Where Do I start?

[learning]

Ok, new to this stuff and have learnt lots in the last 3 days ;-)

I am struggling to understand the relationship of coil windings, is this a maths thing or just guesswork. either way how do you decide how many coils/windings you need.

Are there any books i should be reading to help with design of my wind generator.

Where can you buy magnets/magnet wire from in the UK?

If you think i should be looking at something in particular please point me in the right directions.

[stop4stuff]

Hi,

There is maths involved in the coil windings... but I still haven't figured it out

I asked pretty much the same question see; http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/1/4/6043/32361

the answer is pretty much trial and error, however I've learned that the power output is a rotor diameter to magnet to wire size to coil size relationship.

Hugh Piggott has a fine site, http://www.scoraigwind.co.uk/, and so does Windstuff Ed, http://www.windstuffnow.com

You could also try using the search facility for this forum, TomW, hvirtane and many others have posted regarding coils & magnet size spacing etc.

The best place to start in your project, would be to assess the average wind, and your power requirements. You can then use formulas to work out the size of your blades, the available torque to the alt. The rotor size, magnets and coils may involve comparing what turbine you can make to exsiting gennies..

Wire is available from The Scientific Wire Company, http://www.wires.co.uk

Magnets are available from Neo Magnet Emporium, http://www.neo-magnet-emporium.co.uk

have fun,

paul

[Electric Ed]

Welcome, learning.

In addition to the excellent resources already mentioned, here are some general recommendations.

I believe three phase windings will always produce more power than single phase, assuming all other factors are equal, and the dual-rotor, air-core design is relatively easy to build.

For determining the optimum wire size, the largest that you have space for will have less resistance/losses.

In lieu of a fully engineered design, I recommend the following "trial-and-error" steps.

1. Determine the voltage that you must have for your specific application.
   
2. Build the rotors and the stator coil supporting structure first.
   
3. Make and mount one coil, using, let's say #16 wire, with as many turns as you can fit within the physical space that will be available for a single coil.
   
4. Connect a variable load to the coil, and spin the rotor at the desired "cut-in" speed, and measure the voltage and current.
   
5. Evaluate the voltage at various loadings to determine if you need more turns of smaller wire to increase the voltage, or less turns of larger wire to increase the current, bearing in mind that you will be connecting the other coils in series, parallel, or even series-parallel, with the test coil. If a three phase winding is used, you have a choice of wye or delta connections.
   
6. If you want to evaluate coil heating at this time, run the test setup for at least an hour under load, and check the coil heating.
   
7. When you find a wire size/turns combination that works, wind the remaining coils.
   
   

Electric Ed

[wooferhound]

Day 4

In your wanderings I don't know if you have run across this page, but it is helpful to see how other people are doing the same thing...

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments.html