Wind power is one of the most available and easy-to-use energy sources on earth. Humanity has been using wind power since ancient times - just think about windmills and sailboats. They were used throughout our history to accomplish everything from transporting goods to discovering new worlds - Christopher Columbus!
A lot has changed though, and obviously technology has evolved beyond our wildest imaginations. But, I'm finding out that wind power still has lots of viable uses for us 2015 home owners; especially when it comes to generating cheap, sustainable power.
So, if you're handy, or have a handy spouse, or handy friends - and you want to use wind power as an alternative source of free energy - or to get off the grid completely - this blog post may be interesting to you!
How to DIY a 1-KW Wind Turbine
You can build a 1000 watt (that’s 1 kilowatt) wind-powered turbine using easy to find, cheap (or free) materials for powering your off-grid project. A 1kw installation is quite large and this kind of project is usually aimed at charging a battery bank that will power or backup the respective installation.
The project consists of a permanent magnet alternator - which produces 3-phase alternative current (AC), rectifies it to direct current (DC) and then feeds it to the charge controller. What do the magnets do? :-) The magnets in the alternator produce electricity as they spin with the wind! The project uses fixed coils, which are very easy to build and to maintain (there are no brushes or slip rings needed).
The magnet disks are built using 12-inch steel hydro-cut disks and the magnets are mounted on the outside edge. The coil disk is built from magnet wire encased in resin, and the bearing assembly can be taken off a motorcycle, lol.. The blades for the turbine are made from pine wood encased in airfoil.
Check out this video for more details and info.. This is such an exciting way to use free wind power!
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