Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Hello everyone. I'm Tim. Arlington Washington state. Cleaning the barn. I ran 32 volt DC from 1976 until about 2005. Ran a few Windchargers for several years. I have more water than wind....adapted that Windcharger four pole generator to hydro.

Its great to have another experienced windcharger user on the forum. Welcome and please post pics of your machines.

Hello Mike.... I'm cleaning the barn. I ran 32 dc when all you could find were vibrating points inverters. About 1985 I had a Trace Three step inverter at 32 dc. Had three houses on that Windcharger and hooked houses in series for nominal 96 vdc. Eventually had three cb boxes and three voltages. By 2000 I started 24 dc and Trace modified sine wave. By 2010 I made the big changeover to a full sine wave inverter.
That Windcharger four pole generator I took off the tower and hooked up to a Pelton wheel. I was getting a lot of power.. 800 watts and had to drill the back of the generator shaft and mount a cooling fan . Water power is consistent but the visual effect of the windcharger is more impressive

This goes back to 1977. I had a three legged tower of cedar poles. Martin Jopp was still around and gave me a lot of help. My first generator was a Windcharger 500 watt. That used the great four pole generator but with a eight ft prop. The generator shaft came from the back of the case and directly drove the gen. When I went to the 850 Watt I modified the snow shovel governor. Really, I bypassed it with solid lead to keep the balance. On night a storm came through and the machine is got going so fast in shorted the slip rings and sent a sheet of flame downwind. I'll see what I can do for pictures

The 500 and 600W Wincharger models are pretty unique. The 8’ prop isn’t common and they also had an internal drum brake on the back of the generator. I haven’t heard the governor referred to as a snow shovel before but it’s definitely appropriate. Much has been written about Martin Jopp and I’ve met a few folks that knew him. I have a re wound dodge starter generator with a hand crank and light bulb that sat on his store counter as a demonstrator. It sits on an aluminum frame he cast in his foundry. Jopp wired houses with voltage on so he would know right away if it was wired correctly. He was one of the more interesting characters in wind electric history.

Great Stories. Glad to have you onboard.

I need a pass along. 32 VDC was my house current for many years. Anything that made 32dc I had. I've got four DELCO light plants and parts to get rid of. There are Delco collectors... And a few hit and miss.....how do I find them

I'm trying to get pictures from the cell phone to the post

I’d suggest local engine shows or advertise here and smokstak.com. Could also list on eBay with local pickup only. If you have 32v appliances, ebay, more collectors interested in those.