$200 wind turbine?

[Chris]

Tell me what you think. I am not mechanically inclined.

The Green Toolman - DIY Expert of Green Solutions

 

[Charles_Main]

Looks cool but I do not see anywhere where it says how much power it produced.

 

[Chris]

Check out the video of the wind turbine in action...

Earth4Energy.com - Create electricity at home - renewable energy. Make a windmill and solar power system

 

[Tech_Esq]

Looks cool but I do not see anywhere where it says how much power it produced.

To give you an idea, this link is for a wind turbine that produces 2.5 KW of electricity sustainergy - Wind systems from Sustainergy

Ok so what? What's that mean? Well, on my boat I'm currently using a 3.0 KW Westerbeke generator. With that I can power almost everything on my boat. I can run a small Air conditioning system, lights, small refrigerator, radios, outlets for laptops or TVs and a microwave oven. I cannot run the AC and the water heater or the electric stove at the same time. So, 2.5 KW will do roughly the same.

The $200 project does less than that. That said, if you can hook up a free (to operate) do-hickey and have it cut your electric bill, more power to you!

 

[Charles_Main]

To give you an idea, this link is for a wind turbine that produces 2.5 KW of electricity sustainergy - Wind systems from Sustainergy

Ok so what? What's that mean? Well, on my boat I'm currently using a 3.0 KW Westerbeke generator. With that I can power almost everything on my boat. I can run a small Air conditioning system, lights, small refrigerator, radios, outlets for laptops or TVs and a microwave oven. I cannot run the AC and the water heater or the electric stove at the same time. So, 2.5 KW will do roughly the same.

The $200 project does less than that. That said, if you can hook up a free (to operate) do-hickey and have it cut your electric bill, more power to you!

Sound then with a couple of them you could probably power your hole house, not bad.

 

[Jeepers]

You would need a battery bank and DC wiring... I've been running the numbers and havent been able to configure a system for under 2k..

 

[Chris]

You would need a battery bank and DC wiring... I've been running the numbers and havent been able to configure a system for under 2k..

Why would you need batteries?

Here in Virginia the utility is required to buy power from you, so your meter just runs backwards.

 

[Charles_Main]

Here in Virginia the utility is required to buy power from you, so your meter just runs backwards.

You would only need batteries if you wanted to be off the grid completely. If you stayed on the grid you would not need any. You would simply use power off the grid when the wind was not blowing enough to generate power, and at those times you generated more power than you need, you could get the Power company to buy the extra power. As I under stand it that is Law in most places.

Keep in mind however that this is just and fancy advertisement for a wind mill. I would not just accept everything it says about the product at face values.

 

[Jeepers]

Wind generators do not provide a steady stream of electricity.. They work as a trickle charger but you will still need capture the energy in batteries. I 've not heard of a direct AC generator either... You would need to convert the stored power from DC to AC unless you were going to wire the house in DC.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Wind generators do not provide a steady stream of electricity.. They work as a trickle charger but you will still need capture the energy in batteries. I 've not heard of a direct AC generator either... You would need to convert the stored power from DC to AC unless you were going to wire the house in DC.

You're right. In my research, if you were going to go off-grid, you would need a bank of batteries to charge to take advantage of all the electricity you produce from all your sources (Solar, wind and micro-hydro). You would need to size the battery bank to roughly 4x the size of the required load so that you never allow your batteries to dip below 50% charge (deep cycle which reduces the life of the battery). If you can keep your charge in the 60%-80% range, you would be doing well for yourself.

You would then need inverters of appropriate size to convert the DC batteries to the AC of your house, unless you were going to rewire for DC. You would further want to look at every appliance running in your house for the greatest efficiency. And then there's Air Condidtioning.....lol.

 

[Charles_Main]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[Tech_Esq]

You would only need batteries if you wanted to be off the grid completely. If you stayed on the grid you would not need any. You would simply use power off the grid when the wind was not blowing enough to generate power, and at those times you generated more power than you need, you could get the Power company to buy the extra power. As I under stand it that is Law in most places.

Keep in mind however that this is just and fancy advertisement for a wind mill. I would not just accept everything it says about the product at face values.

