Category → Wind turbine design

Residential Wind Turbines

22 July, 17:26, by homemadejoe Tags: , ,

Residential Wind Turbines:

With the constantly increasing energy prices, more and more households are looking for alternative sources that can generate free electricity. Renewable energy technologies are becoming popular options.

In general, there are five common renewable energy sources: biomass, hydropower, geothermal, heat, wind and solar power. In residential areas, however, solar and wind sources are considered the most suitable.

If living in an area in sunny condition, the solar power system will be beneficial while the wind energy system will work for those in an area with windy conditions.

Though wind energy is a by-product of solar resources, wind energy devices have some advantages over that of solar systems.

Compared with solar cells that can only generate electricity during daytime, wind turbines can operate day and night. In addition, because wind tends to be stronger during winter, wind turbines can produce electricity more than solar panels.

There are two general types of residential wind turbines for home purposes. These are the horizontal axis and the vertical axis wind turbines.

The most common between the two are the horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs). They have three blades rotating in horizontal circle like a clock’s hand. They can produce about 300 to 10,000 watts of electricity.

Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have vertical rotators and make use of rectangular panels instead of blades. Unlike the HAWTs, these types of wind turbines can collect wind from multiple directions even with interferences. Thus, are more suitable in areas surrounded with tall buildings.

Utilizing wind turbines to generate electricity offers many benefits both for the user and to the environment.

Homemade wind turbines can definitely reduce households’ consumption of energy from traditional sources and therefore cut off the cost of their electric bills. But there are also some things to consider about wind turbines.

First, they seem to be impractical for areas that are heavily populated. Large buildings and other products of urban expansion may affect wind patterns making the energy source inconsistent and unpredictable.

In this case, it is best recommended to use rooftop wind turbines. These smaller wind turbines can reduce energy bill by about 10 percent or more still depending on the owner’s consumption.

Rooftop wind turbines are also suitable for those living in isolated flat areas. Other options include the elevated homemade wind turbines but these are basically more expensive. It comes with a tower that is about 80 to 120 feet. The tower helps the turbine get more access to stronger winds.
A small rooftop turbine is not enough to power an entire household. They can only produce small amount of energy. If planning to use wind energy for all electricity need, then more than one homemade wind turbines on top of towers will be necessary.

Purchasing or making home wind turbines are not that expensive. There are just some important factors like location, proper installation and precautionary measures to be considered to maximize their efficiency.

Periodic maintenance and regular safety inspections are also essential to make these turbines life usage last and to ensure the neighborhood safety.

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

12 July, 17:19, by homemadejoe Tags: , ,

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Usage:

Because of the environmental concerns and energy issues facing by the world today, many countries have been trying to utilize renewable sources of energy. Wind, being a clean and plentiful source of energy is now setting a new trend in renewable energy sources.

Wind turbines systems are the most efficient way to generate electricity from wind energy. They vary greatly in size from homemade wind turbines to commercial scale wind farms.

Wind had already been used by people even in early times. Sail of ships utilizes wind to travel in high seas. Early American dwellers used wind mills for grinding corn, cutting woods and pumping water. Originally, mills were invented to grind corn. As men tried to find more efficient way to operate them, they led to an earlier version of today’s wind turbines. It featured large blades set in vertical wheel shape.

Several gears were connecting the wheel’s axle and the mill stone. As the wind turns the blades, it causes the mill inside to move and grinding the corn or wheat into flour. The present version replaces the mill with a generator that in turn produces the electricity. From these concepts, modern homemade wind turbines had been developed and are now being widely used to reduce households’ electric bills.

Wind turbines are generally classified into two types. These are horizontal axis wind turbine and the vertical axis wind turbine or the HAWT and the VAWT respectively. Both designs can be adapted for homemade wind turbines but HAWTs are more common. This is because horizontal axis wind turbines are found to be more efficient in generating electricity than vertical axis turbines.

The design of the horizontal axis turbines features three blades moving in horizontal circle similar to a clock’s hand. Besides the increased efficiency, HAWTs can also transfer the power generated from rotor to gearbox in much smoother way than VAWTs. Most of these turbines are mounted on top of towers being exposed to higher wind velocities. Unlike VAWTs that are designed to operate near the ground where there could be too many wind interferences.

However this set up offers the VAWTs an advantage over HAWTs. With HAWTs setting up HAWT system would require tall cranes and a yaw system. The periodic necessary maintenance has also to be done on top of those towers.
At the present, there are also two different designs of a vertical axis wind turbine – Savonius rotor and Darrieus model. The first type is similar to anemometer. But these are very inefficient offering an efficiency of about 5 to 10 percent. The Darrieus model on the other hand looks like an egg beater. This design makes use of an airfoil that operates as the airplane wing.

Though vertical axis turbines are about less than 40 percent efficient than HAWTs, they offer benefits in low wind situations. Also, because they are mounted close to the ground, they are safer and easier to build. They can also handle wind turbulence much better than HAWTs. Another important feature of vertical axis turbines is that they can operate using winds from any direction.