Building A Wind Generator
by. Andrew Oke
Building a wind generator is a much more cost effective solution than buying one. The average price of a 1000 watt wind generator is USD $2500. I would have to save up for more than a year to be able to buy one. That's why I built my own wind generator.
It's not as difficult as you might think either. A wind generator has some basic parts. I'll deal with the tower first.
Many people have researched and found that buying a wind tower is very expensive. That's true, but when I built mine I actually made $100 getting it. You see, many people these days have switched to satellite television, but they still have those television towers up. I was doing some construction at a house and noticed this. I asked the guy if I could buy it off of him. He told me "I'll give you $100 dollars to take that thing away.
The next part of a wind generator is the generator. I really like wind generators because they allow you to produce AC or DC power. This is good for several reasons. First, if you don't have the money for a battery system you can hook up an AC motor and generate AC power for your house. As you can afford batteries you can switch the motor to a DC one and charge the battery system.
Now for the most important part of your wind generator- the blades. Another trick that we've learned to make blades is to use PVC tubing. I know it sounds crazy, but a correctly cut PVC pipe works great as a wind generator blade. The plus side of using PVC as blades is that they are very strong.
The last piece you need for your wind generator is the vane. This can be made out of anything. Mine is a triangle I cut out of some plastic.
Assembling the wind generator is usually a whole day job-- good for a weekend-- you need to set up the tower and secure it with 5 guy wires. These wires are important as they provide stability so your wind generator doesn't fall down. You will have to mount the turbine on the top- which should be done before you set up your tower. Make sure to attach the wires to the generator because I've forgotten.
You will probably want to do some load testing on your generator to see the wattages it produces at different wind speeds.
