NEWBIE Needs direction and assistance building a wind generator!

[neptune]

Good to see knowledgeable kind people offering you advice . Brian334 probably has a point that grid electricity costs less than home brew . However ,the experience you gain outweighs the monetary cost , but you already have the batteries , and how do you put a price on fun? You already have 30 watts of solar panels . In a high wind area you should easily be able to build a 50 to `100 watt generator from junk , or what you own . I know nothing about grades of magnets , seek advice elsewhere . How many turns of what gauge of wire? First decide what output voltage . Depends on your batteries . Build your generator , and wind and fit one coil , using what wire you have .Measure output volts . Thus work out volts per turn , and this will tell you how many turns you need . I f you have a twelve volt system , with say 6 coils in single phase , you will need about 2 volts per coil with the generator turning at the rpm expected in a 8 to 10 mph wind . What rpm is that> depends on the rotor .
      Remember that the energy in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed . What that means is that every time the windspeed doubles ,the power available increases by a factor of 8 .You are going to need a governor

[Paul-R]

If the legendary Patrick K has written on a subject, it is usually
worth a good read first:
http://www.free-energy-info.com/Chapter14.pdf
page 14 onwards.

[Northern-Lights]

Good to see knowledgeable kind people offering you advice . Brian334 probably has a point that grid electricity costs less than home brew . However ,the experience you gain outweighs the monetary cost , but you already have the batteries , and how do you put a price on fun? You already have 30 watts of solar panels . In a high wind area you should easily be able to build a 50 to `100 watt generator from junk , or what you own . I know nothing about grades of magnets , seek advice elsewhere . How many turns of what gauge of wire? First decide what output voltage . Depends on your batteries . Build your generator , and wind and fit one coil , using what wire you have .Measure output volts . Thus work out volts per turn , and this will tell you how many turns you need . I f you have a twelve volt system , with say 6 coils in single phase , you will need about 2 volts per coil with the generator turning at the rpm expected in a 8 to 10 mph wind . What rpm is that> depends on the rotor .
      Remember that the energy in the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed . What that means is that every time the windspeed doubles ,the power available increases by a factor of 8 .You are going to need a governor

Thanks again Neptune for your info, I REALLY appreciate it. i know your doing your best to advise me, I am actually actually just VERY disappointed and frustrated with myself, as years ago, it was ME who people came to for this kind of advice, but since my brain injury, and memory loss issues, i cannot remember most things, and on top of that, I have issues actually "reading" things, and getting them to "stick" upstairs, it's embarrassing, but I have to be truthful about my situation, otherwise, you'll think I'm just being a jerk or something asking the same repetitive questions, and trying to get YOU do do all the work for me, as it will look like I'm just being LAZY when you give me the tools I need to figure something out, and then i turn around and ask YOU to do that for me! LOL
Sorry about that, it's a struggle, but I try not to let it get to me, or give up, and i have a wife and child to look after, and part of being a good provider in my opinion, is having a backup plan in case the lights go out, and who knows, the lights "may" go out permanently in the VERY near future, if all that 2012 stuff they are saying has anything to it.

Scientifically, (none of that new age crap) we are heading towards a direct path towards the gigantic black hole in the center of our galaxy, and when that happens, the scientists "think" it may cause a tremendously large electromagnetic pulse, MANY THOUSANDS OF TIMES that of what our sun is capable of, which in itself, is powerful enough to FRY all electronics on the planet.

So it may be that the ONLY people who have ANY electricity at all anymore after an event like that are the people who "know" how to make their own, and that is just "one" of many many different scenarios that may lead to the lights permanently going out. Another is a VERY REAL possibility, which is the use of EM weapons against our cities. It's real folks, I've worked on the systems MYSELF,  back when I "could" effectively do my job, and design antennas and calculate their radiation patterns. One EM pulse blast from an E-Bomb would totally take out ALL electronics for good within a 150 mile range. That is why I have a Geiger counter, a ham radio, CB radio, and other useful electronics devices in a box lined with 3 inches of lead. I also have my solar batteries in lead lined boxes. You can get the lead sheets for flashing around chimneys from back in the old days, or at scrap metal yards, trust me, you might not regret shielding your electronics that you value!

Anyhow, back to the wind power thing.

I can salvage the wire needed from an old washing machine motor, and maybe even convert it to a generator by attaching magnets to its stator, or internal rotor, whatever it's called, and then inserting new windings of wire around that mounted permanently inside that don't spin, who knows, but I can at least get the wire there.

The magnets are another story, I've been looking, and they are EXPENSIVE!!

So, IF I could find the magnets CHEAPLY, and IF I could figure out how this all works in one easy plan, THEN I might be able to build something, but there are SO many plans that call for "specific" items that they built it with that I could never get, I would have to understand the concepts myself, in order to make my own design fro what I "do" have laying around.

for example,I noticed that in one design, the guy mounted the coils of wire to a piece of circular plywood, but under the could, he cut a large groove in the plywood, and inserted long thin pieces of metal, that were coated on one side, and mentioned something about "eddy currents". Am I to understand that in addition to just the coils, you need to have some kind of metal under it, around it, or have the coils wrapped around a ferrous material in order to help store the induced electricity?

I understand transformer action, but am still trying to understand the concept of what we are trying to do.

It's obvious that when a conductor like a wire coil cut the flux field of a magnet at a certain angle, it induces an electrical current flow in that conductor, but is more than just the couls of wire needed?

also, i'm confused about the "phases", and how they are connected, and WHY they are needed, and in addition to that, I've read in some designs that one magnet is mounted south down, then the next with north down, then south, then north, ect, alternating them, why?

I've noticed the same thing with the coils, some are mounting them all in one direction, while others are going clockwise, then counter-clockwise and alternating them all.

So what are we trying to accomplish here and why? It's obvious that alternating the directions result in a negative swing, then positive swing voltage, but WHY are they doing that?

What is the RIGHT way to orient the magnets and coils to one another, and what about the metal behind the coils?

After reading all of that, i became MORE confused than when i "thought" I understood it all!

I "thought" the coils all went in one direction, all equal to one another, and the magnets all were mounted with the same pole facing towards the coils, is that not correct?

A little direction here would be GREAT at this point...LOL

thanks!
Chris

[tbird]

Chris,

you must have missed this from the other link i sent...

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/3_phase_basics.htm

have a read through it (short).  it will answer a lot of your earlier questions.

i realize we are just scraping the top of the subject, but you need to get a few things understood before going futher.  this will help.

tom

[Northern-Lights]

Chris,

you must have missed this from the other link i sent...

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/3_phase_basics.htm

have a read through it (short).  it will answer a lot of your earlier questions.

i realize we are just scraping the top of the subject, but you need to get a few things understood before going futher.  this will help.

tom

Ooopps, I DID miss that, sorry, i don't think it refreshed properly in my browser, it seems to keep doing that on this forum I've noticed for some reason!
Thanks, I'll read it!
Chris