Sunday, July 27, 2008

My First Windmill -- SPIN TEST

Hello from San Diego California.

 

I decided to see what I could do about making electricity from the wind on a homemade scale. After searching the Internet I came up with many great links and such.

This first windmill is an ornamental eight-foot tall kit that I got from Amazon.com. I purchased this after my trip with Ron up the coast to Moro Bay. Monterey, San Francisco and South Lake Tahoe. I take very little wind to male it spin and with the tail fin it easily keeps the blade into the wind.

This is my next step into wind turbine energy. At this time my wind turbine doesn’t produce any power but it should when completed, in theory anyways. The DC motor came from a treadmill that I got off of Craigslist.com in the FREE section. In truth, I have been working on this turbine for quite a few months and sort of had a breakdown as far as the next step. The original blades were wooden and shaped with a belt sander but didn’t have enough “lift” to catch a breeze. It has been resting behind my sofa in that incarnation for a few months but that changed today. The new blades were cut from a section of PVC pipe. If you look closely at the video you can see that it took a couple of tries to get the right angle as seen by the extra holes drilled into the blades. The wind turbine is temporarily mounted to the roof of the patio pergola with clamps. The eventual mounting will be via a 1” pipe sleeve over a 1/2” pipe that is connected to our backyard patio cover. A tail fin will be attached as well and then this windmill/turbine should also keep its head into the wind.

 

I have also been looking at working on the micro level as well and have recently been acquiring old VCRs and printers to remove some of the small step motors and gears. With just the twist of my wrist I am able to light an LED with no problems. The next step for that is working out a propeller/blade configuration that will work with the smaller scale parts.

 

I will keep you posted as to progress and new endeavors. Stay safe and be eco-smart.

1 comment:

Jeni said...

I'm proud of you Uncle Thom, going green is something we talk about here at home as well. Although Dad and Grandpa sometimes look at me like I'm crazy, I would like our next home to be as green as possible. With rising fuel costs I'd also like my next vehicle to be a hybrid at the very list. I took an environmental science class last year and it really made me think about how we all need to be doing our part to cut back our usage and to make sure that there is something left for your great neice and my daughter to enjoy when she grows up. If you get your windmill up and running we'll have to get you and Ron down here to set up something like that for us. Although I'd think that in our area, solar panals would be more effective. :-) Lots of love, Jeni :-)

If you want to check out my blog, it's at http://jenicrazylife.blogspot.com/