Playing with Electricity

Playing with Electricity

Fernie

Oct 2, 2017 - Jul 2, 2018

by: Dave

I started this set of projects by making a simple permanent magnet generator/ motor. then moved on to making a wind turbine. Then a solar charged battery bank and an outlet and lights to use that power.

Basic generator and motor made from wire and a magnet.

Basic generator and motor made from wire and a magnet.

Basic generator and motor made from wire and a magnet.

Wind turbine. The generator was a dc motor i pulled out of an old treadmill. The most difficult part of this project were the blades. I wanted to make them as efficient as possible, just for fun. So I found a design and made them out of foam and fiberglass.

I hooked up a bank of 5 car batteries to a couple of solar panels. Then wired my kitchen and living room to the system. May nights we go solar powered instead of the mains.

This 12 volt DC outlet is connected to the solar system. In the event of a power outage it can be used to charge USB or run any 12 V appliance. like my 110 V inverter

As a challenge, I wanted to make the blades fro the wind turbine as efficient as possible. I used blueprints to know what shape to make them. There is a wing airfoil design with a taper in thickness and width. Also a 15% twist to compensate for the additional rotational velocity at the tip. Then i incorporated the new "Tubercle" knobs on the leading edge. The concept is borrowed from the fin of the humpback whale and increases efficiency and reduces noise.