So I realize that this blog has been just a bunch of dry boring technical wind turbine stuff. So far I have just been documenting the technical side of this experience? I have worked really hard to figure out how to build these turbines and to truly understand how they work. It has been much harder and taken much longer than I thought it would, but very rewarding too. I tend to get so obsseded with projects that I often just don’t even come up for air. I am a bit idealistic and detail oriented and sometimes just want to see it through at any cost. Anyway, the point is that I am embarassed because I have not given any “props” to a few people that have supported me on this project regardless of how silly it seems…
My investor, “Mommy 2.0” down in Texas, was kind enough to sponsor the building of 2 of these 10 foot wind turbines and I would like to thank her greatly for that. I can’t wait to have these turbines perfected and set one of them up on her land. Hopefully it will even be cost effective to set it up as a grid-tie system and watch her meter run backwards! I hope it will pay her back many times over in the long run. I thank her for being patient too since this is taking longer than I had hoped.
I also want to thank Heather for putting up with my S#*@. I have turned the entire garage into a workshop…the garage is no longer for cars and Heather has not been happy with this situation. I have spent a small fortune on tools and supplies and that just ain’t cool either. Heather has been more understanding than I could have imagined. I am glad that Heather is a knitter and not a wind turbine builder! Cloth is way cheaper than steel and copper.
Thanks to Kelly as well for helping me to put together a shop full of tools. The welder has worked great! You have also been helpful with some of the design issues.
Ok, so enough mushy stuff, I want to talk about metal, plastic, and things spinning really fast! I am starting to build the second 10′ turbine now and should have it done much more quickly than the first. I haven’t quite finished the first one yet, but it is getting very close. This way I can get some things done on the second one while I am waiting for parts for the first one in the mail and stuff like that. I think the second one will be of better quality since I am learning from my mistakes. There are a few little things I will do differently this time around that should speed up the process and simply make better, more efficient wind turbine.
I am really looking forward to getting these wind turbines up in the air and start testing them out. I will need to really start thinking about how best to measure and log the output from these things. This will be a whole new project in and of itself.