[Turtle]

Well, I am certainly no electrical engineer.... or mechanical engineer... or even the sort of engineer who drives trains.....

I suppose, in theory, all you need is a way to spin the armature enough to generate electricity. I have no idea how much torque you might need, but one assumes that it would be possible to multiply whatever manual power you are putting in to it through a series of gears. I'm sure some geek could give you the ratios needed to measure what speed it would have to turn in order to generate the necessary power, and from there it would be a matter of measuring how fast your impeller would have to turn. Then, find what gear ratio you would need to make those two numbers work.

Now, with all of that said.... It may be more reliable (and ultimately cheaper) to just buy a wind turbine. If you are jerry-rigging a hodge-podge of mechanisms together, how much can you really trust it, as opposed to a system which is designed for that purpose? I'm not saying that you shouldn't try it, just some food for thought.

 

[Turtle]

Instead of trying to make it work on a wind turbine, you could consider hooking it to a water-wheel (if that is possible) that has a steady flow - a transmission to bring the armature up to the required speed and then you should be good.

Wind is very sporadic in most places - here where I live it goes from 0 to 120km/h (80mph) - right now it is calm, very calm outside. A few days ago I was riding my motorbike through tornado winds to get home. Found out why my bike was leanin' at 45° to the ground when I got home - three seperate tornado's touched down that day ... :gaah:

Oooh, good call. Much more dependable source.