I read a story about a guy in Oregon that wanted to do micro hydro on his property and sell the electricity back to the utility. since his micro hydro was of sufficient size that he would never need grid electric, he didn't have a push-pull agreement. It took him dealing with 12 government agencies and utilities and 4 years to get through all the red tape.

That's ok cause the payback on the project is only 20 years

 

[Charles_Main]

I read a story about a guy in Oregon that wanted to do micro hydro on his property and sell the electricity back to the utility. since his micro hydro was of sufficient size that he would never need grid electric, he didn't have a push-pull agreement. It took him dealing with 12 government agencies and utilities and 4 years to get through all the red tape.

That's ok cause the payback on the project is only 20 years

Bummer.

 

[AllieBaba]

I read a story about a guy in Oregon that wanted to do micro hydro on his property and sell the electricity back to the utility. since his micro hydro was of sufficient size that he would never need grid electric, he didn't have a push-pull agreement. It took him dealing with 12 government agencies and utilities and 4 years to get through all the red tape.

That's ok cause the payback on the project is only 20 years

Yay, Oregon.

I live in the middle of windmill country and they've run into a little problem with them...when it's really windy (and it is, it's the Columbia Gorge. Very windy) the windmills make TOO MUCH power, which taxes the systems and ends up being a huge mess. They haven't figured out how to deal with that just yet. So when they're being really efficient, everything breaks and shuts down.

Not to mention the fact that they regularly crumple and kill whomever happens to be working on them...though any industrial type job has its risks....

 

[CA95380]

Well! On the highway to San Francisco - near Livermore, CA there is a forrest of these things. Of coarse they are BIG ONE'S on sloping fields out in the middle of the boontoonies.

The only problem I see with home version would be ..... how long will it take for government officials (city, state, federal) to decide that they are eyesores or whatever and should not be allowed within city limits?

Don't laugh .... they are making us get rid of TV antenna's .... it could happen.

 

[Charles_Main]

Well! On the highway to San Francisco - near Livermore, CA there is a forrest of these things. Of coarse they are BIG ONE'S on sloping fields out in the middle of the boontoonies.

The only problem I see with home version would be ..... how long will it take for government officials (city, state, federal) to decide that they are eyesores or whatever and should not be allowed within city limits?

Don't laugh .... they are making us get rid of TV antenna's .... it could happen.

It would happen is more like it, not to mention the Environmentalist would cry about all the birds being killed in the name of alternative energy.

 

[Jeepers]

You're right. In my research, if you were going to go off-grid, you would need a bank of batteries to charge to take advantage of all the electricity you produce from all your sources (Solar, wind and micro-hydro). You would need to size the battery bank to roughly 4x the size of the required load so that you never allow your batteries to dip below 50% charge (deep cycle which reduces the life of the battery). If you can keep your charge in the 60%-80% range, you would be doing well for yourself.

You would then need inverters of appropriate size to convert the DC batteries to the AC of your house, unless you were going to rewire for DC. You would further want to look at every appliance running in your house for the greatest efficiency. And then there's Air Condidtioning.....lol.

Yeah, unfortunately ... I have dreams of going off grid but... its just not cost effective as of yet. I've been facisnated with wind power since stumbling acrossed a village in Guanaja, Honduras... they had a four bungalo configuration centered around one bank and a wind generator... eh, one day. I do have a rather ingenious buddy of mine that was building a hydro electric plant for his five bungalo compound in Dominica... if anyones heading that way check out crescentmooncabins.com... Its a must see if you like hiking.

 

[Charles_Main]

Yeah, unfortunately ... I have dreams of going off grid but... its just not cost effective as of yet. I've been facisnated with wind power since stumbling acrossed a village in Guanaja, Honduras... they had a four bungalo configuration centered around one bank and a wind generator... eh, one day. I do have a rather ingenious buddy of mine that was building a hydro electric plant for his five bungalo compound in Dominica... if anyones heading that way check out crescentmooncabins.com... Its a must see if you like hiking.

Seems to me no matter what the up front costs, if you can get off the grid, eventually it will pay for its self. Depending on how much power you use anyways.

 

[Mary54]

Has anyone built their own windmill using the instructions on the greentoolman's website? I had a look at the toolman's website and it looks pretty simple. But is it really?

 

[Andrew2382]

I remember reading somewhere that to generate the same amount of power 1 nuclear power plant produces you woul dneed something like 50 square miles of wind turbines...