Homemade wind generators are a project that's easy to do yourself. You don't need to be a super handyman to do it either. As long as you have some basic DIY skills (cutting and drilling) you'll find it quite an easy project to build. First lets start out by getting all the pieces that we'll need to build it.
Let's start with the tower. We have found that old TV towers work great as a wind generator tower. They are very strong and tall enough to get above the treeline where the wind blows faster. All you need to do to get one is drive around your neighborhood and look for a house that has a TV tower and a satellite dish hooked up. The chances are pretty good that they don't use the TV tower anymore. All you need to do is ask them and they will gladly give it to you as they think it's an eyesore. Next we'll need to get some PVC pipe for the blades (sounds weird but it does work great). Lastly, we'll need to get a motor and some nuts and bolts to hold everything together.
To give your tower a good foundation I recommend digging a 3 foot wide by 3 foot deep hole and filling it with concrete. This will make sure that your tower doesn't move even in the strongest winds. About 2/3 of the way up attach some guy wires and run them out about 30 to 40 feet away to provide some extra support.
For the blades simply cut the PVC into thirds and trim those pieces down into blade shapes. Sand down the edges and apply a couple coats of UV protective paint. PVC is very strong, but we found out the hard way that it gets brittle when you expose it to sunlight for extended periods of time. By painting them you can fix this problem... plus it makes them look nicer.
The body can be made from leftover PVC from the blades. Mount the motor in one end and attach the blades to the shaft of the motor. The tail which is made from some steel rod and plexiglass can me mounted at the other end. Before we can mount the wind generator on the tower we need to attach a flange to the bottom with some 2" pipe attached to it. This will allow us to slot the wind generator into the hole on top of the tower.
That's pretty much it... once the concrete has set and your tower is up you can climb up and put the wind generator into the hole. Make sure to bring some rope and fashion a harness so if you slip you won't fall. The whole process can be completed in a few weekends and it's so easy that even someone with very basic DIY skills can build homemade wind generators.
Let's start with the tower. We have found that old TV towers work great as a wind generator tower. They are very strong and tall enough to get above the treeline where the wind blows faster. All you need to do to get one is drive around your neighborhood and look for a house that has a TV tower and a satellite dish hooked up. The chances are pretty good that they don't use the TV tower anymore. All you need to do is ask them and they will gladly give it to you as they think it's an eyesore. Next we'll need to get some PVC pipe for the blades (sounds weird but it does work great). Lastly, we'll need to get a motor and some nuts and bolts to hold everything together.
To give your tower a good foundation I recommend digging a 3 foot wide by 3 foot deep hole and filling it with concrete. This will make sure that your tower doesn't move even in the strongest winds. About 2/3 of the way up attach some guy wires and run them out about 30 to 40 feet away to provide some extra support.
For the blades simply cut the PVC into thirds and trim those pieces down into blade shapes. Sand down the edges and apply a couple coats of UV protective paint. PVC is very strong, but we found out the hard way that it gets brittle when you expose it to sunlight for extended periods of time. By painting them you can fix this problem... plus it makes them look nicer.
The body can be made from leftover PVC from the blades. Mount the motor in one end and attach the blades to the shaft of the motor. The tail which is made from some steel rod and plexiglass can me mounted at the other end. Before we can mount the wind generator on the tower we need to attach a flange to the bottom with some 2" pipe attached to it. This will allow us to slot the wind generator into the hole on top of the tower.
That's pretty much it... once the concrete has set and your tower is up you can climb up and put the wind generator into the hole. Make sure to bring some rope and fashion a harness so if you slip you won't fall. The whole process can be completed in a few weekends and it's so easy that even someone with very basic DIY skills can build homemade wind generators.
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