Jeff,

Check out otherpower.com. There is tons of information including pictures
on how to build your own power generating wind turbines, and they do it quite inexpensively using brake disc rotors salvaged from old trucks and cars.
Interesting stuff, here's the link http://www.otherpower.com/

Russ

I'll look in to using wind power as a supplement to grid for my cabins. Seems a very feasible option for my part of the world. Always wet and windy :)

For my off-grid location I use a 400w pv array, 6 6-volt batteries, modified sine wave inverter, diesel generator (backup and to power the 220v deep well pump). I hope to add a wind turbine this year.

One thing with the modified sine wave inverters, they fry things like chargers, motors, electronics, but only some. Other stuff works fine.

I'm still learning about it! I didn't design it, so I have to find out things as I go along.

OK, so I been studying the Other Power website pretty thoroughly for a while now, and I think I'm about ready to try my luck building a windmill. I have a few books on the way that I hope will answer the unanswered. I also have started gathering parts. It should be a fun build.

After that I'll have to figure out how to regulate power and finally utilize it. Hopefully I can bump into a good deal on an inverter, as this is the most expensive part of the whole project.

Ha, that didn't take long!

Actually, I was looking for something more along the lines of 5000+ watts and preferably with a pure sine wave (or close to it) to run inductive loads, flourecent lights, and other electronics that don't like the modified sine wave (like this computer I am typing on) which the inexpensive inverters utilize.

Of course, when it comes down to the last dance, I'll be willing to compromise. :lol:

Well sure! Didn't I mention my 120 inch High Definition computer monitor and the coffee maker next to the keyboard?

But seriously though, the windmill will probably be in the ~500 watt range to a bank of batteries. I'm thinking of a 24 volt system to reduce amperage and lighten up the cables both from the windmill to the batteries and to the inverter. I just want to make sure I can run appliances.

I have read some more, that true sine wave inverters are a lot more innefficient overal and have a high idle (no loads applied to the inverter) amp draw just to power their own circuits. So I am rethinking, and maybe I'll go with a modified sinewave inverter for most things, and rework my current 1000 va UPS I have for the computer and run it like a full time inverter. (if it can handle continuous loads) It's only very lightly loaded as is now, only lighting the first LED of five on the power useage indicator.

Battery-less would be nice, but that's hardly reality, unless you get a (very expensive) "grid-tied" inverter. No batteries, but the regular electic grid acts a bit like a battery by sending your excess power to the grid (which reverses the electric meter) and later when you need power, it comes back in. The only problem is if the grid goes down, so do you if you don't have batteries. But I guess that's what my 4000 watt generator is for.

Anyhow, I'm getting waaaaaayyy ahead of myself. All I got is some sketches and some orders for materials. Starting small is a good idea. Let's see if I can make the mill first. :wink:

I appreciate the (or any) advice. It's worth no less than the price paid. :wink:

I'm going to attempt a traditional style mill and build a 3 phase axial flux alternator. I'm not sold on the vertical styles being able to generate sufficient torque (and definitely not comparable to traditional) to get the wattage I'm targeting. Clearly, that unless you build the thing to be massive, they are unable to harness the same square footage of air compared to a traditional mill. Though I may still build a small scale one just out of curiosity, now that I have seen how they go together.

One nice thing is an axial flux alternator can be easily fitted to any rotating shaft. (including vertical mills) Maybe I'll get lucky enough to acquire property with a running stream, and convert it to a hydro-electric operation.

I use a modified sine wave inverter, off grid. So far it's fried a bunch of sensitive electronics that work fine on grid power. The manufacturer states in its manual that some things will work fine, some things will not work at all, some things will work poorly, some things will burn up (like my Mom's air cleaner - "What's that funny smell? Ah, just the plastic melting, Mom, don't worry about it." so much for the cleaner air! ) and other things will burn out faster than usual because they have to work harder/longer. I plan to replace it this year with a full sine wave inverter.

So, pay the extra money and get a full sine wave inverter. Here's a forum for sun/wind discussions.
http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php

Ha!! I've seem to be growing a reputation that I'm "the guy that's building the windmill." :lol: Hasn't anyone else on here planned/built windmills?

From what I gathered, just about any permanent magnet motor can be made into a generator, but may not be all that efficient. Brushes and slip-rings are the biggest thing to avoid. (though several report many years of flawless service) Anyhow, I got some literature, the magnets, (which scare the %&#!$ out of me) and the hub assembly. I'll have the rotors tomorrow. Misc. hardware, motor winding wire, and plywood for molding forms will soon follow. (see how finances go after that vet bill :wink: )

I'm starting to learn that I still need to learn a lot. :lol: Many variables that I have yet to be answered. This would be a lot easier if I had someone to coach me along on this. I love the fact that constructing these things seems sort of "back woods" but when you get into it, you see the high degree of engineering and understanding of phyics required.

Here's more on that DIY windmill. This site also has a lot of other cool DIY stuff.

http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/27BB2BF4004C102980EC001143E7E506/

:shock: Wow! that's lookin' pretty good!! :D

Nope, I ain't no rocket scientist. :lol: Like the saying from the Otherpower website, "The cutting edge of low technology." Their site is of great value for building this thing.

