Hi All
Wind powered electric generators are obscenely expensive. I was wondering if it was possible to grab a car radiator fan (which has a 12V DC motor), face it into the wind, and turn the motor into a generator. All well and good in theory. But most if not all modern radiator motors lack permanent magnets so that when you spin the fan, nothing is generated except a light sweat.
Is it possible to energise the windings into magnets (like one does an alternator) by briefly applying 12V, and would these windings then stay magnetised for as long as the wind blows?
Some research on non-permanent-magnet DC motors says that current flows from the stator into the rotor windings via the brushes and that rotor and stator may be wired in series, in parallel or a combination of both.
I am trying to avoid buying a radiator fan only to discover that it does not work, hoping that someone on this forum may have tried this, or a similar cheap wind-powered alternative.
Wind powered electric generators are obscenely expensive. I was wondering if it was possible to grab a car radiator fan (which has a 12V DC motor), face it into the wind, and turn the motor into a generator. All well and good in theory. But most if not all modern radiator motors lack permanent magnets so that when you spin the fan, nothing is generated except a light sweat.
Is it possible to energise the windings into magnets (like one does an alternator) by briefly applying 12V, and would these windings then stay magnetised for as long as the wind blows?
Some research on non-permanent-magnet DC motors says that current flows from the stator into the rotor windings via the brushes and that rotor and stator may be wired in series, in parallel or a combination of both.
I am trying to avoid buying a radiator fan only to discover that it does not work, hoping that someone on this forum may have tried this, or a similar cheap wind-powered alternative.