How to Generate Emergency Off Grid Power using a Car Alternator and an exercise bike.
This project goes into the build of a DIY pedal powered generator out of an old car alternator and a bike. This generator is useful for powering your devices and gadgets in case of an emergency or grid down scenario.
The materials you need to build this generator are bike, MDF for base plinth, magnetic trainer stand for bike, Alternator, drive belt, 12V battery, cable connectors, 12V socket, multimeter, screwdriver, insulation tape.
The rear end the bike and rest of the components are mounted on a one inch thick MDF board. This has a good amount of stability that keeps it away from moving around. We add an extension bit on the front. The extra height there just compensates for the fact that the back wheel is in a stand.
The alternator is mounted nice and secure onto the base using brackets. Bolts connect the alternator to the brackets and screw the brackets down to the base. Once you are pedaling, and you have got electrical load in the circuit, there is quite a bit of force pulling the alternator forwards. So it does need to be really securely bolted down.
Make sure that the wheel of the bike is in line with the alternator pulley .With any wheel, we have rim bed and the rim walls. Here what we need is a drive belt that fits purely in the rim bed. Make sure you measure the internal width of the rim bed .
Also measure the width and depth of the alternator pulley grooves and get a belt that fits accordingly . Also make sure you have got a belt that is long enough because a typical drive belt that is used in a car is not going to be long enough because it is only made to go around a pulley on the engine.
The car alternator used here has three wires coming out of them .It has a main power thick output wire, it supplies main power to the devices. Then there is two small cables, one for voltage sensing and the other for field coil ignition. The voltage sensing wire goes straight to the 12V lead acid battery in our case. To get the alternator generating power you first need to apply a small voltage through the field coil and that is because an alternator doesn’t have any permanent magnets in it.
The way that any generating device works is moving either electrical charges through a stationary magnetic field or moving a magnetic field around a charge. So the field coil inside the alternator is attached to the field coil ignition cable, and putting a voltage generates the magnetic field, which enables the alternator to generate power when you turn the shaft via the drive belt. You don’t need to keep applying a voltage to it as it’s running, because it will generate its own power. The negative from the alternator is connected to the negative of the battery.
The positive connection from the alternator is connected to the positive of the battery. The third connection coming from the alternator is the field coil activator .This is connected to a switch .The connection goes back to the alternator to active the field coil.
A standard cigarette lighter socket is connected to the battery terminals. It will draw power off the battery first, and once you start charging power, because the alternator is connected into that, it is going to draw it from the alternator, and the alternator will simultaneously power whatever is connected into that socket, and recharge the battery.
The alternator used here has voltage tolerance of 11 to 14V . A Modular splitter is connected to the cig power socket to charge multiple devices. Make sure that the plug comes with a fuse or whatever you plug in needs to be rated to the right power for what you are going to charge .
To run alternating current devices, we connect a 150W Power inverter to the circuit. The alternator actually generate alternating current. But its got a rectification circuitry built into it, which changes it to DC. The inverter changes the the DC output from the alternator to AC.
Finally ,we add a master switch that switches the battery on.The Power switch stops any drain from the battery through the field coil . The switch also connects the multi sockets that charges various devices. It isolates the battery from the circuit. It isolates the alternator from the circuit, and it isolates the remote switch and the battery from the field coil completely.
The AC generating device like an alternator have a minimum speed of operation in which they are stable. So do check for your alternator, what is the recommended minimum speed for it. If you spend it below that speed, what happens is because of the way it works, you get a periodically varying force which acts as a resistance to your pedaling.
- How to build a Homemade Archimedes Screw Turbine using PVC parts to generate Off the grid Power from a flowing river or stream/creekThis project goes over the build of an Archimedes Turbine that can generate off the grid power from a flowing river or creek. This is basically a screw that turns when water passes through the pipe.
You need a 5 foot farming auger to build this. The farming auger is put inside of a 6 inch pipe and placed in the creek at a certain angle, water would pour into the auger and that water would weigh down that auger and turn it. And so as it turned, it would turn a shaft that is attached to the end of the pipe and run a pulley system with a motor to generate electricity.
We take an old belt sander and shave some of the edges to make it smooth and rotate without any friction inside the pipe.
We use an angle grinder to split the pipe down the middle and use the separator nuts to kind of give more space in the pipe. Make sure you don't split the pipe into two.
Open up enough space on the top by heating the PVC and clamp 2 spacer boards on either side and stretch the opening by using a C clamp.
2 three quarter inch boards are bolted using carriage bolts on either side of the pipe which gives us enough room here to get the auger installed.
