In our search for plans to build homemade wind generators we came across several different sets, but none of them were ideal for a beginner.
The first set of plans that we came across were from a guy who really knew what he was talking about... the problem was they were to difficult for us to understand. It seemed like he wanted to prove to us that he was smarter than us which we didn't appreciate very much.
The next couple sets of plans were incomplete. What made us really angry was that it seemed like they had ripped off the first guys plans.
We decided to take what we knew about homemade wind generators and figure it out for ourselves. We broke down the wind generator into its most basic parts: blades/hub, body, and the tower. Looking at it this way was much easier and simpler as well.
The tower was not a problem as we had an ingenious idea. Why not use an old TV tower? Many people still have them hooked up to their house, but have since switched to satellite. We asked one of our friends if we could take down their TV tower for them. We actually got $50 and the tower because they were so grateful.
The blades weren't as difficult as we thought either. They're made out of a PVC pipe. That sounds really crazy doesn't it? What's really interesting is that it actually works. If you cut the pipe according to some measurements that we figured out the resulting pieces make great wind generator blades.
Last comes the body. We fashioned this out of some of the leftover pipe that we had and painted it white. The motor we used was a 38 volts Ametek. It produces 12 volts at fairly low wind speeds.
That's it... a brief overview on homemade wind generators.
If you're interested in building your own check out the link below for plans that we have developed.