home made windmill?

[jeremy33]

I have a quick question. I plan on running a pick-up with a slip in camper as my full time moble home&nbsp; ( im curently re building the truck now). my question is i want to run a solar set up but i heard the dont produse much in the winter months and should be suplemented with wind power/ now i have no place to put a 20 ft wind turbine. so i was wondering could i rig something out of a high output alrtnator and maybe like a blower fan out of a heater motor on top of my camper so when i drive it will charge my batteries? is there a certain speed a alternator has to spin to start charging or would it spin to fast driving at 80 km?<br>

 

[Les H]

Jeremy, welcome to the forum.
Generally, people will tell you that the drag it crests will cancel out any benefit you might get . There are some portablewind generators that you can use while stationary. Do a little google homework, and search the archives here for some help or ideas. Laurin Cole and Steve Spence are two guys that come to mind. You can look here

 

[Les H]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-12-Volt-17-Watt-Wind-Generator-with-Autom/
For more ideas. Sorry about the split post.
Les

 

[jeremy33]

thanks les for your welcome and reply im really just trying to find a way to produse power in the canadian winters. in the winter ill be parking at my work so there will be no need for driving and having one of those 400 watt wind mills is outa the question and id rather not run a genny all day to charge my batteries. do you think the solar will be enough? I welcome any thoughts or ideas.<br><br>jeremy<br><br>

 

[Les H]

It's hard to say. Here in Alabama, people lose their minds if it gets to 20*f. Where I lived in upstate Ny, it got to -20*f. I had a block heater and trickle charger on my tractor ( a diesel) but both plugged in to household current. With your shorter days, you would need A LOT of solar panels to charge a set of batteries. I am not an expert at all on solar, so hopefully someone else will chime in, but google "handy bob solar blog" . It's a long read and some of it is kinda dry and technical, but well worth it to get a handle on what solar is and is not, what it can and can't do. He claims to have run all the tools to build an off grid cabin with his solar setup.
Les

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome Jeremy - You're right about solar in the winter. It won't be enough to keep your batteries charged. Is there any possibility of plugging in at work? Where are you in Canada? You'll have to provide heat to the water lines and tanks to prevent freezing plus run the furnace inside using a lot of power daily. A generator may be your best option. If you do build a small wind generator lets us know how it works. We thought about doing the same thing and got the same answer as Les - the drag cancels the benefits but it would be an interesting experiment.<br><br>

 

[gadgetMe]

I use both wind power and solar for my outfit.<br><br>Solar in your area is difficult due to the length of the day, and how low the sun is in the southern sky.<br><br>Wind could be possible if you have some consistent winds, and a large enough generator.<br><br>A great place for good information is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.otherpower.com/">Otherpower.com</a><br>&nbsp;These guys are off grid west of Ft.Collins Colorado in the mountains and have gone through all of the trials by fire .. I have spent many hours reading this site...<br><br>Putz<br><br>

 

[akrvbob]

At last years RTR we had a great guy there with a wind gen. He graciously allowed me to write a story about it here:<br><br>http://cheapgreenrvliving.com/Wind_Gererator.html<br><br>The extra drag of trying to use one while driving would negate any advantages. But you could put one up while you were parked. At the end of the article he describes how you could do it in a pickup. Bob<br><br>

 

[Les H]

Bob, glad to see you back posting.
Les

 

[Wild_E]

Hey there = Another Canadian.. Ya..<div><br></div><div>Solar, I am already seeing issues with my solar setup now and it is only November. What took 4-5 days before to charge my battery power pack now takes about 7 days. Granted it is only the 5.5 watt that sits on my dash but you get the picture.</div><div><br></div><div>Room for solar? If you have a lot of room are not stealth then go to Princess Auto they have a sale on a full Solar Package right now. The cost is $499 and buying the individual parts would run about $650+ so &nbsp;a big savings.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I moved my vehicle to a less windy location, I did say Less.. and not no wind, but that reduced the solar gain as well.&nbsp;</div>

 

[gadgetMe]

Welcome back Bob<br><br>Very nice page of the wind charger&nbsp; <br><br>PondPutz<br><br>

 

[jeremy33]

thanks everyone for your links and suggestions. my rig wont be rdy till this summer i have alot of things to work out im just trying to get all my ducks in a row so to speak. im leaning on just running one of those wisper quite generators. for the winter anyone know how much say a 3000 wat genny would have to run to charge say 4 batterie system? im horrible at electrical i could never understand it no matter how mush i tryed oh well guess everyone has something there not good at lol<br>

 

[stude53]

