12v vacume motors for wind generators?

[strider3700]

 Canadian tire is selling off some little car vacumes for $10 each.  Since they plug into the 12V power on the car I'm assuming the motors in them are DC.   Does anyone know if the motor is worth playing with to try with a really small setup,   say a 4 or 6 ft turbine?    I'm in a crappy wind area and hoping to save some money while playing.

[Nando]

You would do better if you go to a car junk yard and buy a car or truck radiator fan motor which is capable of producing several watts.

Truck's is best

If you are in a low wind speed area, you need to make a small blade for the motor at hand, after testing the motor to determine the voltage output versus RPM,then to calculate the RPM with your wind available and with the proper TSR to attain the desired RPM.

Nando

[Norm]

  As Nando sez.. or a car heater blower motor ...

not quite as good as a truck radiator fan....

but will put out about 4 volts (open voltage) at

about 700 rpm.

  A driven thru the chuck end of a cordless drill

gives excellent results...altho it might not last

long.

                ( :>) Norm.

[disaray1]

  Also check out some mid eighties Mercedes Benz big body sedan fan motors...look for the twin fan set up. These were quite strong. With the car OFF,  just spin one motor with a finger, and it's sister would turn at almost the same speed from the current made by the first. Avoid sticking your finger into one while it's running.

 Stubby.

[Nando]

I just remembered that the Cadillacs do have Brushless air conditioning fan blowers, I do not remember when they started to have them ( year) though I think that you may get them now.

They may produce better voltage

Nando

[ghurd]

They are probably the kind without magnets. Very high speed too.

Look into the end, see if there are windings moving as the fan turns. That is bad.

G-

[ghurd]

That got my attention!

I made a few phone calls.  This is all hearsay.

Cadillac started using them about '93 or '94.

Then in '96 something changed in the engine compartment.  The sparkplug wires get 'leaky' at about 70,000 miles, then the brain in the blower motor gets cooked by the sparkplug wires.

I'm told it is a major problem for '96 "and up", and quite common.

Not sure how far "and up" includes.

For our purposes the brain is not needed anyway. Just like in ECMs.

Maybe the dealer often has a couple fried ones lying around?

I was told anything 'new' was first tried in Oldsmobiles, and there is a good chance that similar Olds may have the same motor, maybe a Toranado, maybe starting about '90.

And a new blower motor for a '97 Caddy was "well over $300" 2 years ago.  The first one died at 80,000 miles, at the exact moment a spark plug wire went bad.

They don't think Buick is using them, unless they started "recently".

G-