Wind Generators

[wtp]

Has anyone built one of them wind generators out of a ametek motor? I'm thinking of building one. Been looking at a site called windblue power dot com. Was thinking if I could get one together that could have enough power to push a heater to off set the cost of natural gas or even a small A/C unit. Just looking for any feedback.

[wtp]

Nobody has looked into this yet?

[Stockwell_Day]

the cost recovery on such an item is pretty much not worth the effort. but if you are doin it for the same reasons u are involved in this hobby, then try it out and let us know

[fierofan8488]

Ive done some pretty in depth research on wind power recently and as stated above, the cost to build such a system is still to high. With the need for the motor and the blades and the tower to mount it and then some kind of storage system to store the power adds up pretty quick. I know if/when I do decide to try to build a home made system im gona go with the "grid-tied" system. The cost of a grid-tie inverter is in the several thousands, which is way overpriced. From what I can tell, all they consist of is a regular power inverter that syncronizes the ac output waveform to the electric companies grid so you can hook up the wind generator straight to your existing electric power source and are able to completely do away with the storage. What I found interesting was when I took apart my regular 750 watt power inverter and looked up the data sheets for the chips inside I found that one has a clock sync pin. Wonder if we would be able to feed the ac waveform from our existing outlet into the clock sync and have a 750 watt "grid-tie" inverter for a fraction of the cost ( i think i paid around $50 for it)

Well sorry for the rambling, sometimes I get carried away.....lol

[khahuna]

Hey wtp, I don't have any real experience with this type of alternative energy source. I did come across this guy's site while looking into it. I thought he put a lot of effort into it with promising results.
hxxp://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/index.html

[Warcraft]

hmm, i am trying to recall from memory the Ametek tape drive generators, i believe you would want the 99 model if i rememebr right, there are smaller ones i think 38? i would try at least a 50 if you cannot find a 99 series, i think there is some lower ones to stay away from,
wind generators would not be hard to build, fun little project, finding any good tape drive generators may be hard, always fleabay,

if you are so lucky to have a electronics type recycle store you can go to you may find some,

you will need a bit of wind to rotate them to, you can check online for your areas wind seasonal charts, that would be first, other than also finding maybe build sites.

[wtp]

Has anyone checked out the site I stated above? I don't want to get into a big costly wind turbine. What to build my own for fun and of course to make it usable. Would like to run a heater or something. Another hobby

[oldlumber]

I checked out the site, it seems pretty reasonable. I was checking out the low wind kit. We do not have steady high speed winds where I live and this might do the trick. My only problem is that it can get expensive to buy all the batteries and such needed to store. Someone earlier hit it on the head when they wanted to just wire it into the main box of the house and let it come and go as needed. This would be more practical. Just my 2 cents.

[Warcraft]

k, not sure if you mean wiring direct into the mains, DO Not Do That, you will turn everything into melted fried chocolate. or a serious fire.

they must"be using some type of Isolator switch box , to sepearate the two, it is prob some type of large amperage capacity diodes, maybe zenor,

just sounds correct along those lines. im sure there is more to it

be carefull

[wtp]

I was thinking maybe a couple marine batteries

[ruciz]

Solar is likely cheaper, provided you have sun and a business thats upgrading them close. If its a good windy area. you only generate in the mA for power from each turbine... your heater will pull a solid 120V @ 7-10A, so you would likely need 2 fully charged cells for every hour you want to run the heater - so 7 hr or so a night, you need approximatly 70Ah of power in your batteries, at 750mA or 0.75A per generator - you would need around 100 generators, and a complex charge/discharger... Mind you there are likley different setups you can get but ballparking here how fesiable it truly is... I have looked into them and you can make small scale ones fairly cheaply that will recoup their costs in a short amount of time.. but you will need a farm of them to generate a 120V signal - nevermind the 240V signal you would neeed to tie into the grid. Marine batteries are a good choice, very cheap but I highly recommend if you are setting this up to use something better than SLA. A123 LiFePO4's can discharge at 70A continuous and also charge at a very high rate in comparison to other batteries - also have a huge cycle life and are very lightweight. Meaning you can have a windmill that can putout 6-7A continuous charging the cells so less generators, less complex setup, more power :)

[Filo]

the chips inside I found that one has a clock sync pin. Wonder if we would be able to feed the ac waveform from our existing outlet into the clock sync and have a 750 watt "grid-tie" inverter for a fraction of the cost ( i think i paid around $50 for it)

Try using ELM440 chip. You can use a small 6V power transformer to sample the 60Hz from the grid to synchronize.....

