At last, here's a screw-together and stitch wind charger that anyone with hand tools can build.
If the letters in our mailbag are any indication, many of MOTHER's readers crave information about homebuilt windplants. In fact, the response to our three-page feature on Marshall Price's basement-built unit (see issue 84, page 130) was so encouraging that we decided to go ahead and launch a test program of our own to determine just how simply and inexpensively a reliable and productive wind generator could be put together by the average person.
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The plumbing-and-fabric appearance of our windplant earned it the nickname of the Red Baron among our staffers . . . but that antiqueaircraft look belies the fact that the 70-watt plant is fully capable of providing a 25- or 50-watt light source plus a 2-amp battery trickle charge to what was an unpowered outbuilding.
Now, wind power seems intimidating to many people, and—in truth—it is a formidable subject. In fact, we can't even begin to describe the whys and wherefores of our engineering on this plant, because it'd take several articles. If you're really interested in wind theory and application, we'd suggest The Wind Power Book, by Jack Park, an excellent information source which is available from Mother's Bookshelf for $14.95 (see insert following page 80 for ordering information). But in the meantime, if you favor the empirical approach and hanker after something you can afford to get your teeth into, this little job won't disappoint you.
We had set our sights on keeping costs below $50 when planning our prototype . . . but after purchasing nearly every component new, the bill just topped twice that figure. Still, a quick glance at our materials list should convince even a die-hard pessimist that costs could be reduced by scrounging the common parts . . . and we'd be willing to venture that it wouldn't take a whole lot of effort to assemble the entire plant—minus the storage system and the tower—for $60 to $75.
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