I need planes on how to build a generator from an electric motor. I am wanted to use a 16 HP Power Diesel tractor motor. Can any one help?
You have already half of the generator equipment, your driver is the 16HP diesel engine all you need is get from a junk yard a generator no larger than 8 KW and a universal joint (check Lovejoy joint) to connect the respective shafts. Depending of what you get, your output will be AC or DC, if it is AC then you have enough power to light a house and feed some domestic artifacts as refrig, water pump, and small ac unit, until you reach the total capacity. If is DC then all you can do is use it as a welder or some similar equipment. Be sure to make a control panel to start, and control performance of the engine, RPM, cooling water temp, oil pressure, etc. also for the generator voltmeter, amperemeter and a battery charger to maintain enough charge to crank the engine, also to include sensors to detect voltage drops as the load is incresed, in order to maintain constant voltage through RPM modulation.
With a permanent magnet DC motor (like from a battery powered toy) this will work fine. An AC motor is less likely to work, in normal operation the magnetic field that makes an AC motor work is produced by the electricity going into it, so if no power is going into it there is no magnetic filed to make it act as a generator, actually there might be a little stray magnetism or there are methods of getting it started with a pulse of external power, but the PM DC motor will be easiest . In short,yes you can use a motor for a generator but not just any motor
well, we still need a litle more info to give a really correct answer. do you want to generate single phase or three phase power? is it safe to assume this will NOT be connected to the power grid .... that is it will be used to generate power or emergency power and not to generate power to sell back to the power company. -------------------------- the reason for these questions is that most AC motors CANNOT be operated as a generator , except for one special type called a 'synchronous machine' its called a machine insead of a motor because it can operate as a motor or a generator. these machines are fairly expensive, and not that easy to find. a three phase snchronous machine of this size would certainly be a possibility. however, i dont believe a single phase machine of this size is even possible? and if it was, would be extremely rare. now, there is an exception ... induction motors can be used as generators as long as they are connected to the power grid. simply put, u connect the motor and turn it on ... then try to force it to go faster than it want to with an outside prime mover (like an engine). (a rude and crude method at best) i personally would look seriously into purchasing the 'electrical portion of the generator set (a la carte, they are really quite reasonable) and coupling it to your nice diesel. the engine really is the most expensive part of the deal. look at the northern tool website. and do belt coupling if you want it to be fast and easy. hope this helps
I think you would have trouble finding a large enough DC electric motor to satisfy this. Its voltage output would also be somewhat undecided, and unregulated. The potential output from 16 HP is about 9.5 kva, assuming 80% efficiency.
