Wind Generator Motor "Cogging"

There is a little known effect in electric motors know as "cogging". If you're selecting a motor for your wind generator you need to know what cogging is and how it will affect which wind generator motor you should buy. Read more »

Why Use An Arbor On Your Wind Generator?

Why should you use an arbor? If you've started or thought about building a wind generator I'm sure the question of "how do I attach my blades/hub to the motor? Well, somebody had that question and developed a solution for it. Let's take a look at why an arbor is useful for your wind generator. Read more »

Protect Your Solar Panels From The Weather

The only thing that you really have to worry about with homemade solar panels is sealing them up good. Since there are no moving parts in solar panels the only thing that can really damage them is water. Let's take a look at how to protect your panels. Read more »

What Is A Desulfator/Nanopulser?

What is a desulfator/nanopulser? Well, let's take a look at the scenario. You've had your batteries for a couple years and they don't seem to hold as much power anymore. You're thinking about throwing them out, but somebody told you that a desulfator can bring your batteries back to life.

You see, your batteries aren't really dead they just have a bunch of gunk built up. As your batteries go through charge and discharge cycles they release sulfates which build up on the lead plates of the battery. This is what causes the battery to stop holding so much power. Read more »

Free Deep Cycle Batteries

One of the most expensive parts of a renewable energy system is the batteries. Depending on how much of a backup you want you could be looking at thousands of dollars worth of batteries. What if there were ways to get free deep cycle batteries?

I've found two ways to find free batteries, but I'm sure there are a lot more. If you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment for others to benefit.

When I was younger I worked at a golf course for 5 years during school. We had a fleet of electric golf carts whose batteries get changed every two years as part of regular maintenance practices. Every year we'd switch out about 20 batteries and just dispose of them. These batteries still had tons of life left in them.

While not the best batteries you can use for your system they are still quite good. These batteries are deep cycle batteries and they have quite a large capacity. All you need to do is call up any local golf courses and ask them if they're getting rid of any of their electric golf cart batteries. If they say yes, just ask whether you could have them.

The other source of deep cycle batteries that I have found also uses regular maintenance practices. In every city there is an industrial section. In many of these places there are forklifts... which run on giant electric batteries. These batteries are massive and are usually switched out every 5 years or so. It's quite sad because these batteries can last 20 years if you continue proper maintenance.

If you would like to learn more about reconditioning batteries just click here

You'll need to take a kind of shotgun approach. You can simply whip out your phone book and find warehouses or any industrial business. It might take you a little bit to find on, but these batteries are worth their weight in gold.

Now, you might find that these batteries are dead when you get them home. Not to worry... these batteries are lead acids and can sometimes be revived with a battery desulfator/nanopulser. Basically all that happens is little pulses of power are sent to the battery to dislodge the sulfates that have built up over time.

There you have it. Two great ways to find free deep cycle batteries. Remember, if you have any other tips or tricks please leave a comment so we can all benefit.

Do I Need To Cover The Motor In My Wind Generator?

A question I am commonly asked is "do I need to cover the motor in my wind generator?". The simple answer to that question is yes, but lets take a look at why your wind generator needs a cover or shroud. Read more »

Step 3: Initial Testing

Now that your desulfator is all soldered together you need to test it before you do anything else. This is a pretty simple step. The desulfator is a pretty simple circuit so if you made a mistake it will be easy to spot. Read more »

Step 2: Placing/Soldering Components

Now that we know what a battery desulfator is and what it's used for let's get right into building one. The first thing that you should do is get all of the parts together that you're going to need to build it. Read more »

How Much Voltage Should Your Solar Panel Be?

A good question when building solar panels is how much voltage do you want it to put out? It's basically a question of balancing size and power. First though, let's talk about the minimum voltage that you'd need for the 3 main renewable energy system voltages: 12V, 24V and 48V. Read more »

Introduction To Battery Desulfators

You may notice that after quite a bit of use your batteries may stop working. In many cases this doesn't mean that they're dead, just that they may need a little reviving. You see, after the charge/discharge cycles a layer of sulfates builds up on the lead plates. Read more »