All you're looking at is 13 inch front brake disks for a Mustang Cobra, with 2" x 1/2" Neodymium magnets attached. The hub assembly is just a trailer hub and spindle set from a trailer supply store. The mechanics of it all are quite easy. The mathmatic parts are a bit harder on the brain. There are so many formulas for figuring out this and that, and it seems there is no one place to get those formulas, since this is all pretty much "redneck engineering."

The planned prop diameter is 14 feet, though I'm still figuring out the math for making sure the prop is sized right for the generator. The whole thing is going to be quite heavy. (maybe 400 lbs excluding the tower) To get it up, I'll probably use a homebuilt "tilt-up" style tower, unless a deal comes along. 35-40 feet up is the target.

OK, back to head-scratching math. Later

I can't say for certain, but I think gov't rebates and such only apply to "grid-tied" systems. The reason I'm building this thing is because I will most likely be well off grid, and I doub't they care about those who have nothing to offer back.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Good links dbtoo!!!! That looks pretty promising.

OK, more photos of my continuing progress!

This is how I contained the epoxy the magnets are cast into. I cut a band of aluminum flashing to the size of the inside and outside circumferences of the rotor surfaces, taped it together, and lined the surface towards the magnets with heavyweight packing tape. I added layers of tape and test fitted to the rotors until the forms fit tightly onto the rotors. I then mixed (expensive) West Systems epoxy with a slow hardener, and bought some empty caulk tubes, filled 'em up and cast the rotors, without slopping it all over the magnets.

And here is one of the rotors fresh out of the forms. The packing tape on the forms released from the epoxy far better than I could have ever hoped for. It left a beautiful shiney edge.

This is the modified trailer hub. One rotor is actually attached behind the flange. That's 1/2-20 stainless steel all-thread, which coincidentally, accepts lug nuts for attaching the rotors.

And this is the assembled magnet rotors onto the hub assembly. I guess about 80 pounds right there. I had wound a single test coil to put in between the rotors to see what kind of power I can get, but I got them adjusted a little too close together, and the coil rubs on the magnet faces. It takes too long to make the spacing change, so I didn't adjust it tonight, but just for my own entertainment, a held the coil in between the rotors anyhow, and spun the rotors as best I could with the other hand, I figure maybe 60 RPM max, (once around per second) and I got 2 volts AC!!!! OK, don't sound like much, but it's only one of nine coils, and at a very slow speed. My target voltage on one coil is 3.4 volts @ 100 RPM. Looks like that should be quite obtainable. :D

Thats all for now. More to come!

:D Rod, if it starts talking with a German accent and begins searching for Sara Conner... RUN AWAY!!! :shock:

Here's a nice little wind mill for only $500.

The AIR-X's charge controller periodically stops charging, reads the battery voltage, compares it to the voltage setting and if the battery is charged, it completely shuts off all current going to the battery

http://store.yahoo.com/affordablesolar/1008.html

Plus you can't beat the "hands on" experience you get with building your own. And if it breaks down you know how to fix it yourself! :D

Rod,

I just read through this whole thread and am extremely impressed with your progress. I have done quite a bit or research on wind generation and was thinking of doing exactly what you are doing. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I decided I need to finish a few projects before I start any more.

I was wondering what you were going to use for the brake system. I had read where one person strapped a leather belt over the shaft to slow it down but that didn't seem to be real robust. I know that the big vestas wind turbines have a brake system in them that only allow them to produce so much power so they don't overspin but I'm not sure how it works.

Also, are you going to buy a prop or build your own? Just wondering. I've seen some real simple sheetmetal props but thought that they may come apart if you get some vibration at higher speeds. I'm not sure how hard they are to balance.

I work with someone that has two vestas wind turbines. If you have any questions, maybe I could see what he thinks if you like. He has actually been entertaining the thought of building systems that are about 20 kw in size and selling them as Vestas has decided to get out of that size.

Thanks for the compliments

Farmercolby is on the right track. There is no brake. Rather, the axle of the prop is offset from the tower pivot. (takes math to figure out how much) The tail is mounted on an angled pivot that causes it to rise when it's folded. (furled) How it works is, as wind speed (and pressure) increases against the offset prop, it forces it to turn away from the wind, and forces the tail to fold and swing up. (I calculated wind pressures against the 14' prop in the 350 lbs range at higher windspeeds, so you get an idea of what kind of forces I got to deal with) When the wind begins to subside, the weight of the tail will make it unfold on it's angled hinge, and begin steering the prop back into alignment with the wind. The folding system is employed to control excessive amperage that can cook the charging coils.

Even at high winds, with the system furled, it will still be producing much power, as it will still have some angle to the wind and continue turning. Now, there is some electrical breaking, which is neccesary to control RPMs. Much of this occurs by charging the batteries, or applying power to "dump loads" like water heater elements or electric baseboard heat. There is one last way to control the windmill, and is usually considered an emergency action, and that is to physically short the connections to the windmill's generator. This will bring it to a quick stop in all but the strongest winds. I plan to build this into my system, because if you had a fuse blow, the windmill would be allowed to "free-wheel" unloaded, and would eventually rip off the prop blades. I'll be using an electrical contactor that will "close-to-short" should there be an overload, stopping the mill automatically.

