DIY Power projects!

[Panzercat]

I know there's a lot of people here who like to tinker, so I though I would drop these off for you. The first is DIY solar that merely requires a trip down to the dollar store and the barest of soldering skills. Some electronics is nice, but realistically all you have to do is wire things up to look like the diagram and you're done.

Here's the DIY video walkthrough.
And here's the step by step with diagrams.

Next we have wind power! How to convert a table fan into a wind turbine using the same basic tools and the barest of soldering work.

Have fun

[Blaine]

I had no idea about the old fan motor being used in reverse like that!

[damienph]

I had no idea about the old fan motor being used in reverse like that!

Motors and generators are very similar in design. What I want to know is how many old fans do I have to put on the roof to generate 5kW?

[mack]

I had no idea about the old fan motor being used in reverse like that!

Motors and generators are very similar in design. What I want to know is how many old fans do I have to put on the roof to generate 5kW?

How close is your roof to the jet stream?

[Mescalero]

More than the static load capacity of your roof.

[Blaine]

More than the static load capacity of your roof.

This was AC/DC.....not Static Oy Vey...

[jeepnik]

I know there's a lot of people here who like to tinker, so I though I would drop these off for you. The first is DIY solar that merely requires a trip down to the dollar store and the barest of soldering skills. Some electronics is nice, but realistically all you have to do is wire things up to look like the diagram and you're done.

Here's the DIY video walkthrough.
And here's the step by step with diagrams.

Next we have wind power! How to convert a table fan into a wind turbine using the same basic tools and the barest of soldering work.

Have fun

Now it's been a very long time, but I used to play the odd practical joke. Did you know that a box fan in a widow (turned around) with a good breeze can generate enough juice to give a good tingle when folks sit in a metal chair. Now you have to do a bit of insulating (chair from ground) but the results are always mirthful.

[AJMD429]

I had no idea about the old fan motor being used in reverse like that!

I'm pretty sure not all motors can be 'reversed' that way - depends on the type of winding and brushes and so on.

I know one of our kids got a used "Barbie Jeep" from someone who was moving, and when you turned one wheel, the electric motor on it would feed back electricity into the system enough to make the other powered wheel turn. It was kind of like when you have a real car on a lift and turn one powered wheel and the differential makes the other one turn, only in this case the only connection between the wheels was wires.