Building a wind turbine for rural home

The main objective of this work is to determine and design a suitable wind turbine which could be employed for rural homes or other small-scale applications. A variety of horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines exist, each possessing a number of advantages and disadvantages which needed to be taken into account before a basis for the design is selected. A small robust design which is relatively simple and cheap to construct is in essence the main criteria for wind turbine selection. A Savonius type rotor, which is a rotor based on a modification of the 'S' rotor, is selected as it best fitted the design criteria. A small prototype 1.5 m tall with a rotor diameter of 0.65 m is designed and built. The finished prototype is used to estimate the power obtainable under normal operating conditions. (C) 2009 International Energy Initiative. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.