<p style="margin: 0px;">Jeremy,</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">My favorite political commentator/homespun philosopher Will Rogers, Senior (before your time) once said "Everyone in the world is ignorant ... Just about different things!"</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">Like you, I am somewhat clueless <img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/boards/smilies/confused.gif">&nbsp;about electricity, so I haven't completed my rolling house plan yet.</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">I'll probably get some help from somebody on this&nbsp;aspect before I start stringing wire.</p><p style="margin: 0px;">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin: 0px;">Bob</p>

 

[VanTramp]

You know, one of the concepts that might apply well to this situation in winter is a seebec generator. They generate electricity by utilizing a difference in temperature. With an outside temp that is freezing as the lowside, it wouldn't take much heat(candle, PCM maybe, etc) to create a fairly large differential and generate some power. The modules are small, but using multiple units could produce usable power. Worth a little research. I know of folks who use this method in the winter to generate some electric from their wood stoves. &nbsp;I believe Tara has some experience with that too. We talked about her doing that a few years back and I believe she did actually do it . Not sure how well it worked out.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div><br></div>

 

[Wild_E]

Tramp,<div>never heard of this before.</div>

 

[VanTramp]

You can also probably find it by researching Thermoelectric&nbsp;<div>Generation. The Seebec modules are basically the same thing although constructed a little differently as a Peltier module used for cooling or heating. In a peltier type application, you are applying current to cause the temp differential. Seebec is the opposite, create the differential through other sources and it produces the current. Pretty cool (no pun intended) <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></div>

 

[Wild_E]

wow.. have no idea on anything you said, but thanks. Will look it up and puzzle it out some more.<div><br></div><div>Since you seem to know stuff about this stuff';</div><div>what other generators can be hooked up to homemade windmills? So far I have heard,&nbsp;</div><div>Dryer motor</div><div>some part out of a printer</div><div>some other hand wired upgrade to the alternator&nbsp;</div><div>changing to earth magnets,</div><div>Since this will bring us back to the original post about Home Made Windmills.</div><div>I am really not good with electronics or electrical in this regards, so perhaps you could help us out?</div>

 

[gadgetMe]

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.tegpower.com/pro8.htm">This one</a> is a 12 volt charger.<br>10watts of power for a mere $200.00<br><br>Putz<br><br><br><br>

 

[Seraphim]

<P>I have seen designs that use a vertically mounted, cylindrical vane to catch the wind - seems it would be more transportable, possibly even permanently mountable on the back of a van.&nbsp; Have to do some searching and see if I can find them.<BR><BR>The plans for #1 below are online somewhere. I can see this mounted behind a van, telescoping up out of a protective drum (for transport).<BR><BR>Just an undeveloped thought.<BR><BR><A href="http://http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/5-diy-vertical-axis-wind-turbine-designs-generate-clean-energy/" target=_blank target=_blank>http://http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/5-diy-vertical-axis-wind-turbine-designs-generate-clean-energy/</A><BR></P>Have to let those of you with more knowledge crunch the numbers to see f any of these are vialble<br><br>

 

[VanTramp]

Hey Seraphim, I had always had that very same concept in my head until I did enough research to realize the VAWT's are less efficient than a typical HAWT. They do have some cool advantages, like not requiring the wind to come from just one direction at a time and certainly would be an easier thing to store and deploy. I may not give up on that concept just yet either... Depends on how bored I get next summer. I am going to go with a 600 watt Sunforce sometime over the winter here first, but might experiment with doing a DIY VAWT later.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>WildReturn, if I was going to go DIY on a Horizontal style, I would go with a home wound permanent magnet model like the many examples out there. I believe Steve Spence did one a while back on a discovery channel show with a friend if I remember right. The overall design is easy enough and really better suited for a wind generator than the other pre-existing motors that are out there. I know people have used ceiling fan motors, treadmill motors, various drive motors from electronics and copy machines etc. I know they would be easier and probably do fine, but I doubt it is the route I would take.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I did still have a link saved of someone who had a decent writeup on his project here --&gt;&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/" target="_blank">http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/</a></div><div><br></div><div>It has been a while since I was really digging into it so it isn't very fresh in my head at the moment, but I am just now again starting to do some more research and planning since I am near the point of going for it. I will keep ya posted if I see any really good info or come up with any on my own. Feel free to hit me with any questions you want ever, I will always give you any info I have.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I love anything to do with getting free of "services" like power companies. Being completely self sufficient is a big goal, who knows, maybe if we can get to a better system for a van than a gasoline powered engine, we can pull it off <img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">