173 Watts from the treadmill!

[taylorp035]

I went out there today at about 4:00 because I saw the pvc tower flexing a good 2 ft, so I ran and grabbed the car battery and my amp meter.  After a good hour of waiting, the wind picked up from the usual 20 mph to 30 mph.  At that point, I decided to get a rope to tie the tower down so she wouldn't blow over.  The rope paid off because 10 min later I got the reading of 13.3 amps in a good 35+ gust ( by this time I had my lawn chair set up and the video rolling ).

Here is the youtube video at the 13.3 amps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEtTlQ8yQWg

Here is a pic of the tower with no support in about 15-20 mph winds (640x480):

http://i42.tinypic.com/10yf38m.jpg

I will get a video of it with no load at 35 mph in a little while ( estimated 2,000 rpm ).

Specs:

Treadmill windmill

360 rpm cut in @ 12v

50" diameter

4" dia. - 1/16" wall pvc pipe, 10 ft tall

Lawnmower bearing for the yaw

[HaroldCR]

 Don't you have it hooked to a battery all the time  You say you go out there with a battery and voltmeter

  I'm debating on building a wooden tower, pouring concrete into a 40' section of PVC, or BUYING angle and rebar  Wood is free.  have you seen the photos in my Diary

[taylorp035]

No, I don't have it hooked up all the time.  The battery I am using is out of my lawnmower, which I take out during the winter.  I used to have a 100ah car battery, but it was awfully heavy to carry.  Today, it was so windy that I decided not to even take out the bride rectifier b/c it was so windy.  So therefore the amps were positive and negative.  Sometimes I take out two meters so I can get both the volts and amps, but that gets messy.

I saw you photos, your blades are nice and very thick.  I hope you have success!

[taylorp035]

One more note:   I don't really have a good use for the power.  I do have a 400W inverter that I could run my laptop with , but that I kinda pointless.

[zvizdic]

Pickup old forklift battery from local scrapyard, charge for some led lights orotund a backyard I do same thing .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbZZ_7voHzY&feature=channel

My windmill in light action!Building a 10' now.  

[taylorp035]

I could.  I think though I would go with something smaller, like a 110ah car battery, which I could use about 20ah from.   What do you think one of those forklift batterys would cost?  Plus, aren't they 36v?  I also have a 15w solar panel, so I could make a mini hybrid system + my inverter.  I was thinking that I could run my dns server, which consumes 10w 24/7.  I question though if I could actually make enough power to do that.  My windmill + solar panel would be lucky to make 3 watts 24/7. Also, my inverter draws some for the internal fan while there is a load attached.

My second option would be just run my laptop, which would only need about 30-50 Wh a day.

Of course, this all depends on if I can get the power to the ground, since  I don't have a slip collar.  Currently, my plug system works ok as long as the wind direction doesn't change.

[coldspot]

"don't really have a good use for the power"

 When I had my Ametek 30 up,

I also didn't have any need or use

 for the power so I hooked up a

few 1156 Tail light bulbs and

when the wind was strong enough it

would lite up the back yard.

 Also adding to global warming a bit.

lol

$0.02

[tecker]

Dc motors are fun I don't see why you can't use them to work a large battery bank going out to the good wind zone and placing a couple of other mills on the line back to the battery bank with series parallel auto switching to make constant use of low winds.

I haven't done this but I,ve  used solar and wind in this way .

[taylorp035]

This would be fun.  I did this with an older windmill and I could sometimes see it at night.  This windmill would require a larger bulb.  Do you think a standard trailer will work?  And would it burn out in high winds?  I think I have one sitting around.

[ghurd]

A used car battery and an hour of 8-10A will be more voltage than most people would expect!

I bet it was over 200W.  

G-

[taylorp035]

Well, you make a good point, I did not know the voltage.  I do know the amperage was between 13 and 14 for sure.  The battery was within 5% of being full, maybe 1/2 amp hour was used earlier at the most.

[taylorp035]

200 Watts or not, I need to use a bigger amp meter.  13 amps through a 10 amps meter is not a good thing, even thought it reads up to 20 amps.  Do you guys think I could run two of the same amp meters in parallel?  My second option is to use a 60A dial one, but it the difference from 10 and 15 amps in hard to tell.  Also, I have found it to be a bit generous, sometimes by as much as 5 amps.

[ghurd]

A typical 10-20A multimeter really should not carry 10A very long.

I have had the insulation melt off the leads.

I don't like the idea of 2 parallel ammeters.  Not sure why, but I don't.

How about a $5 (free shipping) ebay 20A ammeter (like #110510406747),

and make a shunt from some romex wire?

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2010/2/16/12410/2323

G-

[TomW]

G;

Everyone seems to forget you can turn a foot of #10 solid copper into a pretty fair homebrewed current shunt. From memory here. 1 foot of it will drop 1 millivolt [mv] per amp through it. I did a story on it once. Even the cheap meters should do millivolts DC or even AC if you want to look at it.

Certainly good enough for relative readings for the average Joe?

Could calibrate it at a low known current against a cheap ammeter.

Just thought it might be useful.

How bout the Hurd Solar Shunt Kit?

Anyone remember DanB's home built one from a HD mag a chopstick and a hunk of plywood? It was very sensitive as it could track the increased draw from bass notes on his amplifier playing music.

Heck some savy guy needs to score a pallet of external current shunts get them on EbaY cheap. My supplier has random external shunt DC panel meters [with no shunts] in stock but I don't find much incentive to list them individually on my EbaY stuff.

Just ideas I come up with...

Tom

[ghurd]

Considering what shunt sell for on ebay, I suppose a "ghurd shunt" could be profitable.

Half the price of a fancy shunt for 3' 9" of a single strand from #10 romex?  

I considered making a personal ammeter with a $3 HF VOM meter, but the voltage changes a lot with temperature.  Just shading the meter from direct sun changes it pretty drastically.

I'll make a video if I remember when the sun is out.

G-

[tecker]

If you have a 20 amp meter you can design what ever you need . Calibrate your shunt for 10 amps or muti tap the shunt useing #6 bare copper .

[hiker]

home built amp meter.........

  http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments_ammeter.html

[taylorp035]

Thanks for the link, I do have a hd magnet laying around and lots of different wires.  

I will definitely try this.