What appliances or electronics can I take apart to find a good DC motor to use in wind power experiments?
March 12th, 2009 | by Michael |
Thuja M asked:
I'm wondering if I could take a certain part of the waste or electronic device at a garage sale and pull a good engine CC it to use in experimental projects in wind power. The engine should contain the magnets and generates a current at relatively low RPM. Take VCR 'so mixers or plates or registration or razors or empty? has all the good DC motors in them for this kind of application? Pi? great? better
MARY
I'm wondering if I could take a certain part of the waste or electronic device at a garage sale and pull a good engine CC it to use in experimental projects in wind power. The engine should contain the magnets and generates a current at relatively low RPM. Take VCR 'so mixers or plates or registration or razors or empty? has all the good DC motors in them for this kind of application? Pi? great? better
MARY
5 Responses to “What appliances or electronics can I take apart to find a good DC motor to use in wind power experiments?”
By ancient_nerd on Mar 16, 2009 | Reply
Find something that runs off of a battery. AC motors are cheaper. They do not need brushes. So anything that can plug in is probably not using DC.
By mike on Mar 16, 2009 | Reply
toy cars.
MIKE
By AnswerMan on Mar 17, 2009 | Reply
One good source would be to go to an auto junkyard and get a permanent-magnet motor from a car.
Power window or power seat motors are fairly large, low speed permanent-magnet motors. However, they are not designed for continuous duty and cooling may be a problem if you try to run anything close to their rated current for more than a few minutes.
A blender or vacuum cleaner will not have a permanent-magnet motor; these have so-called “universal” motors which use the current that drives the motor to also create the magnetic field. You could in principle use one, but you would have to re-wire it with a separate field.
Tape decks, VCRs, etc do have DC motors but they are small. You will have a hard time getting more than a couple of watts. If that’s all you want then they will work, but don’t think, you are going to be powering a reading lamp or any significant fraction of household power demand.
You didn’t ask about it, but for what it’s worth, I think your best plan would be to get an alternator from an auto junkyard, preferably from a police car or a luxury car or SUV. (These tend to have heavy-duty alternators that often will put out 100 amps or more.) You will have to supply a field current here as well, but it comes pre-wired for it. It will be easier to have voltage control over your output if you use this rather than a permanent-magnet motor. Also an alternator will come with a built-in cooling fan. To get the maximum output, you will need to drive it at 3000~4000 rpm, but the good news is, if you can get this speed, you can get over a kilowatt of power, and it’s designed to have adequate cooling and a reasonable life at rated output.
By carol on Mar 19, 2009 | Reply
A CORDESS DRILL. This is what I used for some experiments and had a blast. And you’ve already got a battery and a means to connect to a propellor (the drill chuck).
By belladonna deadlynightshade on Mar 21, 2009 | Reply
Have a look at the It’s Not Easy Being Green Forum. They are all playing around with homemade wind turbines,solar panels, geothermal etc on there.
Dick Strawbridge who did the TV programme of the same name. They are very helpful.