Mini ECM Windmill

[ghurd]

I have been tinkering with this for a while, time permitting.

A GE ECM.  "Arktic 59".  3.3" diameter.

Rated 45.81W input.  6 coil 3 phase.

Sticker says 1-ph, 50/60HZ, 208-230V, 0.8A, 1550RPM.

Changed to Jerry Rigged (individually rectified phases), 2 series coils per phase, 14 ohms per phase.

The blades shown on it are 25.5" diameter.

Managed over 1.7A at about 13.7V in somewhat turbulent, questionable, 24MPH wind.

Most turbulent must have been about 15MPH, with readings swinging from 0.3 to 0.75, mostlt centered around 0.5 to 1.1A.

Fairly stable at 10MPH, 0.45 to 0.5A.

With 9MPH at 0.2 to 0.25A, 8MPH being 0.1A.

Battery tended to be about 13.5V.

Managed 540ma in the yard.  Darn trees budded out 2 days too soon or it would have been better.

Wind speed taken with the Radio Shack hand held digital wind gauge. No decimal, just whole numbers.

Managed to misplace the organized bench test data.

Looks like the motor makes 0.3A at 760RPM and 1.23A at 1630RPM, with SLA at 13.8V.

With the battery at 14.9V, 1630RPM made 1.12A.

Factory wired star only made 1.13A at 13.6V at 2180RPM!

At home,

At the causeway of a small local lake. The pavement is about 10 or 12 feet above the water.  The drop off is steep, which I believe caused the turbulence in higher winds. The car so close can not help the situation.

The top blades are on it, the other blades will be for the next test,

(No, I did not make any of those blades)

An identical set of 4 blades from another project, but the scale is shown,

A couple more photos and 2 videos are here,

http://s701.photobucket.com/albums/ww20/ghurd1/

The blades are not loud, even at those speeds.  At 1.5A (1800RPM?)they can not be heard over the wind from about 15' away.

The noise in the videos (taken with a tiny regular digital camera) is just the wind.

I was in the car with the door open looking for AAA batteries and suddenly I could hear the wind pick up and vibration.  About then my wife said "It is up to 1.7 again!"

The plan is to fly one on a HF garden windmill tower at my home, and another on a pipe at the shop.

Naturally the wood will be replaced with steel, and the HF tower will require some serious 'tweaking' in the yaw / wire drop area.

Big Fun!

G-

[richhagen]

That looks like a fun little project.  I haven't crunched the numbers, but the output seems pretty good for that small amount of swept area, it sounds like more than I have ever managed, I wonder if the turbulance kicked up the readings a bit.  That ECM mill looks like a convenient basis for a tiny conversion.  Us urban dwellers can't put up anything much bigger anyway.  Rich

[ghurd]

I tried to take wind readings a foot over on both sides.

The turbulence seemed like it was caused by the wind to coming up at an angle from the water.

It was not so much a horizontal thing as a vertical thing.

There is some twisted up black tape on the tail. Something may show in the video?

Too bad those little motors cost $170.  

G-

[TomW]

G;

Too bad those little motors cost $170.  



Being a well established dozenaire, that piddling bit of cash ought to be of no consequence in the big picture.

Did you get the blades from Rich?

Tom

[ghurd]

The wife has different ideas about where my dozen dollars should be spent.

She always talks about things like food and housing.  Honestly she is great, and she made the videos (because she was bored watching the meter?).

Yes, they are Rich's blades.  Not sure if he is still selling the original version, and all I know about the fancy set it they were prototypes when I got them.

Rich may want to comment on current availability and pricing, but they are great little blades.

G-

[zap]

Nice G-!

Was the motor a find or bought?

I see it described as a walk-in cooler motor.  Any other applications you might find it being used in?

[ghurd]

Thanks Zap!  I was tickled pink.

Motor was both.  Found and bought on ebay.

Funny, but he tried 3(?) times to sell one.

I talked myself into one and did a quick test, then got the other 2.

I do not expect there will be many available for scrounging.

