Windmill Generator Blade Design
November 1, 2009 by David
Filed under Windmill Generator Design
To understand how your windmill generator will create electricity we need to get a handle on how it works. We don’t need high wind speed if the wind generator is efficient, in fact too much wind can be more of a problem than a help!
What we need to understand is that as the wind speed doubles, it will create 8 Times the power at the wind generator. If the wind speed is tripled, you will get 27 times more output on the windmill generator!
Realistically, a wind speed of around 5 mph (miles per hour) is fine. Couple this with an efficient windmill generator with suitable blade length and you will get a lot of power. Something to understand for calculating, is that the longer the turbine blades – the more power output (you had probably guessed that factor!) By doubling the length of the blades on your wind generator, the power output increase four times! So it’s nice to build blades to a decent length to help the output.
Whatever style of motor you use to generate electricity, it will need some minor maintenance from time to time, so consider the fact that you will need to get to it again the future. If you have space for an 8 foot blade on your wind generator, that’s great, but remember you will need to set this very high indeed and this will put your motor along way away for any maintenance (such as changes brushes or bearings).
OK enough of the technical (honestly, you don’t need to be a genius for some good returns), all you really need is a good plan to work to and ideally a proven design. Then making a sensible windmill generator is easy.
How easy is it to build a Windmill Generator for your home?
October 31, 2009 by David
Filed under Windmill Generator
Well many believe that it must be difficult or maybe that is is expensive. The truth is, that anyone with some common sense, a few decent tools and a decent plan, can build a wind generator.
Let us understand how they work first of all. A wind generator extracts some of the power from the wind blowing (and it doesn’t need to be more than a few miles per hour) and by rotating, converts the wind energy directly into electricity. Pretty cool huh!
Now you could bound around your garage throwing bits together and see if it works (this can be fun), but better still is to search out some sensible guidance from the joys of the Internet. There is lots of advice, photos and videos, so get to understand the subject a little and hear some of the success tales of good wind generator construction.
If you have a good guide or some plans already, so much the better, since you should have a headstart on having to experiment and calculate everything yourself!
There are only a few elements to bring together for a decent wind generator:
Some type of turbine blade (so that the wind is efficiently tapped for energy),
An effective electric motor to convert wind energy through rotation to electrical current,
Ideally, a tail (or vane) to ensure that your blades on the wind generator face into the wind for the maximum amount of time and some connection to your home electrical system or batteries to store the power generated.
Now, of course any number of these areas can be challenging, but stick with it a while and we will try to keep it simple!
Below is a great video about building a wind generator – I hope you enjoy!
Windmill Generator Introduction
October 27, 2009 by David
Filed under Windmill Generator
Understanding HOW a windmill generator works, the good side and the down side for any design – it really is a mine field!
I love this video, since it really helps to get an understanding of generating electricity from wind power. I hope that you find it useful as an introduction
This helps us to understand a little better, that generating power from a windmill is obviously connected to wind speed (we are not that dumb!), but now we know that if the wind speed doubles – the generating power increases by 8 Times!
That’s some number and really expalins why it is so important to pick the best possible spot to capture the most breeze AND to to get the generator design right for your environment, so that you can make the most of every MPH of wind