[wtp]

Here is a youtube of a guy in Wisconsin using a homemade one. He has 3 videos and the generator is running his shop.
XXX.youtube.com/watch?v=aHB4zxWd3Ls&feature=channel_page

[yes]

I plan to start building one of these as soon as it warms up outside. Too cold! I have found a 12 volt to 120 volt DC motor that a friend gave me. He has another that the cable company gave him. It is big in size. Another guy I know has the 6 inch PVC pipe and fittings that he said I could have some of it. I plan to get it from him soon as I can get with him. He is a pack rat.

[wtp]

The one I'm thinking of starts charging at 150rpm's, I'm just wondering what I can run off of it. The way it sounds from ruciz a heater won't work but lights or maybe my computers would work. I'm not real good with electricty so I'm not sure what I can and can't run. I was thinking a couple marine batteries and a 2000w inverter.

[fierofan8488]

Try using ELM440 chip. You can use a small 6V power transformer to sample the 60Hz from the grid to synchronize.....


Very interesting......ill check it out. Thanks for the tip.




The one I'm thinking of starts charging at 150rpm's, I'm just wondering what I can run off of it. The way it sounds from ruciz a heater won't work but lights or maybe my computers would work. I'm not real good with electricty so I'm not sure what I can and can't run. I was thinking a couple marine batteries and a 2000w inverter.

Assuming you are looking at the DC-540 PMA and from the graph shown on the website you can expect approximately 25 watts output at 150 rpm, 150 watts output at 300 rpm, 340 watts at 500 rpm, and 840 watts at 750 rpm. These are very approximate and taken from the graph shown but might give you a better idea of what kind of things you might be able to run with it.

[Edsport]

I purchased a 1000 watt wind generator from ebay. It works but i would not recommend it for any heating. You need lots of power for heat.

With my bank of batteries i have backup power if there is power outage even if no wind. Where there is lots of wind i plug my 300 watt tv and 40 receiver into the inverter but even then the wind has to be gale force winds to keep the bank of batteries from draining. For heating you will be disappointed...

[yes]

I got the three blades made for a wind generator out of PVC pipe.
I am going to make a three blade system.
I mounted it on the hub then the motor from a friend. I took it outside and set it up on saw horses. A little wind turned it. I put the volt gauge on and got 6.8 volt dc.
Just think what it will do if I get it higher up.

[wtp]

I got the three blades made for a wind generator out of PVC pipe.
I am going to make a three blade system.
I mounted it on the hub then the motor from a friend. I took it outside and set it up on saw horses. A little wind turned it. I put the volt gauge on and got 6.8 volt dc.
Just think what it will do if I get it higher up.

Please post back your results.

[Edsport]

You better make sure that the blades are perfectly balanced...

[HuSatellite1]

Do changes need to be made to a standard car alternator to do this?

[wtp]

Do changes need to be made to a standard car alternator to do this?


yes, car alternators need to spin something like 2000rpm's to produce any volts

[YME]

Why not increase the RPMs of the altenator with a larger pulley on the Windmill driving a smaller pulley attached to the altenator?

[ruciz]

voltage is only half the equation. its potential..

Get a 10ohm 5w or 10w resistor and hook them across the terminals, in series with a DMM in current mode (A or mA setting) - then see what you get...

6.8V @ 25W would need: I = p/v, so 25w/6.8V= 3.67A
Your windmill would have to put out a constant 6.8V at 3.7A for 25W of power, which is enough to power one '100W eqivilant' CF bulb...

[ruciz]

Why not increase the RPMs of the altenator with a larger pulley on the Windmill driving a smaller pulley attached to the altenator?

would definatly work, I doubt you'd get more than a 3:1 ratio between them before the windmill wouldn't turn anymore.. or you have some damn strong winds


Has anyone ever looked into a vertical windmill? Just an idea my friend was throwing around - looks like one of those old-fashion lawnmowers on its side so it can catch the wind blowing from any direction... maybe someone could make a mini scale model and do some tests with a few fans to see how it performs compared to the blade models.

