# Building a micro wind turbine



## LDSreliance

I am stuck in suburbia, unfortunately, in a neighborhood with an HOA. I know... kill me now. I was able to install some solar panels because the state of Texas passed a law in 2011 making it unlawful for an HOA to forbid solar panels (which they certainly tried). But I have always wanted a wind turbine, too, to keep a trickle of power charging up my battery bank overnight and on those cloudy days.

Unfortunately, Texas has no such laws regarding wind power so the only way I can install a wind turbine is if it is out of sight of the nosy HOA nazis. So no 50 foot poles or roof mounted turbines for me.

I have scoured the internet for commercially-available, small turbines and there are a few out there but they all seem to be junk. They get really bad reviews, make really dubious power claims, and most are Chinese companies without any reputation or dealer network. So I have been researching for many months building my own with the following parameters:


blade length around 1 foot
tower no taller than 8 feet
relatively silent operation
yaw capability
cut in speed at less than 10mph winds

I know I won't be able to produce much power from something like this but I would honestly be happy with just 10 watts. I started the project last week and have produced a couple of videos thus far and threw them up on my youtube channel. I will be making the third and final installment next week. Let me know what you guys think.


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## HuntingHawk

JMO, I would increase my number of solar panels instead. Even overcast days you should have something going to the batteries. Heck, times of full moon I get a trickle charge all night.


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## Gunner's Mate

What kind of Batts are you running with your solar system


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## HuntingHawk

29DC marine batteries from Walmart. Three in parallel. They are 125AH each for a total of 375AH & using rule of thumb of not draining batteries below 50% alittle over 180AH available.


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## 8301

What are you using for your alternator?


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## ApexPredator

lol do they say anything about weather vanes and wind gauges cuss sometimes I dream about having one of those maybe a really really big one.


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## Kauboy

Have you considered a wind turbine of the cylindrical variety?
They take up much less room, and almost resemble a decorative wind chime.


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## Ralph Rotten

I like that design Kauboy. Didja ever see the ships that ran off of the turning barrels similar to these?


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## LDSreliance

I did think about a VAWT instead of the normal style HAWT wind mill but there are even less commercial options and there is an absurd amount of debate and conjecture about how to build them and whether they are at all efficient or not. I may try one in the future but this one is easier to build for a starter.


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## LDSreliance

HuntingHawk said:


> JMO, I would increase my number of solar panels instead. Even overcast days you should have something going to the batteries. Heck, times of full moon I get a trickle charge all night.


I am maxed out on solar panels as is. This is more of a "nice to have" than a need. Since we had our baby my wife spends a lot more time watching tv and playing on the laptop using the solar in our family room so we have hit the low voltage warning a few times this winter. Just wanted something, even 10 watts, to trickle charge the batteries at night and on those times when we have 3-4 days in a row of rain or overcast. I know the batteries still charge a little bit when it is overcast but not enough to replenish the power we are using.


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## Gunner's Mate

I would put a forsale on that house and move of the HOA to BFE and then do your Wind Turbine Right, short of that i would spen the money improving your batteries to an NI FE Edison Type Battery 

The NI Fe can be drawn down a lot further than a AGM or Lead Acid battery


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## LDSreliance

FoolAmI said:


> What are you using for your alternator?


I'm using a small 300 rpm stepper motor, which is definitely not ideal but for this experiment it will work. It is 12v but I am going to use a voltage regulator to step up the voltage to 24v for my battery bank (doubles voltage and halves amperage).


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## LDSreliance

Gunner's Mate said:


> I would put a forsale on that house and move of the HOA to BFE and then do your Wind Turbine Right, short of that i would spen the money improving your batteries to an NI FE Edison Type Battery
> 
> The NI Fe can be drawn down a lot further than a AGM or Lead Acid battery


Oh how I wish I could. We have legal obligations due to my wife's custody situation with her children.


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## Slippy

Excellent thread LDS. I am 100% confident that you'll figure something out on the wind and solar situation. Kudos to you. 

However the real problem is the HOA. How 'bout I send my two buddy's (TwoCardScottie and Rocco) over to talk some sense into their dumbasses? 

Thanks
Slippy:icon_smile:


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## Tennessee

Enjoyed your videos. My next project is to convert an enclosed 4x6 trailer for when we go camping to supply water and power. And haul some of the stuff we need to camp. It’s hard to carry enough water to some of the primitive camp grounds. And you can’t run generators to produce power. Looking at putting a 55 gallon water tank and 4 6v/120ah batteries with a 1500watt inverter. I was also thinking about putting a solar cell on top of the trailer so the batteries can be charged when idle. Not sure how well a solar cell will travel. I have to do something my wife doesn't like primitive camping but I do. Got to make the wife happy.


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## LDSreliance

Tennessee said:


> Enjoyed your videos. My next project is to convert an enclosed 4x6 trailer for when we go camping to supply water and power. And haul some of the stuff we need to camp. It's hard to carry enough water to some of the primitive camp grounds. And you can't run generators to produce power. Looking at putting a 55 gallon water tank and 4 6v/120ah batteries with a 1500watt inverter. I was also thinking about putting a solar cell on top of the trailer so the batteries can be charged when idle. Not sure how well a solar cell will travel. I have to do something my wife doesn't like primitive camping but I do. Got to make the wife happy.


