I used 6 inch pipe instead of 4 inch and 24 inches long instead of 19 5/8. I used black ABS pipe since my local homecenter store just happened to have pre-cut lengths of it. I did things a little differently though. This web site tells you how to make a set of blades for a small wind turbine using PVC pipe. I found that other people were making blades by cutting sections out of PVC pipe and shaping them into airfoils. That looked like an outrageous amount of work to me. A lot of people made their own blades by carving them out of wood. There is more information on how to choose a motor for use as a generator on my web site at īlades and a hub to connect them to were the next order of business. I knew then that if I could make a decent set of blades to drive it, it would produce plenty of power. It works great as a generator, putting out easily a couple hundred Watts with this setup. I gave it a real test by chucking it up in my drill press and connecting it to a dummy load. Even just giving the shaft a quick turn with my fingers would light a 12 volt bulb quite brightly. Anyway, The motor I got was in good shape and worked great. Other brands will work, so don't fret about the price Ameteks are going for. People are catching on to the fact that they make great wind generators. I managed to score one of the good 30 volt Ametek motors off of Ebay for only $26. This web site talks about the virtues and vices of various Ametek motors when used as generators. A couple of their other models make decent generators and can still be found on places like Ebay. There are a lot of other Ametek motors around though. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to locate these days. The best motor made by Ametek is a 99 volt DC motor that works great as a generator. The best apparently are a couple of models of motor made by Ametek. A lot of people seemed to like to use old computer tape drive motors (surplus relics from the days when computers had big reel to reel tape drives). So I began looking into what motors were best for the job. Others were using surplus permanent magnet DC motors as generators in their projects. That seemed a bit too complicated, at least for a first effort. My online research showed that a lot of people were building their own generators. If attacked one at a time, the project didn't seem too terribly difficult. Batteries and an electronic control system I reduced the project to just five little systems. A mounting that keeps it turned into the wind 4. All of them had five things in common though: 1. There are a lot of them out there in an amazing variety of designs and complexities. I started by Googling for information on home-built wind turbines. 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. If you have some fabricating skills and some electronic know-how, you can build one too. Not with an expensive, store-bought turbine, but with a home-built one that cost hardly anything. Almost from the moment I bought it, I had the idea of putting up a wind turbine and making some electricity, and later adding some solar panels. One thing I noticed right away about my property is that most of the time, the wind is blowing. However, it would be nice to have at least a little electricity, since so much of life in the 21st century is dependent on it. No electricity equals no light pollution. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. 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. Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona.
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