3 ms·
I looked into that at one point, but IIRC, the challenge was that the alternator was tuned to have the most optimal output when it was running at thousands of R
by 13of40 5y ago
I looked into that at one point, but IIRC, the challenge was that the alternator was tuned to have the most optimal output when it was running at thousands of RPMs, so it's not just a matter of hooking wings to an alternator.
- SturgeonsLaw 5y agoCould you potentially use gearing to achieve this?
- fuzzfactor 5y agoLooks like they found a gear ratio of about 8 was good for their setup. Moving up to a ratio of 10 would be best using more advanced circuitry.
- grecy 5y agoThat's not hard to fix. You need to use some kind of mechanical system to connect the shaft on the water wheel to the Alternator, which means you can use gears. So put a huge gear on the shaft of the water wheel and a tiny gear on the shaft of the alternator. What tons of people do to play around with the optimal setup is to use an old bicycle rear tire for the water wheel and the whole chain and gears setup to connect to the alternator. That way you can change gears while it's running and figure out the optimal gear ratio.
- photojosh 5y agoI'm chuckling to myself now because I'm thinking that you could do maximum power point tracking automatically if you used one of the electronic derailleur systems like Shimano Di2.
- grecy 5y agoHaha, that had never occurred to me because most of us use whatever rusty old setup is lying around!
- mkj 5y agoDirect drive washing machine motors like from Fisher and Paykel seem to work well. https://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/Contents.asp#3 https://www.thebackshed.com/windmill/Contents.asp#3 has some details, and in the forums there.