Connected fan to a voltmeter and rotated the wings of the fan; at peak it showed 200 V AC. can anyone justify?

Question

i connected the two-pins of an electric fan to a voltmeter. when i rotated its wings, it showed 200V AC at peak.when i touched the ends of the two-pins and rotated it, it gave shock. what can be done with the voltage generated? can this be used to light a bulb?? can this be used to charge a battery?
can this be converted to DC to light a 3V bulb used in torch??
please help

Answer 1

The fan was connected only to the voltmeter, right? Not to a source of voltage, right? How, then, did you rotate the blades? By blowing on them?

If the fan was connected to a 200V source, then of course your voltmeter showed 200V.

If you can blow hard enough to generate 200V, you can use your fan to light up your whole town. If you can suck with that much force also, you are welcome at my house any time.

Answer 2

As you spin the fan motor, the magnets and coils create an alternating current Field. The size and configuration of the motor determines how much voltage it can create. When you test it with a voltmeter, it measures the true voltage. A voltmeter measures with accuracy by having a very high impedance, compared to the very low impedance of the motor.

If you put a standard load on the end of the wires, such as a 100 watt standard light bulb, the voltage applied across it will try to illuminate the bulb. The faster you spin it, the more AC current it will provide for the bulb. Never will you illuminate the bulb very brightly, if at all. In order to provide enough power you would have to spin the motor very fast.

You could in a sense harness this energy, just like a windmill does and use it to charge a battery. It would have to be rectified to DC voltage. You can build a simple rectifier with some diodes.

Answer 3

hmm
it much depends what size this fan is. from what i figured you now have plans to let it windmill and act as a generator.

while you put your voltmeter to it it measured 200Volt peak
this was without anything connected to it except the voltmeter.
if you put something into the circuit i could imagine the voltage is going to break together to a much lower value.
unfortunatly the voltage will not be that much stable to have a controlled value without having a regulator attached. So its hard to say what you can drive with your new selfmade generator.
i would start experimenting around with different light-bulbs and see how it works, while being a little prepared not having invented the ultimate power-source for your home

Answer 4

hay when you plug the fan in it then works on ac currant. you say that when you turn the fan blades it is putting out 200volts ac, it must be a 220volts ac fan(Europe/ Asia) in the U.S. it will be 110 volts ac. you can indeed use the motor as a generator as long as you can turn the fan blades continually. you can also use a transformer to run dc power 12v 6v 3v have fun experimenting be careful make sure that any devises are rated for 220 volts ac