Tag → Homemade wind Turbine

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.

Homemade Wind Turbines: Design Considerations for Wind Turbine Capacity

15 June, 16:56, by homemadejoe Tags: , , , ,
one comment

Design Considerations for Wind Turbine Capacity:

There are a lot of things to consider when setting up homemade wind turbines. One of the most important ones is wind turbine capacity. Or in simpler terms: how to squeeze every possible energy from the wind. Here are some of the design considerations when building one’s own system.

HAWT or VAWT

One of the things to consider when building a homemade wind turbine is whether to use the schematic for the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine or to use the one for the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine. Both wind turbines are effective and have some positive points to them. For the VAWTs design, the main rotor shaft is set vertically. This setup can be very advantageous because the gearbox and even the generator itself can be placed close to the ground. This results in very easy maintenance of the device. Also, since the VAWT design does not implement windmill like rotor blades, it can be considered relatively safe, especially in serious cases of very strong gusts and storms. Another good advantage of the VAWT is that it does not need to be pointed against the winds direction to harness its kinetic energy.

The Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine on the other hand, has a quite different schematic. Unlike that of the VAWT, the HAWT gearbox and generator is located on the top of the turbine. It usually has two or more rotor blades and it is considered to be one of the most efficient systems available for getting as much from wind energy. Since it makes use of aerodynamic rotor blades, the sweep area for the HAWT is relatively bigger and more power is therefore generated. Aside from that, the HAWT has a very common and simple design. The HAWT needs to be properly pointed at the wind direction to harness the most energy.

SIZE MATTERS

When designing homemade wind turbines, size can be a design consideration. This is typically significant to get more power out of the system. How much power does the system have to generate?  One thing to consider about wind turbines is that the sweep area of a turbine or the encompassing area where the rotor blades move is directly proportional to the output energy. Bigger is better so to speak. Designing a wind turbine with a big rotor blade will most likely generate more power. However, building a wind turbine with really big rotor blades can be a problem unto itself. There’s a big possibility of the equipment being a safety hazard when things suddenly go wrong. Choosing the best size for the system is not only of practical importance but health and potential risks have to be included into the computation as well.

MATERIALS USED

Homemade wind turbines come in all shapes and sizes. There have been a lot of builders who’ve designed their systems with unusual materials like cardboard boxes, scrap metal and the like. This makes for novelty designs. However, for practical reasons, it would be best to consider high quality materials – especially since the wind turbine is designed to be used on a day to day basis and will be exposed to all of nature’s elements.

 

ALEKO WG3KW 3000W 3KW Watt Residential-Commercial Wind Generator Wind Turbine