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I would like to buy a small wind generator and just add the negative and positive wires to the negative and positive wires in my Harbor Freight Solar Panel kit. The Harbor Freight Solar Panel kit’s charge control will still protect the battery from over charging right? Even though the charge controller would be buffering more wattage then what the manufaturer probably intended it to buffer? If so, could there be long term implications on the charge controller or battery?

Hey Me, what are you using for battery storage? If I understand the harbor freight kit properly, it does not have a battery included, or it is a very small sealed AGM type battery. If that is the case, don’t bother adding another source of charging power, you’ll just fill that battery up faster and still have no place to put your excess energy. If you have a good sized deep cycle battery or two hooked up, my suggestion is simply get a wind turbine that has it’s own charge controller, most of them do. Then wire it straight to the battery bypassing the harbor freight unit. A good example would be Southwest Windpowers Air 403, puts out up to 300 watts, although in ideal conditions on a tall tower, but has its own internal regulator, like a car alternator. So the two wires coming down the tower go straight to the battery, and the turbine is already prevented from overcharging anything.

In most wind/solar power systems, the charge controller is the achilles heel. It is the one thing that breaks down first and causes the most problems. We’ve been living in a wind and solar powered home for years now, I can speak from experience on this. We’ve not purchased the HF kit because the panels are not built as robustly as they need to be to be mounted on the roof of a home in all weather conditions, and the wiring harnesses are not designed for permanent installation, to be sunlight resistant, etc. Also the electronics are not UL listed to my knowledge, so they would not be legal for in home installation either. They are terrific little units to make small amounts of power in a portable application, like camping, or a remote shed for example. Adding another source of power to be fed through the existing controls of that kit would be like welding a bed on the back of a Ford Pinto in order to use it as a pickup truck. My suggestion is to have a good sized battery pack, like a pair of Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries (220 amp hours) then get a small turbine with its own regulator, and wire it straight to the batteries. The batteries will happily take a charge from either source, or both simultaneously, that’s how our home works. If you really want to do some shopping for this stuff, get a subscription to Home Power Magazine, they regularly run articles on all the available panels, turbines, controllers and othe components to home power systems. If you subscribe, you can use their website to review archived articles in past issues that have all the write ups you’re looking for. Good luck Me, and take care, Rudydoo

I have some.8mm copper wire and I’m not sure if it will work on a foxhole radio or on a small wind generator. I am a beginner and need some basic advice about the thickness of cooper wire and the effects.

It does matter, too much amps thru a thin wire will cause heating problems and will melt it. The foxhole radio will be fine but the wind generator it depends on what type of output your looking for since small is a far too relative term.

Note, since your a beginner you are most likely following some one else design a lot of these designs will list out the details on the materials they use.

They already exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_generator

http://www.kansaswindpower.net/Wind_generators.htm

I am constructing a small wind generator for a college project. I want the 0.1 V AC output of the generator to charge a battery. To do this, I need to convert the current into DC. I am familiar with things like bridge rectifier circuits, but the smallest diodes I can find have a forward "turn on" voltage of about 0.25 V, which will not even turn on for my small 0.1V signal. What are my options for getting the AC current output into the battery? Thanks

you need more AC voltage. no escaping it. you can alter the generator, or just use a step-up transformer.

I’m referring to the small wind powered generators that some owners have installed under their aircraft.

……………. and is it not possible to install an engine driven altenator / generator on these aircraft?

Some people build their own. There are also aftermarket ones like in the second link below.

Can a small scale wind generator power enough batteries to power a 5 ton air conditioner? And if it can, how large of a battery bank would I need, and would a 220 power converter be good enough.

gee, kind’a hard to tell.

is there any wind?
how strong?
all day?
or just part of the day?
what do you consider "a small scale wind generator"?
does your AC use 110 or 220 power?
(it might uses both. although 5 ton isn’t all that large.)

where are you going to put this?
how are you going to anchor it?
is it allowed where you live?
are you going to have an alternate power source for when there is no wind?
in which case, have you looked at what it takes to hook up to the power grid?

maybe you ought to talk to someone around where you live about this.

I’ve built a wind turbine which i hooked up to a small generator i bought off ebay for $20 bucks, and it didn’t specify how many RPM is needed to produce sufficient electricity. So im wondering if there is a way to test if the two positive and negative wires coming out the back produce an electrical current. Does any one have any ways to check if it works? But i don’t have one of those voltage meters which you measure stuff like that, so are there any alternatives? Please help. All answers appreciated!!
thanks

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wind-Power-Turbine-PMA-Build-One-Cheaply-Free-/150472144634?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2308d6b6fa

If the above link showed your wind generator then………its rated for 12vdc, 150 RPM…..

it is recommended to make use of The voltage reading meter…….

Alternative may be
1. Use the a second generator if u have spare…..connect….it to the two output leads of the first generator………now ur second generator will act like motor and starts to spin……..if ur second generator is not spining….then ur not getting the actual output across wind generator…..
2.Connect any device that are rated for 12vdc exmaple…..computer speakers,modems….

The generator is powered by wind, but I am having a hard time converting the 10 volts shown on a meter to watts produced. Help would be very much appreciated. Also, once converted to DC do the watts output remain the same? A formula would be ideal. Thanks.

You would need to measure Amps. An estimate might be the size of wire that can be hooked up to the generator. If your meter(s) are reading RMS Amps and Volts (you may also be able to purchase a watt-meter) they should be approximately equal to DC.

I need to get a generator for a science fair project. It needs to be small, because it is a project. Can anyone help me? If you want more information… put that in the answer.

If you mean a wind turbine, that is very difficult to do on a small scale. You need to a have a blade system that is good at catching the wind, and even more important, you need to have an efficient turbine system (a rotating shaped metal rod inside a magnetic field). These are incredibly difficult to build on small science fair project scales, at least, in any form that demonstrates that the technology really works. Some of the materials also also expensive. A good copper conducting rod, a strong magnet system, a properly built circuit to power a buzzer, or a lightbulb or something to prove that it’s doing something…

I really don’t want to discourage you or anything, but it’s a tough, uphill climb.

However, I do have some links for you to follow down below. Sure hope it works for you!