First time turbiner

[PinkLightning]

I see that there is a lot of valuable info on materials and building steps. I have two painfully simple questions. 1-How much on average does a turbine cost to build? 2-how exactly do I transfer the power to my house?

We live on 10 very windy acres and may build more than one.

Thank you for your help!

[mettleramiel]

Consider yourself lucky that many people still can't post a comment.

1. There is no average cost. Never mind that we don't know what size turbine you want to make, the price will vary drasticly depending on how much work you plan to do yourself and on the materials used, especially since so many parts for these turbines can be made from used materials. HAWT or VAWT? What size of tower?

   
   

2. Another very vague question. When you say "transfer to your house" do you mean a Grid tied system, separate battery and inverter system or do you just want to run some 12v loads? Or maybe you just want to made a windmill to strictly heat water in your home?

   
   
   

We need a bit more information.

[PinkLightning]

Yes. Although your tone was abrupt. I respond with "exactly". Refer to my subject line "First Time". My family has not a clue where to begin, or the logistics behind a turbine.  I am a stay at home mom, and I want to do what I can for both my family and my planet. Your responses were, as they say, Greek to me. I probably have access to metal machinery as well as carpentry tools through family members.  I also see a lot of variety in building plans available.  What I have not found is anyone saying "I dropped $2k on my 7ft ..." So I am concerned I will start a project I cannot financially finish.

Does anyone have a suggestion on their favorite turbine and an educated guess on what it might cost? (or what did you build, what would you estimate it would cost me to duplicate it?)

I am interested in everyone's personal experience.

I do not have the advantage of having a terminology understanding. As I am educating myself on turbines, I am learning a whole new language.

I would have provided more info, if I even had a clue what to provide.

Is it possible to build a 7-10ft turbine to power a 4,000 sqft home? We will maintain the propane for heat.

I will continue to research. Thank you for your feedback. :-)

[ghurd]

Start Small.

Maybe a 4' like an Ametek-type system, except with a garbogen (or other simple motor conversion) or ECM.

Ameteks were fine when they were cheap, but I don't believe they are worth the $100-$200 they seem to bring now.

I figure a 4 or 5' system could be built for under $500.  Maybe well under $500 if you have good scrounging skills (used golf cart batteries, used well drilling pipe for the tower, used inverter, etc).

A 4000^2' house doesn't tell anything.

If you have 4 kids with their own TVs running while they do homework/internet on desktop computers 10 hours a day, then that's a lot more power than a single bookworm.

Anyway.  A 10' will not power your whole home.  I doubt it will be cost effective, even if you CAN build something big enough to power the whole house.

I worked out the cost to run an LED desk lamp, and the battery cost more than the electric it would save over the battery's lifetime.

TomW has a lot of power now, and he is getting close to off-grid,

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2009/11/9/757/06197

Bigger is cheaper, per watt.  Something like a 17' may take a good bite out of the electric bill, but I am not sure most people would really see any money saved.

I do not think building a 17' for the first windmill is a good idea.  At all.

Best to think of a majority of this stuff as saving the planet or a hobby.

I think it's only cost effective if there is no grid available, or the system is enormous.

G-

[Roger Stafford]

Hi I'm new too,but have built a 17ft from the two Dan's desigh. That was what was best for us. The best advice i could give you is to buy the book. Money well spent.

 We spent around $20,000 for everything. First month it supplied about 2/3 of the 20KWH we use every day. Don't know what it will do next month.

[bzrqmy]

Roger,

   Quite an effort to build a 17 footer as a first.  Congratulations.  I see you have not posted a lot about your system.  Sure would like to see some pictures and a summary of your quest.

[willib]

Lightning Hi

everyones situation is different

the best you have going for you is your determination and ten very windy acres.

Lets assume that there is a spot on your land where you could put up a turbine not far off the ground like oztules's turbine.

That takes care of the tower which could cost as much or more than the turbine itself.

