What have done towards your prep?

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(16 March 2018, 19:15)Mortblanc Wrote:

(14 March 2018, 23:57)Straight Shooter Wrote: Back to the drawing board then LS....i will not waste any time on it ....but i will have another well out of the rerouting.....happy days !.........many thanks MB and LS .

There is hope for your set up. I have seen it work, but one has to know the rate of spin and use the pulleys and belts to best advantage. Most alternators are set up to charge with the engine at idle, which is only 650-750 rpm on most vehicles.

Simply measure the diameter of the main pulley wheel on the crankshaft and the diameter of the pulley wheel on the alternator. It is simple to work the math to equal those ratios using the water flow or wind velocity you have on hand to force the alternator wheel to turn at a rate equal to engine idle speed.

My little lawn mower engine was turning about 500 rpm and using an 18" wheel did the trick for me. A small fast moving stream might require a one or two meter waterwheel.

See why people decide to go solar?

That was exactly the math I did MB.

The alternative is to purchase an old 12v dynamo and regulator. But SS was looking for a free of charge way to re-purpose the old alternator that he had to hand.

Cost of dynamo and regulator is around £100 over here, For that money he could purchase a complete cycle wheel with weatherproofed dynohub. That would be good to go immediately he found a way to drive it from the stream. Output is a flea-power 6v x 3w so 6v batteries to capture the charge would also be needed. This all adds up to a fairly expensive setup...