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I've looked up plenty of videos and they are either totally different or seem too complicated. Does anyone here know the simplest way to make these old radiator fans charge a battery? I've already got them wired to power the blades but I need the opposite.

Just go pull some alternators. They output way more power and sometimes have built in regulators.

I do not know how to get a fan to charge. It can be done. Theoretically the fan spinning in the wind should create a charge so I guess you'd have to capture this charge and deposit it into a battery without the charge of the battery turning the motor. Maybe a diode of some sort, so that the current will only flow one way.

I'm assuming you're working with DC. Hold on a minute, I'll draw up a diagram.

[Try this maybe.](https://oyvei.raccoons.space/2024/09/05/736231389bace27942f78cec2a851f82.png)

All motors work on the same premise. There is an electrical coil.


In electrical fans, power is applied to the electrical coil to induce the load. The load creates a magnetical force that turns the shaft on the fan.


To use a fan for generation, a power supply like wind must be first applied to the fan blades to spin the shaft. On the shaft will be an electrical coil. Magnets must then be applied around the coil so that when it spins, it induces current that can be sent somewhere else.

If you spin the motors with a voltmeter, you should be able to see DC volts. These are probably permanent magnet DC motors so the only way to regulate the voltage will be how fast you spin the motors. If you can't get enough, you can wire the motors in series to double the voltage output. The easiest thing would be to get a buck boost converter that outputs around 14 volts to charge your battery.

I wouldn’t think that would work too well unless you were on a coastline or by some mountains, where there’s a constant strong breeze you could use to spin the fans almost all the time and fast enough to produce the electricity you’d need to charge a battery. I saw a dude in Australia who used an old motor from a washing machine, with a nigger rigged water wheel on the axel, he then went almost to the top of this hill where a small stream was, and diverted stream water from there through piping down to his trailer, where the water rushed rapidly through his water wheel…that setup reliably powered his entire trailer for about 3 years before the bearings in his motor/alternator finally gave out and had to be replaced.

Are you trying to use it as a windmill of sorts?

A diode is like a check valve for electricity

Pretty sure you'll need some kind of alternator in there somewhere...