"theDealerToolbox" may be the only place that has them, they only do wholesale, and they do not return phone calls.

These have "theDealerToolbox" stamped into the back of the brain cap. (black end)

A friendly HVAC person may be able to order one.

The "Arktic 58" is a completely different animal.  Avoid it for a PMA (unless it is free).

G-

[richhagen]

I still have a few of the little blades, and I have about a hundred half carved.  I will have to fire up the mill and finish them off.  I have a few of the new blades.  The ones of those that I have I had earmarked for Angus in Scottland but have never gotten them sent off to him.  I had sold the the original ones for $7.50 a set, but even though they sold at that price, it wasn't really worth the time and aggravation since I had to hand sand them all and dip them in linseed oil.  I had been going to send a big box of them to Wonder Magnet a year or two back, but again, life got in the way and I haven't gotten that done either.  If someone from here wants some, I will endeavor to send them off, figure 7.50 plus shipping, as I am still working upon becoming a dozenaire, but it will require a bit of lead time to crank out the batch of half finished blades.  Rich

[behoof]

G.

Awsome!

Looks like you had a ton o' fun building and testing that one? Amazing how much power you can get from the mini-mills.

Would be great for setting up a phone, PDA etc charging station or something like that, now there's something for me to think about.

Enjoyed watching the video too.

Thanks for sharing,

behoof

[adaml]

Nice stuff G-

Good to see it all together and working.

[fungus]

"The ones of those that I have I had earmarked for Angus in Scottland but have never gotten them sent off to him."

Would still like them if possible .. not really got much money at the moment but should do some time soon ..

[Bruce S]

G-

That's pretty awesome!! How did you get past the Murphy's wind law? and why aren't you out in a boat on that lake? Crappy not in season?

13.5V with 1/2 Amp in a 10mph is good steady numbers to me. I also like to idea of re-purposing a HF lawn mill tower.

Between your finds and builds like this one, and Rich's blades, you two could become double dozenaire's :-))Those are very nice looking blades!! Not too surprised at how quiet you say they are with the profile on them.

Knowing that the motor is used for walk-ins fridges gives me an idea of heading over to the local pub and see if they have any broken units laying around waiting to be trashed.

I've helped a time or two with putting up the walls and watch with awe how the HVAC guy plumbed everything in, the build is too rich for my blood, but the beers in there sure stay yummy cold!!

You are having why too much fun!!

Keep it up!!

Bruce S

 

[windjunkie]

Holy Smokes, that's the same or better than my Air-X!

[zap]

Someone out there is endeavoring to keep you from your dozenaire status Rich.

Seen rolling through Denver a few days ago.

There was more than just a few...

They may have been headed to Scotland but I doubt it... these were headed west... maybe the train was lost???

I thought about "borrowing" 3 of them but gave up on that idea.  I'd have to rethink the hub on the ceiling fan conversion... and honestly, who wants a downwind setup???

[CmeBREW]

Nice work Ghurd!

Thats amazing power from a tiny 25" diam.

Now that would truely look like a yard/garden decoration being that small.

If you ever get the time and extra blades, I wonder if 6 of those blades would do better in a very turbulent location like your place??  It was for my location.

Then if you could find some kind of round "hula-hoop" ring, you could screw it to the blades and make it look more like a small "wind-pumper" decoration on that HF tower.

You got me thinking!  -Good videos- thannks for sharing.

[ghurd]

Thanks guys.

Crappy should be now, lilacs just bloomed in the last 2 days.  Saw a shore-bound guy with half a basket of bluegill, dinky even for bluegill.

No fun for me fishing in 24MPH winds.

Two hours earlier it was near 30MPH at the airport, but my "test tower" was not home from work.

Went to the DQ after the test.  Came out 30 minutes later and the wind was dead calm.

I beat Murphy's wind law by about an hour that day.

The thing has been ready and waiting for a while.  Definitely had more than my 3 days.

And it is quieter than an Air-X too!

