DIY WIND TURBINE BLUEPRINT REVIEW
May
"GOING GREEN" - IS IT JUST A CATCH PHRASE AND IS IT AFFORDABLE?
Believe it or not, there is a way to combat the increase in gas prices and that's by reducing the cost it takes to power your home. Ever heard of "going green"? You've probably heard of fancy things you can do to your house like geo-thermal heating and professionally installed solar panels (which I personally install and average about $6000-$10000 per installation). You are probably thinking that installing this newer technology is a "nice to have", but not a necessity. With these rising energy prices, it is becoming more of a necessity to many North American homeowners than ever.
So you are probably asking what are the options available that are both reasonable in cost, and easy to implement, and will provide you with energy savings? This leads me up to my next topic, which started out as a curiousity purchase but turned into a fully executed home project.
DIY SOLAR PANELS AND WIND POWER SYSTEMS - 80% SAVINGS IN BILLS?
So I saw this article in the NY Times in March about creating solar panels and windmill turbines within the comforts of your home and saving 80% on your current power bill. The article also mentioned that you can also apply for a government grant for further tax discounts if you implement any of these two green technologies. All that was required was to purchase around $200 worth of parts from stores like Home Depot and Napa Auto, which I was totally blown away with as installation costs for solar panels run around $3000! The article contained pictures of these homemade contraptions and they looked really good (see image to the right)! The people who built these systems were also regular "joe blows", one was a banker, another was a mailman, and the other was a plumber. These 3 people confirmed saving 80% on their hydro and natural gas bills at about 2 months after installation which I was totally amazed with. How is this possible to create these technologies with just 200 bucks? My curiousity was killing me so I decided to go to the website that sold these blueprints as I had to prove whether this idea was a hoax or not.
EARTH 4 ENERGY - MY REVIEW OF THE WIND TURBINE BLUEPRINTS
So I found the website called "Earth 4 Energy" and thought I would purchase the blueprints to find out whether the idea of creating wind turbines and solar panels for $200 was a hoax or not. The price of the blueprints wasn't bad ($50), but best of all the the product had a 60 day 100% Money-Back Guarantee. So if I didn't like what I read, I could just simply return it and get a refund with no questions asked (my kind of refund policy!).
To my surprise the author's understanding about solar energy and turbine power was quite impressive, and I continued to read through to the actual instructions on how to build the two devices. I was actually amazed to see that this would actually work. The instructions were dead simple and easy to understand, and only required purchasing about $250 worth of items (not $200 as I originally understood, but still cheap considering). I decided to try the wind turbine system (as I wanted to try something different). It took me about a day and a half to get fully up and running, from purchase of the book to the final product. Once I got it going, generating electricity was almost immediate, and I was able to run some miscellaneous items (I tried my laptop, hair dryer, a lamp with 100W bulb etc) all simultaneously without being plugged in. I haven't actually performed a real stress test on it yet, but I spoke to the author of Earth 4 Energy and was told that the windmill can handle 1000 Watts of continuous output. Not too shabby for a device that costs so little to build!
For all those non believers out there, this is the real deal. I, myself am the biggest skeptic and can personally vouch that these are viable , cost effective solutions that will save you alot of money. Even a non-handy person could build either of these solutions, and the combination of a solar panel and wind turbine in your home could easily power the majority of your entire household for nothing.
Please also note that this is a great weekend project that can easily be completed in 2 days. Now is the perfect time to start preparing for those cold (and expensive) winter months!
One other note about those weary about purchasing over the internet. I did some research into "Clickbank" as I had no previous experience with making a purchase over the internet, and was weary about giving out my credit card number. After reading more about their payment processor, I have found that Clickbank is a world-class payment network. They are approved by VeriSign and McAfee, the highest form of internet security (128 bit SSL), which is equivalent to banking standards. I hope this helps give a bit of peace of mind for those who are first time internet purchasers.
Stay tuned for next month as I review and assemble the solar panel!
