Starting an Energy supply project?

Question

The goal of the project is to construct a small , model based metropolitan city, with houses, street lights, roads industries and home etc like a real city, only scaled down., maybe 3ft x 4ft.

Now the task is to supply power to this city(model in this case) using only modernized wind turbines.

Should be as economically feasible as possible and sustainable.

The question is how do i begin, where do i start? where do i get the tools to construct this city myself? which websites online can help me? how can i make this city look and behave as real as possible, consuming energy like real humans or come close?....Please help me

Answer 1

I'd start at a hobby train store, street lights, etc available. As far as small generators, I's go to Radio Shack. Solar powered panels in a solar farm might be an interesting twist.

Answer 2

That sounds like a really cool project!

To be sustainable you need a power source which in your case is wind. that means you need this city to be in the outdoors where wind is available (or a fan acting as natural wind) and you may also need a backup power source which can be renewed by the wind generator. Have you thought of solar as well? maybe run off of wind and solar (not sure if solar is completely out of the question).

Once you have your power worked out, find out how much you are outputting and how much you need. Your city will be fairly small so you may have to keep it simple, which will also keep it economically feasible.

Buy a motor for your wind turbines (copper coil / inductor, rotating magnets to induce current flow). The motors should be fairly cheap (0.20 to 1.20 depending on size and where you buy them from), you may even get these second hand from people who have handheld fans.

You can buy a package of LEDS, cheap dyes can go around 0.01 to 0.05 per LED so a packet of 100 can be as little as a dollar.

You need copper wire, maybe 24 guage to wire everything, maybe a 100' spool ($5). Soldering iron and solder ($20).

I think this sounds like a cool project but it may take a lot of time to construct the houses and buildings. Look for dioramas you can alter to fit your needs to cut time.

Good luck and let me know if you want any other advice.