Solar powered generator (DIY)

[tesco]

I'm pretty sure Christmas lights have rectifiers, since commercial led can't run on AC.

You might be right, but I'd imagine an LED could run on AC just fine. It would only light on the positive part of the cycle, hence the flickering.

Its not about what they can do, its about what they can sell. The more the power you need more capacitors you will have to add to keep it stable but this is not the real problem. The big problem of the LED lights are the heating, some models even come with a small fan embedded in them. You can notice shape of the backside of the lamb, its designed to get air in. Pulling enough power to light up the place while not create enough heat to destroy the components are quite a challenge.

They use heatsinks, detale's specialty. He'll have water cooler LED lights in no time.

[Expeto]

You are right , after all LED = Light Emitting Diode, a diode, main component of rectifier, any led on AC will work as an half wave rectifier

A solar powered LED bulb cooled by water, that's what I call green!
edit: just remembered water cooling systems used some inductive oil , still sound cools

[Cipher]

interesting thread, think im going to have to look into all this again. did alot of research a few years ago when was thinking about putting in a water turbine, but at time just wasnt cost effective for the amount of electricity generated. i guess now designs have improved and hopefully prices have come down abit. maybe more worthwhile now.

[iLOVENZB]

When I have more time I'll take a look at this: http://www.gotwind.org/diy/Preliminary_Plans.htm