New idea for treadmill windgenerator

[nb wind]

Well hello again

Still windy as ever here in Northern New Brunswick.

My first windgenerator as you can see on my previous posts was a lazy man's atempt to build a windgenerator but you need to understand that this was my first atempt to build a wind generator I had wind fever and needed to se something spin.

It does work but It needs 30km and up  winds to preform.

I Have another idea for that second treadmill motor that I have,The motor is a 120vdc 21a 7000rpm,now I know that a 7000rpm motor is not verry suitable for a windgenerator but I may have an idea,This one will be more time consuming to build but with a biger reward at the end.

It consists of a treadmill motor that could be geared up to 4 to 1 with a bicicle chain and sprockets propelled with home made wooden blades.

The blades would be tied to a hub and shaft on wich I would tie a large sprocket for instance lets say 40 teeths, The whole assembly would run on bearings of course wich would be linked to a 10 teeth sprocket wich would be fixed to the threadmill motor. Or this may also be possible with pully's and a belt. But I think that there would be less drag with sprockets and chain.

 7000rpm divided by 4 = 1750rpm

 1750rpm divided by 120v = 14.58

 14.58 multiplied by 12v = 174.9rpm

So if it works 12v could be reached at 175rpm wich would be great.

So could it work or do you think that it would need to much torque to get it spinning??

I'm open to all comments good or bad.

Have a nice windy day.

Known scoop bug. Number as 1st character in text line goes screwy; tab or space then number works. DanG

[gotwind2]

Not the best of ideas nb wind, - friction losses, noise e.t.c.

Only the other day someone posted the same question on my forum, It seemed to work for him, for how long I don't know, includes a video (youtube)

http://gotwind.forumco.com/topic~TOPIC_ID~1176.asp

[sk windpirate]

NB air

Chain is "not" good. It is noisy. It will rust and ware. If you oil it, It then attracts dirt, and wares faster. chain is ment to run in a oiled case. At slower speeds. "I tried it and it sucks".

I then switched to a multi grove belt. (like todays auto use). That works quite well but it iced up one day and through the  belt off. So there is no purfect way to drive a wind generator "other than direct".

I found the belt system to be the best of the two.

Also The brushes in a tread mill motor don't last very long out in the weather. They are designed to be used in the house clean, dry and warm.

[nb wind]

Exept the belt gathering ice did the belt system work for you?

On the system I plan to put together the motor and belt will be covered up

what kind of ratio was your mill runing under and what size blades???

[sk windpirate]

The multi grove belt seems to work the best of the belt drives i tryed a v belt, had to be real tight and caused a lot of loss.

I'm using a 4 blade 4'blades. It turns slower, and seems to have more power in lower winds.

It is 3.5 to 1 ratio. It does not start charging till about 10 - 12 mile (18k) winds. I made the blades first, I adjusted them to an Aggressive angle. They seem to only reach about 350 to 400 max. Then I picked my ratio. mine has a mechanical tip up so i can shut is down if i need to. (And i'v had to use it). The brushes don't seem to last long in the outside. I'm on my second set now, 14 months. Mine is rated at 21 amps. I have seen all of them a few times.

One of bad thimgs with a brushed motor is the comutator goes out of round, and that is what causes the brushes to wear quicker.

   Good luck and play safe      

[FishbonzWV]

Hello nb,

Here's a gear up I did a while back.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/4/28/222819/615

The blades needed refined to a better shape, but they worked.

Just another idea.

Bonz