gluing it in place. Now, connect the wires from the hobby motor to your DC voltmeter. Set up your fan, turn it to low speed, and hold the motor and blades up to the fan. Wear gloves and eye protection for this operation! Once the blade comes up to speed, record the voltage you get. Turn the fan up to high speed, and again record the voltage you get. This information will allow you select your lightbulb for the demonstration. Radio Shack has a huge variety of flashlight bulbs in different voltages. LEDs can also be used, but must be hooked up with the correct polarity. LEDs also light up with much less electrical current than incandescent flashlight bulbs. The polarity doesn't matter with flashlight bulbs however. Either one will burn out if you apply too much current from your wind generator! Pick a bulb that has a rated voltage very close to the MAXIMUM voltage reading you got, with the fan at highest speed. Attach the bulb to the circuit in place of the voltmeter, and try the test again. If all goes well, the bulb should glow brightly at the fan's top speed, and glow dimly at lower speeds. This will let you show differing power output with different wind speeds. At this point, you are ready to assemble the final version of the wind generator. Final Assembly

Details of frame construction are visible here, including the yaw bearing

Our frames were built using PVC pipe and fittings. Since hobby motors come in different sizes, you'll need to pick a pipe diameter that allows you to slide the motor into a pipe end or fitting. In our designs, the motor fits into a PVC elbow fitting, and is held in place with epoxy putty. Once you find which pipe diameters you need, purchase a variety of components -- 2 or 3 feet

of pipe, and a few elbows, caps and reducers. Generally, the pipe and fittings fit together tightly without the use of glue, but you might wish to use PVC cement on your machine after it is together and working. The yaw bearing can be built a number of different ways. Be sure it allows the machine to turn freely or it won't yaw into the wind correctly. Our design was very simple -- we ran a 4" long bolt down through the top, fastened underneath the yaw bearing to a pipe cap. There are undoubtably many easy ways to improve this -- we simply used what fittings we had available to make things quick and easy.

Top view showing yaw bearing bolt

The tail should be made of thin plastic, and can be of a variety of shapes and sizes. Look at pictures of commercial wind generators for good ideas on proportions and lengths. The dimensions and shapr not critical--we found that a Playstation 2 CD made a fine tail, and it expresses DanF's opinions about kids, videogames, books and science experiments quite ironically! To mount the tail, use a hand saw to carefully cut a vertical groove in the back of the right-angle pipe fitting into which your motor will mount. The groove should be wide enough for your tail material to slide into. Securely connect your power wires to the connectors on the hobby motor. Depending on the kind of connector, it might be best to solder them on. Adult supervision needed for this please! Then, run the wires down through the 90-degree pipe fitting, and out a small hole you've drilled in the side of it. Securely fit the motor into the fitting. You'll have to choose the size of pipe you use depending on the diameter of the motor you selected; that's why we don't give specific diameters of pipe here. Use a thin 'rope' of epoxy putty to secure the motor in place. This is the kind of epoxy that comes in a stick, and feels like modelling clay. You simply knead the 2 parts together until they blend, lay it in the gap between the motor and the fitting, and wait for it to set. The easiest solution for how to run the wires is to mount the lightbulb directly to the upper frame or tail of the wind generator. If you want to have the lightbulb separate from the wind generator or want to use a voltmeter for your demonstration, just make a loose loop of wire near the yaw bearing, and use tape or a cable tie to keep it from hitting the rotor as it spins. This loose loop can wind itself up around the pipe mount, but will also unwind itself when the wind (fan) changes direction.
Experimental Ideas

There are a variety of different experiments that can be performed once your wind generator is operational. You can change the fan speed to show the increase in power using your voltmeter or by how brigth your bulb or LED lights up. You can change the facing of the fan to show how the tail makes the unit yaw into the wind. If you want to charge small batteries with your unit, you'll need a small diode, available for under a dollar at Radioshack. Get a diode rated at around 1 amp. The diode acts as a one-way valve for electricity--without it, your batteries will simply spin the motor and prop. You want the power to flow into the battery, but not out. A great way to test a small windmill is with a vehicle -- that way you don't have to buy or make an anemometer to measure windspeed. If you do test in a vehicle, either build a mount in the back of a pickup truck, or have someone hold the unit carefully out the car window. This could be somewhat dangerous! The person holding the unit should wear thick leather gloves and eye protection incase the prop flies off! If the unit starts to become unstable, have the driver slow down immediately. It helps immensely to have a thrid person in the vehicle to write down the speed of the truck as the driver calls it out, and write down the voltage reading at each speed.
We urge you to have fun with your project and hope our ideas have helped. However, PLEASE be safe in your experiments and wear eye protection and gloves when you are near spinning props! And remember, adult supervision is required. About the project that was previously pictured on this page

In that project, we attempted to use a small Brushless DC motor as an AC alternator to power a small bulb. However, the motor was incapable of producing enough current after rectification to DC with a diode bridge. That's why we switched to using DC hobby motors. We are also working on some more complicated science fair wind generator projects, with homemade alternators and carved wooden props....an example of which is shown below.

