background preloader

How I built an electricity producing wind turbine

How I built an electricity producing wind turbine
Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the terrible light pollution found near cities of any real size. I found a great piece of property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. One thing I noticed right away about my property is that most of the time, the wind is blowing. More details on this project and my other alternative energy projects including my home-built solar panels, and my home-built biomass gasifier can be found on my web site. Related:  Hands-on

How I built an electricity producing Solar Panel Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. In my attempt to escape city light pollution, I found a great piece of remote property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. No electricity equals no light pollution. I built a wind turbine to provide some power on the remote property. Here is a video of the solar panel set up and in use on my remote, off-grid property. Let me state up front that I probably won't be able to help you out much if you decide to build your own solar panel(s). So what is a solar panel anyway? I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. After a while, I came to some conclusions: <a href=' seller. A solar panel is really just a shallow box.

How to Build a Wind Power Generator video How to Build a Wind Power Generator 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 utilise 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. Mini Bio-gas plant using food waste, decomposable organic material and kitchen waste I have been searching for some method of using the food waste, decomposable organic material and kitchen waste efficiently, and came across information on producing bio-gas from organic waste. The bio-gas produced from food waste, decomposable organic material and kitchen waste, consisting of methane and a little amount of carbon di oxide is an alternative fuel for cooking gas (LPG). Also, the waste materials can be disposed off efficiently without any odor or flies and the digested slurry from the bio-gas unit can be used as an organic manure in the garden. Components of the Bio-gas Plant The major components of the bio-gas plant are a digester tank, an inlet for feeding the kitchen waste, gas holder tank, an outlet for the digested slurry and the gas delivery system for taking out and utilizing the produced gas. This project is also useful for students to have a hands-on learning experience in constructing a Mini Bio-Gas Plant, using locally available material. Material Required: 1.

Homemade Lotion Recipe - How to Make Your Own Lotion If you are still using the cancer-in-a-bottle store bought lotion on yourself or your family, there are super easy natural alternatives! In fact, this recipe is incredibly simple to make and all the ingredients are available here. It only has three basic ingredients and literally takes ten minutes to make! You can customize your lotion to your skin type and desired scent, and you can even make it for baby (calendula and chamomile…) There are endless variations, but some of my favorites are: Calendula and Chamomile for babyRosewater and Almond OilPeppermint, Wintergreen, and Ginger for sore musclesCoconut and Calendula for faceMint and green teaLavender and vanilla I’ve included my basic recipe below. NOTE: This is an improved recipe since many people were having trouble getting the temperatures exactly right to get the lotion to emulsify (as per the comments below). Organic Homemade Lotion Basic Ingredients: Note: All ingredients and many essential oils are available here.

VAWT Lenz type. Stage 1. Converting wind power to rotary motion. Update April 2012 The first and foremost thing I must to say is that Edwin Lenz deserves every single bit of credit for this turbine design. check out his website below, this build was based on his designs although I added my own outside the box style thinking to the build design and use of unconventional materials. The wings are basically exactly to Edwin Lenz design specs, with a sign design change to suit the materials I used. I just discovered that the Intro Page has gone missing so I'm doing my best to re write it from memory, plus I want to tell how it has stood up to the weather over the last 3 years and what I would have changed if i was doing it again. This was built to see how this new unique design compared to various vertical turbines, squirrels cages and savonious types just created to much drag at one side that just lost way too much power leaing you with very little torque.

Amazing plasma globe tricks that you never knew before!!! The thing you must have is the plasma globe itself, you can use any plasma globe you have - from little tiny USB plasma globe all the way to the gigantic laboratory plasma globe, the plasma globe I used is called "Plasma 360". Also you need some more things if you want more fun out of your plasma globe... Get some of those thing you have around your house! I am very sure you have one of any of those things in your house! - florescent tube (any size will do) - Energy saver lamp (compact fluorescent bulb) (any type will do) - Cold cathode tube (any color and type will do) - Xenon tube (you can find one inside a disposable flash camera) - neon bulb (I used some tiny ones) - LED's (use cheap junk LED's, you will find out later in this instructable) - LCD screen (I used one from broken electronics) You could also try experiment using other things like... - Neon sign

DIY Solar Air Heating Collectors: Pop Can vs Screen Absorbers Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Page Contents: The test collectors: Pop can collector on left and screen collector on right Collector Basics There is a lot of not so good information out there on what makes a good solar air heating collector design, so I thought I would include a little info on solar air collector physics, what makes for a good design, and how one can measure and compare collectors accurately. How do collectors work, and what makes a good design? On just about all solar thermal collectors, the sun shines through the glazing, and hits the collector absorber heating it. In full sun, the incoming solar energy is about 1000 watts per square meter of collector area. Most of this 850 w/sm that made it into the absorber end up going down one of two paths:: one part is picked up by the air flowing through the collector and ends up heating the room, and the other part ends up being lost out the glazing. The heat output the collector can be calculated as: 1. 4.

Build a Savonius VAWT to Make Electricity 2012 Update Once upon a time, I wrote an instructable on this subject and it has changed my life. As things have progressed very slowly, to some it may have appeared that I fell off the planet. To those that know me, it has been a difficult and arduous but rewarding process. I want to thank everyone - over 100 commenters on my original project - for their input and knowledge as well as their questions that lead me further in my pursuit. I will try to take an approach on this project where I will give steps first and explanations of why following.

Air Filter for your room on the Cheap 2 hours build time Parts - Tools - Cardboard box of some sort. Just big enough to fit the fans. Improvements for my next version. - Add a switch to turn it on and off.- Add a Fan speed control. - Add a LED kill switch or use fans with no LEDS (Hard to fall asleep sometimes but is good for a night light)- hook to a 12 volt DC to AC power adapter so you don't need to run a wire from the computers power supply. Build this open source DIY wind turbine for $30 Getting started with home wind energy projects can set you back a pretty penny if you buy a finished product, but if you're a little bit handy and don't mind scrounging for materials and getting creative in the garage or backyard, you can try your hand at building one of these DIY wind turbines for about $30 in materials. After all, it is #iheartrenewables week! We've previously covered Daniel Connell's open source concentrated solar collector plans, but now he's back with another great DIY renewable energy project, a vertical axis wind turbine based on the Lenz2 lift+drag design. Connell's design calls for using aluminum lithographic offset printing plates to catch the wind, which he says can be obtained cheaply (or possibly even free) from an offset printing company, and a variety of hardware and a bicycle wheel. "The turbine uses the ~40% mechanically efficient Lenz2 lift+drag design. Here's a little clip of the vertical axis wind turbine being challenged by strong winds:

Related: