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whyme26
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Joined: 20/01/2010
Location: United States
Posts: 1

Posted: 11:57pm 19 Jan 2010

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Hey all, new to the site and new to actually starting to fabricate a wind turbine, but certainly not new to thinking about it :)

As I don't know a whole lot about electric motors (yet) I'm curious if you all could lend your expertise? I have a p.m. motor that I believe came out of a treadmill.. It says on the tag 115v, 1050rpm.. would this make for a suitable wind generator?

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a good generator lately and was digging through our shed which is filled with stuff from the previous owner of this house and low and behold I find this motor! I can totally handle the construction for this mill (which I'm planning on a vertical axis design, but still not dead set on that), but I'm a bit boggled still by what is good and what is not good as far as motors are concerned. Any help in this area would be much appreciated!

wind-pirate

Senior Member

Joined: 01/02/2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 101

Posted: 01:52am 20 Jan 2010

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whyme

Your p.m. motor

Does it read "Perment magnet" on the Tag?
Does it read A.C. or D.C.?
What h.p. is it? "Horse power"
1050 rpm motor does not sound like a treadmil motor.
This motor has 6 poles/low rpms.

Ron

THE Pirate.
stealing wind & solar energy is fun

Greenbelt

Guru

Joined: 11/01/2009
Location: United States
Posts: 566

Posted: 04:26am 21 Jan 2010

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Whyme26;
Welcome Newbie to the best web site in the world!
The first thing You ask yourself ,How much power do you expect from your creation? The answer to this will tell you what is a good motor. Generally a slow speed motor of the 3phase design in the RPM range 800-1200 can be modified if you are up to it. Most airmen on this site
use the F&P Washing Machine motor as the proven performer with minimum modifications and generally less expense.
Here in the states the newer Sears models and the LG brand have a similar design as the F&P By now there are probably others. Check out the treadmill motor. The Data tag on the motor will give you its rated full load horsepower, Write down the AMPS and VOLTAGE This is important because you cannot get more power from this than it was designed for.
Multiply AMPS X Volts equals WATTS. If this motor is a 1/4 horsepower it will draw 1.2 amps at 115-120 volts, this is an estimate, if this is converted to a generator it would output 140 Watts.
Connecting it to a wind blade in a 25 Mph wind , rotor speed maybe 450 rpm. Less than half design speed,my guess would be 50 watts.
Thumb back through the forum pages, there is an answer to just about any question except how to make the ultimate windmill. we'll be waiting for progress reports. Happy Hunting!

Time has proven that I am blind to the Obvious, some of the above may be True?

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