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Harvesting the wind for energy is not a new
concept. The origins of using the winds to to produce mechanical
energy are lost in the mists of time. Mankind was using wind
power to move his ships and grind his grain at least a couple
thousand years ago. With the advent of electricity it was only
natural to utilize this abundant source of raw power.
Early wind turbines in the beginning of the
20Th century provided some of the first usable electricity to
farms and businesses before the coming of the electric power
lines. The designs of this early period are still in production
nearly one hundred years later and are a credit to the original
engineering.
One popular method of building a small (approx one hundred watt)
system is to use a permanent magnet motor from a treadmill or
commercial style Amtek tape drive motor as the generator. This
class of motor, through much experimentation, have been found to
be durable, inexpensive and effective used as a small wind
generator. Blades are often made from common PVC waist pipe of
between six and twelve inches in diameter.
Larger turbines can be created using a Permanent Magnet
Alternator or PMA and other parts readily fabricated or
purchased at any of the many online auctions sites. these setups
can often produce over one thousand watts in a stiff breeze. The
smaller permanent magnet class of micro-wind turbines is usually
used in remote installations for battery charging. The larger
PMA turbines can power whole households or businesses.
In many states a grid tied system where excess power is sold
back to the electric company is also a possibility. Generally as
much money and design must go into the tower that your turbine
sits on, as the wind generator itself. Safety must always be a
primary concern in any installation. Many options exist in
building ones own wind power system from pre-built units to
built totally from scratch solutions.
Prices can range from near free to many thousands of dollars
depending on the goals of the project. A rather large Micro-wind
power industry has developed recently. A good place to start is
to Google various wind power related search terms. Careful
attention should be paid to issues such as needed power output
and power storage. While potentially very rewarding this is not
a project to take on lightly and every bit of pre-planning is
guaranteed to pay of in the usefulness of your final
installation.
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