Talk:Cow Power

This looks really ingenious! --Tomhannen 16:50, 3 January 2008 (EST)

Alternators

Great stuff Arjun. How are you ‘starting’ the alternator? Are you using a car battery or one of the laptops to put a current through the field coil?

Also how is a voltage being fed back to the alternator to regulate the output?

You’ll find some really practical advice regarding alternators on this webpage. JoshSeal 14:05, 4 January 2008 (EST)

Thanks Josh. The alternator is starting from the same car battery that is getting charged from the Alternator. Earlier we wanted to charge the laptops directly when we were using the dynamo in our aim to avoid using a battery. Now since we have changed over to an alternator, we are using the same car battery to start the alternator as the same one which we charge. We subsequently charge the XOs from the car battery. This also saves us having to put expensive copper wires from the generation area to an area where the XOs are getting charged. Also, the car alternators have a built in output regulation and rectification mechanism. --Arjs 15:22, 4 January 2008 (EST)

Excess Power

In many systems where power is being produced and recharging batteries a diversion load is required to prevent overcharging of batteries. A diversion load is basically a big heating coil which dissipates excess energy. Is something like this required for alternators? JoshSeal 14:05, 4 January 2008 (EST)