Did you know you can turn a PC Fan into a Wind Turbine?

technium (58)in #howto • 8 years ago (edited)

You can easily turn your old PC case and heatsink fans into Wind Generators that can easily power things like Raspberry Pis and Microcontrollers like Arduinos

I learned about this earlier last year when I got working with electronics and I think its much more available then solar panels are, while also being a great way to recycle old PC parts for new projects, and it's way easier than you may think.

All you have to do is unwind the + and - wires that connect to the power source, and connect them properly to whatever it is you want to power, and then find a way for wind or another kinetic energy source to spin the fan.

It's that easy. There are some fans (none that I encountered in my spare PC parts ranging from 2009-2016 parts) that require you to short a controller component known as a diode that forces power to flow in one direction, but it is very simple to do if needed.

On a relatively small CPU Heatsink fan that I use this method on, it easily powered my Arduino Uno, my Raspberry Pi Zero, and my raspberry pi 3, with some USB devices attached. You can even spin or crank the fan manually, and it will generate plenty of power for one of those, and you can also use this same method to recharge batteries and other electrical storage devices.

One last thing I want to say about this is that it can be incredibly useful to recycle energy that is already being used indoors (as weatherizing is an issue you will probably run into leaving these outside), like one of the videos describes, which I think is a great way to make every bit of energy you consume go even further. Also, you may want to create a component attached to your wind generator called a voltage or charge controller if you rely on a a sensitive device not receiving too much or too little power as well :)

Basically the rest of this post is a compilation of links explaining (some in video some in text/image) how to do it in detail.

PC Fan Wind Generator

Computer Case Fan Wind Generator

Instructable: Turning PC Fan into Wind Turbine in 10 minutes. http://www.instructables.com/id/Old-PC-Fan-Wind-Turbine-in-10-Minutes/

LifeHacker: Turn Old PC Fan Into Battery-Recharging Wind Turbine http://lifehacker.com/5677756/turn-old-pc-fans-into-battery-recharging-wint-turbines

Using Home-Made Wind Turbine to Recycle Energy

Free Energy. How to Power LED with Fan

DIY PC-Fan Windgenerator

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#video #science #renewable #electronics