I will be building my own three blade prop, from wood, perhaps cedar. I'll make a carving box that will allow me to router out the twist required with accurate repeatable results. That is done by laying a board for the bottom, and another board to one side, and a third board to the other side. But the third board will taper from one end to the other. Then a router will be fitted onto a board that can span across the two side boards, and can be worked back and forth, down the length of the carving box. The tapering board will cause the router to carve a twist into the wood. Now the tough part. The other side of the blade will need to be carved by hand, and require an "eye" to get the airfoil shape required. I'll probably pick up a cheap power planer, and belt sander to do that. Once one blade is made, I'll use it as the pattern to make the rest, by making (yea, always making) a large duplicator, so they all match nice. I might make a spare blade in case I need a pattern, should the blades ever get broken.

So, stay tuned, as I have finally got all my coils wound, and getting reading to wire them together probably tomorrow. Then it's onto getting some heavy tubular steel to weld up the head assembly. More pictures coming soon.

Construction of the wind turbine continues.....

Here, you see the nine coils of motor winding wire. Two parallel lengths of 14 gauge wire, wound 71 turns each per coil. Wire ends all over the place. Kinda intimidating at this point.

But fear not. All too soon, all the connections are wired up. Connecting together four ends of 14 gauge wire between coils was easily accomplished with some copper ice maker line, crimped, silver soldered, and heat shrinked.

Does anyone recognize what these are? If you're a plumber, you should. This was my plan for terminals that will carry power out of the generator. So far, I've not seen anyone on the Otherpower forums using this technique. Everyone there just has the wires exit out of the fiberglass casting, then drill bolt holes, and wrap the wire ends around the bolts. A crappy way to do it in my opinion. So I took 5/16" solid brass toilet bolts, and drilled two holes through them. I threaded on a solid brass nut, and inserted the wire ends into the drilled holes. Then I silver soldered the wires and nut to the bolts. I then drill holes in the wooden mold and push the bolts through, putting on nuts on the other side to secure them until the fiberglass is poured. The visible heads seen above will be completely buried in the fiberglass resin. What will be left is only a stud sticking out of the cast stator. A much more professional way to terminate the wires, yes? Six terminals were not required, but gave me the ability to configure several ways of extracting power from it, and only cost me one more pack of bolts.

So that's about all I got for now. Casting the stator is next. Fiberglass materials have been ordered, and I await their delivery. It's going to be a messy job, but neccessary. I just hopoe it works, because there's no going back once the pouring begins!!!

Next step: Casting the coils in resin. Gosh, I hope I do this right. About $200 on the line, and a lot of labor, if I screw this up.

This is the top lid to the mold you seen in earlier posts. I had to router out some material, as for some reason, the coils came up a little thick. While I was at it I removed even more material around the perimeter so the casting will be extra thick at mounting points. So, this left me with a domed lid that would trap air in the mold. Oh, what to do, what to do?

This was my solution. I drilled two holes at far opposite sides of the mold lid's cavity. With the mold tilted slightly, I planned to inject resin into the lower hole, and force air out the upper hole. I didn't completely fill the mold this way. I glassed and poured the bottom half as full as I could before closing the lid and injecting the final amounts of resin.

And here it is after pouring the last of the resin. The caulk tube worked great. In fact, I didn't even have to force it in. Gravity did it all. I vibrated the mold with a orbital sander to try and coax out all the air possible. I hope it is all out, but I won't know until tomorrow morning. I just hope the resin set's up. It still hadn't after about a 45 minutes after mixing, so I'm a bit worried. I know it's going to be cool tonight, which won't help it cure, so I took the whole thing, and set it on top of one of the air conditioning outdoor units for our computer rooms. They run 24/7/365 and throw off quite a bit of heat, so hopefully that will trigger the resin to cure.

Time shall tell, fingers and toes crossed.

Alright, I was able to finally uncross my fingers and toes. The fiberglass resin set up successfully. Here's a quick picture of it out of the mold and a quick sanding.

I did get a few air pockets in the lid area, (other side) but nothing that effects it's integrity. None the less, I filled them in with a bit more resin, and will sand it out tomorrow. I still have to drill mounting holes near the outer edge.

Next step, go scrounging for steel tubing, angle, and plate stock, to make up the assembly to hold all this stuff together. This is basically what I need to assemble:

Once I weld that up, I'll finally be able to test how much power it will put out.

Rod Reidnauer,

How is the progress on your wind Generator? Looks like superior craftsmanship so far.

Dean

Rod,
It appears that you have an aviation background. Or you are an extremely good at researching.

Dean

Cool site, has it flown yet?

OK, I'll be upfront and say that I didn't read through this entire thread. There is a lot of jargon that I couldn't pick up on, so I thought I would just jump in and ask my questions.

1. For those of you with windpower, how is it working out for you?

2. Forgive my ignorance, but what are the pros and cons? Is this really feasible? To be able to not have to rely on the electric company would be great.