Allthreads of size eight and quarter inches are put through the boards and secured in place with the help of some washers and non locking nuts.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqt38fbsQaA - How to build a Simple Homemade Wood Burning Stove heater with Heat Exchanger for your Garage .No Electricity required and Inexpensive…..
This project goes into the build of a homemade wood burning heater with a heat exchanger for your garage . This heater is build from a recycled old propane tank . The other materials you need to build this heater are 55 gallon drum, fan blower, quarter inch steel plates , eighteen 2 inch steel pipes for the heat exchanger, welding unit, plasma cutter.
Before cutting into the propane tank , make sure to clean the tank so that there is no residual gas left in it . Cut both ends of the tank using the plasma cutter. Now we cut a 30 inch length piece from the tank .This acts as a main body where the heat exchanger pipes are installed. The heat exchanger consists of 18 two inch pipes that run the length of the heater from front to back.
Two quarter inch steel plates are welded at the ends of the propane tank . Before doing that we make 18 holes at both the ends of the steel plate. This is done to install the heat exchanger pipes across the length of the tank.
With the help of an eighth inch hardboard, we make a template for cutting the 18 holes out of the steel end plates. The hardboard acts a guide for the plasma cutter to cut the holes.
The pipes for the heat exchanger are cut 31 and half inches long. Half inch sticks out at both the ends of the heater. They are welded to the steel end plates at both ends.
The opening for the door at the end of the heater for the wood intake has a dimension of 16 inch X 12 inch . A similar template is placed on the end plate and the opening is cut using the plasma cutter.
A frame around the door is made using a three quarter inch by three sixteenths inch flat stock .This is used for the door opening and to give the door something to close up against. Hinges are welded near the door opening for attaching the door.
The locking mechanism for the door to hold it shut is made using a flat stock and couple of bolts . The bolts are welded onto the flat stock and attached inside the heater just beside the door . The handle made of a 90 degree round stock is welded to couple of washers and the door is sandwiched in between.
The end plates along with the door is welded onto the body of the heater at both the ends and a hole is made at the top of the propane tank body for installing the flue exhaust pipe.
A small hole is cut near the door and a damper in the form of a simple sliding door is attached to the hole that will control the airflow into the heater.
A section from old 55 gallon steel barrel is cut and welded onto the backside of the heater .An inexpensive fan blower is attached to this 55 gallon drum . This is installed to concentrate the air that is going through the heat exchanger pipes.
The flue pipe is welded onto the top of the heater so that the harmful smoke and gases escape through the exhaust . A grate is placed into the heater through the door opening , wood pieces are introduced and the we start firing the heater. After few minutes , the fire will heat the heat exchanger pipes . The fan blower is turned on and the hot air is blown through the pipes into the garage .
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- How to build a Homemade Micro Wind Turbine for under $50 that can be mounted anywhere
This project goes in the detail on how to build a mini wind turbine..The wind turbine is a nice addition to your solar generator system for times when it’s cloudy and you are not receiving as much sunlight as you normally
First step is to build some cheap PVC blades, what kind of motor we're going to be using and how we're going to attach this to the motor.
We are making six blades or rotors here.What we want to do is we want to cut our PVC pipe to length first.
Once you've got it cut to length, then you want to take your your straight edge again and and Marco line down the center and cut it in half. Make sure that you do that on both sides. One on this side, one on this side. And that they're perfectly in the middle so that you'll get two even sides.
We need to cut a small little block down at the blade end, where we are going to put a drill hole and put a screw through it so that it attaches to the hub.On the top of the blade, we're going to cut away some of the material to resemble a swept wing, kind of at an angle.
These are 14 inch long blades that is attached to the hub using set screws attached to the motor. The 12V motor used here is a 300 RPM geared motor which would be its maximum speed and it produces 600 milliamps when its fully loaded.
The motor is placed inside a One and half inch PVC pipe ,another PVC Tee is connected from where the wires will down to the bottom where another 7 foot pipe that act as the tower or pole.
The end of the pole goes into a shower drain which is then attached to piece of wood that acts a solid base.
For the YAW system at the back end,a tail vane is made of a cheap flashing material that is bolted between an 8 inch piece of PVC.Put a hole through the middle of it with a bolt in between so that it can't move anywhere.
We use an an old OSB for the base, size is about seven inches square. And then I just have a piece of treated lumber on the bottom. It's attached to this ball bearings so it can spin around. The Shower drain PVC is placed in the middle through some ball bearings. Route the wiring down through the hole for to connect to the charge controller.
Next step is the wiring through the piping.We just need to connect these terminals to the appropriate sides of the motor.
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