diy wind turbine using car alternator

instructables

DIY Wind Turbine Using Car Alternator

by DIY KING 00

So its time to try our hands on building a wind generator using a truck alternator.

Yup we recently did came across a 24v alternator thats in brand new condition so we built a wind generator completelyout of scratch. Our goal is to gure out if this idea is worth it or not, so its time to nd out.

//www.youtube.com/embed/iUMbdmYBJ3I

DIY Wind Turbine Using Car Alternator: Page 1

Step 1: Supplies

The list of tools and material used in this project are listed below:The list of tools and material used in this project are listed below:

MATERIAL USED:MATERIAL USED:

24V 60Amp Alternator20mm square metal barMetal tubingMetal shaft8' metal plates (round)6mm metal platesWire6' PVC pipeNut,bolts & washerPaint

TOOLS :TOOLS :

Welding plantGrinderDrill machineBelt sander

Step 2: Alternator Mods

In order to make this alternator usefull for our wind turbie we have decided to do some modi cations & alteration. Forthat there in an oil pump / peristaltic pump that we dont need anymore so we unscrewed that and now we are ready toremove the pully and the cooling fan behind that.

So we have got the alternator dissassembled and as you can see over here this commutator provides the power to therotor in order to magnetize it and this connector that might seems like its connected to the rotor is not, because there is avoltage regulator in between that makes sure that regardless of the engine speed the alternator generates consistentvoltage so we need to bypass the voltage regulator andd directly connect a pair of wires to the carbon brushes tomagnetize the rotor coil using an external battery pack.

So we have sucessfully hacked this alternator and its producing 18v at arround 700 RPM besides that the rotor coil isdrawing nearly 30 watts of power from a 3 cell lithium battery. Now its time to built the frame for our wind generator.

Step 3: Main Frame

Now time to get our hands dirty as we built the frame to hold everything together.To make the whole unit sturdy wehave used 20mm metal bar for the main frame. Once we chopped all the parts we threaded the motor mounting thatwill later allow us to glue the parts before welding them together.There are three mounting holes on the alternator, twoof them are inline while the thrid one is on the opposite end. So we built the frame arround the alternator. We startedwith the inline holes and then added pieces to get to the third one. Once all these pieces are welded we than trimmedthe excess length of the metal bar using a hole saw. This will help us to attach the frame to the bearing holder that willallow the turbine to follow the air direction. Then we have welded the 2' metal pipe which act asa bearing holder for ourframe and we have welded some additional metal bar to give its some extra rigidity.

Step 4: Furling Tail Mechanism

The frame is built arround the alternator followed by a bearing holder that will allow to point the generator into the winddirection. Now instead of going with the xed tail design we decided to built a furling tail that will prevent the generatorfrom overspeeding. For that we have used a metal bush which we extracted from old hoverboard and some metalpieces. After doing some research on internet we have nd out the best position for furling tail mechanism is we have tomount our tail holding bush in 20 degree tilt angle. So we have welded 6mm piece with bush in order to maintaindistance between bearing holder and tail.

For the tail bar we have used 14 gauge 1*2 inch metal tubing 40 inch length welded with 25mm metal shaft with the 20degree angle. And the drilled some hole on the other hand to attached the acrylic sheet.

Step 5: Front Plate & Blade Holder

After completing the tail mechanism now its time to make the front plate assembly which will later going to attach to ouralternator rotor in order to rotate it. So for that we have used 5mm thick round metal plate which will enough for are veand three blade design. Then we drilled the holes and threaded M6 in order to avoid using the extra nuts.

For clapping our blades to the front plate we have used the 6mm thick metal strip in order to get the rigid base for ourPVC blades. And again we have drilled and tapped M6 threads to clap our blades.

Step 6: Paint Job

After nishing all the parts now its time to get the paint job done, for that we rst clean and degreases all the parts andthen painted with matt black auto paint. The whole paint job proces was very satisfying and the results were prettydecent.

Step 7: Making PVC Blades

Once we set the parts to dry it was time to start working on the blades. To keep things simple we used PVC pipe thats 6inchs in diameter and 44 inches in length. We started by chopping the pipe into three pieces each of which was latersliced into a pair of blades. And then rounded up the edges and drilled the holes according to our mounting plates.

Step 8: Final Assembly

First we have added the ball bearing in the main frame cylinder and slide it on the main shaft which is soon going to beattached to our main post on top of our roof. And then attached the alternator to the frame by using M10 screws andthen placed the front plate and tightened up by using impact wrench. Then palaced the metal strips in order to mountour PVC blades together. After that we slides our tail rod and attached a piece of 6mm thick acrylic sheet in order tomake our wind turbine to follow the wind direction.

Step 9: Mounting the Turbine & Gathering Results

Now its time to take our wind turbine on the roof our workspace and then we have fastened the turbine unit with theplate of our post and done some wiring work by attaching the rotor coil to energize our electromagnet and also madethe connetion for our main output possitive terminal and the whole body as negative terminal.The wind was blowingquiet alot and if you have noticed the tail started furling towards left, this happens when the blades achieve momentumas turbine reach its threshold speed, which can be lowered by decreasing the size of tail and its weight and vice versa.This prevents the turbine from overspeeding as the blades are not following the wind direction anymore.

Aside from having this much wind we are unable to get the required RPM. We were aiming for 700 RPM while the turbineinitially achieved 200 so we switched to shorter blades which did increased the RPM but still we are half way down thereat 350 RPM. The maxiumum output we were able to get was arround 50 watts which barely compensates the amount ofpower we are using to magnetize the rotor coil and is way less than what we have expected.

Using a car alternator for a wind turbine might not be a good idea but there are some tweeks that we are looking forwardto overcome these issues like replacing the current rotor with a permanent magnet one and increasing the rotor speedusing a higher gear ratio between the blades and the alternator. Now thats something we will cover in another video, sodrop down your suggestions in the comments section below.

Now thats our take having fun with the winds and building this wind turbine, hit thumbs up if you loved the built and wewill see you soon in the next one

diy wind turbine using car alternator

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