6 kw alternator

[djllum]

     

 I've been thinking of building a wind generator and have aquired a winpower alternator,6 kw cont ,120 volt, 50 amp cont,freq 60,rpm 3600,single phase.I have several questions on this.I'am pretty much mechanically inclined when it comes to welding and metal fabrication,but when it comes to electricity not so knowing.

  Question #1 - Would this be a good power source to use.

           #2 - Wondering about thrust on the bearings, I thought of actually mounting the aternator under the shaft for the blades.This way I could use different sized pully's ,bigger on blade shaft and smaller on alternator to increase rpm's if needed.

          #3 - If this would be a good option ,what size blades should I use.

 I beleive this probably came off of some type of generating system from what info I could find on the company off the internet.It is also fairly heavy probably around 50 to 60 lbs.

 My main purpose for doing this is for posibly lighting my shop and for maybe running a small heater.Maybe more if possible.

   Any input would be greatly appreciated.

     

[Flux]

It's about the most useless thing to use for a wind turbine. You have a very large number of problems to solve before you can hope for any results.

Don't worry about thrust, you will need so much speed increasing gearing that you needn't consider mounting a prop on its shaft.

Wind power is not constant so the speed will be all over the place, depending on the type of alternator it may or may not excite beyond a narrow speed range and it may not hold excitation with drop in speed even if it does excite.

How are you going to load it, the load has to match the power in the wind. You will need some form of electronic load control even for heat or light. Any form of frequency sensitive load is out of the question .

You will need blades about 25ft to drive it to full output.

Regard it as a major project, it can be done but I doubt that you will manage it.

Flux

[djllum]

  Thanks Flux for the reply.

 I just found this sight the night I posted , seems to have a lot of good ideas and helpful information.I'll be doing a lot more reading of the posts.

 As far as the alternator I live in a small town ,kind of an isolated spot, but still in town,so 20 ft blades are a bit out the question.If I lived in the country I would definately be asking some more questions about it.

  I knew there would be more to it ,figured I'd start with the power source and go from there.

  I do a little scraping on the side for a little extra income ,mainly try to stick to electronics,computers and etc.Do come across many different things in the process though.I probably have most of the things I need for this project.I just need to figure out what will and won't work.  

  I also have access to an old windmill and a couple of three legged type towers.The three legged type have from memory probably 1" tube and both are used for high powered radio antenae and are well over 20 ft. in the air.        

   I'll save the alternator for something another project someday.

  Thanks Again

        djllum

[SparWeb]

I hate to see someone show interest in wind power, only to have their hopes dashed.  Yes as Flux pointed out, there are some fundamental mis-matches with your alternator and the wind.  It sounds like you would have more luck mating the alternator to a stationary engine, to make it run at the necessary 3600+ rpm that the dataplate tells you.

If you are still interested in a wind project, please feel welcome to keep reading and ask questions because there are many different "scales" of projects that you can try, to learn the basics.

Good luck!

[jimovonz]

Flux, is it quite that bad? If you are looking to obtain the power output as per the plate then yes it would be quite an endeavor to undertake. 120Vac @ 3600 rpm translates to a 12Vdc cut in at around 210rpm (possably quite a bit lower depending on how the field is produced) and with a reasonable current handling capability might it not possibly be suited to a direct drive application with somewhat smaller blades? To make that call I suppose that we would need to know more info such as the line resistance and how the field is produced (field current required?  possibly pma even??)

[electrondady1]

start stockpiling  hard drive mags.

start collecting magnet wire .

google search the board for every term you don't understand.

once you understand some of the lingo you can ask the questions you need.

[djllum]

 Thanks everybody for all the replies and input.

 Using a motor on the alternator was my back up plan ,I would think it could make a pretty good portable generator.

 No need to worry about me loosing interest in building a wind turbine ,it's one thing my GF said she learned about me is that when I set my mind to doing something I usually get it done. It takes a lot for me to give up.

  I've thought about making my own ac generator ,got the plans off the net so I could go that route if I want to.I just thought if I had a power supply that was already built I'd use it.

  It would be nice to come up with at least a 1 kw set up.

 What would be the ideal power source I should look for?

 I do have alot of magnets,most are pretty thin ,but do have some that are fairly thick 3/8 or a shade more,they are a little rarer to come across.Does the shape matter?, as most are kind of quarter mooned shape.

  Also come across I beleive what is called step motors,anywhere from 2 to 4 inches in diameter,I've tore a few apart and the have nice copper windings in them,could be useful if I decide to go the ac route.

 Some of the things I have from scraping electonics are

  All sizes of DC and VDC motors (mostly pretty small)

  capacitors up to 900 vdc.

  starter motors

  breaker switches

  I'am pretty sure I have a voltage regulator or two .

  alot of different sizes of  heat syncs and some fairly large finned aluminum blocks ( I think these would be good for the making of a retifier) If I got my terminology right there.Also I have plans on making a passive solar heater.I know these would be useful in that.

  Also in the larger copiers and copier drums there are different type of heating elements.My thoughts right or wrong they might be useful toward a dump load,especially for the winter months.  

  This is just a short list of things I've came across or have ,any advice on what else to look for that would or could be useful would again be greatly appreciated.    

  Again Thanks

      djllum

[Flux]

Yes Jim it is pretty bad. The excitation is the real killer, to produce full flux the field will need several hundred watts.

With direct drive you may manage some sort of charging into a low voltage battery but the winding resistance is against you and for the same stator heating your 6kW drops to about 600W at low speed. This is barely enough to supply field excitation even if you go to the trouble of devising a way to excite it. In most cases the field excitation volts will be 50 or over so the existing excitation scheme ( even AVR will not do it).

You could change to permanent magnets but what a waste of time and effort to get a miserable performance from something far too heavy to realistically get in the air for its capabilities.

This is as much work as a motor conversion and the end result will not likely even be as good.

It is always tempting to adapt something but sometimes you have to question the effort involved. To try and adapt it with speed increasing drive for something like its original output would make more sense and could be done but it would be a major project.

Flux