Home Wind Turbines, how wind turbines works

Home wind turbines are small enough for a home DIY enthusiast to assemble and place on the roof of a house. These are a couple of feet high with rotors reaching the span not much greater than the diameter of a satellite dish. All wind turbines work on the same principles no matter what their sizes. Utility turbines which are used to produce electrical energy commercially are up to 500 ft high, while Every wind energy system transforms the kinetic energy of the wind into mechanical or electrical energy. Today most turbines are designed to produce electricity, although there are water-pumping mechanical wind pumps and old mill turbines still in use.

As mentioned there are massive various variations in size but all home wind turbines have something in common with even its largest cousin, namely its essential configuration. Every wind turbine system consists of a rotor (“blades”) which convert the wind's energy into rotational shaft energy, a nacelle (“enclosure”) containing a drive train and a generator. The drive train may include a gear box. Supporting these two components is a tower, and the entire turbine also has electronic equipment associated with transferring electricity: controls, cables and so on.

While these are the principles underlying the construction of home wind generators, there are two basic designs of all turbines whether a collection of gigantic turbines (a “wind farm”) producing 5000 kW each or small home wind turbines producing just enough electricity sufficient for a home or business. These are the vertical axis or “egg beater” type and the horizontal axis or “propeller” type. Most of the utility scale turbines in the market today, producing 100 kW and more, are the horizontal type.

By far the most unfamiliar type of wind turbine to most people is the vertical axis or “egg beater” type but really this type of wind scoop has a long history. The sails of Arab dhows and old clipper-style sailing ships used wind sheets on a mast similar to the way a vertical axis turbine is configured. Essentially the rotors run roughly parallel to the tower, creating a scoop-like shape.
The horizontal type of wind turbine has a more comforting aspect to the casual observer because they can relate its rotor arrangement to the propellers on an aircraft or the rotors on old Dutch windmills. All that will be unfamiliar is the small number of blades – often only two. Not least because of its easy familiarity to ordinary folk, the horizontal type of turbine is the style used mainly for small home wind turbines.

The size of the horizontal turbine used most commonly for residential or small business use are larger than the DIY model mentioned above but much smaller than the largest commercial turbines, in fact miniscule by comparison.. Most home wind turbines are 10kW turbines with rotor diameters of 20 feet or less, mounted on towers of 100 feet height or less. They are not placed on rooftops but on the ground positioned for maximum wind exposure.