Charging small battery using wind?

Thread Starter

tom7891

Joined May 16, 2011
26
Hi, i was just wondering if it's possible to charge a small battery with a small wind turbine? The turbine is just a coil of thin wire with a permenent magnet inside, the coil is only the size of a thumbnail.
When i test for voltage across the turbine i get no voltage, which i'm assuming is because of the resistance on the multimeter i'm testing it on. I'm guessing if it will charge the battery, it'll take a while?

The battery has around a 5v output. Sorry if i'm being vague, but i don't really know a lot about this. Any help would be appreciated.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
Use a DC electric motor that has permanent magnets inside. It makes a good generator.

Did you make the "turbine" yourself? Does it spin fast with lots of power when you connect it to a powerful battery? Or is it an AC turbine instead of a DC one?
 

Brownout

Joined Jan 10, 2012
2,390
Multimeters usually have high resistance for voltage testing, so you can't blame it. There appears to be somethign wrong with your generator.
 

Thread Starter

tom7891

Joined May 16, 2011
26
I nicked the turbine from a wind powered phone charger. I'm making a wind powered phone charger for a project at college, so i thought i'd use a turbine that was built for the job. It looks like a bridge rectifier is in the charger circuit, so looks like it's a dc turbine.
I've managed to get some voltage from it, but only 0.5v, and it fluxuates a lot.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
I have never heard of a "wind powered phone charger".
Does it charge the phone when you are holding it while sky-diving at 120mph?
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
A year or two ago a kid wanted to use a little computer fan as a generator to charge the battery for his bike's lights. He didn't understand that it needs a huge windmill to produce enough power and the power comes from him pedalling harder, not from the wind.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
The "iFan" is a "Concept Design" from Holland where the wind blows like crazy!
The designer also talks about holding it outside a car window while driving.
 
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