Solar panels are really durable. If it will be permanently attached to the trailer, you might want to cushion the mount somehow for when it is bouncing down the road behind you but other than that I wouldn't worry about it. If you just want to keep the batteries topped off during the days/weeks between uses of the trailer you could get away with a pretty small panel of 20-50 watts. It would depend on where you live, how much sun you get, if you are going to be able to face the panel to the south, etc. If you just mounted the panel horizontally to the trailer that would allow you to park the thing and at least get SOME sun wherever you are but obviously would be nowhere near optimal. If you had a way to rotate it a little bit or just always parked the trailer where the panel would be facing south that would be better.


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## LDSreliance

Slippy said:


> Excellent thread LDS. I am 100% confident that you'll figure something out on the wind and solar situation. Kudos to you.
> 
> However the real problem is the HOA. How 'bout I send my two buddy's (TwoCardScottie and Rocco) over to talk some sense into their dumbasses?
> 
> Thanks
> Slippy:icon_smile:


Haha, there are 1400 homes in my neighborhood so you get the 0.1% of the population that are super nosy, bossy, control freaks who want to be on the HOA board and it makes the rest of us miserable. If the neighborhood was a lot smaller there would be a better chance of getting some level-headed, reasonable folks to serve on the board.


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## cobracon2

Really liked the video. Also subscribed! Keep up the great videos!!


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## Kauboy

LDSreliance said:


> ...so you get the 0.1% of the population that are super nosy, bossy, control freaks who want to be on the HOA board and it makes the rest of us miserable...


Exhibit A for why I will *NEVER* live in an HOA.
Exhibit B, they can take your house... $#*% that.


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## 8301

LDSreliance said:


> I'm using a small 300 rpm stepper motor, which is definitely not ideal but for this experiment it will work. It is 12v but I am going to use a voltage regulator to step up the voltage to 24v for my battery bank (doubles voltage and halves amperage).


Done that myself... rewiring a PM gearmotor like that only takes 3 minutes. The trick is to find the right voltage/amperage combination in something that also has the right gear set that is heavy duty enough. Stepper motors usually have fragile gear sets for wind use but will work and are what I usually use when a kid wants something for a school science fair.


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## LDSreliance

OK, here is the final installment. Sorry for the wait.


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## PaulS

Some constructive criticism if you don't mind:

3 blades have less drag and almost the same amount of power to turn the generator. 
Doubling the length of your blade will quadruple the torque and only give slightly more drag.
Mount your rotation bearing (your lazy susan) at the top of your tower and use a taller longer tail.

If you want a faster acting and more efficient generator use a vertical shaft turbine. Gusts from any direction increase the speed without turning the head out of position - there is zero recovery time with a vertical turbine.


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## LDSreliance

PaulS said:


> Some constructive criticism if you don't mind:
> 
> 3 blades have less drag and almost the same amount of power to turn the generator.
> Doubling the length of your blade will quadruple the torque and only give slightly more drag.
> Mount your rotation bearing (your lazy susan) at the top of your tower and use a taller longer tail.
> 
> If you want a faster acting and more efficient generator use a vertical shaft turbine. Gusts from any direction increase the speed without turning the head out of position - there is zero recovery time with a vertical turbine.


I appreciate the criticism! I looked into VAWTs and will continue to research those. They seem to kind of be a black art, though, and a lot of people say they are very inefficient, even the Savonius ones.

I will look into changing to 3 blades and lengthening the blades. I went with 6 because that is how many holes I had on the motor shaft hub.

I definitely need to do something with the bearing so what you suggest is probably the best idea yet. Thanks!


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## Urinal Cake

Don't you need an inverter to convert from dc to Ac?
How do you do that?


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## BearReed

It looks like with a couple of tweaks here and there that you're wanting to do you'll have yourself a pretty good little charging system. Lightweight, inexpensive and something that wouldn't be too cumbersome to take along with you in the travel trailer to help charge at night if it's breezy enough. 

Enjoyed the videos, thanks for posting.


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## Ralph Rotten

have you put a meter on it to see what kinda output you are getting?


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## Urinal Cake

Don't you need an inverter to convert from Ac to Ac?
_How do you do that?_

I want to do this...


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## Kauboy

Sadly, I can't see the vids while at work.
Cake, if he is pumping power directly into batteries from this turbine, there is no need to convert the current.
A battery bank is the only way to provide consistent power to the intended devices.
If those devices are AC, then an inverter would certainly be needed between them and the batteries, yes.


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## LDSreliance

Yes, in the 3rd video toward the end I hooked up a multimeter to measure voltage. Have not measured current but that would be pointless at this point. I need to fix some things before doing that.


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## tinkerhell

LDSreliance said:


> I'm using a small 300 rpm stepper motor, which is definitely not ideal but for this experiment it will work. It is 12v but I am going to use a voltage regulator to step up the voltage to 24v for my battery bank (doubles voltage and halves amperage).


Why a stepper motor? do they have an advantage?


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## 8301

Stepper motors are gear motors. 
This video makes me want to build one that will hook to my 48v battery. hummm,,, I feel a new project coming on.


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