Thank you so much. I have called everyone in the Envirormental/Goverment fields for some kind of advice as to how I could go about building some larger wind Turbines on my farm in Ky.,but everyone one I talked to said they had no knowledge of any information about them. Now at least I know some smaller ones are out there and I can maybe build one myself at a very low cost. You are awesome…. I have about 30 acres of land on a higher elevation and was just wanting to lower my electric bill which is usually sky high, because my electric company buys it’s electric from another company, so they double the cost for everyone in my area. You are a very generous person for sharing this information with us. Thank you so very much…Kay
I have thought a lot about this in the past couple of years, and so I am grateful for the review and the encouragement to do it. For those of you that are wondering how to tie into your grid, the power company will probably have a program exactly for this. Out here in the West, Pacificorp has a “net metering” program, where they send someone out to hook up your source of power (wind, solar, generator) to their grid. I think they take care of the inverters, but I am not totally sure about that. In short, you use the power you create plus any that you need to buy from the company. If you have any surplus, they will buy it. They have certain limits (like 25 kW) but this sounds like a great device for the general consumer. For more information, I have included the article from the Pacificorp website. I would imagine that other companies would do something similar.
http://www.pacificorp.com/Article/Article59318.html
Thank you . . . DB
windmills sound great i’d love to try it! my question is do you have to get permision,or permit to bulid this in your own back yard. is there limits to where and who bulids them. thanks lynn
I know you said that it makes hardly any noise whatsoever, but are there any tests on the decibel level? My town’s ordinance requires that it not exceed 50 decibels. In addition, I was wondering if the plans are in compliance with the International Building Code and National Electrical Code? What about wind loads? Your feedback will be helpful in determining if I can get the project off the ground.
is this an ac gen or dc?
Richard, the wind turbine output is DC and therefore an inverter is required to run your household appliances and electronics
Eric, sorry I do not have decibel level results as each wind turbine’s noise output would vary greatly on the equipment you purchased (or obtained).
As with standards, the build of the turbine is obviously not certified by any national organization and you do so at your own risk. If you plan on tieing your power into your grid, you need to consult with a licensed electrician on how this can be done as it’s illegal to do this yourself.
A basic rule is that you want the average wind speed in your area to be at least 10mph, and if money is a concern wind turbines start to make economic sense at about 10 cents per kilowatt hour.
How noisy and how tall are these wind turbines? I like the idea of saving some cash, but I don’t want to have to listen to my neighbours complain about my turbine.
JD, the turbine literally makes hardly any noise whatsoever. To be safe however, I would mount your turbine up higher (the bottom-most blade should be at least 10 feet above ground) as you do not want children or any fingers getting caught in a high RPM spinning blade.
Cool review toolman, I bought the e4e book and it’s like you said.
Thanks for the follow up toolman, I am going to give building a turbine a shot next week.
I have just found my husband’s Christmas present this year! I might give it to him early so he can start saving up some money.
go review, wicked site. we (americans) have to read more stuff like this because many of us don’t take these kinds of issues and solutions serious enough. keep it up!
peace & love,
sl8er
After reading your review I went to earth4 energy and bought the book. I really thougt it was going to be harder to build a turbine than it was. me and my brother knocked it out in about 8 hrs! I’m thinking about making a business out of making these things
Are there any permits you need formthe city or county to build these on your own property?
Thanks for all your comments guys, and I’m extremely happy to hear that you’re all interested in building green solutions for your home. It makes me very proud to hear that each of us is doing our part to save the environment, one household at a time!
Good information, thanks. Can these DIY turbines be used for all appliances in the home? 1000 watts will run lights, computers, etc. but what about the motors on refrigerators, freezers that require a substantial amount of power on start up? I don’t think 1000 watts will be enough - can a bigger one be built? Or several daisy chained? And can these be fed into the power grid in such a way that the home will use both turbine and utility power (use turbine first and only utility if necessary). Thanks!
Lynn, it comes down to the bi-laws of the city you live in. Some have specific rules about erecting wind turbines and other cities do not. Like I recommended to Kathleen I would contact your local city hall or consult your city’s municipal website to find out what the rules are for your area.
KB: Larger windmills can be built but there are size limits etc. A large windmill would require a very big tower/generator/blades etc. Not for home use.
I would recommend building smaller windmills and joining them. All depends on the RPM you require:
Parallel wiring if using a low RPM generator (generators that do not need as many rotations to reach the required voltage) can be used to charge a battery bank of 12v.
Series should be used if you have a higher RPM turbine. High RPM generators obviously need more RPM to reach 12v. They can be wired in series to increase the voltage at lower RPMS.
With multiple wind generators you can fix problems on one while the other still produces power etc. and are much easier to maintain.
The power can be fed into the power grid through a grid tied inverter. These plug straight into the power outlet and feed power back into the system.
Multiple grid tied inverters can be used if enough power is being generated.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your question Kathleen. As far as permits from the city or county go to build a wind turbine on your property, it would really depend on the bi-laws are for that particular city. I would recommend contacting your local city hall or going to your city’s municipal website to find out what the rules are for your area.