The blades were designed to use 3.  4 "seemed" just as good.  Pretty sure 6 would screw up the works on something this fast.  I don't know.

Maybe a 2 blader with Zap's blades?  The 5/16" shaft may need beefed up. LOL

Any of you Blade-Smart guys on IRC care to plug the numbers into that handy calculator I hear about, and let me know if I beat Betz or anything else interesting that shows?

If something is too far out of whack, it is probably due to the $10 wind gauge.

The numbers came in pretty close to what I expected, but I never expect to actually get what I expected...?

G-

[Bruce S]

G-

Sorry for the diversion, but pan fried blue gill and crappy in butter anytime is good. No limit here for crappy.

Talked with the beer heaven walk-in owner, he saying that those ECM for the fridges are gold and they have a huge "core" charge around here. Seems the precision wound AC units come pricey and are kept closely guarded. He's not sure why, but about only thing that gets past is one that has melted varnish drippings.

Even then they must be returned to manufacturer.

Keep Smiling;

Bruce S

[Airstream]

243. 4 watts possible from 2.1 ft dia prop in 24 mph wind
     
38. 9 watts output assuming generator is 80% efficient and Cp of 0.20
    
17. 6 watts possible from 2.1 ft dia prop in 10 mph wind
    
2. 8 watts output assuming generator is 80% efficient and Cp of 0.20
   

[ghurd]

Thanks!

Hate it when the numbers get 'scooped'.

Looks like 2.8W possible, So I can't get 7W at 10MPH?

I hope that was intended as 12.8W!  Maybe I don't, because that would mean it's not as good as I figured?

Coil loss 1.16W, Output 6.75W, Total 7.92W, 85%.

The meter is whole numbers. If "10" means between 10.00 and 10.99 MPH, then the average is 10.5MPH. Makes sense to me.

Using the math on windstuffnow Ed's site, adjusted to 85% efficient PMA, his 40% blade number,

I get the expected output as 7.06W at 10.5 MPH.

Average amps 0.475A at 13.5V is 6.4W output.

Only off 0.66W.

Seems darn close, as long as no one mentions iron losses.

G-

[Tritium]

Rich,

I could use 5 sets of those little blades if they will be available.

Thurmond

redmud at caprock dash spur dot com

[richhagen]

I doubt that adding three blades would help it more than to start it spinning sooner.  It would be slower otherwise.  Those were originally designed from a few points on the profile of a 4412 airfoil set up for a three blade turbine, I fattened it up a bit because it was so thin at the end, and made the front side more or less flat.  The pitch was only adjusted linearly out from the root, as is the cord more or less.  It works out to be somewhat similar to what one of DANB's old ten foot blades would have been if it were scaled down to that size.  Rich

[richhagen]

Thus far there is only one true dozenaire that I know of, but still I keep trying.  It looks like I will have to scale things up a bit to keep up with the competition.  Rich

[richhagen]

Send my your e-mail and snail mail and I will let you know when they are ready.  Thanks, Rich

[valterra]

From one small Genny guy to another - over 1 amp is great!  I was always happy to see mine get over an amp.

Hey - can you explain the pivot mechanism you made?

[ghurd]

I was happy!

Pivot?  LOL  A 4.5" galvanized deck screw at an angle for some tilt back blade clearance.

It needed to be a portable, one size fits all, kind of thing.

The large pipe allowed too much slop, so 1/2" copper was electrical taped to fit the large pipe, which is that visible black ball.  The 2x2 sits directly against the stationary copper, so it is not good for more than testing.

Permanent will(?) be pipe over pipe, a few greased brass fender washers for bearings, with a water tight strain relief (in the conduit section) for the wire drop.

G-

[ghurd]

He must be thinking of this one's big brother, the Arktic 142. From 1/5 to 3/4 HP.

This Arktic 59 is basic.  6 coils in a sloppy stamped can.  I was a bit afraid to remove the pot-metal rear bearing support for fear it would not reassemble correctly aligned.

The only thing different from some other small motors is wired for 3-ph and the armature has magnets.

G-