Hello!

[CapeBretonBuddy]

Hey everybody, I just wanted to introduce myself and the project I am about to undertake. I now have all the parts I need to build everything in my plans....although i would like to get additional solar panels to charge a larger battery bank.

My plan is to use both solar, and wind powered generators to charge a battery bank. The solar panel I have now was bought at CT... when they go on sale again i will buy another, it's a 30W for $69. I also have about 400 neodymium magnets (3/8 inch by 1/16, 1/2 inch by 1/16 and some 3/8 inches by 1/8) which i will use in building two wind generators. They are N48 grade. I also have some N35 grade as well. They're both different thicknesses...i find it easier to close the gap with smaller magnets than to try and find magnets that fit just right.

The first wind generator i am building gives me about 32V from one set of coils, and about 28 from the other set when i spin it by hand, roughly 120 rpm. I really don't know how to measure the amps coming from it with my mastercraft multimeter...
The other wind generator i build would ideally have thicker gauge wire to produce more current. A question i have about this if anyone can answer....is it even possible to build two wind generators, one high in V, the other high in A, and connect them both to the charge controller? It's an AC generator, and i have quite a few bridge rectifiers to switch to DC for charging the batteries.

The batteries I have are 6 (soon to be 8) 12V AlphaCell deep cycle batteries. They're 120 amp hours each. I would like to connect them so the system stays 12V because i have just purchased an excellent dual (wind and solar) charge controller and it's 12V. I have 30 ft of 4 guage wire for the battery connections, and industrial steel braided cable for the connection from the wind generator down to the charge controller.

I also have a 2000W power inverter, which may not be large enough, but for now it will do to test the system once it gets up and running. I am missing a few pieces of hardware, connectors and whatnot, but for the most part i have everything.

I will post some pictures soon on the progress i have this far, and I would really appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me. This is the first time I built anything like this, and you can safely assume i know nothing except the few things I've read online to educate myself. Cheers folks...look forward to hearing from anyone!!

[techman]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Sorry for the delay, I get tons of spam every single day and need to sort it all out.

Your system sounds like you are off to a very good start. I think the differing voltages on your coils are due to hand spinning them at separate times, so it should not be a problem as long as they were made the same.

Normally, unless you have a very high end solar and wind charge controller, you will need separate solar and wind charge controllers to make this work well. Check the manual or contact the company to see if you can attach multiple wind generators at the same time.

Otherwise, you can possibly rectify the alternator outputs, combine them together with a diode before each one enters the controller and see how well they work together.

The best system would probably be using the same type of wind generators and then combining the outputs, but you seem to have already been working on yours.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Troy

[CapeBretonBuddy]

Thanks alot Troy! I will have to try to rectify and combine them before they connect to the controller...sounds like a much better idea.
I've also been thinking of going with the VAWT rather than the HAWT....I've been reading mixed reviews about the severity of the twisting wire on the horizontal. We'll see how that works out.

Here are some pics of the equipment i have now, nothing special, but this is my first project like this and i'm pretty excited.

Cheers everyone, and thanks for the tips Troy.

[CapeBretonBuddy]

a few more pics

[CapeBretonBuddy]

I got the 4 gauge cable ends for the battery connections today. I have a few inline fuses to get next then I'll be set for the rest. I have to re-plan the wind generator because i've decided to go with a vertical design with 3-5 blades instead. With a vertical design, i can encase the motor a little easier to keep it weatherproof, and i don't have to worry about the direction of the wind...the wind changes direction here all the time, and is consistently strong....almost too strong. I can also mount it to the back of my barn as opposed to on a high pole and don't have to worry about twisting the cable.

Well, once i get the VAWT started, i'll be back...cheers

[CapeBretonBuddy]

I got this motor a while back at a flea market for 15 bucks...does anyone know if it can be used for a VAWT?

[techman]

Wow, amazing work there. This thing looks professional.

Where did you get so many magnets? I cant afford them really.

I also think the vawt is better due to changing wind direstions. I am not sure which way I will go yet. Maybe both versions just to try things out a bit.

Any motor will work if you machine the rotor in the middle and put magnets inside it. You may sometimes have to rewire them depending on how they are hooked up. And remove any starter capacitors.

Troy

[CapeBretonBuddy]

Thanks Techman!

I've been acquiring the parts slowly over the last year or so...whenever i get some extra cash, i pick something up. I got the magnets on ebay. They were fairly cheap...i think i paid 48 bucks for 200 12mmX2mm N48's. They came from China, the worlds leading exporter on rare earth magnets, so they take a while to ship. Have a look on there...there are pages and pages of them, and some of them are overpriced, but if you keep looking, you'll find some good bargains. I got some thicker ones the first time i bought some, but found my ability to close the gap between the magnets and coils was limited to how thin the magnets were....either that or i had to buy a specific width. Stacking the magnets does not impede on their strength, so i figured that was the best way to go.

So I have a question I need answered if anyone can help, i'd really appreciate it.....How do you know which wires on the treadmill motor are the ones producing the electricity? I tried a resistance test with my multimeter, and used the two wires i got a reading from, but it was only registering about .025 volts when i spun it by hand....?? Can that be right? that seems really low. Is there any other way to find this out?

[techman]

Hi,

Sorry I am late. So tied up with deleting spam posts every day.

You have 4 wires on this thing? That is unusual. It is a DC motor, so that is good. Try spinning it - slowly - with a hand drill. Set your meter in its highest DC setting and check for the voltage output. Spinning a motor by hand is never really a good test. Sometimes they need to spin pretty fast to produce any power at all.

Troy