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Copyright Notice
2006, Richard Lewis
No part of this document may be reproduced, transfered or resold.
Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the Law.

The author of this document assumes no responsibility

for any mishaps of any kind while following these
guidelines. These are just suggestions of things that
have worked in the past and should work if all proper
safety precautions are followed. You build wind
turbines and work around batteries AT YOUR OWN
RISK!

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Battery Safety
Make sure someone else is around when you work on or move
batteries
Install your batteries in a vented battery box, they emit hydrogen
gas when charging
Never install electrical equipment in the same compartment as
batteries due to explosive hydrogen gas
No smoking around batteries for the same reason
Wrap wrench handles in electrical tape to avoid shorting between
battery terminals.
Wear goggles and rubber gloves to protect yourself from sulfuric
acid
Keep a box of baking soda and a jug of water around to neutralize
any spilled battery acid
If you get acid on your skin, flush with lots of water
In case of acid in your eyes, flush with water for 15 minutes
and call a doctor

Wind Turbine Safety

Towers can fall. So, whatever the height is, that radius around the
tower should be clear. Example - a 20 foot tower should be at
least 20 feet from the property line.
The blades are fairly heavy and sharp. They can do serious
damage if they hit someone. Always keep that in mind.
PVC blades must be painted with UV resistant paint. Otherwise
they will get brittle and may shatter under strong winds.
PVC blades will flex especially in strong winds. Make sure that
there is enough clearance for them to flex and not hit the tower.
Never try to stop the blades with your hands or any object. It is
better to short the output of the generator or to furl the blades to
the side if possible.
Don't install a wind turbine on a windy day. Wait until a calm day.

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Introduction
We can all see how gas prices and energy costs are rising. And there is
no indication that they will fall in the near future. In fact, all the evidence
points to higher and higher prices in the upcoming years. That is reason
enough to look into renewable energy but certainly not the only reason.
Some people purchase rural property for a very low cost. But it is so low
because there is no electrical lines run to the property. And it may cost
$25,000 plus just to have it run. Some people just don't trust that the
grid will always be there and would like some independence from it.
Whatever your reason for being energy self-sufficient, you are probably
looking into one of two things. Solar power or wind turbines.
I actually like both and believe that they compliment each other. This is
especially true when you have a very windy winter but overcast and rainy.
Then in the summer you
have good sun, but not as
much wind.

(This is my blade test stand)

But I believe that a solar

(photo voltaic) system is
way too expensive for the
average person.
I do
believe in solar hot air
and
water
systems
though, especially home
made versions. They can
be very inexpensive. But
this book will focus on
wind turbines and cheap
or free battery systems.
And not the store bought
wind turbines, but the
homemade variety.

Why pay $1,000 for a 400 watt store bought wind turbine when you could
make a 1,000 watt machine of your own for only $150? Why pay $4,000
for a 1400 amp hour 12 volt battery bank when you can get one for free?

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This picture (to the right) is my first wind turbine made from a DC motor
and some PVC pipe. The DC
motor is 190 Volt, 16 amp
variety that I purchased off of
E-bay for about $80 with
shipping all the way to
Canada. It is about a 4 HP
motor and the blades are way
too small to really push it. The
blades are only 4 and a half
feet in diameter and they
should be about 7 - 8 feet. I
mounted this one on a 10 foot
pole. I will go into the math
and logic for figuring out blade
to generator sizing later in this book. I will also go into what you should
look for when looking for potential generators. I will show you how to
make the blades out of PVC and what to paint them with. They are free
except for the work that goes into it.

First things first

How many windmills do you need? Do you need just one? How big?
Well, I will cover more in depth math later, but first I would like to talk
about the average North American situation. The average household
uses about 24 kwh per day. That is 1,000 watts per hour. As an
example, let's assume the average wind speed for the winter is 12 mph.
And let's say that we have a 7 foot diameter blade on our windmill that is
properly matched to our generator. That would give us 100 watts and is
only about a tenth as much as we need. So having 10 wind turbines
setup would cost about $1500. If the average wind speed was 15 mph,
then that would make 200 watts and only 5 wind turbines would be
necessary.
Simple thumb rule formula is
Power= (.00477)(Radius^2)(Wind Speed^3)
Radius in feet and Wind Speed is mph.
This means if we double the radius, we get 4 times the power. If we
double the average wind speed, then we get 8 times the power. So, if our
blade was 14 feet in diameter, then we would have 400 watts output
(9600 watt hours per day)and only need about 2.5 windmills to meet the
normal usage of 24 kwh/day.
Let's say the average wind speed was 24 mph, and the diameter was 7
feet. That would make an output of 800 watts or 19,200 watt hours per
day. Not bad for one windmill.

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You can check here to see what your average wind speed is.
US wind speed chart http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.html
World wind speed chart http://www.bergey.com/Maps/World.Wind.Lg.htm
Canada wind speed chart http://www.windatlas.ca/en/maps.php?field=EU&height=30
Here is the average in
Victoria, BC, Canada.
Notice, I get 4 m/s and 7
m/s about 10% of the
time. And 9 m/s about 6%
of the time. While 5 and 6
m/s is about 15% of the
time. So about 50% of the
time I have between 4 and
9 m/s. That is 9 mph to
20 mph about half the
time. About 35% of the
time it is less than that and
about 15% of the time it is
greater than 20 mph.
So, If I average 7 m/s or
15.7 mph and have a 7
foot diameter blade set,
then I would average about 225 watts and about 5,400 wh/day. In an
efficient house, that would be enough to supply my energy demands. But
in the typical house without energy efficiencies, it would take about 5 of
those turbines setup to meet demand. As you can see, conservation is
key to a good renewable energy scenario.
I know what you're thinking, Why can't I just make one big windmill to
cover all my power needs ? Well, actually it is a good idea except for a
few things.
First, neighbors might not appreciate the 24 foot diameter wind machine
in their bay window. If you live out in the middle of nowhere then you can
pretty much do what you like. Although, the tower would have to be very
strong and expensive just to hold up to the incredible forces. Take a look
at this chart.
As you can see, a 24 foot diameter wind turbine would have over 1,500
pounds of force applied in just a 25 mph wind. While a 7 foot diameter
would only feel 135 pounds.

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Secondly, any windmill could have a problem or fail. That means that if
you have one big machine and it fails, then you are out of luck until you
repair it. But if you have 5 small machines then you would still have 4
machines functioning. That's 80% of your normal power production.
Why put all your eggs in one basket?

With the larger blade set you would also have to have carved wood
blades because PVC would flex too much at that size. That adds a lot of
expense or a lot of complexity.
Also, a larger blade set spins very slowly and would require either a
homemade generator designed for slow speed, or it would require the
use of extra pulleys and bearings to gear up the speed to match a
typical generator.
Just as an example, let's consider the 24 foot diameter machine and its
power production. Using the average here of 15.7 mph, we would get
2,650 watts average and about 63,000 watt hours/day. That is enough
for 3 average homes or maybe 6-10 efficient homes. That would be
overkill. The biggest I would recommend going is about 12 foot in
diameter with PVC blades. That would be 5 foot blades each and a foot
gap at the center between blade and the shaft. But the tower assembly
would be more beefy and you couldn't raise and lower it by yourself.
With a 12 foot rotor it would produce good power though. In this location
that would be 660 watts or 15,800 watt hours/day. That is a good target
for a moderately efficient house. You could produce about the same
power with two 8 foot diameter machines.
Really, the big issue would be the average wind speed in your area. If

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you live in a place that only has 8 mph average wind then you would need
16 wind turbines (8 foot diameter) in the above example. In that case, I
would suggest getting your daily watt hour usage down to about 8,000 or
less. That way you would only need 8 wind turbines. It's doable, but still,
that's a lot of windmills. If your average wind speed is more than 10 mph
then this picture starts to look a lot better.
So, to reiterate, the two big considerations are how efficient your house is
and what your average wind speed is. Hopefully, you can get your energy
usage down to 10 kwh/day or less. And if your average wind speed is 10
mph or greater, you are in business.
Another way to think about it is to just start off small. I live in a
subdivision and use windmills for small jobs. Like one windmill just
charges a battery and inverter pack for the tool shed. Another windmill
ties into my solar system and augments my solar, mainly for the winter.

What, Where, and How Much?

I contend that a wind turbine, with a 6 to 7 foot diameter blade and
produces 1,000 watts in 30 mph wind, can be made for less than $150! I
also contend that a 12 volt battery bank with 1400 amp hours can be had
for less than $300 and likely FREE! In this section I will cover what parts
are needed and where to obtain them. The actual construction will be
covered in later sections. Later in the book I will also talk about a 3,000
watt windmill using 11 foot blade design.

Parts needed for Wind Turbine:

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Qt Description
y
1 DC Motor/Generator with shipping cost

Price
Estimate
$50

$25

21 foot schedule 40, 1.5-2 inch steel pipe for the tilt up
tower- from salvage yard
Door or gate hinge for furling system

8-12 inch diameter green PVC pipe - 3-6 feet long

Free

$10

various nuts and bolts for blade attachment, motor

attachment, etc
4 inch pulley

steel flat bar for hub assembly 1/8 x 1.5 x 36 inches

$10

short pipe and flange for yaw bearing assembly

$10

pvc primer paint

$5

2 gauge flexible cable to run to batteries

can of spray paint for blades - must block UV

$5

bags of cement for base

$15

$8

$10

Free

Total

$148

DC Motor/Generator
This doesn't have to be DC. It could be a permanent magnet alternator.
If it puts out AC then you would have to use diodes to rectify to DC. A DC
motor would also need a diode in line otherwise the battery bank would
try to spin the motor.
So, let me try to explain what to look for. First, the best place to start
looking is ebay.com. Search for DC motor. The main attributes you are
looking for are amps, RPM, shaft size and voltage. Here is a listing I'll
use as an example to help explain.

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It has 5/8 Shaft Diameter.

1800 RPM.
1 Horsepower.
90 volts DC.
$5 and $38.50 shipping
For shaft size 1/2 inch is usually too small. Look for a 5/8 or larger shaft
size because that signifies that it can handle more power and has larger
and stronger bearings.

For RPM look for 1800 or less as a thumb-rule. Let's say you are
going to be charging a 12 volt battery with your wind turbine. To figure
out what RPM it will have to spin in order to start charging the battery (cut
in speed), then we can do the following:
RPM = (bat volts / motor volts) x max rpm ===> (12/90) x 1800
That works out to 240 RPMs to start charging a 12 volt battery. If the
max voltage of the motor was 180 instead of 90 then that would look like
this:
RPM = (12/180) x 1800
and the RPM would be 120 for cut in speed.
Typically you would aim for 100 - 300 RPMs as your target cut in speed.
Next we will look at amps. Notice that this ebay listing doesn't mention
amps but it does mention horsepower. One hp is about 750 watts, but 1
hp at the shaft usually means about 850 watts of electrical power is
applied. So, if we take the 850 watts and divide by 90 volts then we get

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9.4 amps.
Amps = Watts / Voltage
But you should know that that 9.4 amps is in a motor sitting still with no
cooling. In a windmill, it will have lots of air cooling and sometimes even
cold and wet air flowing past it. I have typically seen 3 times the amp
rating coming from a generator. So, about 30 amps is what you can
expect from this one. Max voltage for a 12 volt battery while equalizing
would be about 16 volts. And at 30 amps, that would be 480 watts. If you
have higher winds and would like a higher output and you expect the
blades to spin much faster on average, you could use a 24 volt battery
bank. That would be 32 volt max with 30 amps max which makes 960
watts.
But don't get carried away with these numbers. Remember, your average
wind speed is still important. If your average is 15 mph and the windmill
isn't even spinning fast enough to charge a 24 volt battery, then what
good does it do you? If you used a slightly larger blade set and geared it
up using a pulley, then you could fix that. You would also have some
friction losses in the pulley system but the slightly larger blade should
compensate.
Here is another example. This is
one I purchased a few weeks ago:
1/2 HP Direct Drive 320 RPM
Permanent Magnet 36 Volt DC
Motor. Near new condition. Shaft
is 3/4" and made for a 1/4" key.
Measures 7-1/2" long plus 1-3/4"
for the shaft, diameter is 6-1/2". The
motor weighs just under 30 pounds
itself.
In the picture you can see
that it is 15 amps. I can get
that up to about 45 amps
and my batteries would max
at 16 volts. That makes
720 watts at about 600
RPMs and I could use about
a 7 foot diameter rotor to do
it in a 23 mph wind.
I know what you
thinking. How can I
more than the rated HP
of it? It is .5 HP and

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are
get
out
I'm

getting close to 1 HP. Well, it is all based on the air cooling effect.
Usually, the winds are stronger in the winter. Cold air is much more
dense than warm, therefore many more air molecules hit per square inch
on each blade.
Notice how low the RPM is. I could start charging at 107 RPMs. Actually,
to be more precise, I would say that a fully charged 12v battery is really
sitting at 12.7 volts. And I would have a 80 amp diode in line that would
have about 0.7 volt drop. So effectively, I would need 13.4 volts or better
to start charging. RPM = (13.4/36) x 320 = 119.1

Steel Pipe for Tower

I
have
two
recommendations
depending on the weight and size of
your wind turbine. If your wind turbine
weighs less than 50 lbs and the rotor
diameter is less than 5 feet, I would
say that you could get away with
using electrical conduit pole from
Home Depot or any other hardware
store. It comes in 10 foot sections
and I would recommend about 1.5
inch in diameter. I've seen it for
about $15 at Home Depot. You will
need two pipes for the tilt up tower
and I'll describe how to set that up in a later section. But the height would
only be 10 feet.
If you are using a rotor larger than 5 feet or if your generator assembly,
including blades, is greater than 50 lbs, then I recommend using
schedule 40 pipe, about 1.5 to 2 inches inside diameter. You will need
two pipes and they usually come in 21 foot sections. I've seen them at
scrap yards for less than $25 for two of them.
In either case, you will cut one pipe in half and leave the other full length.
The two shorter pipes will be mounted in cement and will provide for the
pivot point of the larger pipe. This will create the tilt up tower. I'll discuss
this later.

Door or Gate Hinge

The hinge should preferably be a heavy duty gate hinge, the kind that is
long and triangular shaped. This will two pieces of wood. The bottom
piece will have a short pipe mounted to it. This short pipe goes inside
your tower pipe and allows the windmill to yaw into the wind. The top
piece of wood mounted to the hinge has the motor mounted to it. The
hinge allows the whole assembly to pivot and point up in high winds

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acting as a furling mechanism. This

prevents damage due to high winds.
As it pivots up, there is less area of
the blades exposed to the wind.
Therefore, it takes more and more
wind to complete the furling. When
the generator is pointing almost
straight up, it hits stops. The fast
spinning blades have a gyroscopic
effect that acts to resist the change
of position. This acts as a natural
shock absorber.

PVC Pipe for Blades

I highly recommend the 8 to 12 inch
green sewer PVC pipes. You can
find end pieces at construction sites
that are 3 or 4
feet long. You'll
have to ask the
foreman if they
are throwing it
out.
Usually
they
are,
because those
pieces are just
too small for
them to use for
anything else. I
know someone
that works for
the city, and he
finds
small
pieces like that
all the time. If
you had to buy a pipe, it would cost a few hundred dollars and would be
about 18 plus feet long. This type of pipe seems to hold up much better
than the thin white PVC. It is also thicker and flexes a lot less in higher
winds. With a 3 foot length, you could make a 7 foot rotor. This accounts
for about 6 inches between the root of the blade and the shaft.

Various Nuts and Bolts and Yaw Bearing

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You will need several

different nuts and bolts for
assembly of your wind
turbine.
Notice in these
pictures that the yaw bearing
just consists of a short pipe
section that fits inside the
main tower pipe.
It is
secured to the furling
base(smaller block of wood)
by a 4 inch flange piece.
This small pipe screws into
this flange piece.
As you can see, the small
pipe fits into the bigger pipe
(tower) and rides on a small
bolt that pierces the tower
horizontally.
The bottom
end of the short pipe is
sanded and polished smooth
and is then greased up. You
can use Vaseline or any
thick grease. The bolt going through the tower should have threads just
on the end. The middle of the bolt should be just smooth metal.
The U bolt holding the motor down
can be homemade by using brass all
thread rod cut to length. Using inch
should work fine.
A homemade
bracket can be made for either the
front or the rear of the motor. The rear
would be stronger but sometimes it is
just easier to mount to the front. It just
depends on the motor.
The tail of the wind turbine is just a
2x2 piece of wood cut to about about 4
feet and wood screwed down to the
top wood piece. You should use a 2 x
6 or 2 x 8 for the top piece and use
several 3 inch wood screws to hold the
tail in place.
The tail should be a piece of plywood about 2 feet by 1.5 feet for a small
turbine (6 foot diameter rotor or less). Paint all the wood with several
layers of marine enamel paint and it will last for years.

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Paint
You need a good UV inhibitor to paint the blades with. Titanium Dioxide
is the key ingredient. Krylon makes a good one that is meant for plastics

Hub Assembly
The hub assembly consists of a 4-6 inch aluminum pulley with 1/8 to 1/4
inch flat steel pieces to hold the PVC blades. The inside diameter of the
pulley should match the shaft diameter of the motor.

Putting It All Together

The base of the pulley has a
hole drilled through it and it
corresponds to a hole drilled
straight through the shaft of
the generator.
The hole
should be 3/32 inch. A 1/8th
inch soft steel rod is then
inserted through the hole in
the pulley and through the
shaft and out the other side.
Then the ends are twisted
together with a pair of pliers.
You can use a short piece of
coat hanger for this purpose.
This method seems to work
much better than using a
arbor system and a nut to
tighten up. No matter how
much locktite you use, it will
eventually give way.
The flat steel pieces are bolted to the hub
via 6 holes in the pulley. Each hole is 60
apart. The simple way to do this is to use
the attached template on the next page.
Start by printing it out and then place the
pulley on the page with the hole perfectly
centered. Where each line intersects with
the edge of the pulley, mark a dot with a
fine tip marker on the pulley's edge.
Connect each opposing dot with a line
using a straight edge. From the outer edge
of the pulley, measure 1 inch toward the
center and mark on the line. Do this for all
6 bolt hole positions. Then drill out all 6

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positions with a 5/16 inch drill

bit. Drill the corresponding
holes in the flat stock (12 inch
pieces). It helps to do one
first by itself and use it as a
template to make the other
two pieces. At this point I add
another two holes for my
blades to be mounted.

Next, place the pulley

on the motor shaft
with
the
pulley
protrusion
pointing
toward the motor
body. Take a 3/32
drill bit and carefully
drill straight through
the pulley protrusion
area and the shaft
and out the other
side. Take the pulley
off the shaft now, we
will install it later after
everything else is
ready.
Once all 3 pieces of
flat stock have 4
holes drilled ( 2 for
mounting
to
the
pulley, and 2 for
blade
mounting),
then you can mount
them to the pulley.
The second and the

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third flat stock you mount will have a gap between it and the pulley. It
makes it more stable to either put washers in that space or to use one or
two small pieces of flat stock (with a hole in it) as a washer.

Template for pulley bolt pattern.

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Next, the Blades

For the blades I will
use the example of
7 foot diameter.
This includes 3 PVC
blades each 36
inches long and
mounted starting 6
inches from shaft

center. You start by taking some paper

at least 36 inches long to draw the
template on. You can use a paper bag
or newspaper or even tape some scrap
together to make the desired length.
When you draw the template on the
paper, it should look like this.
Notice the width
is marked in 3
places, 7, 5 and
3. This is meant
for a 10 inch
pipe. If you use
a 8 inch or 12
inch pipe, then
add or subtract .5 inches for each of these.
For example, if you use an 8 inch
pipe, the measurements would be
6.5, 4.5, and 2.5. And a 12 inch
pipe would be 7.5, 5.5 and 3.5
Take a piece of angle iron at least
3 feet long and place along the
pvc pipe lengthwise. This will
help you mark a line down the
length of the pipe that is straight
and not skewed. Notice in the
drawing above that there is a
blade centerline and an offset

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centerline. On the right side of the

template at the blade tip, pick a point
about 1/4 to 1/2 inch below that and mark
it. Then, on the bottom left of the template
mark a point that is 1 to the right and 1
from the bottom. This will be your first bolt
hole for mounting.
Draw the offset
centerline by connecting that bolt hole
point to the point you made at the blade

tip.
Cut this blade shape out of the
paper and place the new
template on the outside of the
pvc pipe using tacky removable
hobby spray glue. Line up
the offset centerline on the
template with the centerline
drawn on the pvc pipe. This
will put a twist in the blade so
that the angle of attack at the
tip is much smaller than at
the root of the blade.

With a permanent marker, trace around the

template and mark the two bolt holes. Do
this process twice more to mark the other
two blades. Use a jigsaw to cut out the
blades. The inside of the pipe will face into
the wind. The leading edge should be
rounded off and the trailing edge should be
ground down on the inside of the pipe so
that the trailing edge is sharp. You can use
a hand grinder to do this but it is easier to
use a belt sander. The blades should all be
identical in size and weight. Also, the

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mounting holes should be identical on all three blades.

You can see from the above pictures that the blades are mounted close
to their trailing edges Once the blades are mounted, place the hub
assembly on the motor shaft. The hub has a shaft key and a hole that
you drilled earlier. Use the shaft key to temporarily secure the hub. Turn
the blade a few times and see if it stops at the same spot all the time. If it
does then that means there is a heavy spot. The easy fix is to remove
the heavier blade and either grind some more off of it (if it needs it) or
grind the tip down on the blade mount flat steel. Just take a little off at a
time and re-mount to test again.

The Yaw Bearing

The yaw bearing is simply a mechanism to allow the wind turbine to rotate
and face into the wind. In this case it is a short steel water pipe screwed
into a 4 inch flange piece that
points up. The bottom rests or
rides on a bolt through the tower
pipe. The flange at the top is
screwed into a small piece of a
2x4.
The screw that penetrates the
tower should have threads only
at its end, not the middle. The
small pipe needs a smooth
surface to ride on. Also, the
bottom of the short pipe should
be cleanly cut metal and

polished with a fine grit sandpaper to make

it as smooth as possible. Then use a thick
grease or even vaseline to coat the tip.

Mounting the Motor

The motor is mounted on 2x6 or 2x8 piece of wood about twice the length
of the motor body. If you can't find a U-bolt big enough to fit the motor,

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you can make one out of some steel all thread rod. The U-bolt is only to
hold the motor
down but it doesn't
provide support for
axial thrust due to
the wind. A small
piece of 2x2 wood
about 4 feet long
mounted
right
behind the motor
works fine and is
simple. This can
be screwed
or
bolted down and it
will prevent any
axial movement of
the motor because
it will be butted
right up against the
rear.
Place a heavy duty hinge between the motor mount wood and the yaw
bearing wood block. That will allow it to furl in higher wind. Also, a small
piece of wood should be added to the bottom of the yaw bearing wood
block. This will act as a stopper during high wind furling and keep it from
going completely vertical.

Connecting the Cable

Using thicker and more flexible cable is ideal for small wind
turbines. It can easily replace slip rings and can last for
many years longer. Most people think of welding cable,
between 2 and 6 gauge. But welding cable is fairly
expensive. There is another option. You can get FREE
cable but it does require some phone calls and some
waiting. If you don't want to wait, I suggest using two
regular 3 pronged extension cords. Twist the ends of all
three wires together on each end and use each cord as one
wire. One for the positive and the other for the negative.
When you twist two of the same size wires together, the
effective new size is the wire gauge minus 3. So, two 16
gauges together would be a 13 gauge. When you add that
third wire it would be about 11 gauge. (it doesn't subtract 3
again)
When running the wire try to keep the distance to the
batteries at a minimum. With a 12 volt battery, try to keep
down to less than 100 feet unless you are using really thick
cable.

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To get the free cable you will have to call around to various hospitals in
your area. Ask if they have an MRI machine. Every few years they
replace their MRI power cables for troubleshooting or regular
maintenance. These cables are made up of 3 wires at 2 gauge each.
They usually just throw them out. You can get these and cut off the outer
sleeve and just use 2 of the wires.
A simple connector for the end of these large wires (besides using
expensive crimps and crimping tool) would be to use a small piece of
copper tube about 3 inches long. Trim about an inch of rubber off the
end of the wire and stick the copper piece on the end. Use a propane
torch to solder from the inside of the tube. After it cools, smash the end
of the copper tube with a hammer to flatten and drill a hole through it. It
makes a great cheap terminal.
The cables should be attached with a few zip ties or coat hanger wire to
the side of the motor mount wood block parallel to the pivot point of the
hinge. You want it parallel because if the two wires get tight, they will try
to either furl the motor or they would prevent furling.

The two wires would then hang down loosely on the side of the tower.
They should be secured to the tower closer to the ground. A rubber
bungee cord should be connected from the hole in the motor mount wood
piece and run down to the yaw support bolt through the tower. It should
be almost snug so that the windmill can turn 180 either way before trying

22 of 45

to resist the turn and bounce back. This will keep the cord from getting
wrapped around the tower.

The Tower
I'll assume you have picked up 2 pipes (21 feet each) for the tower. Cut
one of the pipes in half. Dig a hole where you want to mount the wind
turbine. It should be about 2 ft x 1 ft and about 2 feet deep. I prefer to
take 2 T fence posts (6 feet tall) and hammer those into the hole so that
about 2 feet stick up above the hole.
This is a tilt up
tower and will
need a pivot point
close to the top
of the two 10 foot
pipes. Obtain a
long bolt about
10 inches long or
use all thread
and
a
metal
sleeve for the
rotation point.
Fill in the hole
with
cement.
Then slide the
two 10 foot pipes
over the T posts
and down into the wet cement. Let it harden for 24 hours unless you
have the instant cement. Still it is best to let it sit until the next day.
Then, mount the windmill tower to
the base with the 10 inch bolt or
allthread. It is best to do this
without the windmill and yaw
bearing in place. Pivot the tower
into the upright position and
temporarily secure while drilling
another hole toward the bottom of
the two 10 foot base pipes. This
will allow another 10 inch bolt to
secure the tower in the upright
position.
After that has been
drilled and tested for fit, lower the tower and place the windmill and yaw
bearing assembly on top.
The guy wires are not even necessary unless the tower is taller than this
or if the blade diameter is greater than 7 feet or if you live in a high wind
area. But if you use them, it is easiest to make the connection half way

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up the tower.

The Battery
Seen below is a couple
of forklift batteries I
picked up for free at the
post office. They were
going to pay a recycler to come
and take them away. These are
24 volts each at 740 amp hours.
If I divide these so that it is
effectively four 12 volt battery
banks, then that would be 2960
amp hours. If I had to buy 6 volt
golf cart batteries to equal that, it
would take 28 batteries and would
cost about $1800 Canadian. Fork
lift batteries are good for about 20
years while a golf cart battery is
only good for about 5. One heck
of a good deal here.
There are really
two ways to get
fork lift batteries.
One is free but
trickier and the
other is simple but
costs
about
3
cents a pound or
so.
Let's talk
about free first.
You should start
by calling the post
offices in your
area and ask them
if they have any
old
fork
lift
batteries they are

24 of 45

going to get rid of soon. If they say yes, then tell them you are running
tests on old batteries in an attempt to rejuvenate them for use in
renewable energy applications and to help the environment. Also, tell
them that you would be willing to sign their environmental protection
forms to promise that you will dispose of them correctly when you are
done.
If you have a 1/2 ton truck you can pick up maybe one 24 volt bank or two
12 volts at a time. Also, remember that you will have to get them off the
truck somehow. You will need a hoist of some kind that can handle the
weight. Some 36v and 48v batteries weigh 3,000 to 4,000 lbs. A 12v
usually weighs about 700 lbs or so. If you can't take them off the truck
somehow then you can call a fork lift sales company and use them to
deliver the batteries. They usually charge about $50 to $70 an hour for
their services. But they have a large flatbed truck and plenty of fork lifts
to move the batteries.
If the post office doesn't have old batteries, try any of the warehouses
around you. These types of businesses don't change their batteries out
very often, maybe every 3 to 5 years. So they end up calling a recycler to
come pick them up and they have to pay the recycler for the service. The
trick is to find someone who is planning on changing them out soon but
hasn't called the recycler yet.
Something to note here is that these batteries are used hard and put
away wet. They don't take very good care of them. They work great in
an 8 hour shift at first. Then, after a few years, they seem to not last as
long, maybe 6 hours of heavy use or so. That is still 75% capacity and
would work great in a renewable energy home. But I'll show you how to
rejuvenate them to 90% or better.
The easier way to get batteries isn't free but it is much quicker. Find a
fork lift sales company as close to your house as possible. Then tell
them what you are doing and they will usually sell the batteries to you for
whatever the scrap guy pays for them. They will even deliver for you. If I
were to get those two 24 volt batteries from the local fork lift place, it
would cost about $60 for the weight of them and about $70 to deliver. So,
only $130 for the two massive batteries. Not bad.
Important note - try to look for batteries that are in descent shape. Check
the voltage before you get them. Aim for 10.5 volts or better for every 12
volt section. This is after a full charge and after a few hours of sitting
there. For example, a 24 volt battery should be 21 volts or better. You
can still repair them if they are lower, but it is much harder to do and they
probably have shorted plates or are way to sulfated.

25 of 45

I got em, but how do I fix em?

Well, about 85% of all dead batteries are really just sulfated batteries. If
you can de-sulfate them, you could have an effectively new battery. What
is sulfation, you might ask. Well, all lead acid batteries need to stay
charged. If they are allowed to stay in a less than charged state, then
they form layers of sulfate crystals on the lead plates. There are only two
ways to get rid of those crystals once they are that deep. You could take
the battery apart and scrape the lead plates clean. No thank you.
The other way is to use an electronic de-sulfator. Very few work that well,
but there are a few and they are expensive. All you need is a way to send
DC pulses to the battery that are higher than the battery voltage. If you
hit the resonant frequency then the sulfate crystals break loose and
dissolve back into the water. This turns the water back into sulfuric acid
again.
Most de-sulfators are set to 1,000 hertz. I will share the plan for my
homemade one that pulses at 120 hertz. This seems to work better on
the large fork lift batteries than the 1 khz machine does. This is probably
because the lead plates are bigger and resonate at a lower frequency.
All I did was cross connect the two 24 volt batteries together by
connecting the plus from one to the minus of the other. Then the
remaining plus and minus connections were made with my pulser circuit.
When the battery voltage reached 55 volts I switched to low power to try
and maintain that voltage. Let me explain the battery a bit. All lead acid
batteries are made up of cells. Each cell is 2.12 volts. So a 12 volt
battery is really 12.7 volts and a 24 volt battery is really 25.4. To maintain
good battery health a few things should be remembered:

Fluid levels must always be maintained

Never leave a battery partially charged
Keep the battery on a float charge - 2.3 volts per cell
once a month or so perform an equalization charge for about 3
hours. About 2.4 v to 2.6v per cell

WARNING! Be aware that all lead acid batteries will release Hydrogen
and Oxygen gas when they are being charged or discharged. Any
spark near the top of the battery could cause an explosion. When you
are connecting or disconnecting a charger or even a load, then you
should always turn the power off first. That way it doesn't spark. This
is true even if you are just adjusting the cable clamps.
The battery should be in a ventilated compartment or outdoors. You don't
want a buildup of these gases in your garage or home. Besides, there
are small lead particles mixed in the gas and you don't want to
concentrate that in a garage for you to breath in.

26 of 45

Making the De-Sulfator

I call this circuit a pulser. It consists of the following:

AC plug
1 Run Capacitor (for low setting - 10 to 30 MFD)
1 to 4 Run Capacitors (for High setting - 30 to 80 MFD)
GFCI pluggin
2 SPST switches (house light switches work fine)
1 SPDT switch (two way house light switch)
1 stainless steel bolt 2 inches long by 1/4 inch diameter
25 amp fulse

27 of 45

speaker wire quick connect (red and black connectors)

30 amp full wave bridge rectifier

This version is nice because it has a pluggin for a simple digital meter
and with a flip of a switch you can read the current to the battery, or
battery voltage. It also has another switch for a high or low charge
current setting. In the above design I used a standard spring loaded
speaker wire quick connect box. I used light switches for the on/off and
the hi/lo switches. I used a spdt light switch for amps/volts switch. I
used a GFCI socket inside instead of an isolation transformer for safety.
I also show a pair of 80 MFD capacitors for my high section charging.
Actually, it parallels those along with the 24, giving me 184 MFD. That
would be about 7.6 amps of charging and about 1 amp at the low
setting. You can use some more capacitors in parallel, but remember to
make sure your switches, wires, fuse and rectifier can handle the
current. The fuse should be just under what the rectifier can handle. If
you hook the battery up backwards, this fuse will blow instantly. I used
25 amps for my fuse because I had a 30 amp full wave bridge rectifier.
For every 24 MFD (microfarad) you use, that is 1 amp going to the
battery. If you are using 240 volt system, then it is 16 MFD for every 1
amp.

28 of 45

Notice the 1/4 inch stainless steel bolt (about 2 inches long). It has to
be stainless, not plated or galvanized. And the wire connections must
be exactly 1 inch (1.026 inches to be exact) apart. This is your shunt
and when you select amps on the switch above, you need to turn your
meter to milivolts. A reading of 5 milivolts would indicate 5 amps for
example. A reading or 8.9 mV would be 8.9 amps. When you switch
back to volts, you will have to turn your meter back to the right range
unless you have
an
autoranging one.

OK, You Have the

Pulser, Let's Fix the
Batteries
When you get the batteries
you should check the fluid
level.
Remember to use
safety goggles and rubber
gloves.
The fluid level
shouldn't be all the way to the
top. But it should be fairly close, usually to the bottom of the plastic lip
inside the hole. Distilled water is the best choice, but you can use any
highly purified water. You don't want any chlorine and you don't want any
minerals.
For fork lift batteries, it's a good idea to use a small funnel. For smaller
batteries, you can use a bulb and tube (looks like a turkey baster). Be
careful though. You don't want to splash battery acid on you. The stuff
eats through your clothes too so don't wipe your hands on your jeans.
They will look fine until the next time you wash your clothes then
mysterious holes will start to appear. The WAF (wife approval factor) is
low in this situation.
Next you should check the specific gravity with a hydrometer. You can
pick them up for $5 at any auto parts store. You are aiming for about
1275 or more. You should check each cell and write down what each
one is before you start pulsing and charging.
Then hook the pulser up to the battery and make sure the polarity is
correct, otherwise, you'll blow the DC fuse. (Don't do this, it will scare the
hell out of you!) The DC volts will show the battery voltage at this point.
Plug in the pulser, select low setting and look at DC amps. The amps
should be 1 amp for every 24 MFD installed. To add more amps (I
recommend this) add more capacitors in parallel. You should use about
50 to 80 MFD if you are charging a big forklift batteries. This is for the
low setting. The high setting should use at least 3 times that.

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If you are charging :

12 volt battery,charge to 13.8 volts
24 volt battery, charge to 27.6 volts
48 volt battery, charge to 55.2 volts
Maintain this float charge for a week or two and check the specific gravity
every few days to monitor progress. After a few weeks it will hit a sticking
point. This is when an equalization charge is needed to mix up the
solution of acid. Then switch to high setting. The amps should at least
triple.
For equalization charge (3 hours max):
12 volt battery, charge to 14.4 to 15.6 volts
24 volt battery, charge to 28.8 to 31.2 volts
48 volt battery, charge to 57.6 to 62.4 volts
After the equalization charge is done (2 to 3 hours), then you should go
back to maintaining the float charge. Monitor this for the next two weeks
or so. Some fork lift batteries can be repaired in 2 weeks and some may
take 3 months.
One final note - When connecting your new wind turbine to your battery,
make sure you have a diode in line with the battery. It is easy to tell if it is
hooked up wrong. If the wind turbine begins to spin when you hook it up,
then reverse the diode and try again.

30 of 45

Specific Gravity Log

12 - 24 volt

Cell #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Cell #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

31 of 45

Formulas

Power is in Watts
V is velocity in miles per hour
Diameter is in feet
TSR is Tip Speed Ratio - blades in this plan = TSR of 6
R is radius in feet

In this section I will discuss some handy formulas. The easiest way to
explain them is by example:

Example 1: A 7 foot blade in 20 mph wind ==> (.00477)(3.5^2)(20^3) =

467 watts
Example 2: A 7 foot bladed turbine is generating 200 watts of

32 of 45

power..how fast is the wind? ===> cubed root of (200/((.00477)(3.5^2)))

===> 15 mph wind

Example 3: To make 300 watts in 18 mph wind, how big should the
blades be?
===> (square root( 300/((.00477)(18^3)))) x 2 ===> 6.57 feet
Example 4: How fast would the 7 foot blades in this book be spinning in
25 mph wind?
===> ((25)(6)(28))/7 ===> 600 RPMs
Example 5: If the 7 foot windmill in this book is spinning at 300 RPMs,
how fast is the wind blowing? ===> ((300)(7))/((6)(28)) ===> 12.5 mph
wind

33 of 45

3000 Watt Wind Turbine

The concept of the 3,000 watt wind turbine is simple. You will need
windmill blades that are 11 feet in diameter. Normally, blades this size
would produce a little more power, but this windmill will have losses via
the DC motors and losses through the pulley system to gear up the
output rpms. The blades are mounted on a shaft that is held into place by
two bearings. On that shaft, right behind the blades would be two pulleys
( not necessarily the same size ). Those pulleys attach to their respective
motors via belts. The two motors are wired electrically in parallel. This
doubles the amp output and therefore doubles the power output.

The blades are 5 feet long each and there is a 6 inch gap from the shaft
to where the blades start. This will give you a 11 foot rotor in diameter. It
will spin clockwise in the above picture, but you could make the blades
reversed if needed. The motors and the bearings can be mounted on 3/4
inch plywood, or you could use steel plating if you like. I prefer plywood
because it is so much easier to work with. You just have to paint all of
the wood you use with a good marine paint so it will last a long time.
Notice in the above picture that the pulleys on the main shaft line up with
their respective pulleys on the motors. In other words, one motor sits a
little bit further back than the other.

34 of 45

The motor mount holes in the plywood have to be slotted so the pulley
belts can be tightened. You want them tight enough so they won't slip at
higher power.

The shaft is 1 inch diameter and about 15 to 25 inches long. This fits
nicely into 2 bearings meant for a 1 inch shaft. On the left end of the
shaft, you can see that there is a flange screwed on. It is screwed onto a
6 inch galvanized pipe, 1 inch inside diameter. If you wanted to swap out
blades to a smaller set for the winter, then you can just drill a hole and
use a cotter pin to secure it after you slip it on the main shaft.

