Quick Charge Controller Question

[Armour]

I apologize if this has been covered before, but I have read and read and have not found the answer.

Like many here, I am very new to RE (and electronics for that matter) and am wanting to build a small windmill to produce a small amount of energy (100 - 200 watts) just as a learning experience.  That being said, I do not want to spend a whole lot of money on a weekend project.

My question is: Is it possible to build the a small mill and simply run it to a cheap wal-mart inverter to run something such as a computer battery backup (UPS) to run my computers off of?  I don't have the extra cash to buy batteries and a controller or the knowledge to build one.

Thanks for your help.

[Bruce S]

The quick and real life answer? NO.

Sorry

Bruce S

[jonas302]

you don't have to have a controller you will need to watch the battery will a small mill its not going to get away from you very fast anyways

You do need a battery of some sort you could think of it as a buffer between the windmill and your inverter your mill is going to put out voltage all over the place until it gets to the battery where it will be smoothed out to say 12 volts

Look hard enough you can find a cheap battery maybe out of an old ups

a used car battery will get you started you local junkyard can help you with that

some booster packs from discount stores are a cheap battery

Good luck to you keep reading and searching

[Armour]

So if I understand correctly, I could run from the mill (motor) directly to the batteries, then from the batteries to a simple inverter, then from the inverter to whatever constant load (ie UPS, alarm clock, light that's always on, etc)?

Do I understand that correctly?  Sorry if I seem a little stupid.  This is all very new and confusing to me.  But I'm trying to learn little by little.

Thanks.

[jonas302]

yes you have it right just watch that you don't boil your battery to much with a little experimenting you might be able to match the load