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paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 11:03am 17 May 2010

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Hi Guys and Gals,

Im new to the whole wind-gen scene, so please bear with me

I am looking at building my own generator, I have pulled everything apart I own that has a motor in, but most things have to run at 10billion rpm to get anything near 2 volts

Can someone please point me in the right direction of what motors are good (something that will produce 200-600 watts).

I have seen a F+P motor on ebay here but have heard these cause quite alot of vibration, as I want to mount it on our house, here in Adelaide, South Australia.

Thanks for being pacient with me.

Regards,
Paul

VK4AYQ
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Joined: 02/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2539

Posted: 11:31am 17 May 2010

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Hi Paul

most small motors will generate but need a lot of revs to get much power out, if you use one get are permag field one, and to charge 12 volts you will need one rated at 24 volts to be useful.

The F&P is a good workhorse but can vibrate a bit but most of the vibration comes from the blades, balance and blade pitch is important, 300 watts is achievable using the reconfiguration of the stator as mentioned in this forum, do a search on it and there's lots of info to get your head spinning faster than the alternator. You can fit it with neo magnets and get nearly double the output down the track just for fun.

I have used old type generators both 12 and 24 volt with success but you will need high speed blades as they need to run at 1500 rpm for reasonable amps out, all you do is a rebuild on them brushes and bearings comm polish and they will last for years. You can get of old cars for scrap prices. they will do 15 / 20 amps when wound up by fast blades.

Put a piece of nichrome wire between the positive output and the field terminal about 3 inches long works about right if you have an amp meter to put in circuit make the wire long enough to reduce the field current to half the current of a direct connection.

There are quite a lot of other units around but each one is an experiment, and they do suffer from magnetic field cogging which makes the start up speed a lot higher.

All the best

Bob

Foolin Around

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 12:10pm 17 May 2010

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Problem #1. I dont think it will matter what motor you use, to house mount it is the worst idea you can have.

If you dont mind sleeping with earplugs you might make it through the first month.

The noise will travel through the solid structure no matter what you do and in the still of the night will sound 10 times louder.

I would say rethink and form plan B.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 12:17pm 17 May 2010

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Downwind said Problem #1. I dont think it will matter what motor you use, to house mount it is the worst idea you can have.

If you dont mind sleeping with earplugs you might make it through the first month.

The noise will travel through the solid structure no matter what you do and in the still of the night will sound 10 times louder.

I would say rethink and form plan B.

Pete.

Thanks Pete.

OK, I do have a spot in the back yard, but its quite far from the electric meter......time to rethink

Thanks again.
Paul

Tinker

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Joined: 07/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 1904

Posted: 02:59pm 17 May 2010

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Paul, you wrote "but its quite far from the electric meter". Would you mind to enlighten us what an "electric meter" has to do with a wind generator?

Klaus

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 11:57pm 17 May 2010

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Tinker said Paul, you wrote "but its quite far from the electric meter". Would you mind to enlighten us what an "electric meter" has to do with a wind generator?

Hi Tinker,

I was planning on doing a grid connect system.

Regards,
Paul

Tinker

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Joined: 07/11/2007
Location: Australia
Posts: 1904

Posted: 03:29pm 18 May 2010

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I suspected you meant that but my advise would be to get the walking part sorted before you enter the run for the money

.

Build a working windmill charging a battery first, You'll have plenty of challenges with that for a while.

Windmill grid connect is a whole different story, as you can read right here at many topics on that subject.

Klaus

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 01:01am 20 May 2010

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Tinker said I suspected you meant that but my advise would be to get the walking part sorted before you enter the run for the money

Good Idea.

My head is spinning with all the information available

maybe I could charge a battery by connecting it to my ears, my head is spinning that fast

Thanks for the advice.
Regards,
Paul

paul_mac1

Regular Member

Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 02:21am 21 May 2010

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Can someone please point me in the right direction of what motors are good for charging 12 volt batteries? What rpm, amps, torque etc, and where to get one in Australia.

Any info from passed experiences would be great.

Thanks.Edited by paul_mac1 2010-05-22

Gizmo

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Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5124

Posted: 02:32am 21 May 2010

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Hi Paul

Here in Australia you cant go past a single F&P based wind turbine, the F&P Smartdrive motors are cheap and a good starting point. Then later you can look at going bigger with a dual stator or axial flux design.

Have a look at the contents page for F&P information.

http://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/Contents.asp

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

paul_mac1

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Joined: 17/05/2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 74

Posted: 03:02am 21 May 2010

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Thanks Glenn,

Ive spent ages trawling through ebay, and alibaba for brushed dc motors, but there's hundreds of them all with different rpm's and amps and volts.

Ive seen a few F+P motors on ebay, I'll give that a go.

Thanks again,
Paul

Downwind

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Joined: 09/09/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 2333

Posted: 03:29am 21 May 2010

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Try your local washing machine repair place as well.

Do a little research here as to what bits you need as it will work out cheaper to purchase all the bits together.

Like, stator, rotor (magnet hub), shaft and nut, bearing block with bearings or the complete drum. etc.

Have a look in the For Sale section here as i think someone advertised recently some motors for sale "cheap"

Check out Phills products for sale as it might be worth you buying a kit.

just a few ideas.

Pete.

Sometimes it just works

KarlJ

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Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178

Posted: 03:53am 21 May 2010

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Paul
have a troll through my progress with the Grid Tied wind using Phills dual stator as the generator.

Its tough as nails and adjustable in any and every way imaginable -both handy things to have.

Another major plus is its upgradeability to an AXFX generator at a later date.

Funding - budget on around $6K for a F&P dual on a pole grid tied if you do plenty of work yourself.

I believe Phill is working on some other options right now that may beat the F&P idea on price and performance and I cant recommend him enough.

Most importantly of all you MUST have wind!
I considered it carefully with my move to Perth and gave it the thumbs up based on the high average windspeed for the airport making it one of the windiest cities in the world.

Needless to say, the reality of residential wind is that there is really stuff all real wind in the suburbs and in the 3 months we've been here i have yet to see what I would call a windy day (6m/s+ for more than 5 hours).

I love windpower its awesome to watch and a great talking point with the neighbors
(the blades available on this site are near silent, so no complaints there.

I have a single stator "kit" with 2.5m bladeset that you could have for less than it owes me, but for GTI, single stator just isn't viable, hobby and a bit of fun, AOK.

Karl

Luck favours the well prepared

isaiah

Guru

Joined: 25/12/2009
Location: United States
Posts: 303

Posted: 02:03pm 26 May 2010

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' First find your annual average wind speed. Then find a motor that will give you 15 volts in that speed range.the higher the amp output the better.
divide the motor rpm by the volts then multiply that by 15 if this answer is in your wind speed it will work for you.
example 1750 divided by 90 volts = 19.44 x 15 = 291.66
Which would mean this motor would put out useful voltage at 292 rpm.
Dont be misled by those guys selling Amtec tread motors on ebay most are very hi rpm.
and would need 750 - 1000 rpm to put out useful voltage.
Hope this helps. This will let you get a motor up without a lot of rewiring and machine shop work'

URL=http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/1973-11- 01/The-Plowboy-Interview.aspx>The Plowboy Interview[/URL>

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