Not much more than a handsaw, chisel, and sandpaper is needed to carve a 16 inch prop!

For more sceince fair project ideas, check out Super Science Fair Projects for lots of ideas, and great information on the 'scientific method' of hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion--essential for winning a science fair.

More Homebrew Wind Power Information on Our Site:

Tips on Designing and Building a Wind Generator at Home Glossary of Wind Power Terms Choosing Alternators/Generators for Wind Power Building a Tower

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This page last updated 02/06/2006

My Home-Built Wind Turbine FAQ

Please read this before emailing me with questions

Q. Why haven't you answered my question? I've emailed you X number of times and you still haven't responded! Q. Can I just plug my solar panel into my house wiring to help offset my electric bill? Q. Where in Arizona is your property located? Q. Why can't I just use a car alternator in my wind turbine? Q. How is the hub attached to the motor shaft? Q. Will I be able to heat my house with a wind turbine like this? Q. How do you prevent the wire from twisting up inside the mast? Q. Do you have any blueprints, schematics, instructions, parts lists or plans you can send me? Q. How noisy is your wind turbine? I'd like to build one, but I'm afraid it might be too loud. Q. Do I really need the battery bank and charge controller? Can't I just connect my inverter or other appliance directly to the wind turbine? Q. Do I really need the charge controller? Can't I just connect the wind turbine directly to my battery? Q. A saw this motor on Ebay, item number xxxxxxxxxx. Will it make a good generator for a wind turbine? Q. Can I use an AC motor as a generator on my wind turbine? Q. Can I use car batteries for my battery bank? Why do I need special batteries? Q. Why do you use 3 blades wouldn't 2, 4, 5, or n number of blades work better? Do you think my wind turbine design with n number of blades will work? Q. I understand the mechanical aspects of your wind turbine, but electronics part is all Greek to me. Can you teach me enough electronics to understand this system? Q. Can you design a wind turbine/battery/charge controller system for me that will power my home/farm/studio/cabin/office/barn so I can get out from under the thumb of my evil electric company? Q. Do you have a printed circuit board or board layout for the charge controller? Q. I tried building a charge controller using your schematic and instructions, but I can't get it to work. Can you help me troubleshoot and/or repair it? Q. Can you build a charge controller for me? Q. Can you sell me a wind turbine? Q. Will a solar panel charge controller work for my wind turbine? Q. Do you sell your excess power back to the electric company? Can I do it? Q. Which direction does your wind turbine spin?

Click on a lady to learn how to meet her.

Q. How many birds has your wind turbine killed?

Q. Why haven't you answered my question? I've emailed you X number of times and you still haven't responded! A. I get a LOT of questions from people. I can't possibly answer them all. I can barely read them all. A lot of questions are repetitive. I get tired of answering the same questions over and over again, which is why I created this FAQ, and attempt to keep it updated. Questions covered in the FAQ almost certainly will not be answered. Also, people tying to emulate my work should have at least a basic grasp of electronics and mechanics, since I don't have the time or inclination to teach basic electronics or mechanics theory to them all individually. So if a question shows a level of ignorance about electronics or mechanics that is going to require a long and complex explanation and/or tutorial, then you are simply out of luck. I just don't have the time to help you out. Sorry. Remember though, Google is always out there, ready and willing to answer all your queries if I can't.

Q. Can I just plug my wind turbine into my house wiring to help offset my electric bill? A. No! No!! No!!! I am getting this question a lot and it really scares me. You need specialized equipment like synchronous inverters and transfer switches, and a licensed electrician, to interface a wind or solar system with your house wiring safely and legally. Do not attempt to do it yourself unless you really know what you are doing and have obtained all the necessary equipment and permits. In some areas some or all of the work may have to be done by a licensed electrician. Check your local codes.

