rev.redneck Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 I have a few electric Razor Scooter motors, Some produce 2 - 3 volts dc by hand. I attachted one to a large metal fan blade ontop of a steel pole. This makes 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 volts, I intend to change this to a set of ceiling fan blades. So Does any one Know how to store power from this? If I hook it strait to a Battery it wil charge allittle and try to run the Motor (lol DA! (I tried) lol) I want this run LED Garden lamps. Thanks Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_au Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 You could put a diode in series to prevent your battery from trying to run the motor, you will get some voltage drop which given your relatively low starting voltage won't leave you with much :/ Maybe you could put a gearbox in to increase the voltage being produced. If you want to use a battery then you probably need some sort of buck/boost regulator to give a constant voltage anyway so you could set it up for a slightly higher voltage and put the diode after the reg. Alternatively, supercaps (really big capacitors) are getting bigger and cheaper these days so you might want to have a look at them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tentacles Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 There are some interesting wind/solar power generation websites/forums, I've seen free cutout sheet metal shapes for making effective wind generation blades. You might try looking around a bit. Some guys are using treadmill motors as generators as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonny Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I played around with building a windmill a few years ago but never really put in much effort. As Tentacles said, there are quite a few websites etc... out there. A common set-up is using a car alternator, then converting the power to DC for storage in batteries.I was using a DC motor and industrial ceiling fan hub/blades. I remember needing to shim the blades to increase the pitch or it would need a hurricane to get it to turn the motor. It is definitely an interesting project though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psymon Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 I have made a windmill electric generator to power two LED's. It was only a project to prove to myself that I could make it. Made from an old car engine fan and a casing, bearing, 6 neo magnets and about 50 feet of magnet wire. It produces alternating current so I just wired both LED's together neg and pos to make an alternating flashing LED. You can use any DC PM motor to produce power really. Just need a reverse blocking diode to stop the battery from spinning the motor. A car altenator will not work as most of the power is lost producing the magnetic field. Plus a car spins the altenator at 1000 - 8000 rpm... A bit difficult for the wind to do that really. Speeds of 50 - 200 rpm are more like it. Also I have on my garage roof a 150 Watt BP Monocrystalline 24v solar panel powering 3 car battery through a Steca Solsum 5amp charge controller. I have a 24 - 12v power reducer going through a light sensitive control box then finally through to 100 15,000 Mcd white LED garden lights in 4 posts.I also have a 300w power inverter in the garage - just in case of a power outage. So I can still plug in my 240v tools and use them. I can provide pics if you want. I love the system. Cost me about £200 to make (solar panel was donated). Works perfectly and has been working for 3 years so far without a single problem. Most of the parts I bought from Maplin electronics.The power it saves me isnt much, I would guess the system will take about another 10 years to pay for itself but it was such fun to create. And every night seeing the garden light up on free power really gives me a great feeling... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Most attempts to re-use something hold you back in wind power. Fan blades are the wrong pitch to get power out of windflow. Motors do not generate at the sort of rotorspeed usually achieved in normal wind. Yes I'd love a free power supply for a perc cell and the rest of the house, but some special designs are needed to bring home the power especially as a return on investment. At the last set of figures I saw, a solar cell would produce it's own retail cost worth of electricity in it's predicted lifetime. Wind power is slightly better. The wind may be free, but the maintenance on the machine is not, and the life limited batteries cost big money. However is wind power best discussed on this forum when there are several dedicated forums there already. Mods what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 VAWTs - Vertical axis wind turbines are an option too... I have wanted to make one for a while now, but no motor yet and I lack the confidence to try to make a good generator by hand. I wanted to use an old treadmill motor, but havn't found one yet... too many other projects I jump in and out of... 50gal plastic water buckets cut in half vertically give you useable "sails" if you will. They have the advantage that no matter which direction the wind is blowing... it will spin the same direction and does not require any type of tail to orient itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Yes the VAWT is simple to make and is always pointing into wind but thay are usually close to the ground so make less power. Also the production scale ones have so far proved very demanding on the main bearing and it's often a jib crane job to lift the rotor to put a replacement bearing inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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