A SMALL WIND ENERGY SYSTEM TO SAVE HOME ELECTRICITY

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ABSTRACT
Wind is the motion of air about the earth caused by its rotation and by the
uneven heating of planet surface by the sun. The basic concept of the wind energy
generation by using the wind flows to rotate a turbine generator. Even though, wind
power is not popular in Malaysia but it is widely used in United Kingdom, United
State and France. Nowadays, our electricity bill always increases every year cause of
increasing fossil-fuel price. This project will discuss about small wind energy system
to save our home electricity. We will use small wind turbine as alternative to reduce
our electricity bill every months. This system will use UPS as battery storage, three
blades small wind turbine and wiring.


INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into more useful forms, such as
electricity, using wind turbines. Most modern wind power is generated in the form of
electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of
an electrical generator [3]. In windmills (a much older technology), wind energy is used
to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, such as crushing grain or pumping
water. Wind power is used in large scale wind farms for national electrical grids as well
as in small individual turbines for providing electricity to rural residences or gridisolated
locations. Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, cleans, and
reduces toxic atmospheric and greenhouse gas emissions if used to replace fossil-fuelderived
electricity. The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind
power at low to moderate penetration levels.


Wind Energy
The wind energy is converted through friction into diffuse heat throughout the
Earth's surface and the atmosphere. The origin of wind is complex. The Earth is
unevenly heated by the sun resulting in the poles receiving less energy from the sun than
the equator does. Also the dry land heats up (and cools down) more quickly than the seas
do. The differential heating powers a global atmospheric convection system reaching
from the Earth's surface to the stratosphere which acts as a virtual ceiling. There we have
the main advantages and disadvantages of wind power on the surrounding environment,
and the general reliability of wind turbines [7].



The disadvantages of wind energy;
1. The main disadvantage regarding wind power is down to the winds unreliability
factor. In many areas, the winds strength is too low to support a wind turbine or
wind farm, and this is where the use of solar power or geothermal power are
great alternatives.
2. A wind turbine can only support a specific population. Wind turbines aren't like
power stations, where you can just burn a bit more fuel to generate more energy
when you need it.
3. Wind turbine construction can last over a year, be very expensive and costly to
the surrounding nature environment during the build process.
4. The noise pollution from commercial wind turbines is on a par with a small jet
engine. This is fine if you live a mile or so away, where you will hardly notice
the noise, but what if you live within a few hundred meters of a turbine? This is a
major disadvantage.
5. Vast protests and/or petitions usually confront any proposed wind farm site.
People feel the countryside should be left in tact for everyone to enjoy it's
beauty.

1.1.2 Wind System Basics

All wind systems consist of a wind turbine, a tower, wiring, and the “balance of
system” components: controllers, inverters, and/or batteries [2]. Home wind turbines
consist of a rotor, a generator mounted on a frame, and (usually) a tail. Through the
spinning blades, the rotor captures the kinetic energy of the wind and converts it into
rotary motion to drive the generator. Rotors can have two or three blades, with three
being more common.