How to Build a 17-ft Wind Turbine

agentfive writes "The people over at Treehugger have found an amazing little article on how to build a 17ft - 3kW+ output Wind Turbine. Apparently this is the latest project of OtherPower.com and the site has a variety of other engergy saving/producing projects including a Homebrew Maytag Gas Battery charger."

Comments

Something to add...

[imsabbel]

After lots of real bad articles (like that beamer), this is finally some REAL DIU.
Starting from the copper wire and magnets, there is actually some real construction involved.

Re:Wind Power

[evanbd]

It should have no more effect than a tree does, and in windy areas where wind power is a viable source (my old stomping grounds in West Texas spring to mind), having windbreaks is generally a good thing in terms of reducing erosion.

Huh? I think there's a big difference between an inert blob that the air mostly just flows around (with some turbulence and loss of energy), and a windmill carefully impedance matched to the wind to extract the maximum possible energy from it.

Also, it's not at all clear to me that changing weather patterns is a good thing globally just because it helps locally.

I'm not trying to say we should stop all wind power, just that the issues are more complicated than they appear at first glance. Fossil fuels are bad, so it's not a question of whether wind is harmless or not, but one of whether it's worth the costs. Sane and balanced investigation of the tradeoffs is required, as always. But in the meantime, we should start building more sources of renewable energy -- let's avoid the trap of paralysis via overly detailed studies.

It's not even close to an easy problem, but that doesn't mean we can't try to solve it.

Re:Otherpower.com Rules!

[Anonymous Coward]

"One of my lifelong goals is to live simply, on a large plot of undeveloped land somewhere. I'm glad there are people like the Otherpower folks who are paving the way..."

Ah, irony.

Re:The Problem With Small Wind Turbines is this:

[Nytewynd]

How many birds would be saved by replacing coal burning powerplants with wind turbines?

Most of them. In 100 years when greenhouse gasses kill everything, birds will wish they had windmills.

Re:Wind Power

[ArsonSmith]

Even if you had a giant wind turbine that was 1/4 mile high and across your still using less than 1% of the total wind power available at that point vertically in the atmosphere.

If they start making large fields of 1000+ foot hight turbines I might start worring about the environmental effects. For now a small forest I'm sure has far much more effect on wind resistance than a field of turbines.

Re:Slashdot is brought to you by Sears Craftsman

[courtarro]

You'd rather be reading about Google and Apple? This is truly 'news for nerds'. I for one welcome our new DIY overlords.

Re:Wind Power

[glenmark]

Huh? I think there's a big difference between an inert blob that the air mostly just flows around (with some turbulence and loss of energy), and a windmill carefully impedance matched to the wind to extract the maximum possible energy from it.

I think you may be underestimating how much energy transfer takes place when wind strikes a tree. Of course it will vary wildly depending upon the species of tree, as well as its size and age, but it takes quite a bit of energy to get all of those branches swaying. Just try pushing a large branch around on a calm day and keep it going. See how long it takes you to get tired. Then extrapolate that effort to all of the branches on the tree...

Also, it's not at all clear to me that changing weather patterns is a good thing globally just because it helps locally.

I don't disagree. Predicting the impact of manmade structures is a non-trivial feat. Just take a look at the plethora of journal articles studying the impact of suburban sprawl on temperatures with its huge expanses of concrete and asphalt. I'm simply arguing that the impact of a windmill on wind patterns would be no greater than that of a tree. In fact, I would expect that trees should have a greater impact due to the cooling effects they provice.

Of course, these are all simply educated guesses on my part, as I am not a climate researcher (my science background is primarily in solid state physics). I could easily be mistaken.

Re:PhotoVoltaic Roof Shingles

[crow]

Yes, but at $157.50 per 17-Watt panel, you're looking at $9264/KW. At $.10/KWH, you would need nearly 100,000 hours to break even. If you could get 8 hours at 17W per day, you would need 32.5 years to break even.

That's just not practical.

Re:Ezz Empossible!!

[blahtree]

"It's producing quite a bit more power than I can really use"

It seems that their methodology is consistent with their goals. Sure it's not as efficient as it could be, but they've achieved what they set out to do.

Not bad, in my opinion.