My family recently restored a windmill that was originally used to pump water. The height is 40 feet. The blades are 4 foot each with an 8 foot diameter. The motor was bought by this company: http://www.aermotorwindmill.com/ and that is exactly how it works (in the moving diagram).
Right now the windmill is used for decoration and does nothing other than have the shaft at the bottom of the motor move up and down.
How can I make this work for us and reduce our electric bill? What will it consist of? Approximately how much will the improvements cost in the Bowling Green, Kentucky area do you think?
February 18th, 2010 at 5:08 am
Big problem. The Aermotor Windmill firm state specifically that they are not interested in generating electricity, so you are on your own. A wind-powered electrical generator is far more difficult to achieve than a pump, because you have the problem of fluctuating wind speeds generating a fluctuating electrical voltage. A proper wind turbine achieves this by varying the angle of the blades, which you cannot do. My advice is to leave the windmill as a decoration.
February 18th, 2010 at 5:08 am
Generating electrical power needs a constant voltage out put to use in your home.
This require speed control when the wind speed changes. Different wind generators do it by blade angle changes, mechanical gears etc.It is difficult to archive in your case.
February 18th, 2010 at 5:08 am
I disagree with the other answers. There are newer techniques being used in wind turbines that could be used here.
Instead of a synchronous generator that must turn at a fixed rate to generate the required 50/60Hz, they use a DC generator, such as an alternator, and use an inverter to convert the DC to AC of the proper frequency. This allows the blades to turn at various speeds and still generate power that can be synchronized with the power frequency.
But basically you need an engineering design, with the hardware via pulleys and gears to spin an alternator. Then a charge controller will control the current into a battery, which is hooked to a special alternator that generates AC power. This is hooked into your AC power line so it replaces the power from the power company when the wind is blowing, and could even deliver power back to the power company and subtract from your bill.
But this is not a trivial design problem, and you need to find an expert to design this for you.
.
February 18th, 2010 at 5:08 am
I have been thinking of do this for my self. What you have is a windmill that is designed to become an air pump for a pond. So the first thing is to get a generator and mechanically connect it up. My thoughts was to attach the output to one of the heater coils in my hot water heater. Leave one coil connected to the AC and connect the other to the windmill generator. It does not matter if it is AC or DC and the thermostat will prevent it from over heating. I doubt if you will get a whole lot of energy, but every little bit counts. If you want to run other stuff from this you will need put your energy into batteries and use an inverter to synchronize to the AC from the power company. If you don’t have experience do this I suggest you get a Engineer to help. In all cases be careful.