Q. Where in Arizona is your property located? A. If you were to draw a line on a map of Arizona between the towns of Snowflake and St. Johns, my property would be close to the midpoint of the line. The nearest town is Concho. I'm not going to be more specific than that in order to preserve my privacy.

Q. Why can't I just use a car alternator in my wind turbine? A. Car alternators are designed to work at much higher RPMs than is typically produced by a wind turbine. If you can stand the power losses and added complexity, it may be possible to use belts or gears to increase the speed of the turbine to something more like what an alternator needs. There are also permanent magnet alternators available designed especially for wind turbine use, but they tend to be quite expensive.

Q. How is the hub attached to the motor shaft? A. The hub has 2 set screws that tighten against the motor shaft and hold it in place.

Q. Will I be able to heat my house with a wind turbine like this? A. Probably not. This wind turbine only produces a few hundred Watts peak. It probably wouldn't even do a very good job of heating one room, let alone a whole house.

Q. How do you prevent the wire from twisting up inside the mast? A. I don't do anything to prevent the cable from twisting. Twisting hasn't proven to be a big problem. In my area, the wind blows primarily from the South and West. The wind turbine spends most of its time slewing back and forth between these two directions, covering only 1/4 of a circle. It hardly ever swivels all the way around. And it seems to be just as likely to go around one way as the other. So there is no big tendency for the cable to twist up. If it ever does become twisted, I can always disconnect the wires at the bottom of the mast and manually untwist them. I generally only use the turbine for a week or two at a time. If I used it for longer periods, I might start seeing a twisting problem and work up a solution for it. Slip rings are a possibility. There are several amateur-built slip

ring designs on the internet. Google for them. Update: Here is a video explaining the wire twisting issue.

Q. Do you have any blueprints, schematics, instructions, parts lists or plans you can send me? A. No. All the information I have related to this project is right there on the web site. Read it thoroughly and follow the links provided. I realize not everyone will be able to build their own wind turbine with only the information provided. Many people seem to want step by step instructions. I don't feel that step by step instructions are useful with a project built using found materials and improvised structures. Trying to exactly duplicate my wind turbine may be unnecessarily difficult. You may not be able to get exactly the same parts I used. Instead, I recommend you use my ideas as a starting point, then innovate using the materials available to you. If you are still stumped, I can only suggest you seek help locally from handy people you know, and research any aspects of the project you don't understand.

Q. How noisy is your wind turbine? I'd like to build one, but I'm afraid it might be too loud. A. The wind turbine is not really very noisy. I do have it set up about 100 feet away from me, but it is not terribly noisy even up close. It isn't much noisier than the wind itself. Most of the time, in a stiff wind, I can't really hear the wind turbine at all over the roar of the wind through the trees. The only time I actually notice the noise from the wind turbine is when the wind has been blowing hard and then suddenly drops off to almost nothing. Then I hear the whooshing of the turbine blades for a few seconds until they slow down. Update: Here is a video of the wind turbine in operation.

Q. Do I really need the battery bank and charge controller? Can't I just connect my inverter or other appliance directly to the wind turbine? A. The Voltage output from the wind turbine varies wildly with wind speed. You would be very liable to damage the inverter or other appliance by running it connected directly to the wind turbine without a battery bank and charge controller in the system. The load from the battery bank smoothes out the Voltage to something the inverter can handle, and provides power during periods of little or no wind.

Q. Do I really need the charge controller? Can't I just connect the wind turbine directly to my battery? A. The purpose of the charge controller is to prevent destruction of your expensive batteries due to over-charging or over-discharge. You can go without one, but you would have to slavishly watch the voltage on your batteries and connect and disconnect them from the wind turbine manually. Fall asleep at the switch just once and you will have either over-charged or over-discharged batteries that may be irrecoverably dead.

Q. A saw this motor on Ebay, item number xxxxxxxxxx. Will it make a good generator for a wind turbine? A. Maybe. I get this question A LOT! I don't have the time to research every request that comes in. So don't be offended if you do not get an answer. Here is the best advice I have. You want a permanent magnet motor that is rated for high voltage, but low RPMs. That's kind of an odd combination. The vast majority of the motors on Ebay don't make good generators. Every once in a while though, a good one crops up. Watch for old tape drive motors, electric lawn mower motors, floor buffer motors, and servo motors. Even within these categories though, most of the motors won't be very good generators, but you are more likely to find one that is than in other categories. Hopefully the photos or description of the motor will include the data plate information. Go to the

manufacturer's web site and research the motor's specs. Ask the seller if he has tested the motor as a generator, or if he can test it for you. If a motor of possible use as a generator is selling cheap, you can always buy it and test it yourself by chucking it into your drill press or lathe and turning it while attached to a load. If it is a good generator, great! If not resell it on Ebay and get your money back.

