Ceiling Fan to Permanent Magnet Alternator

If you are just experimenting to learn and have fun, this seems like a very inexpensive way to make a 50-100W wind turbine. If you want to generated more power for a specific application, you will need to research further, spend a little more money, and do a bit more work. Good luck either way.

Try here for some basic info...

http://www.otherpower.com/windbasics1.html

Thanks for the review. It sounds like the video is for real. This is somewhat just for fun. I like to build as many off the wall things I can for fun and also just to build a mental database I guess. It is one thing to see something work and another to be able to make it work. In reality, I live in the Great Northwest so Solar projects are futile as we have very little sun and wind projects are nearly as futile as I live in an urban area. There is nothing like building something and seeing it work though. If I ever move back to Nebraska (The Center of the Universe) then I can put some of these things to good use. Thanks again for the comment and the link. I will definately give it a good read and save it for future use!

I live in the great northwest also - and my house runs 100% on solar, definitely not futile. I suspect you might be thinking someplace like Portland or Seattle where there are more days of rain than sun might be futile, but it's really not. Even with two inches of snow on my panels, heavy clouds, and at midnight, my panels are still producing minor amounts of DC current, about 10% of what they do in full sun. At midnight with a full moon I get 20% of full power. The panel technology now-a-days is amazing. When it is so cloudy out and one cannot even see the sun mid-day, my panels are producing at 40% of what they do in full sun. The rays get through the clouds!

Neat! That does in fact work however depending upon the the number of the magnets, the strength of the magnets the clearances between the magnets and stator, the speed of rotation, and obviously the original working wattage of the motor the actual output will vary greatly.

I have a old 10HP industrial three phase motor I am in the process of converting into a PM alternator myself. I expect it to produce around 2000 - 2500 watts at about 500 - 600 RPM. Or at least I am hoping it will do that much. I am using 52 1/2 inch by 1 inch N42 neodymium magnets on the original rotor set up as 13 magnets working together per each pole.

I have a lathe and mill so for me its not as difficult as what it would be for someone else to do this type of conversion.

I hope to have it back together in the next day or two so I can do some testing with my lathe in order to get its real working voltage and load capacities figured out.

Good luck on yours!

Hi,

I am from India, I have full technical skills and ability to design and manufacture Permanent Magnet Alternators which can be used for wind power generation

if you are interested contact me

Rgds

Girish Iyer

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If your ceiling fan is really a Permanent Magnet motor, then you can generate a certain amount of power without no doubt.

However as far as I know ceiling fans are low speed induction motors and having no permanent magnets inside. In normal driving conditions, they don't produce power. (Some except cases making it possible. Such as regeneration while braking at the trains etc. But those experiments are need laboratory conditions, not in your simple conditions.)

Power from wind is hopegiving project. Keep working on it. Imitate the windmill buildings and propellers. Try to find lowest RPM alternators. Do not try to increase the speed of the shaft output by using pulley and belts. This is not an efficient way. Propeller, of which direct coupled to the alternator (Generator) is a good way if you find a low RPM alternator.

Hi,

I am based in Coimbatore,TamilNadu,INDIA and have the ability to design and manufacture Permanent Magnet Alternators of any capacity with very low rated rpm of 125 onwards

I am looking for some angel investor to take the project to production stage

I have already manufactured 1KW & 3KW permanent Magnet Alternators for Battery Charging Application and 30KW and 50KW Models for GridTie Application

Rgds

Girish Iyer

7667513841

HI Girish Iyer

Send me your email. You can mail me @ tayooyerokun@gmail.com

IIRC, that older thread was not referencing installing PM excitation, he just wanted to use the fan as an induction generator.

Power out = power in, minus losses. The HP rating of that fan is a mechanical rating. When operating as a fan, your input electrical power is higher than the output mechanical rating of the fan because of inefficiencies, but you don't immediately notice them. So for example an average ceiling fan, as shown in that video, is maybe 1/10HP or about 75W of power. If it was 75% efficient (as is typical), that means it drew about 100W of power to perform 75W of work. But when you reverse the process, the inefficiencies become apparent in that the power output capability is significantly reduced by the same inefficiencies. The "wind mill" will now only produce 75W of power if you can give it 100W of input energy. And that is assuming you can fully excite the windings with your magnets. If you want to get an idea of how much wind it will take to express 100W of energy onto the fan, run it as a fan at full speed and get an anemometer to see how much air it moves. It's probably more than you think! Then you have to have a way of getting it into the wind in such as way as to convert the available wind energy to rotation, but not cause so much tangential force to destroy your support system, etc. etc. etc.

But if that's all you want out of it, go for it!