Golf Cart Motor To Wind Turbine?

[brucey]

So I'm finishing up some projects now and looking for new ones to keep my mind busy when I'm not working. It's the circle of life and came across my Curtis AC 12 cleaning out storage. It's an AC Induction motor with regeneration abilities used on golf carts.

So since it's already set up to generate power, could I just stick it on a tower with a tail and some blades and have it generate household (110v) power? Or could I use it to power a battery bank? I also have a few thousand watt inverters I could use. Would really just have to buy the batteries.

[ecomodded]

I think it will work great, the problem with most ac motors is they require high RPM's to generate a significant amount of power.
Most ac motors run at 1000 to 2000 rpm and if are not spun quick enough they will make next to no power.
I doubt a golf cart would have a high rpm motor, it should be stamped on the plate.
It will work best with batteries in conjunction with a AC/DC converter. The batteries will be your reserve.

[brucey]

Would a gear reduction system work? I already have the motor set up for running a car belt as it was part of my E-Charger build. I could just get a big pulley made for the rotors and reduce it as needed uses a serpentine belt.

[Ryland]

Is it a regular motor with a shaft or does it have a female splined socket?

If you want a gear box driven wind turbine I'll trade you a wind charger wind turbine for that motor and controller, it will be a lot less work for you and I'll put that motor and controller to good use.

That motor should be spinning around 3,000 to 4,000 RPM to produce any usable power and you want a rotor speed closer to 400 to 500 RPM and the larger you go the slower you want it.