When building your wind generator the question "what to use for my blades?" will come up. Each type of blades has it's pros and cons so lets take a look at what you should use for your blades.

PVC Blades

Making blades are great for a beginner or if you're building a small wind generator. They're easy to make and if you make sure to paint them they'll last quite a long time as well.

The major advantage of PVC blades is their cost. You can build an entire set of blades for about $20. The other advantage is the time in building them. You can build an entire set in an afternoon.

In my opinions the downsides of PVC blades greatly outweigh the upsides. Although they work decently they only have a power coefficient of less than 25% (meaning they only convert 25% of wind energy into useable energy). A good pair of fiberglass blades will put out twice the energy of PVC blades. The other downside of PVC blades is you can't build a wind generator with a diameter larger than 6'. If you're going to build a wind generator with a diameter larger than 6' it's much better to get some fiberglass blades. You can get a really good set of windmax blades off ebay for a very good price.

Wooden Blades

I can't recommend wooden blades anymore. The biggest reason is they are to dangerous. You see, wood swells when it's exposed to water. No matter how well you seal your blades inevitably a small nick or crack will appear in your blades. Water will start to get into the wood causing it to swell. This will unbalance your blades and cause a wobble. In a short period of time you could be looking at a broken blade (that could cause damage or injury). For those reasons I can't recommend wooden blades.

Fiberglass blades

If you're going to spend any money you should spend it on the blades. You can always upgrade the motor later, but a good set of blades will more efficiently convert wind into energy. You can find these blades on ebay for a good price.

Fiberglass blades are very strong and very efficient. The power coefficient off the windmax blades I like is 49% (49% of the wind is converted into electricity). This is far higher than PVC blades of 20% - 25%. Even though it will cost you more money up front you'll thank yourself later because the extra power that they produce will more than make up for the added cost.

To recap, if you're just starting out or don't want too big of a wind generator to start I'd recommend building a set of PVC blades. If you want to produce some serious power go with the fiberglass blades... you'll be glad you did.

Would you like to learn how to build a wind generator? Just click the link at the left.

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