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Riverview Man Gets Power From His Own Windmills

JIM REED / The Tampa Tribune

Dan McKinney demonstrates his a model of an energy-generating windmill he built. The windmill in the background can supply power to his home.

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By MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

Updated: 10/11/2007 08:31 am

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RIVERVIEW - Building a windmill generator to power your home is simple. Just ask Dan McKinney, putterer, tinkerer and scrap collector extraordinaire.

McKinney's windmill towers 66 feet above his cozy home surrounded by pine trees. The windmill, 10 feet in diameter, turns slowly in the breeze, generating as much as 1.5 kilowatts.

That's enough electricity to run two outbuildings and his well pump. If a storm knocks out his regular electric service, he can run an extension cord to the house and run his lights and a few appliances or electronics, such as a refrigerator and television.

The windmill generates electricity much as a car does. The spinning blades move a series of magnets past wire coils, exciting the molecules in the coils so they create current. The machine generates alternating current, or AC. An inexpensive device called a rectifier changes the electricity to direct current so it can be stored in batteries for later use.

'It's not new technology,' McKinney said. 'It's all old technology that anyone can build. It just goes to show you what you can do if you got nothing to work with.'

Increasing electricity costs and heightened concerns about global warming have spurred a growing wind turbine industry in the United States. A dozen or so manufacturers export windmill power systems to 90 countries and every state in this country, said Ron Stimmel, small wind systems expert with the American Wind Energy Association.

'About 98 percent of all the wind turbines sold last year in the U.S. were made by U.S. manufacturers,' he said.

Stimmel said the industry is trying to get Congress to approve a federal tax credit for wind turbine purchases to defray some of the high upfront costs.

Recent Advances

A Scot named Hugh Piggott advanced wind-generated power with a new technology he developed during the past 10 years called axial flux. Unlike most generators, which use moving coils, Piggott's turbines rotate the magnets around stationary coils. That means fewer moving parts and better durability.

Axial flux turbines should last as long as 25 years, more than twice the lifespan of standard generators, McKinney said. Piggott's turbines, which are inexpensive and easy to assemble, have been used to provide power to remote African villages.

'He figured out this was an easy way to make electricity,' McKinney said. 'It only gets down to one moving part.'

A former machinist and millwright, McKinney built the windmill system from scratch, using scrap steel, computer magnets and old golf cart batteries to store the power. Working on weekends and afternoons after work, the project took him about 50 hours.

McKinney fashioned the wooden blades himself with a plane, handsaw and chisel. The windmill can start charging batteries at wind speeds of 5 mph. He said he is thinking about building similar systems and selling them.

Payback Requires Patience

McKinney said he can show people how to build a wind turbine for $600. Most people, however, opt to buy the parts and pay to have them installed.

The cost - between $12,000 and $55,000 - can be a drawback, especially if you want a quick return in lower energy bills. The typical payback period can be from six to 30 years, depending on how much energy you use. Most people who buy wind turbines have them connected to the electric grid so that they can sell excess power they generate to the electric company.

McKinney, now 65 and retired, said his fascination with wind-generated power started as a 9-year-old growing up on the family farm and ranch in New Mexico. While playing in the barn, he found two blades that had been used as a 'wind charger,' a device that isolated farm families used to recharge batteries in their radios.

McKinney's dad helped him connect the blades to an old generator. They hooked the contraption to a pole and mounted it on a fence post. The wind-driven charger made just enough electricity to light up a playhouse that McKinney's dad made out of a shipping crate.

'It wasn't high enough to get fast wind,' he said. 'It made electricity; not very much of it, but it made electricity.'

Anyone interested in the windmill system can contact McKinney at hurricane electric1@verizon.net.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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