How do I power a lighting fixture with a wind turbine?
Question by starzzguitar: How do I power a lighting fixture with a wind turbine?
I don’t need a lecture on the wonders of “green energy”, the benefits, blah, blah, blah. I am not hooking up to the “power grid” and I really don’t care about the “community”. I want a nuts and bolts answer. I’m making a small vertical spin wind turbine, and I just want to power one or two security lights. No, I don’t want to use solar power, too unreliable. What kind of generator and voltage regulator do I need? Do I need storage batteries? Wiring? Etc. Thanks!
What do you think? Answer below!
4 Responses to How do I power a lighting fixture with a wind turbine?
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Gee this info is available all over the net, so why bother us, Just search for wind turbine or wind power and you will get hundreds of thousands of responses, maybe even millions. It will be a lot easier for you to read it somewhere than for me to try to explain.
Tex
December 7, 2013 at 1:04 am
Sorry, but wind insn’t any more reliable than solar, and a lot of the same problems apply.
Your turbine set-up needs to gather/store enough energy to run your lights for the night.
For a home-built set-up, your best bet is an automotive alternator/regulator and batteries.
Use a 12V. controller and lamps, and save the expense of an inverter.
Irv S
December 7, 2013 at 1:32 am
Use the wind turbine to turn a car alternator, with belts and pulleys to power a 12 volt light. Put a battery between the alternator and the light to store the energy. Put a switch between the battery and the light to save the energy to use only at night. Use a photo cell between the battery and the light so the light will only work when sun goes down. Good Luck.
lloyd
December 7, 2013 at 2:25 am
The same way as with solar. You will use a different box between the turbine and batteries than between solar panels and batteries.
You will need to figure how much energy you need stored to figure how much batteries you need, and how many watts you need to keep it charged based on how much wind you will have, and choose a wind turbine appropriately.
But if you get reasonable sunlight, look into solar instead of, or as well as wind. You can get deals on solar.
I have a solar system to power lights in a barn 100W or so of CFL lights for about 1/2 hr a day, and it cost a couple hundred. The way it is used is a good as utility power, and is about 95% reliable.
classicsat
December 7, 2013 at 3:07 am