Ceiling Fan Motor Conversion

[Artofconfusion]

So, can a ceiling fan motor be used as a generator? Short answer is "not really", however I have been doing some experimenting and can get some voltage out the one I have.

First off, there are no magnets in the motor I have, so just spinning it produces no voltage. I have dissembled it and added some magnets ( photos to come ) and now I see voltage when I spin it. Better than nothing, but because the coils are wrapped around steel to make the stator, the magnets now cause considerable drag.

I put a makeshift Savonius wind turbine on it and it will spin under wind power, however it never gets going fast enough to light up the LEDs. I also had to use only 4 magnets ( there are 16 coils ) otherwise there was so much magnetic drag that the wind could not spin it.