Comments for Build Wind Power

Comment on HQRP Heavy-Duty AC Power Adapter / Charger for MSI Wind U100-030US / U100-451US Series Netbook / Subnotebook Replacement plus HQRP Coaster Reviews by Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:55:26 +0000

sound product, no complaints, December 2, 2010

N. Turner (Los Angeles, CA USA) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: HQRP Heavy-Duty AC Power Adapter / Charger for MSI Wind U100-030US / U100-451US Series Netbook / Subnotebook Replacement plus HQRP Coaster

What can I say? It's a transformer brick and a power cable -- what could go wrong? I bought this to replace the factory model of my niece's MSI Wind that she left at a bus station. It came at the right price. She's only had it a month, so it's difficult to judge its longevity. I would recommend this product.

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Comment on Windmill Tales: Stories from the American Wind Power Center by DJW

DJW — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 08:31:44 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

West Texas Memories, July 21, 2007

DJW (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) -

This review is from: Windmill Tales: Stories from the American Wind Power Center (Hardcover)

The following review was written by my friend who, among other things, is a true aficionado of both the literal and figurative value of windmills:

Thank you for the wonderful book, "Windmill Tales". I received it as a gift from a good friend upon my recent retirement, and I can't tell you how much pleasure I have derived from this "jewel". The tales were quite entertaining; and, of course, I enjoyed reading them. However, it was the photographs that kept drawing me back. They were like an open door to my past.

I spent much of my youth on the Spade and Wulfjen "96" ranches in west Texas, and the photographs in your book are like flashbacks in my mind. Through the pictures in your book, I can almost feel the warm sun upon my face as I rode with my dad making the rounds checking on the windmills that might require repairs. I can hear the gentle rhythm of the windmill blades turning in the evening breeze, as I sat on the porch steps watching the sun sink below the horizon. They even bring back the sweet taste of cool clear water spilling into the tank.

Your book has given me the opportunity to slip back from "city life" into the past to once again visit these silent sentinels that dot the landscape and provide the life-blood water for the people and pastures of Texas.

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Comment on Windmill Tales: Stories from the American Wind Power Center by Claire L. Ducker

Claire L. Ducker — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:58:47 +0000

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Windmill Tales, August 22, 2005

Claire L. Ducker (Austin, Texas) -

This review is from: Windmill Tales: Stories from the American Wind Power Center (Hardcover)

The Wyman Meinzer photographs in this book are so beautiful that it's perfect for the coffe table, but the stories are so funny, so interesting, so odd that you'll want to keep it by your bedside.

Modern Americans are so urbanized that windmills seem almost exotic, but they were a daily experience for most rural dwellers in the Southwest and West from the mid-19th century to nearly the present. The stories in this book illustrate the importance and the ubiquity of this mechanical marvel.

In his forward to the book, Steve Halladay, a descendent of Daniel Halliday, the inventor of the self-regulating windmill, notes that, while it is often claimed that the Winchester rifle tamed the West, a good case can be made that it was really the windmill. Indeed, without massive windmills stationed every 50 miles along the tracks, the mighty railroads would not have been possible. It was the smaller household and ranch windmills, though, that people remember and revere with surprising passion and persistence. The American Wind Power Center, which produced the book, is a testament to this enduring fascination with windmills.

People visiting the museum at the Wind Power Center frequently shared stories about the windmills that they and their families and friends lived and worked with over the years. The staff at the Center recorded the stories for their archives, and eventually Coy Harris, the director, realized that this trove of anecdotes would make a great book. He enlisted Meinzer to provide photographs to accompany the text, and the book was published by the Texas Tech University press.

Some of the stories are hilariious; some are interesting and informative; others are almost like shaggy dog stories: not much point, but sort of strange, even mysterious. My personal favorite: during a repair of a remote windmaill in New Mexico, the storyteller's uncle found that he had failed to bring a brace and bit to drill the holes for attaching the sucker rod to the steel pump rod. He did, however, have a .30-30 rifle, which he used to shoot the necessary holes! Now, that's good old American know-how!

