The Wind is Free!

I was going to try cleaning pads mext (spongy, rough, green - usually used for cleaning pots etc.) about 1cm thick, compressed between the rolled plates.......!!!!!!!!!!

... I live in Kimberley, and I have already installed a 2400w solar array, complete with Outback Charge controller, 2 x 3kw Inverters, a 660AH Battery bank. This supplies my home with power during the day, and at night I change over to eskom power. Works very well! However, we have many days ...

Hi Jay, looks great! You can't use capacitors alone to increase voltage. You can make a circuit using a coil, a FET, and capacitor, which is called a DC boost converter. Or you can try increase the rpm to get more voltage. Once you get 13.5 voltage you are good to charge a 12V battery.

Another option for you is to build (or buy) a DC-DC boost converter. This can, for e.g. double the DC voltage, thereby halving the RPM required before the 12V battery starts to charge.

There will be some conversion loss, but these DC converters can be very efficient, i.e. over 90%.

... bond. That same amount of energy is made available when the H and O atoms join again (oxidisation). So hydrogen can be seen as equivalent to a battery, and a very dangerous battery at that. If all cars had pressurised, highly explosive hydrogen tanks in them, the roads would be very dangerous ...

Its worth checking the voltage - you never know! It depends a lot on how charged the battery was st the start of its 'long sleep'. You may find one (or more) cells is delivering 0V - that would means recovery is unlikely. I haven't tried a desulphator myself. You ...

... which is called a DC boost converter. Or you can try increase the rpm to get more voltage. Once you get 13.5 voltage you are good to charge a 12V battery. What generator are you using? Your problem is typically of projects which use a car alternator or other high rpm motor as a generator. To make ...

I am keen to develop a very fast charging battery - usefull for storing windpower, waterpower, electric vehicles etc. I have some ideas for changes to conventional battery designs. Is anybody interested in helping with making some prototypes?

You could just use a car-type regulator to avoid overcharging the battery. The windmill can work as it usually does, and the regulator will cut current to the battery when necessary. Its not an RPM rate that should trigger the cut - its the voltage as measured across the battery.

... new here and I am very excited to build my own wind generator. However I have a few questions. 1.) Should I generate 12V 24V or 48V to charge my battery bank? This will be for my house. 2.) What causes a generator to be 12 24 or 48 V? Size of rotor? Size of the coils? The number of coils? The ...

Sorry, perhaps I was a bit obscure. I don't see any need to switch between batteries. Just use one battery bank, and if power being produced exceeds power being consumed, then the batteries charge. If power consumed exceeds power produced, then at that point the batteries will be discharging.

... Pilot light connected for it to produce power. See the diagram I found on alterator wiring attached. Most importantly it must be connected to the battery at all time or it will stop producing a charge. Now if you have a machining shop or a place where you can have some machining done. You could ...

Alright???? I get the fact that while I use one bank the other charges, what would I use to control the switch over from the one to the other?

If you are using water from a dam that is filling up from a river, do you need two dams? One to fill up while you use the water from the other?

No need to swap batteries!

Hi There, Busy designing an planning my Wind Turbine. For the first stage I just want to run a fridge or something slighly heavier on juice like a few globes to test and setup the batteries and how they will work. But I have two a part question which I can't find the answer to, probably becuase I do...

... the coils important, e.g should the magent be able to fit inside of the coil. How deep should the magnets be etc. Just so you know I alredy have a battery bank that I acquired from a electric pallet truck, 12 x 2volt cells wired to give 12 volts. The water heating system I want to run has two water ...

Hello Windgat, I am building a battery charging circuit that uses an input similar to wind - unpredictable and having a wide window of voltages and I need help to build a charge controller for the same. I find your circuit is a good starting ...

... to the voltage, so for e.g. you need to put a 6V fan on and see what current is drawn. Of course a fan is very low power. Maybe rather get a flat battery (6V is your case) and see how much current goes into that. You should be able to post an attachment here - look for 'upload attachment' below ...

... just connect it up, and probably what will happen is the turbine will run at half speed, making it very inefficient, but it would still charge the battery. (The battery would clamp the voltage to around 12V-14V as long as it is not fully charged.) An alternative is a DC-DC converter, which takes ...

... gas that boils at a lower temp then water the Hydrogen is a good idea I think of that to run a stove I mast still experiment whit it if your battery is full then dump the loud in water for Hydrogen that is my idea a lot of work still lase a head

... up about my golfcart batteries and then I have a huge success. Things are so unpredictable !! Anyway I went through the routine of changing the battery acid and then stuck the battery on the trickle charger (the second golfcart battery) and forgot about it for more than a week. Today I went ...

Thanks for posting all of that! As I understand it, it all depends on how bad the batteries are. A battery that has been allowed to stand discharged for a while, will form crystals on the lead. This is called sulphation. A solid layer of crystals means the end of the battery ...

... and so armed with my now efficient trickle-charger and hydrometer I took the challenge. First I turfed out all the old acid and re-filled with new battery acid. First lesson, battery acid besides being dangerous is very expensive. I expected the dangerous part so I got out my trusty rubber gloves ...

the stator is standing still and the magnets is rotating the magnets is bagmagnets and is 30x3mm round I used 2 magnets together so its is 6mm thick

the coils is a 80 wind and it starts to charge my battery at 180rpm
hare is some test open voltage
160rpm

Much better ways of doing this I've now put in a transformer from 230V to 30V and adjusted the load till the battery receives just over 1 amp. It will save me a lot of money !! In any case the red battery is OK. After charging at 1.3 amps for 24 hours all the cells are giving ...