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Mini Generator

 
 
Reply Thu 28 Jan, 2010 11:47 am
I wonder if you caould help me. my 10 year old is doing a school project and what we (actually its mostly me!) are attempting to prove is that we can light up a bulb using wind energy.

To start with we picked up a personal fan and a flashlight set from the Dollar shop. The plan was to use a the little fan motor as the generator and by using a hairdryer as the wind.. we were hoping to show that the wind spinning the little fan (ie the windmill) can generate light. Using a multimeter we are generating 1.7V bys using the hairdryer to turn the fan. The flashlight bulb requires 1.5V to light.. bu no matter what we try the bulb will not light up.. Can you help?

Thanks

Kevin

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engineer
 
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Reply Thu 28 Jan, 2010 11:52 am
@KevinShawn,
Welcome to A2K!

When you use the multimeter to measure voltage, you are not pulling any significant amount of current. The light bulb requires more current, so the supplied voltage drops. You need to use something that requires less overall power; I suggest an LED. You can get one at Radio Shack for $1.50 or so.
ebrown p
 
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Reply Thu 28 Jan, 2010 04:10 pm
@engineer,
I agree with engineer.

After you get that working, it would be interesting to use the multimeter to measure how much power you are generating. You need a resistor, then you hook the meter up in series (i.e. so that the current will run through the meter).

I wonder how many of these generators you would need to see light coming from the original bulb.
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