How to Build a 17-ft Wind Turbine 335
agentfive writes "The people over at Treehugger have found an amazing little article on how to build a 17ft - 3kW+ output Wind Turbine. Apparently this is the latest project of OtherPower.com and the site has a variety of other engergy saving/producing projects including a Homebrew Maytag Gas Battery charger."
Something to add... (Score:2, Insightful)
Starting from the copper wire and magnets, there is actually some real construction involved.
Re:Wind Power (Score:2, Insightful)
Huh? I think there's a big difference between an inert blob that the air mostly just flows around (with some turbulence and loss of energy), and a windmill carefully impedance matched to the wind to extract the maximum possible energy from it.
Also, it's not at all clear to me that changing weather patterns is a good thing globally just because it helps locally.
I'm not trying to say we should stop all wind power, just that the issues are more complicated than they appear at first glance. Fossil fuels are bad, so it's not a question of whether wind is harmless or not, but one of whether it's worth the costs. Sane and balanced investigation of the tradeoffs is required, as always. But in the meantime, we should start building more sources of renewable energy -- let's avoid the trap of paralysis via overly detailed studies.
It's not even close to an easy problem, but that doesn't mean we can't try to solve it.
Re:Otherpower.com Rules! (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, irony.
Re:The Problem With Small Wind Turbines is this: (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of them. In 100 years when greenhouse gasses kill everything, birds will wish they had windmills.
Re:Wind Power (Score:4, Insightful)
If they start making large fields of 1000+ foot hight turbines I might start worring about the environmental effects. For now a small forest I'm sure has far much more effect on wind resistance than a field of turbines.
Re:Slashdot is brought to you by Sears Craftsman (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wind Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, these are all simply educated guesses on my part, as I am not a climate researcher (my science background is primarily in solid state physics). I could easily be mistaken.
Re:PhotoVoltaic Roof Shingles (Score:3, Insightful)
That's just not practical.
Re:Ezz Empossible!! (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems that their methodology is consistent with their goals. Sure it's not as efficient as it could be, but they've achieved what they set out to do.
Not bad, in my opinion.