Micro Generation at Home

This is a 3 day course
Day 1
Designed for people with a desire to implement practical micro-generation systems or those who wish to improve their knowledge of the fundamental principals behind such systems. We will be covering the basic principles including the fundamentals of electricity and the electronics required to understand and implement small scale generation based on rotational generators (suitable for connection to windmills, waterwheels etc.) Course notes will be supplied.

There will be some ‘Lab time’ learning to use Digital Multi-meters (DMM) to identify and measure the value of various components. An understanding of the topics covered in day one will be necessary for the following two days.

Day 2
Day two will cover up-cycling of existing equipment, such as automotive alternators, motors and dynamos, for Micro-Generation. Also understanding the matching of available energy (wind strength and rotor size or water head and flow) to load and storage/usage options. There will be more practical work in this day.

Day 3
Day three will cover the designing and building of permanent magnet generators from scratch. Those attending will build a small hand cranked demonstration generator which they will take away with them.
This day will focus predominantly on practical work, although some initial theory will be covered.