Howdy folks,
I wonder if this is a practical idea.
When testing my first axial flux generator in the lathe, I accidentally managed to heat a nearby aluminium plate to the point that I received a burn from it.
Well, once the pain subsided, I got to wondering about a good use for the eddy currents that had produced this effect.
Could it be used to heat water, by being driven directly from a wind turbine?
In my test setup, I was running 16 magnets on a 260mm steel disc at 400 RPM. By bringing an aluminium plate near to the spinning mass, I managed to slow the lathe down, and produce great quantities of heat in the plate.
Now, if a water vessel had an aluminium base, or perhaps another suitable metal, and the magnet rotor was spinning under it, the water inside would soon become quite hot.
Perhaps this has already been discussed, but I would love to know if other folks have tried this method.
Thanks kindly,
Steve Mc AmpTramp.