35 of 45

Getting Started
What you will need to get started:

QTY

Description

Price

1
3
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1

scrap green PVC pipe ( 8 to 12 in diam 5 feet long )

1 inch steel square tubing 24 inches long
3/4 inch water pipe flange
1 inch water pipe flange
24 inch x 3/4 inch galvanized water pipe
2-3 hp DC perm. magnet motors
various nuts and bolts
1 inch shaft bearings
pulley belts
larger pulleys for main shaft
smaller pulleys for motor shafts
1 inch diam steel shaft ( 15-25 inches long )
3/4 inch water pipe 36 inches long
1 inch water pipe 6 inches long
heavy duty hinge

free
$12
$3
$4
$4
$100
$15
$15
$15
$15
$10
$10
$10
$3
$4

Total

$220

Making the blade mounts

The blade mounts are just made of 24 inch tube steel pieces arranged
120 degrees apart from each other. They are laid down flat and clamped
into position. Then the 1 inch pipe flange is laid flat on top of them at the
center with the threaded side pointed up and the flat side down.

The flange is centered by making sure that the edge is the same distance
to the scribed marks on the tubes. Then the flange is welded to the tube

36 of 45

steel. If you don't have a welder you could make one using my battery
welder book ( http://www.poormansguides.com/welding-clickbank.htm )
or you could pay a welder to do it for you.
The 1 inch (6 inch long) water pipe is screwed into this. You can then
weld it too so it doesn't come unscrewed. This is slipped over the 1 inch
shaft. Then you can drill a hole through the pipe and shaft so you can put
a cotter pin in. Separate the two pieces until later.
The motors and bearing assembly will be mounted on a piece of 3/4 inch
plywood. At the bottom, just under the main shaft, mount the heavy duty
hinge. The bottom of the hinge should be a 2x4 block. Here you should
mount the 3/4 inch flange. This is where you will put the 3/4 inch water
pipe going straight down. This is the furling and yaw system. It works
just like the smaller 7 foot diameter windmill discussed earlier.
Also, make sure that the blades are out far enough from the platform so
that they can't flex backwards and hit anything.
The motors will be wired in parallel, but with a twist. Each motor may not
be identical, and they don't really have to be. So, wire the negative for
each motor together. Then run each positive wire to it's own rectifier.
Then run each rectifier to it's own fuse (appropriately sized).

DC Motor Analyzer
This program will allow you to test different aspects of your windmill
before you put it together. In this sample I show two motors. Both are
120 volts, 3000 rpms and 17 amps (that is why I show 34 amps in the
amp section). At 11 foot blade and a gearing up of 5 to 1, I can expect
3,060 watts at 31.2 mph. If you hold your mouse over the chart in the
program it will show the expected watts as you move your mouse.
Notice the wire length is set to 0 feet. If you put in a length and a wire
gauge, it will compute voltage drop as well. A 30% voltage drop is all the
program will allow. If you go over this it will let you know. I always do my
computations set to zero feet in wire length. Then when I've decided on
all other factors, I switch to the actual distance and play with the wire
gauge.
Also notice that this is going into 24 volt battery bank. If you went into a
12 volt bank it would cut your power in half and you would need to
decrease the size of the blades to about 9 feet.
The program is actually very easy to use, just play around with it for a few
minutes and it will all make sense.

37 of 45

If you have any questions, you can go to the forum. It is at

http://p067.ezboard.com/bpoormansguides

38 of 45

F.A.Q Section
Q: How long is a forklift battery rated for? Does it last longer than
golf cart batteries?
A: Forklift batteries are rated for 20 years while golf cart batteries are
only rated for 5 years. They are both considered "traction" batteries and
are deep cycle. In comparison, running your house on a large bank of
car batteries would only last about 6 months of heavy cycling.
Q: I know someone with a small windmill that produces 400 watts,
but, My God, that thing is loud. How loud will your homemade
windmill be? I have neighbors you know.
A: I've gone through about 10 iterations of blade testing and all of them
have been quiet, even in high winds. The only difference is that most of
those designs weren't as efficient as my latest. These blades start
spinning in about 3 mph wind. They start charging a 12 volt battery at
about 5 to 12 mph wind (depending on generator used)
Q: Can I power my house from one windmill?
A: Simple answer is yes, but it wouldn't be practical for most. In this
book I look at practical. People use way more power than they think.
"Could you power your whole house with 1 solar panel?" Well, yeah, if it
were really big! In the book I look at the power you use and talk about
conservation being key. Another main concern is average windspeed in
your area. Then I show equations to figure out how much power to
expect. On the average, most people would need about 2 to 10 small
windmills on their property to become energy independent. Remember,
it's not how powerful the windmill is, it is all about average wind speed. A
10,000 watt windmill with a 20 foot blade will only produce about 250
watts in 8 mph wind. But in 16 mph wind, it would be 8 times that...or
2,000 watts.
Q: What if I would rather have one big one instead of 10 smaller
ones?
A: First reason is tower strength. A 7 foot blade set will have a loading
of about 86 pounds of force from a 20 mph wind. A 21 foot blade would
produce about the same power as 9 smaller windmills (7 foot) but the
same wind would push on the tower with 775 pounds of force. And
since the generator and tail are bigger, then you are looking at a very
strong and expensive tower. It may take a small team just to raise it.
Also, the bigger the blade, the slower it spins. So you will need to gear
up the output or use a homemade generator. But if you are going to add
more complexity, you might as well drive 2 motors at the same time and
make twice the power.
And,

thirdly, if you use a single big

generator and it fails for some

39 of 45

reason, then you have no backup. Why put all your eggs in one basket.
Isn't it easier to build a small generator that you can install by yourself
and build more as needed?

Q: Can I use an alternator out of a car in this design? 90AMP to be

exact?
A: Well it will work with a modified alternator. But if you are using a
regular alternator, then you would need to step up the speed with a
pulley. You will get 300 to 600 rpms in a good wind and the alternator
needs a few thousand rpms. So you could gear it up but not too much
because then it would need a very big wind just to start spinning. So,
maybe 3 to 4 times gear up. If you do 4 to 1 gearing, then that would
give you 1200 to 2400 rpms on the alternator and that would work. But
you will need some descent torque just to start it going. So you should
have at least a 7 foot diameter blade to do it.
You will also need a wind activated switch that can turn on the
excitation voltage to the alternator when the wind gets going fast
enough.

Q: How do I convert the dc from the batteries to ac, so I can use it

at home? thanks.
A: Hooking it up to the house is tricky. The house requires 240 volts
with a center tap (so three wires) and it makes two phases each with
120 volts. And to get enough power and a three wire 240 volt output, you
would have to purchase the stackable inverters. Also, people don't
realize how much power their 240 volt appliances consume. A dryer
takes up to 5,000 watts, water heater about 5,000 to 6,000 watts. A
stove and oven about the same. Central air conditioning can take up to
about 15,000 watts. Also, you would have to have an electrician put a
disconnect switch and a 240 volt generator pluggin. With those kinds of
loads, you would need several forklift batteries and lots of windmills or
solar. I say, just run an extension cord into the house and use the
power off of that plug and just run your 120 volt appliances. You can
also take a long phone cable and run with that to hook up the remote
switch to your inverter (some inverters have that). It will use any standard
phone cable. When you need power to the plug, just push the red
button. After you are done, turn it off again. If you leave the inverter on,
it will steadily consume power even when nothing is running. So I
always turn it off when I don't need it.
You can also put in a subpanel. There is plenty on the internet explaining
this or you could talk to an electrician. I did mine myself and had a
electrician friend take a look at it. I just used a 30 amp subpanel and a
automatic disconnect switch to supply up to 3000 watts to two different

40 of 45

circuits.

