Ok...
I like the idea of making a generator/alternator. However, that might eat up a lot of time.
Another idea. I haven't tried it, but that is what science is all about.
Go to your local auto junkyard and find a basic electric powered car fan. I'd probably go for a big one, but size really doesn't matter. Try to cut off a foot or two of wires if you can so you don't have to worry about adapters. You can strip the ends of the electrical wires to make your connections at home.
Take it home and mount it on something stable.
Take a regular house fan (perhaps one of the large box fans) and set it up to blow on the car fan.
Now take a multitester (a digital one is probably most accurate) and see if you get power between any of the wires on the car fan (low voltage DC). Also check between the wires on the car fan and the actual fan body as most auto equipment is negative grounded.
Can you blow the fan both ways? Do the + & - poles reverse when you blow it backwards?
What happens when you increase the speed of the "wind" blowing your "windmill"?
Now.... you need to figure out how to make a permanent mount for your windmill.
Perhaps find an old swivel chair around home or Goodwill (that spins very well). If you can find one with a hollow base rather than a solid base, you would be much happier. Maybe one with a hydrolic base that you think might be able to be drilled and drained. Take off the wheels (so it doesn't roll away on you), and take off the seat down to the mounting bracket.
Mount your windmill to the swivel chair frame.
Now you need to point the fan into the wind.
Questions:.... Do you want to put on a fan tail? Or do you want to do a tail-less rotor in the rear fan?
Now...
One last question...
Most of the stuff that one tends to do with wind generated power is stationary with respect to the generators. How do you connect the wires from the windmill to something stationary?
One option is to have separate insulated disks on the top side and the bottom side and transfer the power from the upper disk to the lower disk (perhaps using a couple of carbon contacts). Of course, that could get pretty complicated pretty quickly and would be hard to adapt to your windmill tower that you just built.
Another option that has been highly discussed is using very flexible, resilliant wires. If they twist up when the wind is blowing, they will tend to unwind when the wind stops. As you are doing everything small scale. If you have a chair with a hollow base (or one that you drilled out to be hollow, you could try stretching a phone receiver cord up the center of the chair. I would try giving it a moderate stretch.
Ok...
Time to study Amps, Volts, and Watts.
Watts = Amps x Volts.
Volts is a measure of the "pressure" of the power to go somewhere.
Amps is a measure of the movement of power (and will be 0 if the power is not going anywhere as one would have in an isolated battery that isn't connected to anything)
Watts is a measure of power consumption (which is a combination of Volts and Amps).
Can you combine multiple batteries and keep the voltage the same?
Can you combine multiple batteries and increase the voltage?
Should you ever connect the positive pole of one battery to the negative pole of another battery? Why or Why not?
Assuming your windmill puts out more than 6 volts, get a few 6 volt lantern batteries to play with. Rechargeable would be best, but not necessary. If your windmill puts out less than 6 volts find some large rechargeable batteries (C or D cells), and find a way to connect the ends of them in different combinations.
Car batteries are not recommended. They have far more power than you need.
Configure your batteries in two ways.... DO NOT USE HOUSE CURRENT.
#1 low voltage - so they put out less volts than your windmill.
#2 high voltage - so they put out more volts than your windmill.
Take away your windsource.
Now, connect the batteries to the windmill in 4 ways (for a few seconds each) while monitoring the fan speed and the voltmeter. What happens?
#1 - Low voltage, + to the + output on the windmill.
#2 - Low voltage, reverse the + and minus poles.
#3 - High voltage (more than what your windmill generated), + to + output on the windmill
#4 - High voltage, reverse the + and minus poles.
Now,
Turn on your wind generator and repeat the above 4 combinations.
Once you are done, you can think of something creative to do with the energy that you generate.
Oh... One last question...
Why did we choose a car fan to start with rather than a household electric fan?
Have fun,
Clifford
