I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?

On Apr 8, 7:19*am, wrote:
I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. *I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. *One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. *Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. *After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. *I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. *Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. *I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. *Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? *A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. *I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. *I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?

An AC motor relies on generating a magnetic field
in the rotor by using the varying AC field in the stator
windings. With no AC to generate a magnetic field
in the rotor, you might get some small voltage from
residual magnetism, enough that you could see it
on a VOM, but it's isn't going to produce
power to charge car batteries.

..

Electricity is generated, by spinning a magnet within a coil of wire (highly
simplified). If that's a DC motor with permanant magnets, it will generate
electricity. Think: 12 volt fan from the auto department of the store.

An AC motor, spun, can also generate electric, but I'm less certain the
details.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

wrote in message
...
I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?

wrote:
-snip-

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?


Maybe not a fan motor-- it has to be a motor with permanent magnets. i
failed in my search for the Mother Earth article-- but I'm pretty sure
there was one - 1975-80 or so.

This guy outlines the process-
http://www.qsl.net/ns8o/Induction_Generator.html
Jim

wrote:
I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?


You are on the right track, but you need to do a little extra work,
http://www.thediyworld.com/table-fan-generator.html Get enough fans
running and you can go off grid......

On Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:08:28 -0400, Jim Elbrecht
wrote:

wrote:
-snip-

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?


Maybe not a fan motor-- it has to be a motor with permanent magnets. i
failed in my search for the Mother Earth article-- but I'm pretty sure
there was one - 1975-80 or so.

This guy outlines the process-
http://www.qsl.net/ns8o/Induction_Generator.html
Jim
Or a multi-phase AC motor with a capacitor across one phase.

"Mr. Austerity" "PrintMo.Money " wrote:
-snip-

You are on the right track, but you need to do a little extra work,
http://www.thediyworld.com/table-fan-generator.html Get enough fans
running and you can go off grid......


That's cool-- convert your fan to a permanent magnet 'device'.

Jim

On Sun, 08 Apr 2012 06:19:22 -0500, wrote:

I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?

With the proper "motor" or some jury rigging, sure, but the more energy you
remove, the slower the fan will turn. The reason it's "spinning" now is that
there is little energy being removed (just enough to counter bearing
friction). Your experiment with oiling the bearings should show you how
little energy you can really get out of this.

On Apr 8, 12:19*pm, wrote:
I had a small 10" household fan that must have developed a shorted motor
winding, and began to trip the breaker. *I tossed it in my scrap metal
pile. *One windy day I saw the fan blade spinning from the wind, and
decided to mount it on a pole just for fun. *Now on windy days it spins
like crazy. *After a few years outdoors, it became noisy. *I guess the
bearings were dry, so I oiled them. *Now it spins well again.

Anyhow, last week I got to thinking if there was any electric being
generated while it was spinning. *I put a meter across the cord but read
nothing. *Of course since this motor was apparently shorted, it was kind
of stupid to expect any output power.

However, if I was to take a working fan and do the same thing, would I
get any power out of it? *A motor is similar to a generator, but is it
capable of generating power?

My thoughts are (if this works), are to put a fan outside with a small
cover over the motor (to keep water out), connect it to some rectifier
diodes, and use it to charge car batteries. *I suppose I'd have to rig a
voltage regulator too. *I'm not sure what kind of voltage would come
from a 120v AC motor?

All electrical devices can in principle be "reversed".
Assuming your fan is an induction motor,i t can be run as an
"asynchronous generator" by simply driving it it at supersynchronous
speed.
Ie faster than 3600rpm (if it is single pole.)
On a 60 cycle supply that is.
It has to run in parallel with the mains, it won't run "stand-alone".
ie it will put electricity back into the mains.
The moment it drops to sub-synchronous (ie "normal" speed) it will
draw power, it will be a "motor" again..

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