I was at a lawn to lunch meeting recently and Alison showed me some photos of a wind turbine that Frank had built from some old truck parts and a washing machine motor.It’s an early version that is putting out about 150 watts and is being used to charge the water pumps batteries.
Not all washing machine motors can be used for power generation but you can commonly find usable motors in smart drive systems such as the Fisher and Paykel models and many LG washers. There are lots of instructions on the web about how to wire these motor correctly to allow you to generate 12 or 24 volt outputs.
I think Alison's one is an awesome reuse of recyclable parts although the weight of the axle and differential used may be bleeding a lot of power from the unit.
In this case the turbine generates enough power for it’s intended purpose and cost little to build so the end result is an excellent solution.I was at the dump recently and there was a F and P washer sitting in the recycle section. I had a chat to the guy working there and he let me take it away for the princely sum of $5 dollars so building a wind turbine has now found it’s way onto my extensive to-do list!
Greg Rutter
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