Build This Open Source DIY Wind Turbine for $30
Build This Open Source DIY Wind Turbine for $30
If you're interested in learning how to build your own renewable energy devices, this DIY vertical axis wind turbine is a great place to start.
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Definitely neat, particularly in some sort of disaster scenario where you're building stuff out of scrap. I bet you could replace those aluminum "offset printing plates" with sheet aluminum from cars that are built with it. (Mostly fairly pricey ones, but I'm thinking of scenarios where that's no longer an issue.)
In more prosaic situations though, modern PV panels can produce more wattage even in marginal latitudes. So I'd think of wind turbines as something to supplement a system and maybe lighten the load on batteries during overnight hours, rather than a primary power source.
In the marine world, small 12V wind turbines used to be a pretty common sight on the back of sailboats... which is really about the best possible situation for one. (Sailboats tend to be located in places that have brisk winds.) But in the last 10 years most people have stopped bothering to install them, and are making more and more flat surfaces out of PV panels instead. You just get more bang for the buck buying more PV panels and batteries than you do buying a wind turbine setup.
But for scenarios where it makes sense, I love seeing designs that don't assume you have the entire McMaster-Carr catalog at your disposal.
PV has the downside that it's pretty useless in winter.
The design seems to assume a car alternator, which are mostly electromagnet based, and a poor choice for low rpm wind applications.