A study at nature.com says it would be conceivable to power all of the world's energy needs from wind.
There's a lot of wind going to waste out there.
Could buy a wind turbine.
These were once common for pumping water.
Each of these units power hundreds of homes.
[Wildhorse Wind Farm, Washington State]
Imagine that line of work.
If you've ever wondered whether it could be at all practical to build your own wind turbine out of a bicycle wheel, the answer is:
YES
This video shows one way to go about doing that.
We'll walk through steps in building a wind turbine from a bicycle wheel for generating electricty, simply and with easily available parts.
[Seattle, WA, USA]
As good a place as any to build a wind turbine.
First, round up a wheel.
[The bigger the better]
[To a point, haha]
Remove the axle.
Pop the bearing cover off.
They're just held in place by friction.
Remove the bearings.
These are contained in a set.
Often they'll be loose like this.
Clean up the grease.
And this is a standard bolt with fine threads and it's going to make sense in just a second.
It's important that the bolt be centered well.
There's no need for pricey couplers or bearing mounts.
Here's the secret sauce, a chuck from a drill 
 as a coupler, solving a lot of problems.
The chuck is adjustable of course and you 
 can easily experiment around with different generators.
You can remove every other pair of spokes for better air flow.
Tape marks the ones to keep.
These vise grips have a cutting edge.
Want to let that plane take off so here's some miscellaneous information.
This is a recent list of the world's top countries for total wind turbine watts compared to population.
[chart inset]
Wind power is currently the fastest growing source of electricity production in the world.
A renewal of the wind energy tax credit in 2013 is now breathing even more life into the industry.
Sometimes one-quarter of the grid power in Texas is thanks to wind.
Here are the top states in the U.S. per capita.
[chart inset]
Existing wind turbines in the United States could power all of the state of Colorado.
In 2012, GE celebrated its 20,000th wind turbine installation.
As of the end of 2012, the United 
 States had 45 thousand wind turbines operating.
Hmm, based on this data it seems detractors ought to be trying to ban windows instead of wind turbines.
[chart inset]
Here's a surprising fact:  The Personal Computing Industry Center found that the wind industry created more employment in the U.S. than the iPod in 2006.
There is some debate as to who built the first electrical wind turbine in 1888, this one by Charles Brush in the state of Ohio, 
[picture inset]
or this one by Scottish Professor James Blyth, vertical axis. 
[picture inset]
Just inserting the axle to give it a spin.
Washers for centering the bolt need to be the right size so the
inner diameter fits the bolt snugly, and the outer edge of washers can land on the
inside curve of the hub where the bearings sat.
You could buy a new chuck or remove one from an old drill.
[Option: Chuck from a used drill]
[Remove reverse threads set-screw inside]
You want to find a way to jam the motor and rotate the chuck counter-clockwise.
Here's a basic example of the parts.
And there she is looking good and generating electricity.
Slots in the strut and fin, and apply 
 some glue to hold it in place.
Here's a 100-watt light bulb just showing that this DC motor acting as a generator can deliver some power.
[Caption: Generator]
Here's what a motor/generator is like on the inside.
This is a treadmill motor off craigslist, which often has ads for treadmills inexpensively.
Most treadmills have DC motors.
[showing craigslist ads]
Nylon is great yet expensive for spacers if you need them, or thick-wall fuel hose can be cut to whatever length you need.
Attach the wheel to the generator to find out how true it spins.
You could connect a normal 9-volt battery for example and watch it turn.
This wheel is in pretty bad shape.  
[Caption: Wheel truing]
After working with spoke wrenches, this is a lot better, it's pretty good.
Here's a quick and dirty example of blades 
 just using some tape for now.
[Caption: Blades]
Or you can use vinyl of the stick-on lettering kind, it shrinks a little when heated so they straighten out beautifully.
With the blades in place, the wheel needs 
 to be balanced.  
[Caption: Wheel Balancing]
If only there were low-friction bearings that everyone has easy access to.
Where on earth could something like that be found.
Hmm, think, think, oh right, the other wheel of the bike.
Here the chuck is connected to the axle of the other wheel.
If a dime taped to the wheel at one or two o'clock turns the wheel,
then it is low-friction enough and you're good to go for balancing.
A little glue opposite any side that wants to go to the bottom is one way to balance the wheel.
Find the center of gravity of the entire assembly to be able to
drill the hole for the bearing a bit towards 
 the wheel, 
[Caption: Assembly Balancing (Bearing Position)]
Slightly fin-heavy to prevent rocking since the flange bearings have a bit of play in them.
A hole saw made for wood is surprisingly not bad on aluminum with the use of cutting fluid. It works like magic.
Here's one way to handle a slip ring 
 assembly and another option coming.
[Caption: Slip Ring Bearing Assembly (Option 1)]
The white PVC part is called a bushing and 
 has half-inch threads so an adapter is used.
A piece of brass tubing takes up extra space 
 between the brass 3/8 plumbing fitting and bearing.
This nut is also a standard plumbing part from the hardware store, and most have flange bearings too.
The slip ring allows electricity to flow through the wires while the two ends rotate relative to each other.
PVC coupler for the pole.
Less expensive options for slip rings are audio and power connectors.
[Caption: Audio or Power Connectors as Slip Rings]
Quarter-inch audio jack as a slip ring.
A second option is simpler except you need to make threads.  
[Caption: Slip Ring Bearing Assembly (Option 2)]
Drill and tap an end-cap so it looks like this.
We've all seen these insulators on new batteries.
Trim it down so that the lip just covers 
 the inside ring of the bearing.
Insert the audio jack and glue that in place.
Attach the generator to the strut.
This unit could definitely use some weather-proofing like a PVC housing.
There we go.
Now to keep the battery happy, this is a professional charge controller, it's about $110 though.
[Caption: Charge Controller]
Or this regulator from the local auto parts store is only about $17, as a possibility.
And this is around $10 from eBay.
Search using the words "boost" and "buck".
It can charge a 12-volt battery with as little as 5 volts input.
[child] It's going round and round and round.
[dad] Yes it's going round and round.
[wind in the microphone and people chattering]
So that's how you do that.
Haha, righto, that's one way to build a wind 
 turbine like this using a bicycle wheel.
Check out NRGcycle.com for more detail.
[Caption: More info: http://NRGcycle.com/]
You can take part in discussions
[Caption: Tips, Discuss 
 with others, Post your own pictures, ...etc]
And if you build one of these, even have 
 a link to your own site from there.
[Caption: Have fun reinventing the wheel]
Have fun re-inventing the wheel everybody.
by Gary Hawkins, Inventor
The song Blowing in the Wind, Joan Baez
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VHKU7K/
A&amp;M Records Inc.
Outtakes
Wind changed direction.
Wind for the sailboats at the other end of the lake and none here.
Unusual wheel, bolt stuck.
[pounding]
And back on track.
Only one mounting bolt.
[whoa!]
