>> A windmill starts to sound attractive ;-)
>
> There was a 4 part series of articles in Silicon Chip that used a 
> washing machine motor.
>
> http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_103233/article.html

That uses a floppy drive stepper motor as the alternator.
While they only give you part of the first page and no details at all,
The original creator's more complete description seems to be here -

        http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/assemblyMini1.asp

Reads ... - not as flash as it sounded, but a good guide to what can 
be dome easily. Power level is about what I had in mind. An auto fan 
has the advantage of being mechanically complete and environmentally 
prepared for the task at hand - as it spends its life sitting in an 
airflow.

Plus quite a  few other of his more powerful windmills here

        http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/AssemblyA.asp


I also looked at using "muffin fans" including those used as CPU 
coolers. Their main annoyance is they all seem to have 'saliency' - ie 
they magnetically locate to a series of fixed positions and need non 
zero force to rotate them under no load. With high wind speeds this is 
no great problem but it sets a lower wind speed that will turn them. 
They could be 'adjusted" to have no saliency if desired but for 
starters finding something that works well already is better.

________________

Here's one of his readers who has been converting Fisher & Paykel 
"smartdrive" rotors to produce more power. Using two F&P rotors on a 
single shaft he's getting 40+ amps at 12v. He is also adding rare 
earth magnets to another version for several times the original output

        http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/Articles/MattLyons.asp

The dual rotor unit gives him up to 50 amp-hours/day in 3 m/s winds.




            RM 

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