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Forum Index : Electronics : couple of simple questions
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| bloodvette Newbie  Joined: 19/12/2007 Location: Posts: 1 |
hey guys, I'm very new to the hobby of wind mill electric generation. I'm an industrial electrician and have schooling and experience in electronics as well. I'm planning on setting up a windmill generator for my father's farm. Would like to start small, something more of a hobby, and if it works out, make a larger one and to see a decreased power bill. got a few questions, i will start with my objective. the heating system on the farm is an outdoor wood furnace. the fire heats hot water which is pumped to the house and large garage. water temperature is maintained by cycling a fan to the fire to maintain about 140F. I'm planning on assisting this fire with a submersible heating element. I thought this was a super idea, at least as a starting point, because voltage regulation is not an issue. I plan to simply use electric hot water tank heating elements as a load and bank parallels of them on as my anemometer reads higher speeds. where should I start? I have access to many scrap single and 3 phase motors... most under a horsepower. maybe larger... I've been doing a lot of research and I'm still unsure of what to expect. I'll throw a couple questions at you that I've been thinking about... Is it unreasonable to expect 1kW? anyone have any information for a beginner? still trying to clue into stuff like, how much voltage will i get out at a typical RPM, do you normally incorporate a gear box for speed increase? what are the effects of putting your 3 phase motor windings in series as opposed to in parallel? is it efficient to power a motor field with an outside source and utilize the generated armature current? or stick with permanent magnet? anyways thanks for any info! |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5017 |
Wow, lots of questions. Dont really have any hard answers for you. 1kw and more is over the range of most home made hobby sized windmills, but it can be done with a big enough turbine and alternator. You can convert a 3 phase motor into a generator by machining down the armature and glue-ing on magnets, but expect 1/3 the tag power, ie if its a 1000 watt motor then you could expect 330 watts as a windmill generator. Things like voltage per RPM are not easy to answer, its like "how long is a piece of string". If you want to start from scratch, I would first build a F&P or treadmill motor windmill, 100 to 300 watts is a good size. You will learn a lot from this experience. Then look at going over 1kw. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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