How to Build a Generator
Building a generator to produce your own electricity is a great
idea. It will not only help you save cost on your
electricity bills but also contribute to saving our environment.
Even the US government has been encouraging citizens to ‘go green’ by investing in means to conserve energy
and reduce dependence on fossil fuels which pollute the environment. Constructing your own generator is one of the best ways to achieve
this.
Building a generator depends on what kind of generator you
wish to build. There are essentially 3 types of generator that you
can build – a solar generator, a wind turbine generator or a magnetic generator. Each of these functions differently.
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Generator
A solar generator produces electricity using solar cells. You can buy them from places like eBay and assemble your own solar
panel. To make them produce electricity you need to solder the
solar cells together in series. The front of the solar cell is
its negative terminal while the back is its positive. Once they
are all connected in series, glue them in a matrix arrangement in a shallow wooden box and face it towards
the sun. The box should be painted with weather resistant paint
and sealed with a sheet of plexiglass. The final thing to do is
connect your solar panel to a battery that can store your electricity. But you need to install 2 important electrical items into the circuit – a
diode to prevent the battery from discharging electricity back to the solar panel and a voltage regulator to
regulate how much charge remains in the battery at all times. To
use the electricity generated, you need an inverter to convert it from DC current to AC current (your
household appliances use AC).
A wind turbine generator comprises of wind
generator blades connected to a motor that produces the electricity. Wind turbine blades and motor can be bought from eBay. It’s quite simple to screw the blades to the hub that is connected to the
shaft of the motor. When the blades are blown by the wind, it will
spin the shaft of the motor and electricity is generated. In order
for this to happen, the motor has to be mounted onto a tower (you can also buy this from eBay or use an old TV
tower) at least 15 feet taller than any other object 30 feet or more away from it. It is also connected to a battery for storage.
Finally, to construct a magnetic generator, you need magnets (obviously) that are attached to
a hub of a motor (the same motor that you use for the wind turbine generator can be used here). The same pole of the magnets must be facing outwards. For instance if you choose the North pole, all magnets must have their
North facing outwards. The generator simply utilizes the natural
attraction and repulsion of the poles of magnets to spin the shaft of the motor. For this to take place, you need an outer ring of magnets with the same
poles facing inwards (if you had chosen North earlier, choose North again). These like poles will naturally repel each other. To start the generator, give the hub of the motor a slight push to start it
spinning. The natural repulsion of the magnets will make this
spinning motion continue. That’s why the magnetic generator is
called a perpetual motion device. It will keep generating
electricity regardless of the weather conditions because of the repulsion of the magnets of same
polarities.
Connect your magnetic generator to a battery as above and you can enjoy free
electricity.
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Generator
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