Get this book, even if you know squat about windmeills and care even less. You'll love it!

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Comment on Wind Power Workshop: Building Your Own Wind Turbine by Dirk J. Willard "Dirk Willard"

Dirk J. Willard "Dirk Willard" — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:35:24 +0000

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

Specific to build-your-own Windmills, June 14, 2008

Dirk J. Willard "Dirk Willard" (Chicago, IL) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Windpower Workshop (Paperback)

I bought this book as a back-up to Paul Gipe's extensive "Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business."

Another engineer in the office became interested in this for when he retires in Guana. He and I looked at the book together and it is interesting for the hands-on appeal. The author shows how to you scrounged equipment to construct a wind machine. Hugh Piggott has a lot of experience with building these machines so this is the place to start if you're on a desert island all alone and want to create your own power.

Paul Gipe's book is an excellent reference for those wishing to be good buyers of wind machines. Hugh Piggott shows you how to build your own.

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Comment on Wind Power Workshop: Building Your Own Wind Turbine by Nicolaus G. Bauman "suitcase iconoclast"

Nicolaus G. Bauman "suitcase iconoclast" — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:49:52 +0000

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

Good information, but felt incomplete, October 23, 2005

Nicolaus G. Bauman "suitcase iconoclast" (Minneapolis) -

This review is from: Windpower Workshop (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book. I really did. So many people who are wind power enthusiasts kept telling me how seminal a book this is, but it was a disappointment, albeit a subjective one. I think more accurate thing to say would be that it was not the book I was looking for.

I can say objectively if you want information on how a grid-tied wind turbine system should work, this book has almost no information on the entire grid-tying process, a complicated and expensive process that certainly a lot of people would need help with. I can also say objectively that this book helped me realize that wind power would not be a good choice for my current home.

I think the problem I have with this book is twofold. One, the book is written on a fairly high level. Some formulas for wind power are presented, some general heuristics, and these are important to be sure, but they don't actually help you get your head wrapped around the issues at stake. There are electrical schematics presented in some places. I'm a fairly technical person, and I can read a schematic fairly well. Sometimes I can't tell whether a symbol is a dynamo or an alternator (they don't look the same but they are similar in practice). But of course an electrical schmatic does not a wind generating electrical system make, and this should not reflect badly on the author.

The other thing is Piggott's really heavily invested in presenting a balanced view of the information. Seems like a counter-intuitive criticism but I had a hard time figuring out what his personal opinion about different designs of turbines, towers, furlings, generators, etc. were. I would have preferd that he say. "This is what works for me, and this is why I think it works." Instead of "You can do this. Or you can do this. Or you can do this... etc".

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Comment on Wind Power Workshop: Building Your Own Wind Turbine by Bruce Boatner

Bruce Boatner — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:17:28 +0000

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

An Absolute Must-Have For Windmill Enthusiasts, July 11, 2002

Bruce Boatner (Eagle, Idaho USA) -

This review is from: Windpower Workshop (Paperback)

This book contains real practicality, not just empty theory. Talk about "put your money where your mouth is" - Hugh lives on a remote spit of land in Northern Scotland that doesn't even have roads, much less access to the power grid. If necessity is the mother of invention, there's good reason why he was highly motivated to develop the kinds of simple airfoils and low speed alternator combinations that produced real power. This rudimentary experience has taken him all over the world for installations and workshops. I guess having someone like that around makes him a pretty popular guy with his neighbors.

This book covers the theory necessary to understand wind energy basics, and proceeds as a how-to manual on shaping a simple turbine out of wood. It then shows how to build a low speed alternator out of a brake drum. (There is another book by Hugh called "Brake Drum Windmill Handbook" which goes into more detail).

