I Built a Wind Turbine Now What?

Hello, Ive reached the max capacity of my electrical knowledge.
Ive got it setup but I need good ideas/plans for the electrical aspect of the turbine. It is ready to propel a motor and generate but i dont know if I have the right motor. Any info would help. I also will be putting it 40' in the air and have that all set up too. Just need info on how to transfer the motor power to electrical power if you know what I mean.

I guess if anyone can help with good links and info i would appreciate it thanks.

Motor is out of a treadmill.
Im probably way off but its all i have. I lok online but nowhere really tells you what the best motor is without having to pay for plans etc.

I thought where else would be better than ATS to ask the "professionals".

reply to post by lzkaware


Do a Google search on "Helix Windmills"...

There are various manufacturers and price ranges but if you want a far more effective and efficient model that's what to go with instead of the huge "fans"...

Go to www.survivalunlimited.com/eaglewindturbine.htm

Doing wind turbines yourself is actually a bit more complicated than what you think. Is your treadmill motor DC, or AC. If it is AC, it will not work hooked up directly to the wind turbine.

My husband hooked up a couple of wind turbines to our roof when we lived in the DFW area, and it was a lot more trouble than one would think. I had to ask him in order to get the information to you. Are you trying to get your treadmill motor to generate electricity? More info would help, thanks.

use a good alternator from a car. then invert to what ever your battery bank can handle.

reply to post by lzkaware


Here ya go....this should be helpful....

How I home-built an electricity producing Wind turbine
It was easy. You can do it too Share1488

Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. I found a great piece of property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. No electricity equals no light pollution. However, it would be nice to have at least a little electricity, since so much of life in the 21st century is dependent on it.

One thing I noticed right away about my property is that most of the time, the wind is blowing. It didn't seem to effect the premium on my mortgage insurance and that helped me focus on the positives. Almost from the moment I bought it, I had the idea of being energy independent by putting up a wind turbine and making some electricity, and later adding some solar panels and a wood gasifier. This is the story of how I did it. Not with an expensive, store-bought turbine, but with a home-built one that cost hardly anything. www.mdpub.com...

More from same site above....

www.tlgwindpower.com...

There are probably lots of other brands and models of permanent magnet DC motors available that will work well as generators. Permanent magnet DC motors work as generators, but they weren't designed to be generators. So they aren't great generators. Some types of motor are a lot worse than others. When used as generators, motors generally have to be driven far faster than their rated speed to produce anything near their rated voltage. So what you are looking for is a motor that is rated for high DC voltage, low rpms and high current. Steer away from low voltage and/or high rpm motors. You want a motor that will put out over 12 Volts at a fairly low rpm, and a useful level of current. So a motor rated for say 325 rpm at 30 Volts when used as a generator, could be expected to produce 12+ volts at some reasonably low rpm. On the other hand, a motor rated at 7200 rpm at 24 volts probably won't produce 12+ volts as a generator until it is spinning many thousands of rpm, which is way too fast for a wind turbine. So shop for motors accordingly.
A DC motor to be used as a generator in a wind turbine I managed to score one of the good 30 volt Ametek motors off of Ebay for only $26. They don't go that cheap these days. People are catching on to the fact that they make great wind generators. Other brands will work, so don't fret about the price Ameteks are going for. Shop wisely. Anyway, The motor I got was in good shape and worked great. Even just giving the shaft a quick turn with my fingers would light a 12 volt bulb quite brightly. I gave it a real test by chucking it up in my drill press and connecting it to a dummy load. It works great as a generator, putting out easily a couple hundred Watts with this setup. I knew then that if I could make a decent set of blades to drive it, it would produce plenty of power.

