Car Alternator used to charge batteries

 if you could somehow power a car alternator to run, could you charge a bank
of batteries somehow?  Like using solar power to power an electric motor,
which in turn, turns the alternator which charges up the batteries?

Time to hit the junkyard for a couple of cheap alternators for an
experiment!!

  SteveC wrote:

Eh? Too many steps! Just use your solar power to charge the
batteries.


Have fun!

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto

 Steve,
Car Alternators can be efficient but a major modification is needed first.
The field is about 3 amps. 3 amps times 14 volts is 42 watts. You have 30-42
watts to satisfy before you can push any current into a battery, so replace
the rotating field ( removing the brushes also ) and replacing the field
with a donut magnet. You may not have quite as much current but you start
off with a much more efficient generator.

Ray

 

replace

Do you have any sources for a donut maget that'll fit an alternator?  I've
had no luck while searching for one.


batteries?

 
My mileage differs. For three years I've been charging a bank of 10
car batteries with a standard car alternator driven by a small (4KW)
diesel burning waste vegetable oil. The armature current is .7A at
3.3V or a little over 2 watts.

Rather than use the alternator's charge controller, I use my solar
panel charge controller (both for my PV panel and my alternator ...
against the controller manufacturer's guidance ... thus with a void
warranty).

I've done it for three years now. The batteries have a 6 year warranty
and cost $64 each. The alternator came from a junk yard at $10. The
charge controller cost about $175.

Todd Marshall
Plantersville, TX