Build your own Windmill!

[bryanthompson]

Saw this in slashdot's mysterious future and thought you guys would like it. I'm no damn dirty hippy, but I'd love to have my own power generating windmill.

http://www.otherpower.com/17page2.html

So far the machine works quite well. It has such a huge swept area compared to our previous machines that it seems to start up in practically no wind, and it's making a little power by the time the anemometer says 5 mph. At 10 mph it's doing around 400 watts and at 16 mph it's up around 1.5KW. Above that I believe the blades are overpowered a bit by the alternator. I do see 2KW from it frequently and I've seen about 3800 watts from it a couple times in very high winds, but overall I believe the blades are held back a bit in higher winds by the alternator. I can improve it by adding a bit of resistance to the line - this would allow it to speed up in higher winds and the blades would run more efficiently - but as it is it seems very slow and peaceful, and it rarely goes over 200 rpm It's producing quite a bit more power than I can really use. So I'll leave it as it is, it's quite a good low wind machine I think. Time will tell how it holds together! It has been fun, the whole project took 3 weeks from start to finish, I had some friends and neighbors (all of which have their own homebrew wind turbines) helping along the way which was wonderful.

[RickM]

Oh how I'd love to have a large stream ro river on my property. I'd have a hydro setup in there so fast......

[Joeaksa]

Agree, have liked solar and wind power for years and wish I was in a position to use it.

JoeA