Is this a good motor for a wind turbine?

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System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in Wind Power Generation #1
I've heard that for permanent magnet DC motors, it is good to have high volts/rpm because it is difficult to generate a lot of rpm with a wind turbine. I am thinking of building my own wind generator and am looking for a motor. I found a pellet stove auger gear motor that is 120 volts at 1 rpm. This sounds too good to be true since the examples I have seen other people use for their wind turbine motors are less than 50 volts and several hundred rpm. Am I missing something?
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  • waynefromnscanada
    waynefromnscanada Solar Expert Posts: 3,009 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
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    Re: Is this a good motor for a wind turbine?
    Jellybean wrote: »
    I am thinking of building my own wind generator and am looking for a motor. I found a pellet stove auger gear motor that is 120 volts at 1 rpm. Am I missing something?

    Missing something? Not if you only need 0.001 watts and don't need the assembly to last beyond a brief test.
    Do a whole lot of reading and studying first, then study the idea.
    There's a huge amount of difficulty in building an operating, safe and useful wind turbine. Been there, done that, even bought a "factory built" wind turbine, but now I'm on a combination of solar and hydro. Not wind.
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
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    Re: Is this a good motor for a wind turbine?
    Jellybean wrote: »
    I've heard that for permanent magnet DC motors, it is good to have high volts/rpm because it is difficult to generate a lot of rpm with a wind turbine. I am thinking of building my own wind generator and am looking for a motor. I found a pellet stove auger gear motor that is 120 volts at 1 rpm. This sounds too good to be true since the examples I have seen other people use for their wind turbine motors are less than 50 volts and several hundred rpm. Am I missing something?

    Yes.
    The 1 RPM motor is likely gear reduced and that speed is on the mechanical output, not the motor itself.
    The Voltage and speed of a motor is irrelevant as to what you can get out of it when used as a generator. That depends on how fast you can spin it with wind (which will depend on a number of things such as wind speed, air density, and blade design) and the relationship between the two magnetic fields (drive and driven; the drive field usually being the permanent magnets).

    It's not as simple as taking a 'X' Volt 'Y' RPM motor and turning it at 'Y' RPM's to get 'X' Volts back out.
    As I said before, motors aren't generators. Neither one is particularly efficient when used as the other.
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