Q. Can I use an AC motor as a generator on my wind turbine? A. Probably not. I have heard of people using AC motors as generators by relying on residual magnetism in the motor and the dynamo effect, but it doesn't really seem to work very well, if at all, in most cases.

Q. Can I use car batteries for my battery bank? Why do I need special batteries? A. Car batteries are not a good choice for a wind or solar power installation. They are damaged if they discharge too deeply. Car batteries are designed to deliver a quick burst of power to start the engine. They are not meant to be deeply discharged and recharged repeatedly. This will quickly destroy them. Deep cycle batteries work much better in this application.

Q. Why do you use 3 blades wouldn't 2, 4, 5, or n number of blades work better? Do you think my wind turbine design with n number of blades will work? A. My early research showed that 3 is about the optimum number of blades. Most commercially made wind turbines have 3 blades. From what I understand, turbines with even numbers of blades tend to suffer from vibration problems. So 3 is the lowest practical number of blades (There are single-bladed turbines, but they are funny looking and need a big counterweight opposite the single blade to balance them). There are diminishing returns to adding more blades. Expense and complexity goes up quickly, but performance only improves marginally. Also, adding more blades tends to increase torque, but at the expense of speed. So you rarely see an electricity generating wind turbine with more than 5 blades, because generators like to turn fast. In applications where torque is important, you may see turbines with lots of blades, like the ones pumping water on ranches, but they don't make good electrical generators unless their output is geared way up to make enough speed for a generator.

Q. I understand the mechanical aspects of your wind turbine, but electronics part is all Greek to me. Can you teach me enough electronics to understand this system? A. Sorry, no. There aren't enough hours in the day to even attempt to respond to all the requests I get.

Q. Can you design a wind turbine/battery/charge controller system for me that will power my home/farm/studio/cabin/office/barn so I can get out from under the thumb of my evil electric company? A. Sorry, no. There aren't enough hours in the day to even attempt to respond to all the requests I get, let alone actually design anything.

Q. Do you have a printed circuit board or board layout for the charge controller? A. No, but the web site I based my charge controller on does have a PC board layout for their controller. It is almost identical to mine. The link is http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/9/20/0406/27488

Q. I tried building a charge controller using your schematic and instructions, but I can't get it to work. Can you help me troubleshoot and/or repair it?

A. I get lots of these questions. Without actually having the unit in front of me, the probability that I can help you find the problem is just about zero.

Q. Can you build a charge controller for me? A. No. I only build equipment for my own personal use.

Q. Can you sell me a wind turbine? A. No. I am not in the wind turbine mass-production business. Also, see answer above.

Q. Will a solar panel charge controller work for my wind turbine? A. Unlikely. Most solar panel charge controllers simply disconnect the panel(s) from the battery(s) when full charge is achieved. This leaves the solar panels open-circuited. This is not a problem for solar panels. However, wind turbines need to be connected to a load at all times or they will overrev. When the batteries achieve full charge, the wind turbine needs to be connected to another load, rather than open-circuited. It may be possible to modify a solar charge controller to do this, but it would depend on the particular controller. I can't help you with selecting a controller or making modifications.

Q. Do you sell your excess power back to the electric company? Can I do it? A. I don't sell power to my electric company because there is no electric service on my remote property. It would cost me many thousands of dollars to have power brought in. I'd probably never recoup the cost. Can you do it? I suppose so. However, you need to do some figuring to see if it is really worth it. First, how much excess power do you really have to sell? Next find out how much the utility will pay you for the power. When they sell it to you, you have to pay the retail rate, plus fuel charges and so forth. When the utility buys power though, they only buy it at the wholesale rate, which is considerably lower. You'll need an expensive synchronous inverter to match the power line AC frequency, and professionally installed switch gear. After crunching the numbers, you may find it isn't worth the effort.

Q. Which direction does your wind turbine spin? A. When looking at the turbine from the blade side, (as opposed to the tail side), the turbine spins clockwise. So the motor shaft turns clockwise. The direction of spin is not really all that important. A DC motor will act as a generator no matter which way it is turned. The polarity on the output will just reverse if the direction is reversed.