For the machine itself:

You will need someone to cut your rotors out of 1/4" thick steel plate (2 @14" dia).

You will need 24- 2" dia x 1/2". Neo mags  ($196 to $206 ) on the net less shipping.

also you'll need a trailer hub and spindle ( $50)   http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category_6970_166839%20166845%20775725?&cm
_ven=PPC&cm_cat=Google%20-%20K70&cm_pla=generic&cm_ite=trailer%20hubs

And someone to drill and machine the holes in the rotors and assemble the magnet rotors      with associated hardware( threaded rod and nuts)

at this point you have two rotors with mags attached and spinning freely.

The Stator:

You need some more hardware to hold the stator in place and to mount the whole works onto the pole.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/8/18/83321/8140

like this, and this

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2006/8/17/34155/5976

The stator Holds the coils in place ,

#14 wire is going for $76 for 11 pounds, you may need two.

You need to fabricate the coils by winding them in a coil winder(home made)

you need to wind 9 coils and wire them correctly and mount them in a mold to complete the stator.

The Blades:

The blades are composed of laminating cedar and cutting them down to an airfoil shape        

as oztules did with his chainsaw. the cost is hard to say because if you know someone who has a wood plane they could also have the wood or know where to get it ,and at that point it is just time involved.

If i havnt scared you off at this point and you are able to part this project out to family members it may go well for you.

If your machine is complete at this point you need to get the power to your house this is the most difficult part to tell someone about which is probably why you didn't get much of a response initially.

Because how far away is your windmill going to be from the point of use.

Where to put the batteries.

how many

how large an inverter should i get or how many smaller ones.

do i need a dump load

To grid tie or not.

IF and this is a big if, you have a spot picked out on your ten windy acres that is open to the wind And is not far from the house And you dont need a gigantic tower and if you can scrounge batteries and a few ups's (uninterruptable power supplies),then you COULD build two boxes at the base of the wind turbine pole and put the ups's in one and the batteries in the other and send 120V AC to the house.

So you see there is a lot to think about .

Good luck in your endeavor

Bill

.

[zeusmorg]

 There are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself, am I doing this to save money?

If the answer is yes, forget it, the payoff time on a windmill is a LONG time. If it's financial reasons you'd be better of investing extra monies and using that to pay back your utilities.

 If you want an extensive hobby that will give you the satisfaction of generating your own electricity, then investigate further.Running an entire household off of one homebuilt windmill will not happen. Look at your last utility bill and get a sense of how much power you would need to generate. You'll also need to know the average windspeed at your site to determine what sort of output to expect.

 It is extremely easy to put more that 2 grand into a windmill.

 You'll be much better off SAVING electricity than trying to produce your own, I'll bet you could cut your electric bill in 1/2 without giving up anything essential. Of course, saving electricity is the first step in becoming a good RE'er..ya don't have to make what you don't use.

 I'm not trying to discourage you, just educate you. The electricity generated by a windmill is not free! It's just pre-paid.

 A lot of people just run part of their household off a windmill, say their computer set-up.

 There are a ton of sites on how to save energy, how to insulate, how to generate hot water off sun power, etc. I'd say generating electricity on your own should be the last step in a plan to become energy self-relaint.

 For instance a DHW (domestic hot water) system can be built for anywhere from $500.00 to $2,000 and up that would provide a lot of your hot water needs, eliminating that part of your utility bill, this will have a faster payback than building a windmill.

 I have my personal utility bill (gas and electric) down to an average of $45.00 a month for a 1,200 sq ft house and 2 occupants, so I know it can be done.

[willib]

Well said, I and agree that reducing what you use is a major part of RE

And i would also start with a sun powered DHW system.

Its a great place to start and is not that complicated .

Gary at Builditsolar.com  has a great site devoted to solar heat.

[Roger Stafford]

Hope to be able to get my story posted someday, but i'm not good at typing or computers. I have to wait on my son-in-law. Maybe when they come for X-mas. His computer is real slow, because of satilite feed.