Posted by Balanced View on August 27, 2007, 8:38 am
The Real Andy wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:56:14 -0700, gaikokujinkyofusho@gmail.com
> wrote:
>
>> I am presently working for an NGO in Afghanistan and some of our feild
>> offices are waaaaaay out in the boonies (no electricity, no running
>> water, nada). At the moment they have a cr*ppy chinese generator and
>> funding is apparently so tight that we can't afford another generator
>> (since the chinese generators have proven to have a life of about a
>> year and the higher ups don't seem to have a concept of spending more
>> money for a better generator [like a Honda generator]).
>>
>> Anyway, the point is that three of our offices are on the sides of
>> mountains or very tall hills where 3/4th of the day it is *really*
>> windy. Since we have very little funding i was trying to think of a
>> cheap means of power and thought about putting together a "cheap" wind/
>> generator from a truck/car alternator and fan and a few car batteries.
>> The problem is, my background is agricultural development so i have
>> little concept of if the afore mentioned setup would even work or how
>> much it would power or how much it would cost. The most power our
>> offices use is to power a TV or Computer plus flourecnet lights and
>> thats it. I have looked around on the internet for plans for cheap
>> solar or wind power setups but haven't found many (I am told they are
>> there, but the ones i have found seem to be insanely complicated or
>> way too expensive).
>>
>> So if anyone out there knows of such plans or NGOs that deal with such
>> things (I tried geek corps but it appears that was a bit low tech for
>> them) please let me know!
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> -Gaiko
>>
> Car alternators are all but useless. You need a permanent magnet
> motor.
>
If you can find an old car generator as opposed to an alternator it
would work, many late 50's to mid 60's cars and
trucks used generators.
Posted by (PeteCresswell) on August 27, 2007, 9:16 am
Per The Real Andy:
>Car alternators are all but useless. You need a permanent magnet
>motor.
Can somebody expand on that in terms that somebody who knows
nothing can understand?
The alternator under the hood of my car charges the car's battery
- and we can get current from the cars battery...
So what diff does it make who spins the alternator (the car's
engine or some sort of windmill...)?
--
PeteCresswell
Posted by BobG on August 27, 2007, 10:08 am
I think an alternator is an excellent choice in an integrated system
with a microcontroller that can control the field windings with pwm,
thus regulating the torque load on the blade so it doesnt stall out in
weak breezes, thus extracting more energy from any available wind.
There are many turn-key windmill kits on the web...Airx is one I can
remember the name of... now the question is... will they ship a
windmill and a bunch of golf cart batteries to a war zone?
Posted by (PeteCresswell) on August 27, 2007, 10:47 am
Per (PeteCresswell):
>So what diff does it make who spins the alternator (the car's
>engine or some sort of windmill...)?
I think MooseFET's post answers that question: speed of rotation
seems tb the issue.
--
PeteCresswell
Posted by Steve Spence on August 27, 2007, 11:05 am
> Per The Real Andy:
>>Car alternators are all but useless. You need a permanent magnet
>>motor.
> Can somebody expand on that in terms that somebody who knows
> nothing can understand?
> The alternator under the hood of my car charges the car's battery
> - and we can get current from the cars battery...
> So what diff does it make who spins the alternator (the car's
> engine or some sort of windmill...)?
> --
> PeteCresswell
car alternators spin at high rpm's, with a parasitic field loss. totally
inappropriate for wind apps.
--
Steve Spence
Director, Green-Trust
http://www.green-trust.org
http://www.green-trust.org/bookshop/
XML site map
> wrote:
>
>> I am presently working for an NGO in Afghanistan and some of our feild
>> offices are waaaaaay out in the boonies (no electricity, no running
>> water, nada). At the moment they have a cr*ppy chinese generator and
>> funding is apparently so tight that we can't afford another generator
>> (since the chinese generators have proven to have a life of about a
>> year and the higher ups don't seem to have a concept of spending more
>> money for a better generator [like a Honda generator]).
>>
>> Anyway, the point is that three of our offices are on the sides of
>> mountains or very tall hills where 3/4th of the day it is *really*
>> windy. Since we have very little funding i was trying to think of a
>> cheap means of power and thought about putting together a "cheap" wind/
>> generator from a truck/car alternator and fan and a few car batteries.
>> The problem is, my background is agricultural development so i have
>> little concept of if the afore mentioned setup would even work or how
>> much it would power or how much it would cost. The most power our
>> offices use is to power a TV or Computer plus flourecnet lights and
>> thats it. I have looked around on the internet for plans for cheap
>> solar or wind power setups but haven't found many (I am told they are
>> there, but the ones i have found seem to be insanely complicated or
>> way too expensive).
>>
>> So if anyone out there knows of such plans or NGOs that deal with such
>> things (I tried geek corps but it appears that was a bit low tech for
>> them) please let me know!
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> -Gaiko
>>
> Car alternators are all but useless. You need a permanent magnet
> motor.
>