Wind turbines

[SgtMaj]

Does anyone have any experience working with or building wind turbines?

I'm thinking about home-building a couple of them to reduce my electric bill... but am not sure how to wire it up.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Wind turbines

I was thinking along the lines of bulding my next house with solar panels covering the entire roof, but how do i protect it from hail storms?

 

[Bigdaveaz]

Re: Wind turbines

I was thinking along the lines of bulding my next house with solar panels covering the entire roof, but how do i protect it from hail storms?

Put a cover over them?

 

[External Combustion]

Re: Wind turbines

Try the book "Producing Your Own Power", ISBN 0-87857-088-8. After 34 years it is still a clear handbook for the beginning student wanting practical answers.

I have put together four plants for myself using the directions given in it.

Understand that there is no panecea. All of the alternative energy sources will help, but there is no one answer to our needs. Oil and gas is still our cheapest source of energy delivered to the wall socket. Ther are some exceptions of course, but no universal threat to their supremacy.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

I was thinking along the lines of bulding my next house with solar panels covering the entire roof, but how do i protect it from hail storms?

Most of the new ones are flexible enough to handle it... (esp. the ones built into shingles).

I thought about the same thing, but they are so expensive to start with, I thought I'd start with wind first, and then use any savings from that to build up toward a solar system like that.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Wind turbines

Put a cover over them?

Would'nt that block out the sunlight?
I have thought about some sort of a mesh, but wanting the house to be aesthetically pleasing at the same time is giving me some thoughts for pause.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

Would'nt that block out the sunlight?
I have thought about some sort of a mesh, but wanting the house to be aesthetically pleasing at the same time is giving me some thoughts for pause.

I think he was thinking along the lines of a plexiglass covering... the old style pv cells that were not flexible were often built into frames with a plexiglass covering to protect them from the elements. But today you can get the shingles that have the flexible pv cells built into them that don't need to be protected from the elements. That's the way I would go... if I could afford to that is.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Wind turbines

Thanks Sarge, i will be looking into it.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

My biggest question with the wind turbines is if I should run them in series or parallel. I'm planning on putting in 3 small ones if I do this project... and by small I mean 2 to 2 and a half foot prop. diameter with 3 blade props... I'll be glad if I can get even 100 watts out of them.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Wind turbines

One very effective way to save energy is by using sun energy to provide you with hot water.
If you live far enough to the south so your sun collectors don't freeze that is.
During my years in Israel we always had our hot water provided by sun panels on the roof.It is a very simple and very effective way to save energy.
If you are interested in opinions about these water heaters,google :"dood shemesh"

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

One very effective way to save energy is by using sun energy to provide you with hot water.
If you live far enough to the south so your sun collectors don't freeze that is.
During my years in Israel we always had our hot water provided by sun panels on the roof.It is a very simple and very effective way to save energy.
If you are interested in opinions about these water heaters,google :"dood shemesh"

Yeah I've thought about doing something like that... but I do live too far north... though that's remedied by a simple valve system that would let me bypass it and drain it in the winter. My biggest problem with that is just running the water pipes up to the roof in the first place. That's a little more work than I want to do I think.

One major problem I have is that the water heater is in the crawl space... but... Instead of putting the heater on the roof, I could put it on the ground... only problem there is that I have shade trees in the backyard that would seriously cut down on it's effectiveness, not to mention that the sun rises on the other side of the house...

It would be nice if I could do that though.

 

[bhammer]

Re: Wind turbines

My biggest question with the wind turbines is if I should run them in series or parallel. I'm planning on putting in 3 small ones if I do this project... and by small I mean 2 to 2 and a half foot prop. diameter with 3 blade props... I'll be glad if I can get even 100 watts out of them.

Hmmm, I would think that depends on how much power you can get out of each one and any type of battery setup but would say that parallel woudl prbably be the way to go. To make it useful, you will need to set up a battery bank and converter. I have a buddy who has one at a summer house. He actually gets checks from the local power company as he sells back to them. You may want to call them and see if they have any programs available. Our local company once offered to supply with the hookup, converter and switches to make it seamless. essentially, when you didn't use power, you gave it to the company in exchange for their parts.

Also, I would look into building a vertical axis turbine. In smaller sizes, they are more efficient than a blade design; from what I understand that is. I made one years ago and it was fun. Just wish the darn HOA would let me set one up here.

Oh, if you haven't checked it out, there is a pretty good blog about do it yourself power at http://altenergy.blog-city.com/

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

Thanks. Will definately check out the blog.

I would consider the selling back power to the company thing if I was going to use normal sized turbines on towers, but they will be quite small turbines mounted on roof vents.

 

[bhammer]

Re: Wind turbines

I saw a company once that was selling the attic vents / power generators that would help offset the cost. I think their math, they paid for themselves in about 3 years or something along those lines.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: Wind turbines

One very effective way to save energy is by using sun energy to provide you with hot water.
If you live far enough to the south so your sun collectors don't freeze that is.
During my years in Israel we always had our hot water provided by sun panels on the roof.It is a very simple and very effective way to save energy.
If you are interested in opinions about these water heaters,google :"dood shemesh"

Ive seen the same thing done but wrapping your copper tubing around you wood stove pipe. The other thing with you guys who live in the hot south why don't you bury a water container in the ground and pump it up through a heat exchanger with a fan to cool your house.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Wind turbines

There aren't that many places that have a constant wind of the volocity needed for them to pay for themselves, if you're in one of those areas then you're lucky. I've done the woodstove water heating and solar panels for hot water too, they both work, with solar better than wood. I put these systems in 20+ years ago in my old house, but havent done any of them in my new place and I'm not sure if I will.

 

[JCF350]

Re: Wind turbines

The other thing with you guys who live in the hot south why don't you bury a water container in the ground and pump it up through a heat exchanger with a fan to cool your house.

The high humidity as to be dealt with. So you have to figure a way to dry the air also.
Plus the temp difference isn't going to all that great when you start with 90 degree plus air.
Might could use this to pre-cool the air before it it gets to the A/C evaporator though.

 

[SgtMaj]

Re: Wind turbines

I think I live in one of those places... not too far from me is a wind farm... well half an hour drive... but still... it stays decently breezy here anyway. Was going to build it myself to keep the costs low. copper wire for the coils will be the most expensive part, can get the propellors for $20 ea... the magnets for $4 ea... the rest is mostly going to just be pvc pipe... and of course I'll need a couple of wheel bearings to keep it turning smoothly.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Wind turbines

Getting all the parts and doing it yourself makes it much more cost effective. Sounds like you've got the wind, so go for it, and we will need updates.

 

[arboldt]

Re: Wind turbines

We live too far from the state capitol to have a dependable supply of hot wind.