Mini Wind Turbine

Prompted by the @campforums founder, I am doing a small thread on a mini wind turbine that I am working on. Keep in mind, this is a work in progress and I have not fully got it together as of yet.

I started out with the fan blades of a mini fan I got out of an old computer and I am attaching it to a bicycle generator. Then I am attaching it to a solar battery pack made of 4 AA solar or rechargeable batteries that I made by just taping them together with electrical tap leaving only the tops and bottoms exposed. I am attaching the generator to them using the wires I pulled from a couple of OHM meters we had laying around. I would show you pictures of what I got so far, but I have no way to take pictures at the moment and it is not put together yet. This is just what my plan is. Batteries will go inside the windup flashlight and the fan with generator attaches to the bottom of the flashlight so your hands does not interfere with the fan. Problem is the computer fan is too big. Need to find a smaller fan.

As I said, I'm still working on it.

 

Maybe I'm not reading this right either. I'm curious how a fan that size is going to turn the generator. The physical resistance to turning them can actually be felt when pedaling. It's slight on a bike but asking a lot from a small fan...

 

I am lost on this one, too. I thought that Kimberly meant that she was going to charge the batteries by riding the bike, and the bike generator was attached to the batteries, and then the batteries would run the fan maybe?

But, if that is the case, why put the batteries in a wind-up flashlight ? Is the winding of the flashlight charging the batteries, or the bike generator , or am I just totally off-track with this? Mechanical stuff is just not one of my forte's, not at all. I am trying to picture the sequence in my mind; but it is not working.

 

...I'm just lost.

 

Gee thanks. I didn't have enough parts stores bookmarked. Now I gotta go spend more money I don't have.

 

Here are some of the sites I've dealt with for putting together camping (and other) whatchamahoogees:

• http://flexpvc.com/
• http://www.pvcfittings.com/
• http://www.onlinemetals.com/index.cfm
• http://www.powerwerx.com/
• http://www.uscargocontrol.com/

 

Like I said, I'm still trying to figure it out. Plus, where I live... the winds are pretty strong. Just today it was 38 mph and that is considered a breeze here. LOL

 

....I was thinking about you today - happy to see you on line.