Alternative Energy

Lenz2 wind turbine

This instructable will show you how to build a Lenz2 wind turbine from materials you have around the house.

The design was developed and tested by Ed Lenz of Windstuffnow.com:
http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/lenz2_turbine.htm

The Lenz2 VAWT (Vertical Axix Wind Turbine) is 4 foot tall and 3 feet in diameter. It is a basically a Savonius style turbine but with the refinement that the three wings are shaped to provide lift as well because or their teardrop configuration. In the above link Lenz describes how he placed an ananometer inside the stational turbine and showed that the windspeed picked up passing past the solid portion of the wings. This turbine is more efficient than a pure Savonius in that it provided both drag and lift.

In my design I scaled down the diameter to approximately 18 inches and the height to 21 inches. (In hindsight, I should have made the height 18 inches so that there would be more of the center axis free on both ends for flexibility in mounting.)

I was able to use materials I had on hand to build the turbine. When I tested it in a 15 mph wind, it worked so well that I was afraid to stop it for fear of getting injured. The only downside of what I produced is that it seemed to produce very little electricity. This is not due to the design of the turbine but to the nature of the DC motor that I had it attached to. The emphasis in this tutorial will be on how to construct the turbine itself. Full credit for the design and some of the instructions goes to Ed Lenz.

Since this instructable was published, I learned more about how the wings should be shaped. The construction details for the lenz2 provided in this instructable still hold but the dimensions of the wing in Step 2 should be substituted for those given in the newly inserted Step 3.'

By: rhackenb

Simple solar powered pocket submarine with depth control.

What is the coolest thing that comes in pocket size? Well, a pocket submarine of course!

Small submarines are often called pocket submarines and although the real life ones won't actually fit in your pockets, the one in this Instructable will. It will fit into your pocket and in the water it really does dive and resurface, thanks to different methods of depth control (see step 6 for a movie and step 7 for an additional method).

Above that, it is easy to build from a few components. Apart from the soldering in step 2, which you can do in preparation, you can easily make it in a childrens' workshop. The total cost of materials can be limited to about 6 euros.

This submarine is so simple because of the use of a laminated/moulded solar module, waterproof by itself and by skipping any attempts to waterproof the connections or the motor. Don't worry, many simple electric motors do withstand running them immersed in water. Some of them might corrode somewhat after use, making starting up the next time a little difficult, but For several this will not even be a problem (for hints on which ones see the next step).

"What about the current leaking through the water?" you might ask. This will indeed give a slight energy loss, but it is very limited and the energy comes for free from your solar cells anyway.

Now if enough of you vote for this Instructable, I can win a T-shirt and hack it by putting a pocket on, to put my sub in and join the next speed contest ;-)

I added a short video on March 27th (long video still in step 6):

By: masynmachien

Make a high powered solar panel from broken solar cells

In this instructable, I will give you a practical guide to building a large solar panel from broken solar cells.

By: mattfelice

How to Make a Wind Powered LED Out of a VCR

This tutorial explains how to make a wind powered LED out of an old VCR and a pinwheel. You can also use an old CD-Rom drive if you don't have a VCR.

If you are interested in the tutorial about making this from a CD-Rom drive, you can find it on my site, technogumbo

By: technogumbo

Wind turbine with bicycle wheels

This instructable uses bicycle wheels to create a wind turbine. Some construction ideas come from A Home Power Plant - Wind Power Generator Revised
by bhunter736
Making a simple Savonius wind turbine
http://www.macarthurmusic.com/johnkwilson/MakingasimpleSavoniuswindturbine.htm
The timber frame idea comes from wind turbine by faroun
Faroun Savonius Wind Turbine
plus other net published constructions I can't remember plus some original bits.

By: frednerk

Make Your Own Biodiesel Processor

In a world where environmental awareness is becoming increasingly important for individuals, businesses, and mankind as a whole, it's always important to be looking for ways to re-use waste and cut carbon emissions. Biodiesel is a great way to do this. You're reusing waste oil and reducing your impact on the environment.

