Life can be tough sometimes and you may be looking for ways to make it easier and less expensive. Since energy, especially electricity is one of your more costly everyday expenses, wouldn’t it be great if you could tap into the renewable energy that is all around you? Wind energy is already benefiting much of the world, so why can’t you take advantage of it, too? All you need is a wind generator. But do you know how to build a wind generator?

Good question. Here are some tips to guide you:

- Location, location, location. You will need an open area with at least a three hundred to four hundred foot radius. You also need to watch for any obstacles overhead since the tower can reach 30 to 40 feet high. A tilt-up tower is best for low areas since they are closer to the ground. This also makes them easier to maintain. However, a free standing tower will maximize the output since it is taller and has fewer obstructions.

- Now you have to think about the materials you will need, beginning with the motor that will convert the wind energy into electricity. It needs to be a DC motor that is designed for high voltage, low rpm’s, and high current.

- Then comes the blades of the wind generator, which can be carved from plastic, wood, sheet metal or you could also use PVC pipes. Note that the longer the blades are, the wider its swept area covered, meaning the more power it can extract from the wind.

- Now you need to connect the blades to the motor using a hub. One of the simplest ways is to look for a scrap steel disk that you can drill holes in. Attach this to a shaft that will connect the blades.

- After this, the tail and the pivot are now to be put together to keep the apparatus turned to the wind. This can be done by using a square tubing, pipe nipple, flange for the pivot and a scrap metal sheet for the tail.

- One last, important step to cover for your wind generator is the battery. The wind doesn’t always blow, so you need a way to store the converted energy. Try to keep the batteries as close to the generator as you can in order to monitor the charging. Try to get batteries that are highly efficient, yet low maintenance.

You need to look for special batteries called “deep cycle”, because they are rated in amp-hours and have indicators of their charge-discharge cycles. They are best for power system applications such as this.

Once you have learned how to build a wind generator, you will need to place a diode between the generator and batteries. This is to prevent the energy from flowing back into the generator and being wasted. A secondary load to act as a depot for excess energy produced would also be a good idea.

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