The challenge is building an electrical generating system that operates at the slow rotational speeds of a wind turbine (e.g. 300 - 500 RPM). Everybody wants to hook up an automobile alternator, but even if it is optimized for high output at an idle, it probably will not start producing power until it reaches 1800 RPM. (Typically the engine/alternator pulleys have a ratio of 3 or 3.5 to 1 and the engine idles @ 600 RPM).

A great little book.

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Comment on Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by Mr. B. O'LOONEY "Shanweela"

Mr. B. O'LOONEY "Shanweela" — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:39:06 +0000

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business, September 16, 2005

Mr. B. O'LOONEY "Shanweela" (Co. Clare, Ireland) -

This review is from: Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (Paperback)

This is a very practical book for the wind energy enthusiast, thinking of setting up their own wind generator. It has got plenty of advice on the wind generators to buy and the models to avoid. The book has loads of web references, photographs and safety information. All the information in the book is presented in a clear and concise fashion. You don't need an engineering degree to understand this book. Overall I found this book to be a really good reference and well worth the money. I would recommend it to readers interested in renewable energy.

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Comment on Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by Keith Kimmel "Free Thinker, Constant Reader"

Keith Kimmel "Free Thinker, Constant Reader" — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:18:00 +0000

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

The Book to Have on Wind Power Systems, August 24, 2005

Keith Kimmel "Free Thinker, Constant Reader" (OK USA) -

This review is from: Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (Paperback)

This reviewer was very pleased with the quality and thoroughness of this title. The level of detail presented herein was very helpful in giving the reader a complete picture of whats really involved in putting up, operating and using a wind-based Renewable Energy (RE) system. Very helpful are the many graphs and charts which provide organization and understanding of the numerous technical aspects of the subject.

Some of the often overlooked but very important subjects covered in Wind Power are the: tower installation and tower types, location selection, mounting on RVs, wind turbine design, do-it-yourself wind turbines and how to select a prebuilt wind turbine. All of these subjects and many more are covered in great detail, usually with one or more color photographs to support and demonstrate the author's points.

Wind Power is full of common sense safety tips for the homeowner and also points out some hazards that might not be so readily apparent to the untrained eye. Also included is loads of good advice from start to finish with regard to locating, selecting, purchasing, installing, operating and servicing your wind turbine.

At nearly five hundred pages, Wind Power leaves no stones unturned in its quest to document all aspects of the booming industry of wind-based RE systems. As oil prices continue to soar and citizens continue to search for ways to increase their quality of life (and health of their pocketbook), wind-based RE systems will continue to grow in popularity. Wind Power provides the reader with the opportunity to get ahead of the curve and learn important information not readily available now.

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Comment on Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by John Matlock "Gunny"

John Matlock "Gunny" — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:43:46 +0000

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

More than you ever thought you'd need to know., August 15, 2004

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) -

This review is from: Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (Paperback)

If there is anything you want to know about using the wind for power you will find it within the almost 500 pages of this book. From the history of using wind mills to pump water to the latest giant sized multi megawatt units, it's here. Want to know about the laws of connecting your wind generating unit to the commercial grid, it's here. Want to know the wind generation potential in the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific or in your own state, it's here (along with URL's to tell you where to get more detailed information. Want a list of magazines, books, manufacturers, or software to help you site the tower, yup, it's here.

Wind power generation has grown significantly since the price of oil has gone up and the extra added costs of polution have become apparent. In the last two decades, wind power system designs have been developed, matured and become a lot more practical than they were only a few years ago. This book is actually the most recent generation of Paul Gipe's books. It's the most complete, the most thoroughly developed of anything on the subject.

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Comment on Wind Power Generator Set by Future Scientists' Momma

Future Scientists' Momma — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:10:03 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Well Made and Designed, April 19, 2010

Future Scientists' Momma (Virginia Beach, VA) -

Durability: Fun: Educational:

This review is from: Wind Power Generator Set (Toy)

I bought this for my 9-year old son's science fair project. Although it's recommended for older children, he had no problem putting it together. I would recommend an adult cutting out the plastic fan blades. It works very well.

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