Q: I purchased your book on constructing wind turbines from PVC

pipe a couple months ago and I have a question. In the charts,
formula's, and diagrams in your book, the results were derived
from a 3 bladed rotor I assume. In your book you also show a 3
and a 6 bladed rotor. How does the available torque, disk loads,
and power change when additional blades are added to the rotor
system? And is the additional time required to construct the
additional blades justify the power gain that you will obtain.
The design you have come up with for the blades is simple but
should be very affective. Much better than carving the blades from
a 2x6 as some plans show. Thanks for your time and feedback.
A: Thanks for writing. My 3 blade design and equations are based on
30% efficiency and a Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) of 6. My testing showed that
the 6 blade design goes up to 35% or so but the TSR drops to about 4.
So, for example in a 20 mph wind and a 7 foot diameter blade....

# of Blades
Watts
RPM
------------------------------------------------3

467

480

545

320

I didn't feel that the extra effort was worth it though. I found that RPM is
very important. Most DC motors need at least 200 to 300 or more RPMs
just to start charging a 12v battery. So in the above example, the 3 blade
would be charging nicely while the 6 blade would not. Remember, watts
available in the wind is not translated to power to the battery if you can't
get the speed to match what the generator needs.
Also, an odd number of blades is better for any imbalance situation. So if
you wanted to go more blades you should go with a 5 blade design. Also,
you should make each blade a little thinner than my plans if you go more
than 3 blades. Otherwise, that TSR number will be closer to 3 instead of
4.
The disk load due to wind would be about the same, slightly higher.

Q: I did have one tech question. On page 5 you give a simplified

rule of thumb power equation (in English units). What are you using
for the air density component, and does the final product take the
Betz Criterion into account or is this for an ideal situation?
A: For the air density I used 1.22 kg/m3 at sea level and I used 30% as

41 of 45

the efficiency. So if you wanted to use 35% instead, for example, you
could divide by 0.3 then multiply by 0.35. Or use 0.00557 as your
coefficient instead of .00477.

Q: I don't want to do batteries. Can small windmills be grid

connected and net metered?
A: They can be grid tied but only with expensive inverters. So my book
doesn't talk about that. I also don't believe that the grid will always be
there. The north american grid is stretched to the max and hardly any
upgrades are being done. I'm a big believer in batteries especially when
they are free.
Q: Does your book talk about how to put the power back into the
grid. I own a business and we are looking at "slowing down" that
power meter because it is terribly expensive. We are on top of a hill
- it's windy almost all the time.
A: My book doesn't go into "grid tie" systems. Mine is based on using a
battery bank and a dc generator and an inverter. You could do what I did
and take parts of your overall load and run off your windmill and battery. I
took one room in my house and have it off the grid and running just off of
a windmill and battery bank. I also run my shop off of another windmill.
Wood lathe, drill, miter saw, table saw, etc.

Q: I'm looking at buying your book to generate enough power to

service my home. What would it take to generate and average of
2,500 kWh per month? Does your book tell how to wire directly into
the electrical grid or is this possible with your system?
A: Hi. Well my book doesn't talk about grid tie. It is just for small
windmills hooked to forklift batteries.
I'm concerned about 2,500 kwh per month. That is about 80 kwh per day
or about 3.3 kw per hour average. That is at least 3 times the average
north american. I would focus on conservation first to try to get down to
about 20 kwh per day. But to look at your current numbers would help.
You would have to average about 3.5 kwh per hour 24 hours a day, so
lets look at average windspeed.

If it is 15 mph and you use 7 foot diameter blades it would average

200 watts and you would need 18 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you would
need 8 windmills.

If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and you
would need 5 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you would

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need 2 windmills.
====
If you were running at 24 kwh per day or 1 kwh per hour on average,
things look a lot better.

If it is 15 mph and you use 7 foot diameter blades it would average

200 watts and you would need 5 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 7 foot blades, 470 watts avg and you would
need 2 windmills.

If it were 15 mph and you had 14 foot blades, 800 watts and you
would need 2 windmills.

If it were 20 mph and 14 foot blades, 1880 watts and you would
need 1 windmill.

Don't know if you can get your energy usage down that much. And I'm
not sure what your average windspeed is.
Do you use electric heat? Just trying to figure out why you have such a
large energy consumption.
Also, my book focuses on 7 foot blades up to about 12 feet. Any bigger
than that, you are looking at big expensive towers.

Q: Great Publication! From what alternator did you use for the
diode assembly in your pulser circuit? Salvage yard or rebuilt?
A: That alternator was off a chevy minivan engine. It had sat outside for
2 years. I just took it apart and cleaned up the diodes and heat sink. So
it is definitely used. It's funny too, as I was experimenting, it arced and
sparked as I made various mistakes. But it still works like a champ.
Those things are pretty tough.

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Battery Safety Note

Important!! Batteries can be safe if you keep a few
things in mind. When current is going into or out of a
battery, then it releases hydrogen and oxygen from the
top. And hydrogen and oxygen together is a very
explosive combo. So, whenever the battery is being
charged or used, or even a minute after it was charged
or used, then any spark at all within a couple of feet of
the battery's top can cause an explosion. Hydrogen and
oxygen does dissipate very quickly though.
Let's give some examples.

I'm charging the batteries for a few hours and then I

accidentally bump the charging cables. A small
spark then causes ignition.
I'm welding some metal and a spark flies 5 feet over
towards the battery bank and BOOM
I turn on the charger circuit and then hook it up to
the battery. The first connection is fine, but then I
connect the other terminal and a small spark
causes.....BOOM
The charger is hooked to the battery bank and stays
that way but it is in the off position. I turn on the
charger circuit. I notice that the voltmeter says 110
volts. I realize what the problem is, it must be
corrosion on the alligator clip on the battery. I know
that my charger puts that much voltage out when
there isn't a load. So, I go to the battery and wiggle
the alligator clip and it sparks and BOOM

So whenever you do anything around a battery ask

yourself if current was going into or out of the battery?
And ask if you are about to cause a spark near the
battery?

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Well, good luck in your new endeavor for energy independence!

May your windmill never cease to turn, may you batteries always
have a charge, and may you learn something every day for the rest
of your life.
Richard Lewis

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