new (to me) inverter score - Page 3

 

I just found out yesterday that my local CE recently became it's own entity.
Their web site makes it sound like they would "rather" give you a chance to
comply before applying the thumb screws so you may be right.

I suspect the local codes, printed on paper, are probably about five feet
thick.  I tried searching on their web sites but could never find what I was
looking for.  My approach at the moment is an anonymous call.  But they keep
redirecting me to the "right person for my area" so I figure they are
tracing the call and looking up my records etc.

The good news is that they actually are allowing those big 40 foot shipping
containers if you have five acres or more so I could finally organize all my
boxes of stuff that are essential for making something out of nothing.  They
do, however, require that they be painted a neutral color.  No more "WAN
HAI"  allowed.  I always took it as a greeting from my neighbor.  I guess I
better tell her to paint it before they start in on her.

  wrote:


Having on more occasions than I care to remember wasted my share of
time trying to make good use of salvage items, my advice is to
consider putting your effort into a proven design from
http://otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html  or
http://www.scoraigwind.com/ . I think your time will be more
productive, and you'll end up with a better machine in the long run.
Of course if the satisfaction is in experimenting then by all means
keep at the EU project and good luck with it.

Wayne

 

I agree and have those plans from those web sites on my computers and even
have some of them  printed out.  I've tried using the eu alternator for a
few different things with varying degrees of success.  It just bugs me to
spend that much money (first once cost almost $1100) for a little generator
and have it just sit there once the engine is shot.  They must have sold
millions of the things and many of them seem to be reaching their demise.
If I can find some good uses for them then the way I see it is I'm just
giving back a little.  Over the years I have gotten a lot of great
information from this and other newsgroups which have made my off-grid
living a lot easier and more efficient.

As for the eu2000 specifically I'm getting test results that are comparable
to Piggot's Axial Flux Alternator plans so it may just be a matter of making
better blades and getting more wind.  Before I spend days carving blades I
generally prefer to just spend an hour making a small impovement that might
indicate if the effort will be worth the trouble.  Much of the time I seem
to be exploring uncharted territory and when I do a google search all I find
is the questions that I asked.  In the case of the PVC pipe blades I read an
article about someone sticking them on a DC treadmill motor and was getting
8 or 9 amps @ 12 volts so if I can manage to get that I'll start carving
even though I'll have to be on the lookout for the wind generator police the
whole time.  I've not yet found the right government department to call but
I'm trying to find out if there is any leeway in the codes and building
permits that allows for experimentation and science fair projects.  For now
I'm trying to keep it to where someone driving by won't automatically think
"look, an unpermitted wind generator!"

 

Man .. this prosine is HUGE! its a lot larger than they look in the
pictures.  In any case, as long as I don't blow it up it should provide
all the power I need for a long time.  My bro found it in a junk store
and its soooo much nicer than the old crappy one I was using.

Yeah its producing about 150 watts when its turned all the way on, which
is pretty good for me.

Its going good, but i'm getting into the time of year where water will
become an issue.  Mostly working on a new water intake from the stream
and unifying the house water system with the hydro water system so they
both feed off the same spot..


I hope its a wet summer!


thats pretty cool man!  Eventually it'll work .. sounds like you are
making steady improvements.  I can see how this is much more trouble than
hydro since, once I had the water hooked up I could test pretty easy.. no
waiting around for a breeze!


Yeah -- have you been able to spin your EU2000 alternator like with a
belt or with a big drill and measure the output?  Then you'd know roughly
what RPM to aim for and that might help make blade decisions..


-zachary

 

Excellent.  That's just a little less electricity than I use on an average
day (if you are running it 24/7, that is).  I'd be happy to get enough to
keep my pickup truck battery fully charged while it's just sitting there.


At least it's getting to the point where it might be worth making some
"real" blades for it but I don't ever expect to get much power from it due
to the low wind in my area.  Driving it with an engine feeding it directly
into my battery bank I was gettting about 2300 watts and that was probably
around 3000-3500 rpm.  The problem seems to be that I don't know what rpm
I'm getting at any particular wind speed, but it's not many.  I can get 25
volts turning it by hand and barely 30 Voc or so with a good gust of wind.
I'm not sure how many rpms my particular engine will turn at at idle but I'd
guess around 700-800.  I'll have to try it next time I take everything
apart.  In any case there is hope that it might make a useful, easy to make
wind generator for someone who happens to have an old eu2000 laying around
(and knows more about aerodynamics than I do ;-)

BTW I looked up the fees and permits to put up a wind generator in my county
and it's down to only $6000!  Kangaroo Rats only get $50 apiece now instead
of $1300.  This is the government's idea if making it affordable.  Meanwhile
I'd better find out what the minimum height and sweep area cutoff is before
someone calls Code Enforcement on me.  I wonder if those fake little farm
windmills from Harbor Fright need permits....