Anyone have any thoughts on the Harbor Freight generators....(inside)

[kelvin_cool_ohm]

I'm curious about the Chicago Electric motorless generators
including the PTO ones. I want to run one from a waterwheel.

Anyone?

TIA

Rick

 

[You]

How do you plan to gear the waterwheel up to drive the generator at 3600
RPM and govern it at that speed to stabilize the output frequency?
Likely easier to use truck alternators to generate DC, charge a battery
and feed an inverter.

Pete C.

Simply that PTO dirven Generators have an input Shaft speed of 540 Rpm.
which is then geared up to the appropriate syncronus Rpm for the
generator design. Just about any FARMER knows that PTO shaft speeds
are 540 Rpm.......

 

[[email protected]]

Pete:

This 30 RPM has enough torque ?

I have a small stream running in my property and I am thinking to generate
some electric power outta it. Stream is not big but run year round. Fall is
probably 5-6 inches and depth is between 1-8 inches and width is at one
point around 7 ft and other point it is just 2 ft. I was thinking to built
a small dam kinda thing where stream height is 1-8 inches. Flow of water is
slow. I have no idea what RPM I will get and how much torque it will
generate. I have couple of PM DC motors sitting with different power output
.....sounds like gotta try one by one.

 

[kelvin_cool_ohm]

I have one of those "HF generators" (actually made in Italy), the 15kw
peak, 10kw continuous version. Built a 10kw diesel generator around
it. It's OK for that application but would suck for micro-hydro. The
diesel's governor is significantly more advanced spinning the unloaded
generator than it is running 2800 RPM without the generator belted to
it. Not the least of the energy demand is the big-assed fan attached
to the rotor shaft inside the front cover.

"significantly more advanced"? As in:

"shoving the throttle a lot harder to turn the unloaded generator than
is needed to turn the motor at the same speed with no load at all"

or

"shoving the throttle a lot harder to turn the unloaded generator than
is needed to run the motor almost wide open with no load at all"

?

Rick

 

[Mike Swift]

I'm curious about the Chicago Electric motorless generators
including the PTO ones. I want to run one from a waterwheel.

Anyone?

TIA

Rick

Harbor Freight units are the same ones you see on cheap packaged
generators at CostCo or Walmart. All of the ones I have seen are
resonant field units, and can have problems with motor loads. This is
not as much a problem when driven from a water wheel as you will need an
active load to keep the output at 60 Hz, or 50 Hz as the case may be.
Most cheap units are 2 pole, and must run at 3600 RPM. For a water wheel
turning 20 RPM you will need to make up a drive system with about a
180/1 ratio. This drive will have to be efficient, reliable, and low
maintenance. The ideal generator would be a 4 or 6 pole unit with an
active regulator that would have voltage track RPM up to the design
output frequency. This unit may cost two to three times what the HF
units cost.

 

[Mike]

Pete:

This 30 RPM has enough torque ?

I have a small stream running in my property and I am thinking to generate
some electric power outta it. Stream is not big but run year round. Fall is
probably 5-6 inches and depth is between 1-8 inches and width is at one
point around 7 ft and other point it is just 2 ft. I was thinking to built
a small dam kinda thing where stream height is 1-8 inches. Flow of water is
slow. I have no idea what RPM I will get and how much torque it will
generate. I have couple of PM DC motors sitting with different power output
....sounds like gotta try one by one.

6 inches head will generate 3/8 of 1/5 of bugger all. For driving
slow moving machinery it *might* just work, for practical electricity
generation forget it.

Can't you dam further upstream and thus generate a much bigger head?



--