vertical axis wind turbine

[klickitat]

windshield wiper motors and alternators are good sources of DC motors. Older Dodges also had generators instead of alternators.

I like your little turbine idea. You might be able to pick up a windshield wiper motor and hook it up directly to the shaft

[Winter]

That's really cool Canid and too smart for me.

back to my cave.

[NCO]

Caves have one advantage. Cavemen used to live in them when there was cavemen. Modern people didn't. Caveman wins...

[Rick]

I don't know why you couldn't use an appliance motor from a clothes washer or dish washer.

You could rig it up to sit on top of your heat pump or external air conditioner and capture the "wind" off of it. Let the fan on the heat pump power the turbine. You should be able to do the same thing with the exhaust off the dryer. Of course the scale would be a bit smaller but a couple of small turbines added together would add up.

[your_comforting_company]

This is a really great idea. I'm following along and have this thread bookmarked. I'm learning a lot from this. Thanks for sharing!

[canid]

ac motor needs a supply current to induce a field in the coils.

as for a couple of small turbines, i basically plan to keep designing/building improvised turbines whenever i can.

my actual needs for them are only to be able to charge some small batteries and power emergency lighting, but if i have the opportunity and extra cash to build a few of the full scale turbines, that would actually cut the power bill back, and easily be worth the while.

thanks for reading everybody, and for the comments.

[canid]

btw: vehicle alternators work, but not terribly well. by and large, they have a relatively massive iron core and stator, and tend to have quite high losses. remember: they are designed to produce just enough current to safely charge an automotive battery at 2-6k RPM. if they where more efficient for low speed applications, they would be a safety risk when run in a car.

[gryffynklm]

Thanks Canid, I didn't realize they were that bad. It still gives me something to work into a charging system. I can build my own alternator later. Besides with all the things on my list of things I want to do, I have no idea when or if I'll even start it. I do find the technology fascinating.

[Justin Case]

My Dad built a wind charger years ago,,,, he used 2 80 amp car alternators to charge a rack of big 1.5 volt batteries,,,

[canid]

if your turbine produced enough torque, i'm sure you could get an auto alternator to perform well enough with a suitable gear ratio. if i had a spare one laying around, and the extra materials to find out what the actual performance was, i wouldn't hesitate to try it.

[Justin Case]

Yes,, It was pretty big,, 5 , 5-6 foot blades,,, looked like an airplane prop. the "prop" was attached to a cut down car rear end , the drive shaft turned a big wheel that turned the alternators,,

[gryffynklm]

Ya thats going to be the problem, Large enough blades to overcome the torque necessary to get the rpm at the alternator.

[2dumb2kwit]

Ya thats going to be the problem, Large enough blades to overcome the torque necessary to get the rpm at the alternator.

I cheated. I used an old lawn mower. (Just replace the blade, with a pulley.)
It's not wind power, but itcan be a back-up for charging batteries.LOL

[Camp10]

Let me think this through a little more and I'll PM you Canid...I'm not sure that your dc/ac conversion is going to be right. I might just be looking at the schematics wrong but your 3Φ open Y source doesnt work (in my mind) for this...I'll get back to you this afternoon.

[rebel]

You might get a bicycle generator to work with that thing.

[canid]

Camp: which circuit?

[canid]

well, i got the drives today. sadly; the head control steppers are even smaller than i imagined, so i doubt they'll produce enough current to charge a single 1.5v battery, but i'm still going to play with them.

i'll be on the look out for some tiny diodes [LED maybe, since i've probably got some of those hanging around]. i think these little things could easily be turned by a pepsi can savonius.

[canid]

Rick: i tried capturing the exhast from my clothes dryer, but i don't think it's working:
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[canid]

ok, so i don't have two of these [yet] so i can test both sets of rotors side by side, but here is one of the alternators i'll be playing with.

it was originally a disk/pancake type motor build into a PCB controller for digital PWM control, but i've trimmed off all the excess PCB and components.

here's the rotor core:
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and to illustrate the core's fields:
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and the stator assembly after trimming and grinding away all the extraneous crap. i don't know why they had the coils on the side of the PCB facing away from the rotor core [and magnets], as it seems this would dramatically reduce the induction in the windings:
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here is the stator with the PCB holding the coils removed:
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i'm going to remove the coil contacts from the PCB and wire them through the stator out the bottom instead, so the remaining PCB disk will just be structural.

the six coils should let me have 3 phases with 2 coils per phase, and that will be run to the bridge circuit.

i'll be putting a couple of these together from the 3 1/2" drives i have laying around as well, but they are much smaller motors. the steppers where all so tiny that i can't think of a remotely practical alternator application for them. i'll still be playing with them anyway though.

[canid]

those 3 screws visible on the stator are going to be a light problem, as they won't allow the coils to sit flush. i'll have to bore a couple small holes in the PCB and probably use countersink screws instead, but we'll see what i come up with.

btw: the two leads coming out of the back of the stator are from an LED that was part of a feedback sensor for clocking the rotation speed. i might have a use for that later