Q. How many birds has your wind turbine killed? A. My wind turbine hasn't killed or injured any birds.

[Back to Mike's Home-Built Wind Turbine page] Other places to visit:

[Mike's Home Page] [Mike's telescope workshop] [Mike's gold prospecting page]

[Email me]

[Mike's home-built jet engine page] [Mike's Home-Built Solar Panel page]

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Making the blades

Print off the diagram in the previous page making sure the scales are the correct size. The print out will probably cover more than one page so these will need to taped or glued together. Adjust the page height and width in the form and the landscape and portrait options on the printer to minimise the number of pages you need to join. The thin red tick marks at the corner of

the pages must align, as should the axis and curves. I found it easiest to cut away the excess paper on one page to see the joint between the pages. The pages can be taped together and once joined it is easiest to glue the diagram to a piece of thicker card so it is stronger and can be easily traced around later.

The very centre of the blade will probably need to be removed to avoid the axle or hub. Mark this on the diagram of the blade. The inner part of the blade where it is bolted to the flat front of the hub will be blanketed and also be excessively wide to be practical. I just drew a smooth curve from the start of the blade joining the red line at a place just outside the hub that looked right. Avoid sharp corners or abrupt changes in width as this part of the blade will be under some stress. If the root of the blade is to be bolted against the front of the hub then the position of these bolts should be marked on the red dotted line Cut the blade diagram out along the red lines marking the straight trailing edge, the tip, the curve marking the length of the arc line and the smooth curve you have drawn at the root.

It is now possible to wrap the blade plan around the outside of the piece of PVC tube with the straight trailing edge along the axis and mark around the plan. I used semi circular PVC gutter which already had a straight finished edge. If you are using a complete tube it would probably be easiest to cut it into sections down the length so the straight edge is already finished. Tape and small spring clamps are useful to hold the template. Where you have marked the holes for the hub bolts, drill these through the PVC tube. When you have marked one blade, repeat for the remaining blades. Use the plan to mark all the blades. Do not cut the first blade using the plan and then use this as the template for the rest. You end up with one correct sized blades and the rest will be smaller. Use the same side of the plan so all the blades rotate in the same direction.

I cut the blades from the PVC gutter using a small jig saw but it would be easy to do by hand. They were cut slightly over size and then sanded back to the mark using a sanding drum mounted on a drill which left a clean finish. The edges and corners were then lightly rounded by hand sanding.
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Links
Wikipedia - wind turbine aerodynamics Wind Stuff equations Wind mission blade design http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_aerodynamics http://windstuffnow.com/main/wind.htm http://www.windmission.dk/workshop/BasicBladeDesign/bladedesign.html

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Model No: Wind Turbine ECO-500 W Product Origin: China Shandong Price Terms: FOB Payment Terms: T / T Supply Ability: 5000/Year,400/Month Minimum Order: on demand Delivery Lead Time:on demand Certification (s): EC

characteristics: New wind alternator generator: ECO-600 is equipped with high efficiency alternator. As the use of larger-size wires, the generator has the lower internal resistance. New blades: The blades are made by the precise ejection model technology, which is alary and high-efficiency. So the generator can start up with a low speed and use the wind power more efficiently. Compared with the traditional materials, this new type adopts glass fibre, which can reduce the weight and enhance resistant corrosion. Auto-defensive function after fully charged: Once the batteries are fully charged, the generator will be in a quiet state of the adjustment. When battery's voltage is slightly lower than the voltage when fully charged, the generator will re-generate electricity.

Numbers of blade: 3 Materials of blade: FRP Diameter of wind turbines (m): 2.7 Start-up Wind Speed (m/s): 2.5 Cut-in Wind Speed (m/s): 25 Rated Wind Speed (m/s): 8 Rated speed (rotate/minute): 350 Max. wind speed (m/s): 50 Generator: Permanent magnetic generator Generator rated power (W): 500 Max. output power (W): 700 Output voltage (V DC): 36 Rated current (A): 11.9 Protect: Auto Furl Altitude of tower (m): 6 Weight (kg): 90 Temperature Range: -40 to +60 Deg. C (-40 to +140 Deg. F) Battery: 12V 150AH X3

During the process of installing wind turbine generator, connecting electrical wiring is a very important step. If the connection is wrong or loose, afterward there will possibly have the unpredictable problem. We are providing the following electrical wiring plans for your reference, which is adequate to have a number of electrical knowledge. Meanwhile, we also hope you to notice that this map does not display controller because it has been integrated into the generator. I believe this can reduce your workload and improve system stability. Moreover, we offer two maps for the reason that MD 500 can be both used in the off-grid environment, and used in the on-grid environment.

