I'm in the habit of stripping things down before getting rid of them - it drives my wife crazy. That means I've got, amongst other things, motors from household appliances such as a washing machine and a tumble dryer.
I'd like to use one of these as a simple wind powered generator. We're near the coast and almost always have a decent breeze.
My questions are: How do I regulate the power out of the motor when used to generate? I'm ex-navy and remember the greenies discussing over-voltage and over-current protection, but am not sure where to start building either of those circuits.
I'm aware that I'll have to store the energy somehow and am considering 12v car (van, more likely) batteries for this before using the power available. For the moment, though, I'm just looking at the generation side of things.
I've done some searching online, but many of the things which come up are either commercial units (I don't want a black box, I want to understand what I'm using) or the whole things seem, for want of a better word, dodgy.
Could anyone point me in the right direction, please. I'm very happy to do my research and reading (then come back here for advice on what I've learned), just need a pointer to get me started.
Searches for "over voltage protection circuit" come up with many results showing a 5v supply, my suspicion is that I'm going to have a few volts more than that.