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Forum Index : Windmills : Inventive wire. Will it work?
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arpolis Newbie  Joined: 04/08/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 26 |
Hello there to the masses! I am always looking into ways to recycle and have come across an interesting idea. First thing is that all coils for windmills I have put together are made from magnet wire. 14 or 17 gauge wire. All magnet wire is, is copper and insulation so this logical thinking leads to my question. Individual phone wires are just solid copper with a bit different type of insulation so could you use that instead of magnet wire? I did a small scale bench test to see what I could get out of some phone wire. I made some small coils with a 24 gauge single strand of phone wire at about 35 turns and only an inch in diameter, which is about 6' of wire. Using some N42 1/4" X 1/16" disc magnets stacked 2 thick. Should have been 3.2lb of pull force. I arranged them in 6 stacks alternating poles. Hooked up to my multimeter I got .06V at 25amps when using my 24V cordless drill to spin the magnets past the coil. Should have been at around 500 RPMs. I understand that these conditions do not mimick windmill conditions but this was just to test the limits of the wire with what little I curently have on hand. If I wanted to go full scale and build a 48v windturbine I would think 3 strands at 140 turns with this phone line would equal a bit more wire than the normally used 17 gauge wire for this aplication. Any one ever try using something like this or am I just crazy? Will it work? Well lick your fingers and touch the two leeds. PZZZZZZZT |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Hi arpolis, welcome to the site. Magent wire is copper wire with a very thin layer of enamel to insulate it. The enamel coated wire has 3 advantages over conventional plastic coated wire. First up, the enamel is bonded to the copper, its wont slide off. In a alternator/motor, the copper wires are constantly being pushed around by the changing magnet fields, so having a insulation that wont slip is good. Secondly, the enamel has a higher temperature rating than conventional plastic, and it can get very hot inside a coil. Lastly, the enamel coating is very thin, so you can get more copper into a coil than you would if you used a plastic coated wire. The phone wire is good for other stuff, like wiring up circuit boards or making little inductors, but not for anything thats going to get hot. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| arpolis Newbie Joined: 04/08/2010 Location: United StatesPosts: 26 |
Thanks for the reply Gizmo Now this was just a passing thought and I guess I had a blond moment and didn't even think about tempature. You are absolutly right about the the phone wire. Now that I think about it a large set of coils would probably get hot enough to melt the plastic lol. Well I guess I was a bit crazy on thinking this but my father is a forman for a construction group and came across a lot of phone line that was going to be thrown away. So I started dreaming up all sorts of crazy ideas  . Thanks again!Will it work? Well lick your fingers and touch the two leeds. PZZZZZZZT |
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