This Instructable will take you step-by-step through the process of making a BioDiesel processor. This type of Processor is called an appleseed processor. It uses an old (or new if you feel like dropping the money) water heater. The amount of fuel you can make will depend on the size tank you use. My first prototype uses a 10 gallon tank. Not too efficient if you plan on making large quantities, but great for figuring things out.

Before you do this project you should research the process and dangers involved in producing biodiesel at home.

Before you run out and buy $100+ worth of plumbing materials, I should say this: As biodiesel becomes more and more popular the resources available become more and more scarce, and people are starting to charge for things that used to be free, specifically Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). I would suggest securing a source for WVO before you embark on this project.

There are many unspoken rules about gathering WVO from businesses, and I can talk about those in another instructable. For now just know that you CANNOT just take oil, for this you can get arrested and tried. You also need to be consistent (If you say you'll be there every Tuesday to pick up someone's oil and you show up on Wednesday half the time people will often give your oil to other people).

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My instructable on how to use this processor can be found here.


By: drinkmorecoffee

DIY Electrostatic Motor, very fast and very easy to build

If you are looking to experiment with alternative energy sources then you should have lots of fun building this device which is powered by static electricity.

Static electricity is high voltage and typically very low current but that doesn't mean that it is safe.

Please understand all of the risks involved before attempting to make this or any other electrical device!

This instructable demonstrates Electrostatic induction.

Electrostatic induction is a method by which an electrically charged object can be used to create an electrical charge in a second object, without physical contact between the two objects.

I am using a Whimshurst machine to generate the static electricity.
You can pick up a decent Whimshurst on eBay for around 40 dollars and you'll be amazed by the voltage it creates.

Here is a video of this electrostatic motor in operation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBlt6unIxF8

For more information visit http://whatmighthappenifi.com/electrostatics.html

By: catchison

Make Biodiesel!

Instructable #2 in my series on biodiesel.

This is my tutorial for using my appleseed processor to make biodiesel. This tutorial will get you through the process of making biodiesel, but not the necessary washing process. I will do my next instructable on dry-washing biodiesel.

Biodiesel is a great way to go green, and cut your carbon footprint quite substantially, not to mention it's cheaper than diesel. Biodiesel will run in a diesel engine, I don't recommend trying it in a gas engine.
The process for making biodiesel uses an oil, a catalyst, and an alcohol. In this case: Waste vegi oil (WVO), NaOH (lye), and methanol.

Please read up on this before you start, and please understand the chemical dangers involved in this process.

By: drinkmorecoffee

Hard Drive Parts Generator and Theory Tester

This is a device built out of hard drive parts and a piece of wood that simulates the action of a windbelt. I built this because I think this way of producing energy could be used differently With this I can be anywhere and not need wind to power it while I think of a different way it can be used.

These are the final pics. The pictures I took weren't very good while I was building this but, it is built the same as the other generators of this type on instructables.com. One end is built on a scrap piece of wood. The hard drive parts were given to me by a really nice man of a local computer store near my home. I tried various different rubberband combinations to connect the two arms. I used three.

I also have a video of it posted of it working.

With just one magnet above and below the coil I am able to hold 2.0VAC for a few seconds strumming on the end of the other hard drive arm.

By: FullyInvolvedScientist

Adapt a clock today! Cheap trackers boost solar panel and solar cooker performance

The Sun travels across the sky in a fairly orderly way. People with solar panels and solar cookers take either a high tech approach to solar tracking (light detecting electronics, etc or they manually adjust the cooker or panel. High tech is very expensive and manual adjustment is majorly error prone.
Low tech cheap tracking could improve solar performance substantially.
Low tech tracking would be valuable in really poor countrys for solar cooking and perhaps save many trees from the cooking fires.
This instructable describes my tracker that I made from an old and ugly clock.

By: gaiatechnician