Last updated on April 26th, 2024 at 01:11 pm
Wind energy is a source of green energy that can be converted into wind power (electricity) by wind turbines.
Home owners can build wind turbine to generate up to 20kW of electricity that can power a small US household.
Any surplus power generated can also be sold back to the utility company to generate income.
Below are some pointers that you should consider before building a wind turbine.
Find a site that is windy using online wind atlas as a guide. Self-monitoring of the site can be also done using a handheld anemometer over a few months. Make sure to consider the strength of your regional wind since extremely strong winds might damage your wind turbine or cause injury to you or your family.
There should be minimal obstructions like trees and houses around the site; a wind turbine should be at least 30 ft from the ground level and at least 200 ft away from obstruction; the higher the better.
Select a suitable generator with a capacity that best suit your entire home usage.
To build wind turbine, you can choose from ready-made kitsets that can be assembled, or from scratch using suitable materials. The basic parts of a wind turbine consist of:
- tower
- a roof
- windmill blade
- rotor assembly
- blade generator; to convert the energy generated into usable electricity
- vane; to keep the propeller facing the wind
The completed project will probably look like an airplane with a huge propeller. It will typically require a few days to build a normal wind turbine. Once all the parts are fitted, you only require slight knowledge of electric circuitry to connect it up to the batteries. The batteries will be constantly charging when the spinning turbine is churning out energy.
When there is no wind, the electrical energy stored in the batteries will be utilised. This type of conventional model is called stand-alone systems. Get your family involved ! The erection of the tower will require some help and also make it en enjoyable bonding session.
To build wind turbine that allow you to return any surplus to be sold back to the utility company for income generation, you will require more sophisticated charge controllers and qualified electrical assistance. Such models are called intertie systems and do not require batteries since all the power will be utilised with any surplus channeled back into the power gird.
In the process of building a wind turbine, you might encounter unappreciative neighbours, and government red tape in the form of permits. Besides that, the batteries for the stand alone system might pose environmental issues in their disposal.
A lot of obstacles eh! FRET NOT !
Advances in technology have since made the building of wind turbine more feasible and affordable; with rooftop mounted models that will do away with the tower structure and the open space required. This allows homeowners that do not have the luxury of space and STILL able to enjoy the benefits of wind energy.
Noise from the blades are also reduced with covered and smaller blades with better design! It has also made the cost incurred to build a wind turbine more affordable and more readily available!
So choose the most suitable model for your usage.... but keep in mind the most important resaon in building and putting up a wind turbine is not only to reduce your utility bill, but also an integral and efficient technology for the production of green energy that is critical in the reduction of damages to the environment by mankind.
Therefore when you learn to build wind turbine, you are witnessing a good example of how cutting edge technology is making rapid progress to reduce the dependence of fossil fuels in supplying power to our homes.
