DIY 2kW Wind Turbine
DIY 2kW Wind Turbine
Read about a home built 2kW wind turbine constructed from scrap
wind | recyclingA large number of our site visitors have found our article
How I Built a Wind Turbine to be interesting reading and a useful resource. That relatively simple
wind turbine was constructed using an
Ametek PM motor as its electricity generating
alternator.
In this article we will look at a
DIY wind turbine generator constructed from scavenged parts with 3.4 metre diameter
wooden wind turbine blades and a homemade
alternator.
Building a Wind Turbine
This
wind turbine was not built following exact plans, instead the information from a selection of books and online resources was pooled and the turbine built accordingly. Of particular use was
Hugh Piggot's book
Windpower Workshop which is essential reading.
Wind Turbine Blades
First the
wooden wind turbine blades were carved with an efficient aerofoil section and twist much like a propeller. Three 1.7 metre long blades were hand-carved (following calculations from
Windpower Workshop) aiming for a
tip speed ratio of 8, and a rotation speed of 450 rpm in a 22mph wind.
The Alternator (Generator)
The generator was designed with a 24 Volt
three phase stator (3 coils each phase) and two
rotors
with twelve 46x36x12mm rectangular shaped
NdFeB (Neodymium) magnets each. The hub and rotor assembly was built out of scrap 1995 BMW front strut with a pair of
brake discs.
The magnets were first superglued in place on the brake discs, and then cast permanently in
resin.
The nine
stator coils were wound using a homemade
coil winder and reclaimed
enamelled magnet wire. To keep the coils tight they were taped and superglued while everything was put together waiting to be cast in resin as per the rotors.
Metalwork
A turbine this size
must have a mechanism to prevent it from spinning too quickly in very strong winds. A simple self-
furling system was chosen and constructed from scrap parts. This limits the wind turbine output to around 70 Amps (2.2KW) stopping the turbine from going out of control.
The
wind turbine tower was constructed from 4" pipe with a piece of 3" pipe welded to its base to act as a bearing when the tower is to be raised or lowered. This is in turn fitted to an 'H' shape welded from RSJ offcuts to be buried as the
base anchor in concrete in the ground.
With everything put together, the completed
wind turbine was raised for the first time (using a
gin pole and a car to tow everything to vertical). The finished tower is held vertical by three (wire)
guy ropes.
The total financial outlay so far was a miserly
£350!
Wiring and Controls
On a
wind turbine of this size a great deal of care and attention needs to be paid to the wiring, controls, and
battery bank. Firstly it is essential to have a suitable
dump load to prevent the (expensive) batteries from being overcharged. Keeping on with the recycling and reusing ethic, an old 240 Volt fan heater was converted to operate as a three stage 1kW dump load (pictured below with 42 Amps passing through it):
A
water heater dump load was also put together to turn excess energy into useful hot water, and a 1.5kW (3kW peak)
power inverter purchased to convert the 24VDC from the battery bank into 240 VAC for use in the home.
Relays were wired into the domestic electrical system to automatically switch between (wind charged) battery power and mains electricity. (See our article
Switch from Inverter to Mains Automatically for more information).
More Information
A detailed photo-journal of the construction of this wind turbine can be found by clicking here and viewing the
It's Not Easy Being Green web forum. The wind turbine was put together by
diablo and his father-in-law during 2007.
Many thanks to Richard Blackburn (
diablo) for his permission to reproduce some of his excellent photographs here where they will hopefully be inspirational to the many
home built wind turbine enthusiasts that visit this site. He plans to purchase a
smallholding in the near future with space for proper workshops and may start selling 3.4m and 5m
wind turbine kits. If the kits are of the same quality as this turbine they will be worth every penny.
Article Last Modified: 08:46, 4th Oct 2007
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