Monday, January 4, 2010

Found Treasures

I asked my wife to be on the lookout for free treadmills about a month or so ago. The only response I got from her was that raised eye brow look so I just dropped it. This weekend while geocaching she surprised me. Driving down a old country road she yells, "Treadmill, stop!!" I slammed on the breaks, backed right up to it and threw it in the truck. Last night at 8:30 PM she yelled "Free tread mill on Craig's list" so off we went.
I tested both of them today they work like a champ. I can say I am a little surprised that what I said really stuck in her brain. I always thought whatever I said lasted as long as a snow flake in August.


These two treadmills will be the hub of electricity for the green house and the animal barn. They have a 90 & 95 VDC permanent magnet motor with 6" hubs and should produce about 1 to 4 amps in a 20 mph wind and max out at about 10 amps. I have read the best motor to use is a 260 VDC that produces about 7 amps in a 30 mph wind but those are hard to find for free. With the amount of occasional power I need, these two will charge the battery bank with no problem. I wonder if I could find some deep cycled lead acid batteries for free?

1 comment:

  1. Dang, she's good at that.
    I might need to borrow her sometime.
    :)

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