Thinking of a windpower setup

 I live in the country and have a 1 1/2 acre lot half of which is treed.
I am on top of a hill. I have not checked average wind speeds but I
would suspect that it is enough to justify windpower.

I am thinking of a low power 400+ watts system to give me what I would
need in the event of a winter power outage (Nova Scotia). I was browsing
through the Air-X site and found what I was looking for.

Assuming that I would spend $1000CDN for the wind generator, how much
more would I need to spend if I wanted to tie the wind generator into my
existing electrical system? For example, tower, inverter, batteries,
electrical connections etc.

Or, direct me to a site where I can make a list of all of the things
that I need.


Ron

  Hi Ron - greetings from Great Barrier Island.

As a rough rule of thumb, a 400 watt windmill will adequately charge a
200 to 300 Ah 24v. battery bank as long as the wind is fairly brisk and
fairly plentiful. This will give you a useful amount of power. You could
hang a 2.5 kVA inverter on the battery bank and run most of your
appliances, within reason - just not all at once. You should be able to
watch television for a few hours and two or three lights. You should be
able to run one or two computers for a couple of hours a day.  You
should even have enough to run a microwave oven ocasionally (although
briefly).

You will have enough power to run aa small refrigerator full-time, and
possibly a small freezer as well - you should plug it into a timer
however so that it is on for only about a total of 2-3 hours (2-3
one-hour cycles) during the day and off at night.

You will NOT be able to run a spa pool or an electric oven, or electric
water heating!

You've listed most of the things you will need to purchase... add in
cable, a regulator for the windmill, and probably the most essential and
useful item:

a wall-mounted voltmeter in your lounge or kitchen so you can keep an
eye on the state of your batteries.

Add in a timer for the freezer. Replace all your incandescent lights
with energy-saver fluorescents. Preferably, replace your computer
monitors with LCD ones.
Check the power consumption of your tv - if it uses more than 90 watts,
replace it with something less hungry.

I'd recommend at least a 24-volt sytem - less cable loss, lighter,
cheaper cables.

Get in the habit of turning lights off when not needed, and turning
appliances off AT THE WALL when not in use and you're well on the way to
self-sufficiency.

And - keep an eye on that meter!


Rockin Ronnie wrote:

 

On 2004-12-12 joiner@ns.sympatico.ca said:
   >Newsgroups: alt.energy.homepower
   >I live in the country and have a 1 1/2 acre lot half of which is
   >treed. I am on top of a hill. I have not checked average wind
   >speeds but I would suspect that it is enough to justify windpower.
Hi Ron.

Wind speed is not the most important factor.  Consistency is.  I live
where it is thought to be fiercely windy.  When it blows, it is
memorable.  But it seldom blows enough to be useful.

I have an Air 403 turbine, and mostly it is my $500 weather vane.
Some howling nights it earns its keep, but they aren't often.  Take
lots of data before buying.

The turbine does some howling of its own, by the way.  Mount it
downwind from your house.  It will need to clear obstructions by a
fair bit, like 25 feet.  Tower.  I wouldn't mount it on the roof -
vibration and mechanical racket.

Here, sun is my powerful source, though maybe not in N.S.

Charles Foot recommended a voltmeter mounted where it will grab your
attention.  That as a minimum.  I use Tri-Metric integrating charge/
discharge meters on both my systems.  They cost, but tell so much
more than a voltmeter.


Tom Willmon
near Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

 Since nobody else answered your question.

What you need is a grid-tie unit. A unit that will syncronize with the
incoming frequency and lock to it.

Here comes the bad news. Somewhere between $6K-$12K Canuck  buck.

What they don't tell you is that this stuff will never pay off at Canadian
power rates usually unless you live to be 140 years old and have no
maintenance costs. Not gonna' happen. It's an interesting hobby.

 On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 22:00:51 GMT, Rockin Ronnie


My suggestion doesn't satisfy your needs but if I could install a
windpower setup I would stay way from batteries.

I use electricity to heath my water. As we know that accounts for a
substantial share of domestic needs.

I would design a system that would preheat the water going into my hot
water tank. With 2 or more elements that can be switched to a number
of series/parallel combinations ,dynamically tuning to  the most
efficient load to my generator.
The system could be expanded to feed a hot water heating system and
one light on the living room that would only be ON when all other
requirements are satisfied.
One should remember that all the power that goes into a lamp of any
kind it's converted into heat. Lamps are very good heaters. As
heathers they give us light at zero cost.

Vlad