Wind turbines, which are commonly used to obtain renewable energy, are cutting-edge technology, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on the idea of making our own windmills to take advantage of their great benefits in our homes. What’s more, it is now possible to make your own wind turbine with raw materials that are easy to obtain and at an affordable price.
Although a small wind turbine will not be enough to provide us with the energy that an average household usually uses, it can reduce costs if we connect it to the home’s electrical system, while making an eco-friendly gesture in favor of the planet. If you are interested in learning more, at EcologíaVerde we tell you the details about windmills : how to make homemade wind energy .
Materials to produce homemade wind energy
To begin, you need to consider what materials are needed to make homemade wind energy . So, take note of the following materials to get them, either by using them from some appliances or devices that you no longer use or by buying them:
- Generator
- Turbine
- Engine
- Blades
- Rudder or weather vane
- Tower or base
- Batteries
- Suitable tools
How to make a homemade windmill to produce wind energy
Windmills for producing wind energy are a type of turbine that will be relatively easy to build. Their use as a source of energy dates back to the dawn of time, as they were used for centuries, and today they are used to generate electricity. Below, we show you how to make a windmill , although it is fair to say that it requires some DIY skills, especially in carpentry, metal and electricity.
To build it we will need a generator, design the blades, a rudder to guide us towards the wind, a tower or base and batteries. Perhaps the most complicated part will be the design of the blades, not only because they have to be durable, but above all because their shape will be what allows us to extract more or less energy from the wind. To obtain the maximum energy, that is, to make them aerodynamic and feasible, if we do not want to complicate ourselves by carving wooden blades or with PVC pipes, we can try with ABS pipes . Simply cut them and file the edges until we get three blades.
Next, we have to attach the blades to the motor , fixing them to an aluminum disk with bolts (a kind of screws held together with nuts), because to generate electricity we have to connect the turbine to an electric generator. A home-made solution is to make your own generator, for example, with an old direct current motor (recycled from a printer, for example), which includes coils and magnets, and adapt it to a metal or wooden support, joining the motor shaft to the device shaft using a simple plastic tube.
Basically, whether we make the generator ourselves or buy one (there are very cheap ones, for example those of the Ametek brand) it has to be a motor with low revolutions but that gives us a lot of voltage, around 12 watts of useful voltage.
When mounting it on a wooden tower base, we can add a weather vane to direct it towards the wind, while we must find a way for the turbine to rotate freely according to the direction of the wind. To do this, we place a metal bar inserted into a steel tube and some ground anchors.
In addition, we can charge the energy stored in batteries (it will be very useful to install a blocking diode to avoid losing the stored energy) or, as we already mentioned, connect it to the electrical distribution of our home, for which we will have to resort to an electrician .
More practical tips for making homemade windmills
Turbines with a very light base are not suitable if the wind speed is not very high, something that we can predict or check during the testing phase. On the other hand, a wooden design can be perfect if the wind does not reach too high speed, and the same goes for the size. If the turbine is going to be large, the wind turbine should be made of metal to make it more durable and avoid possible fires.
In any case, once the turbine is built, you must check that it works correctly, both its mechanism and its stability. The ideal is to test it with a strong wind and, of course, pay attention to its operation during the first few days.
