using gm one wire alternator

[brian102]

how about using a gm one wire alternator for producing power? its self exciting, internally regulated, has pulley on it, so could have it belt drivin, big pulley on the blades hub and small pulley on the alternator sign giving it a faster spin? could it work?

[brian102]

thanks for the welcome ok it wouldnt make up the difference having the alternator spin faster , also it wouldnt be able to turn the alt fast enough to kick it in would it just having the blades right on the alternator or can blades really spin upwords of 500 rpm themselves?

[Windforge]

Brian,
I started with a rewound gm alt. that I got on ebay. It works OK but normal car alternators will not work because the stator is wound to make 12-15 volts at too high of an rpm for a wind generator. I started out by making my own blades out of PVC but 25 mph winds came and snapped them. I bought some hyperspin blades from windynation.com and my performance on my alt. is much better now.

Windy Nation | Store - 28-inch HyperSpin Blades with 17-mm Delco hub (Powered by CubeCart)

[brian102]

yeah thats funny i was thinking of making my blades out of pvc like you said, i could see them breaking easily unless you had some heavy duty pvc, how long were yours and how many did you have just curious, i live in an open field and it seems like there is always a constant wind! the tower is going to be 35 ft tall that its going on, havent figured out the whole wiring of it though, because it has to be able to turn and twist around, wich will be hard to run a wire down the tower and have it spin!

[Windforge]

Don't even waste your time trying to make blades out of PVC unless you NEVER get wind about 20-25 mph. Plus when you add up the cost of the PVC pipe, the blades are expensive for something that will just break.

I would not worry about the wire twisting. Run the wire down the outside of the tower using an extension cord. Every couple of weeks you can unplug the extension cord at the bottom of the tower, untwist, and replug in. Very easy to do.

[brian102]

thats a good idea about the extensions cord, how heavy of wire would i have to run for that kinda distance on twelve volt, like 2 or 0 gauge wiring? im gonna try charging a battery or two at the bottom of the tower i guess and maybe run an out door light to begining with havent really decided about that just focusing on building it now

thanks for the quick replys! im very interested in what people have to say!

[brian102]

ok thanks for the reading looking for any info i can get to read on them! it does make sence, i used an impact wrench on one of our alternators here and it turned easy, but soon as the voltage jumped up to 14v like when the alternator engaged, it was alot harder to turn, could hear it put stress on the impact, was like the alternator wasnt doing anything then alll of the sudden it just kicked in started charging and was harder to turn! where can i get my hands on one of these motors? i dont think wind will be an issues, either how much can i expect out of one of these motors?

[Windforge]

I disagree with myocardia on the fact that you want to use a brushed DC motor. This will work but is not optimal. First, the brushes will wear out and you will have to replace them. Second, they produce Direct Current which travels very poorly through wires so you will have to purchase heavy gauge expensive wire to minimize the line loss. Third, the bearings in ameteks are not designed to handle the extreme torque the blades will create so they will also wear out. Fourth, those DC motors are not designed/rated for outdoor use so once it rains, you got problems unless you build a solid housing.

You need a brushless 3-phase AC generator that has been constructed for wind generators if you want to do it correctly. No line loss, completely sealed, good bearings, no brushes to wear out, etc. An ametek is a good hobby wind generator but nothing more than that.

[brian102]

and where would you go about finding that, and wouldnt i need to convert it back down to be charged into the batteries then adding another step and losing power there??

[brian102]

yeah well the tower is 35 ft idk how long you can run!