Once again, in the spirit of saving energy (and $$$ – both of which are “green” I just realized – I crack myself up sometimes), I wanted to share this very nice instructional site I came across about fabricating an electricity producing wind turbine! It ties in nicely in honor of Earth Day, with what we’ve looked at recently regarding solar powered gadgets and the Pope (now I know you want to look at that link and see how the Pope ties in – in case you haven’t seen it already!)

Take a look at the video Mike put together on how he assembled the turbine:

The great thing about this site, while it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it’s got some great photos and an incredible amount of detail on the steps involved in making the turbine! Here are a couple of the DIY pics to get you interested!

On a trip to the homecenter store for some PVC doo-dad or other for another project, I found these dome shaped vent caps.

I immediately thought of adding a spinner to the hub. Wow, with that on there, it really looks like a professionally made unit. I’d never be able to convince anyone I built it myself out of junk from my workshop and plumbing parts. They’d all look at me when I said I built it myself and go “Yeah, right.” Then I found a web site that claimed such spinners disrupt the airflow and hurt the efficiency of the blades. I’m not sure I believe the reasoning behind the claim, but I left the spinner off, at least initially.

This photo shows the controller, battery and associated electronics all wired up. I have a 120V inverter connected to the battery and a multimeter to keep track of the battery voltage and wind turbine output voltage. Also my electric shaver and battery charger are plugged into the inverter and running off of 120V AC. Later I plugged a long extension cord into the inverter and stretched it back to my camp site. I know this setup is really messy, but I was in a hurry to get up and running to take advantage of the wind once it started blowing. That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

There is so much on this site I can only scratch the surface here, so, really, go check it out if you want some awesome information on how to save on your energy bills. Way to go Mike, and thanks for giving us some fantastic directions on how to get off the grid!

Have you incorporated any DIY wizardry to help reduce your carbon footprint and lower your bills? Let’s hear about it!

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