Can you guys help me out here?? Self made wind power...

[BirdofPrey]

I'd like to make something like this as a project to run LED and Fluorescent lighting here at the house.

Think it would be easier to make the home made generator they show or use an old car alternator (which I have access to) in place of it?

Also, how do you go about hooking up a series of car batteries (also have access to) to work in this project?

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/251509e7eec93110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

 

[Norm]

There may be some helpful stuff fron this google search.
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=...rnator+to+wind+power&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Norm

 

[Fallingwater]

I wanted to try something similar in the past, but after some consideration I came to the conclusion that the tiny energy gain from a homemade generator wasn't quite enough to compensate for all the work and expense.
It's good as a project done for its own sake, but for any practical purpose it's better to just use mains power.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

Fieldlines.com - These folks are to wind/solar/AE/off grid living what CPF is to flashlights. Nice people, too.

:buddies:

 

[yuandrew]

Well, you probably shouldn't use an automotive alternator as they are not very efficient and have to be spun at very high speeds (over 2000 RPMs) in order to produce enough voltage output to charge a battery; a speed hard to obtain with most homemade wind turbines. A low rpm multi-pole "disc alternator" can be constructed easily using commonly available materials, copper wire, and ceramic or rare-earth magnets. Some designs and instructions are shown here:
http://otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html

The other thing you could use is a surplus Amtek 30 volt DC motor. A friend of mine who's into renewable energy and our Physic's professor at our community college used one in a bicycle generator project to power his remote cabin in conjunction with a solar panel: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=116525
We removed a flywheel from a trainer stand and attached the motor in it's place. The Amtek motor only needs a few hundred rpms before it generates enough output to charge a battery; we could get about 5 amps at 14 volts DC spinning it on a drill press at less than 1000 rpms. In our case, the power from the motor "generator" was fed through a full wave bridge rectifier ( a pair of diodes will also work, you just don't want the charged battery to backfeed power and run the motor :duh2: ) into a 12 volt 55ah deep cycle gel cell.

For your wind turbine, you'll also need some type of charge controller hooked up so you don't overcharge the battery. The charge controller used for wind turbines will divert the power into a load bank (heating elements or incandescent lamps) when the battery is fully charged, the wind turbine is usually not allowed to run open-circuited as it may over-speed in strong winds; hence the need to connect it to a "dump load"

Deep cycle batteries should be used instead of car batteries; normal car batteries are designed to produce large amounts of current to start an engine then be constantly supplied charge by the alternator. They are not made for slow "deep" discharges. I'm using 6 volt flooded "golf cart" batteries for my solar project which I got for free from a neighbor's motorhome (we installed some Lifeline AGM batteries in their place). Two are wired in series to get 12 volts and 220ah capacity. A pair of 6 volt "golf cart" batteries commonly used for house batteries in RVs could be bought for around $250 brand new.

I assume you'll have a 12 volt system voltage. If that is correct, pretty much anything meant for use with automotive or RV electrical systems will work. Professor Wolf's bicycle generator/solar combination used in his cabin along with two 55ah gel cell batteries currently operates two ThinLite 12 volt DC compact fluorescent fixtures and a "cigarette lighter" type power outlet for charging his cell-phone or operating his PowerBook computer via a Kensington Auto/Air DC-DC adaptor.

You can visit Otherpowers's "Fieldlines" forum for more information on homemade renewable energy components www.fieldlines.com