ECO-500w wind turbine generator packing details: Item name Wind Generator Blade hub Quantity 1 3 1 weight(kg) 27 7.3 5.5 0.7 3 3.5 6 20 30 103 kg 180 sets 40'hc

nosecone 1 tail rod 1 tail vane 1 controler and inverter 1 Veneer packing size:1.31x0.61x0.38=0.3m3 2 tower 0.05 m3 total: 0.35 m3 1 2 packing 150 sets 40 'ft,

Container load quantity: 68 sets 20ft,

Small Wind Generator

Impaired Products

Electronic Security System

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Our Products

Wind Solar Hybrid System

- SWG Models - Application - SNT NANO Wind Turbine - Comparison - Video Gallery - Photo Gallery - Our Esteem Clients - Auto Alert device for non-swiming zone EVALUTION OF SMALL WIND TURBINE WITH HYBRID GENERATOR SYSTEM

Models Equivalent Rated Output Storage Capacity Per day @ Avrg. Wind speed 5.5 m/s Suggested Solar PV Modules Rated capacity of Hybrid System

SNT 1

SNT 10

SNT 25

SNT 50

SNT 75

SNT 100

700w

1,400w

2,800w

5,000w

7,500w

10,000w

2.5kwh

5kwh

10kwh

20kwh

30kwh

40Kwh

150w

300w

600w

1200w

1800w

2400w

Swa Nirbhar Urja Kit

0.85kw 1.7kw 3.4kw 6.8kw 9.3kw 12.4kw

- Technical Specification - Test Report - Manual Report - Solar Lantern Feature - Comparission with Stove

Suggested battery Bank For Hybrid system No. of blades Rotor Diameter Rated wind Speed Start up wind Speed

3.6kw

7.2kw

14.4kw

28.8kw

43.2kw

57.6kw

Three 6 feet 11m/s

Three 10 feet 11m/s

Three 14 feet 11m/s

Three 14 feet 11m/s

Three 20 feet 11m/s

Three 20 feet 11m/s

Sterling Engine Battery Operated Kit

2.0m/s

2.2m/s

2.8m/s

3.0m/s

3.0m/s

3.0 m/s

Type of Load

AC/DC

AC

AC

AC

AC/Three Phase 5000 VA Tripod Tower Structure

AC/Three Phase 5000 VA Tripod Tower Structure

Impaired Products
- Braille Language Lab for Visually Impaired - Lab for Hearing Impaired - Auto Public Information Device

Inverter

700 VA

1400 VA

3500 VA Tripod Tower Structure

3500 VA Tripod Tower Structure

Tower Eraction

Tilting pipe Tilting pipe

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Language Laboratory (TEES)

Electronic Burglar Alarm System

- Introduction - photogallery

Due to continuous development & Product improvement, specification are subject to change without notice, Performance may vary on account of air density of wind, hybrid (solar and wind) system available on request and requirement. Our windmills yaw movement is designed to restrict the blade rotation to 300 RPM are designed for optimum performance at an annual mean wind speed of 5.5m/s.

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R&D

SWG Inquiry Forms

Questionnare Form Survey Report

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Press Release
The Sunday Times of India

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Feet to Millimeters Chart

Foot Millimeter
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 304.8 609.6 914.4 1219.2 1524 1828.8 2133.6 2438.4 2743.2 3048 3352.8 3657.6 3962.4 4267.2 4572 4876.8 5181.6 5486.4 5791.2 6096 6400.8 6705.6 7010.4 7315.2 7620

Foot Millimeter
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 7924.8 8229.6 8534.4 8839.2 9144 9448.8 9753.6 10058.4 10363.2 10668 10972.8 11277.6 11582.4 11887.2 12192 12496.8 12801.6 13106.4 13411.2 13716 14020.8 14325.6 14630.4 14935.2 15240

Foot Millimeter
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 15544.8 15849.6 16154.4 16459.2 16764 17068.8 17373.6 17678.4 17983.2 18288 18592.8 18897.6 19202.4 19507.2 19812 20116.8 20421.6 20726.4 21031.2 21336 21640.8 21945.6 22250.4 22555.2 22860

Foot Millimeter
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 100 125 150 175 200 250 300 500 750 1000 23164.8 23469.6 23774.4 24079.2 24384 24688.8 24993.6 25298.4 25603.2 25908 26212.8 26517.6 26822.4 27127.2 27432 30480 38100 45720 53340 60960 76200 91440 152400 228600 304800