[Biggen1]

I'm doing the same thing with Solar Power right now.....
I've been studing for about 3 months now.....
Heres a site with great links.
Read until your eyes bleed.
h**p://www.uwgb.edu/nevermab/solar.htm
.

[wtp]

Why not increase the RPMs of the altenator with a larger pulley on the Windmill driving a smaller pulley attached to the altenator?

That would work but the reading I have did said that there is to much drag with a pulley system. Not my findings, just what I read.

[wtp]

If you watch all three of the guys movies from you tube he is running his whole shop that way. Wonder how much juice he's pulling.

[Edsport]

DO NOT get marine batteries. They are not deep cycle batteries. They are better than car batteries but not recommend for continuos draining and recharging. The batteries you need is true deep cycle. I first tried marine batteries but they would drain very fast and they can't be drained and charged like the deep cycle ones without being damaged. Deep cycly batteries is made especially for this type of use.

My deep cycle batteies was cheaper than the marine batteries. I tested how long i could run my 400 watt tv and a 40 watt receiver with no wind. My inverter shut off after about 20 mins. It will auto shut off when the batteries reach a certain limit. I think it's 10.5 volts. Anyways once i changed to marine batteries i ran the same test. I ran for 12 hours with same tv and receiver. It was still running. I had to go to bed so i turned it all off...

Sport...

[Biggen1]

Deka 8A8D are the cheapest and the best AGM Deep cycle Battery you can buy:::::::
I bought 4.........
$1700.00 @ Napa







.

[kable2]

holy crap guys, i only read a few of the posts but there is a lot of wrong info here.

you can not use a cheap inverter to do a grid interconnect. it will go BOOM. there will be smoke and fire. I will leave it at that.

I actually designed and made a working a grid connected inverter as my final term engineering project. I had it set up to work with a wind or solar power source. It is very complicated syncing with the grid and safely feeding power into the grid. I had it set up for a battery bank to store power until they were full then to feed into the grid any excess. It would switch from the utility supply to a pure sine wave inverter within a couple of cycles if the utility power were to go out so you could have a 30A supply that was basically a huge UPS.

I never did hook it up to the grid tho as even though the tests said it should be ok, i was afraid of it blowing up and failing the course :)

[fierofan8488]

Well I will agree that there is a lot of wrong info here, however, on the topic of the "cheap inverter" did you read my whole post? I was not saying to hook it up "as is", or you will definately go BOOM. What I am referring too and touched on in my original post is contained within my regular inverter and is this chip.

hxxp://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/53198/FAIRCHILD/KA3525A.html

This contains a "clock sync pin" for external clock sync or to syncronize 1 or more inverters together.

Final product would be similiar to this:

hxxp://buyerisland.net/inverters.htm

Of course there is more to it than just syncing, but the potential of it being done is there.

[wildthang]

I have a DC-540 PMA (permanent magnet alternator) from WindBlue with the CY-Clone aluminum blades (2 blades). The 540 is 3 phase AC so as to run long wires from the alternator to the battery bank without losing voltage/power (extention cords work well). I am connected to the AC to DC output connection kit from WindBlue. At 150 rpm's i get over 12V. I have the DC out going into 2 12v AGM 100-AH sealed batteries. I have a 2000 watt inverter to run lights and small items, provided the wind blows lol.

I also have a PMA motor off a tredmill with 3, 2' PVC blades i made from 4" pvc pipe, it will charge a battery with 12-15 mph of wind which i don't normally get in my area.

I have another "windmill" for beautification i made useing a standard 10SI delco remy alternator, a few pieces of 1" square tubing and a piece of sheet metal for the rudder. I have 3 blades 3' each on this one all painted red, white, & blue in my front yard, it puts out no power.

I only do this as a hobby and if you think the hobby on this forum is expencive, stay away from Wind Turbines lol.
DC-540=$239.00
Cy-Clone=$159-00
2 batteries=400.00
Inverter=$250.00
AC-DC Converter=$29.00
I made the rest of my system & saved about $100.00

The Ametek 99 is no longer available but on flebay you can get a permanent magnet motor called "the boss" that claims to be better than the Ametek 99, the boss is very expencive.

[wildthang]

The way i balance my pvc blades is by useing a small digital scale so each blade weighs the same. I use a belt sander to sand a lil off the blades so each one weighs the same.
This may not be the professional way but poor folks have poor ways :D.

You better make sure that the blades are perfectly balanced...

[yes]

SAme as I did.