So Blades and a hub to connect them to were the next order of business. More online research ensued. A lot of people made their own blades by carving them out of wood. That looked like an outrageous amount of work to me. I found that other people were making blades by cutting sections out of PVC pipe and shaping them into airfoils. That looked a lot more promising to me. This web site tells you how to make a set of blades for a small wind turbine using PVC pipe.

the motor itself will generate DC current which is no use for most people as you need AC so you need a suitable inverter to do the dirty work and then work out wheres the best place to splice the wiring from the mains grid and your new power supply being careful that if you are not using the full force of the generated power it can head back into the grid and if theres a planned maint for the grid you could electrocute some guy since you're keeping the grid charged

but generally you need a good electrician who knows the local layout and can design it safely so you dont kill anyone including yourself

You want some submarine batteries, enormous storage capacity.

Originally posted by omegacorps
use a good alternator from a car. then invert to what ever your battery bank can handle.

Yup, go with a 100 or 125 amp GM 1 wire alternator since they have a self energizing stator and you will not need a sensor wire running to the alternator to excite the stator. They can be bought at most starter/alternator shops for around $150. If you are using a belt drive system from the turbine to the alt. you could even set up a double alt system and get more power out of one turbine.

Also I would suggest a good deep cycle battery array with an inverter in the amp range of your load. I set up my own wind turbine on my sail boat and it was rather inexpensive and worked great. I could be sitting 50 miles offshore and have my TV and computer going with no major issues, unless I was in dead air.

For batteries on my set up I used 6 D4 batteries, the type that is used on heavy equipment. They were heavy but it helped me out on my boat for ballast. Besides I don't really see you moving the turbine around much since it's going to be 40' in the air.

Just my .02

I'd check out YouTube for your answers.

This thread came up not too long ago and may help to get you on the right track. I'm liking these vertical axis turbines.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.builditsolar.com...

good luck and post what you come up with. I'm sure I'll take on a similar project eventually.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


Thanks for the reply. It is a DC Motor 15 amp 110 volt. Converting the energy is where i come up with problems.

Say I was going to use two alternators hooked up to the turbine. GM 1 Wire. How many batteries would I need and what size/type/manufaturer of a converter would I need. And the problem is when I get to that stage how do you know how to hook it up to the house?

yah I can build anything out of anything but the specifics are what get me. UGH

reply to post by lzkaware


Many states require that a connection to the home (that is tied to a grid) requires an electrician.

I would go this route regardless as its safer. Talk to an electrician and they will most likely help you out. They aren't cheap, but if something were to happen, the state would be on you like stink on, well you know.

Originally posted by lzkaware
Say I was going to use two alternators hooked up to the turbine. GM 1 Wire. How many batteries would I need and what size/type/manufaturer of a converter would I need. And the problem is when I get to that stage how do you know how to hook it up to the house?

The number of batteries would depend on the amount of standby power you would want to have in the event of no wind. The more batteries you have wired in parallel the higher the amount of amps you will have while still maintaining 12 vdc. To connect to the house you will need a switch mechanism between your converter and the house. I believe it is called a standby or stand alone switch. It basically prevents feedback through the electric grid from your power source. As another poster stated, depending on your local building codes you will need a certified electrician to install it.

Anytime one touches the grids power, I highly recommend a trained electrician. Mainly for safety, but also for liability reasons.

reply to post by calnorak


Yep got it. I wasnt planning on doing any actual connecting myself i just want to get it completely ready before hand to lower the costs. I have a relative who is an electrician who I will ask. But he says that wind turbines arent effective although i disagree i am just reluctant to ask.

OK, cool.

As for the wind, even if you only get 1kwh per month or even year, its that much less we have to pull from non renewable sources.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe that what mankind puts into the air is a significant amount to cause "global warming". I do know that their is particulate matter put into the air from burning coal and oil that is not healthy for us humans, and although forest fires happen, the less we put into the air the better off we will be.

Here is a little motor/dc generator from Amazon

Amaz on link

You are just going to keep it separate from your house wiring? Just experimenting?

Also here is a link to my web page. Go down to the Surplus links. Lots of junk there.

Parts Links Page

so your asking how to make your own inverter ?