Building your own wind turbine - has anyone ever done it?

[Turkish]

Hey folks,

Our home in Turkey gets pretty good winds through out the year, usually between 25 - 35 knots, sometimes as high as low 40s. Anyways, I was having a good old Guinness with my friend when he asked whether I have researched if a small homemade wind turbine would work here. Anyways, I googled and came across this website: http://www.otherpower.com/new17page1.shtml

The one they build on that page cost them $5000 (2500 for the turbine, 2500 for tower), but I am not looking for something as extensive. I would be happy to see it power up a single lamp... I just want to do it for experimenting. So has anyone done it? How hard was it and did you come across any problems? Thanks

 

[DrPizza]

I believe it would be very easy to make one with only enough power for a laptop. You might be able to get by with just using a car's alternator. I've wanted to build a windmill for a few years now - or rather, make it a cross-curricular endeavor at my high school consisting of the physics class, wood shop, and welding classes. I'd fund it (and then the windmill would go on my property.)

Don't forget, in addition to the turbine & tower, you're going to need an inverter and/or some way to store the power/energy produced.

 

[Turkish]

Thanks Pizza. What about my wind speeds though? Do you think 25-35 knots all year around is worth investing? I think that makes about 30-40 miles per hour.

Couldn't we use a car battery to store the energy?

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: Turkish
Thanks Pizza. What about my wind speeds though? Do you think 25-35 knots all year around is worth investing? I think that makes about 30-40 miles per hour.

Couldn't we use a car battery to store the energy?

If you have that kind of wind blowing all the time, then you could easily power quite a few things. Of course, how much power you get depends on a lot of factors, but probably the most important are the turbine blade design/size and the efficiency of the generator.

You probably could use a car battery, but you would have to make sure that you had a good circuit so you didn't blow it up. You could lift the entire circuit from a car if you can use the alternator as your generator. It should have some sort of shutoff mechanism that prevents overcharging the battery.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Turkish
Thanks Pizza. What about my wind speeds though? Do you think 25-35 knots all year around is worth investing? I think that makes about 30-40 miles per hour.

IF anything I would think that would be TOO MUCH wind, its definitely not too little, thats more then most commercial wind farms would have based on what I've seen.

What I would be worried about is if it's that windy all the time then you must get some pretty serious gusts some of the time and the tower would have to be strong enough to withstand some pretty serious loads (in fact everything has to be designed for the worst case, even for example the generator and wires and rectifier etc...)

 

[bobsmith1492]

A car battery wouldn't last too long but a boat battery (marine deep-cycle) would.

Car batteries are meant to stay fully charged. A complete discharge greatly reduces their lifespan. Boat batteries (for trolling) are meant to be fully charged and discharged many times.

On the other hand, if your wind is fairly consistent, you could use a standard car battery and just use it as a giant capacitor to allow momentary power draw surges. I still think a boat battery is the way to go.

I had a friend who rigged his house with a diesel generator, inverters, and marine batteries to power his house since they were too far out in the boondocks to get electrical service. They ran the generator twice a day and used the batteries in between. Who knows how practical that is now, though, with the price of diesel skyrocketing.

 

[Turkish]

Thanks for your responses guys. As I kept reading online articles, forums, etc. I am beginning to accept the fact that the wind here in fact could be too much I guess the reason they don't build wind turbines here is because either it is too windy and risky, or that we are on a hill and it would be a challenge to build a stable tower for the turbine

Browntown: since my plan is (or was) to build a homemade small turbine just for fun, I don't think I will go for a turbine with large blades, just something large enough to see a few lamps lighting, etc... so the tower is not a big problem (and I do realize the higher your power is, more consistent your wind gets).

 

[montag451]

I can't see why you couldn't still carry on with your project.
Just use smaller fins.
(This is the first time I've heard complaints about there being too much wind for a wind turbine!!)

Make sure you aren't putting it on top of a building. That way leads to troubles. Lots of turbulence.
In the middle of a field - build it on good foundations (at least 20% of the height) with good strong tethers as well (minimum 3)
Good luck.

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: montag451
I can't see why you couldn't still carry on with your project.
Just use smaller fins.
(This is the first time I've heard complaints about there being too much wind for a wind turbine!!)

Make sure you aren't putting it on top of a building. That way leads to troubles. Lots of turbulence.
In the middle of a field - build it on good foundations (at least 20% of the height) with good strong tethers as well (minimum 3)
Good luck.

I agree. I don't know anything about this area, but it seems to me that you could always build a turbine that captures less of the wind and bring th forces and power back within reach of your goal.

 

[Modelworks]

I would probably look at solar instead. It is easy to set up and something big enough to power a lamp or notebook can be done for probably 300.00.
If I did wind power I might would look at a vertical sail design versus the traditional propeller design.
Very safe and it works with wind from all directions without having to turn the generator.
http://www.wind-sail.com/

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: Turkish
Thanks for your responses guys. As I kept reading online articles, forums, etc. I am beginning to accept the fact that the wind here in fact could be too much I guess the reason they don't build wind turbines here is because either it is too windy and risky, or that we are on a hill and it would be a challenge to build a stable tower for the turbine

Browntown: since my plan is (or was) to build a homemade small turbine just for fun, I don't think I will go for a turbine with large blades, just something large enough to see a few lamps lighting, etc... so the tower is not a big problem (and I do realize the higher your power is, more consistent your wind gets).

I would get a large pole (like for a basketball hoop) and fix it into the ground with concrete (like for a basketball hoop ). For the size you're talking about, I'm pretty confident that that would be enough to hold it steady. Of course, let us know what the actual blade size you're looking at will be and we can get a better idea of whether or not this is sufficient structural support.

You can get a vague idea of how much lateral force will be on the blade if you know the blade type and can find an axial thrust number, though these numbers are often proprietary and are really for agitation turbines in an enclosed tank under controlled conditions. It will at least give you a ballpark idea. If you can't find these numbers, let me know what type of blade you want to use and I might have some data that i measured myself a few years ago.