It's been a very hard week at the lofts.

Initially I was only going to the lofts for a few days, but having a very understanding girlfriend. I ended up stopping for the whole week.
Been doing 12 to 14 hours a day for the last five days.
But it's been well worth it.
The new sliding shutters on the stock loft.

Having an engineering background, comes in very handy at times. Putting in some long hours at the lofts at this time of year usually means that we have to pack in early being on an allotment with no electricity. So I decided to put on my thinking cap on. Having a best mate like mine, sometimes comes in very handy. Because he's an hoarder of crap. This is a huge topic of disagreements between us at the lofts. But on this occasion it came in very handy.
He had a load of old solar garden lights, so I got out the soldering iron and decided to make a 17 volt solar panel.
Solar panel No1


So I broke 12 panels out of them garden solar lights and stuck them all together with fish tank silicone and wired them all up. I was quite amazed the day after with results. 17.5 volts on the multimeter. It worked a treat.


Me being me, I decided to go ahead and build the wind turbine as well. So we will have a constant source of free power.
My mate already had sourced five car batteries, after a few failed attempts at making a decent rotor, I decided to hunt on the car boot and there it was. A bright yellow, brand new steel fan off an old Bedford 4 Ton Army truck. and priced at only a quid, it couldn't be better.

I then cut a piece of chequer plate for the mounting to the motor and away we go.

Tally ho, as they say.

The battery bank.

The control panel.

Now we have lights in all the lofts and a work light for outside.

welldone how much did it cost to make the wind turbine

About £30 quid mate.

that;s great it take;s me all my time to dunt a nail in strait.

Lol. When you've been around as long as I have, you learn a thing or two.
The price of a good education.
Wet your nail, before hammering it in, it works a treat.

gary.
knowing my luck. the nail would slip out of my hand.
and the hammer would smack me fingers.
a good tip gary i will tell my son to do it.
better his finger;s then mine.
john

cracking job gary
when you coming to fit mine
its time of year when we need them lights

really nice job.
Is there no worry of the weather affecting the altenator?

i,m on an allottment also,i would love something like this but i would know where to start

nice work

There is always a fear of the weather affecting the alternator, I know I got a belt off it the other night. I an just in the process of making a cover for it to protect it from the elements. I have also sprayed everything with silicone spray.
You can also do it with it solar panels with a single battery. We have also used 12v led lighting strips which give off just right amount we need, plus they have a low power consumption. If you can wire a plug, then you can do this. It's that easy.

excellent idea gary, im sure some of our members would like you to break it down in simple tearms how youve done this amd what parts are needed..............im sure i would and my lofts at home, but this would be easier and free to use,

Leave it with me mate and I will certainly do that. I've also got another few techi bits in the pipeline.

thanks gary, look forward to seeing it.............

yeh i would like 2 see this

I'll sort a diagram or two out tomorrow. But it's really easy when you know how. Without going into physics and stuff. A simplified explanation is this. Any motor than can convert energy into torque can be reversed to convert torque into energy. Meaning lets say for instance one of those 6 or 12 volt model car motors. It takes 6 or 12 volts of power to turn the motor. Lets say you removed this motor and clamped it in a vice. Then attached a multi meter to the wires and put the drive gear into a cordless drill and spun it clockwise with the drill. You would see the meter start clocking up volts of power. Because torque turns the motor. Inside the motor there is a copper coil made from copper windings, which is sat between 2 and 4 magnets. this causes friction between the magnets which is then converted into energy, i.e voltage.
IF YOU DO EXPERIMENT, TAKE CARE NOT TOUCH THE METAL CASING OR ANY BARE WIRES. Especially if connected to a battery as small as some of these motors are. It can generate a surge of high voltage that could KILL..
In a nutshell, that's all there is to it. Wire it up, clamp it to a pole or 3x2 put a propellar on it and it has the capability to trickle charge a car battery all day long.

Gary Burgess wrote:

I'll sort a diagram or two out tomorrow. But it's really easy when you know how. Without going into physics and stuff. A simplified explanation is this. Any motor than can convert energy into torque can be reversed to convert torque into energy. Meaning lets say for instance one of those 6 or 12 volt model car motors. It takes 6 or 12 volts of power to turn the motor. Lets say you removed this motor and clamped it in a vice. Then attached a multi meter to the wires and put the drive gear into a cordless drill and spun it clockwise with the drill. You would see the meter start clocking up volts of power. Because torque turns the motor. Inside the motor there is a copper coil made from copper windings, which is sat between 2 and 4 magnets. this causes friction between the magnets which is then converted into energy, i.e voltage.
IF YOU DO EXPERIMENT, TAKE CARE NOT TOUCH THE METAL CASING OR ANY BARE WIRES. Especially if connected to a battery as small as some of these motors are. It can generate a surge of high voltage that could KILL..
In a nutshell, that's all there is to it. Wire it up, clamp it to a pole or 3x2 put a propellar on it and it has the capability to trickle charge a car battery all day long.

and all night unlike solar panels. I like the turbine.

yes chad very true...........

looking forward to the diagram gary, would like to have a goo and make one.....and im sure ray will be interested too as he was having a bit of a problem early in the season sourcing power for his ets

project
Above is a link for some diagrams that I have done, they are a bit crude, but am sure they will enable you to get the idea.
In the past, we have had huge problems with birds somehow leaving the squabs in the night and during those cold winter months they soon become chilled and die.
Light also gives a huge advantage when pairing up as it extends the daylight and seems to really speed up the pairing process as well as enabling the parents to come down for food and drink during the darkness hours. Otherwise they would have to wait over ten hours for their next feed.
I have also a few tricks up my sleeve for a computer system in the loft.

web cant be found it says

It's on there, but for some unknown reason it wont let me show the page. It might infringe some law they have or something. I'll have to think how to do it another way maybe put the pics on another page and link them. Bear with me, I'll let ya know when I've done it.

It's working now.

They won't let me show it. How strange, maybe cause i'm giving away secrets. lol

It has to be the power company blocking the info Gary. The power company has a monopoly if we cant build solar and wind power generators.

let me try it this way.LOL

This is basically it. Motor, which could even be a motor from a cordless drill. If using an alternator you will need a constant live wire from the battery. A charge controller to prevent the battery from overcharging. an inline fuse, toggle switch then live and neutral go to light. It's that simple. You could even make a swivel head on the clamp and put a tail on it to make it move. Where we are are we have a prevailing wind, so we don't need to move much.
you may be able to right click it and save it to desktop and enlarge it.