admin answers:

I think you are looking for deep cycle batteries, the same kind that are used with solar collectors.

Try some of these sites…

Edit – to answer the question “Why not car batteries?” … The difference between a deep-cycle and car battery is that deep-cycle batteries contain solid lead and withstand “deep-cycling” (losing up to 80% charge) better than automotive batteries, which have a different construction. Car batteries are designed to give you more “starting” power and stay up above 50% charge. Deep-cycling a car battery can result in a quicker breakdown of the core, thus increasing cost in the long-run.

admin answers:

Call your electric company; the folk you would have had to call anyway to get connected & let them know that you would like a reverse meter so that they can measure how much energy that you are back feeding. There is specific wiring for this that has to be approved through your county anyway & it is a safety feature for people working on the lines after a storm so you don’t inadvertantly electrocute a lineman who is trying to restore power around you. They will no doubt have the answers that you need or can advise you on where to look for the insurance. The way that you do a million dollar insurance policy is called an UMBRELLA POLICY on the homeowner’s. That isn’t hard. It is a property insurance that goes above what the homeowner’s insurance carries. The UMBRELLA coverage is a catastrophic event coverage that is called secondary insurance. It isn’t even very expensive as it covers after everything else has been exhausted first. Go to yahoo & google Umbrella insurance & then if that doesn’t work, look at commercial insurance companies in your area. I know that CNA which is a HUGE insurance company, they write in Texas & may be able to write your friend the policy that he needs. I hope this helps. I used to do underwriting assistance for them & I helped insure folk in Texas in particular.

admin answers:

Thomas Boone Pickens, Jr. (born May 22, 1928), known as T. Boone Pickens, is an American financier who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management and he attempted to promote the use of wind energy. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980s. With an estimated current net worth of about $1.4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 290th-richest person in America and ranked 880th in the world.

Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr. Strangelove, 1941 and Blazing Saddles. He attempted to promote the use of wind energy as well.

admin answers:

Hey Philip, Billruss is right, but let me explain further. Your question is, “Are there efficiency standards…” There is no efficiency requirements, or standards for these devices, just safety requirements. Most utility companies for example, require that your grid connected inverter disconnect from the grid if the grid voltage or frequency goes outside of predetermined limits within one second. The Underwriters Labaratories does tests such as this, and others to make sure a stand alone inverter does not continue to power a small patch of homes if the section becomes disconnected from the rest of the grid for any reason. This situation, called islanding, can be deadly to lineman working on a downed wire when they assume the end going to the homes is not powered. There are other requirements, fire suppression, overload protection and so on, but as far as the government is concerned, if your inverter takes 1000 watts of solar power to dump 10 watts of useable power onto the grid, that’s your problem.

Most inverters operate in a range of efficiency, between 40 and 90 % for example. They generally run at best efficiency when running around 80 % power, and less efficiently at higher or lower power outputs. Manufacturers love to quote their “peak efficiency,” but don’t often mention how much power they use when all they are running is a night light. Take care Philip, Rudydoo

admin answers:

What you see outside is essentially a wind powered battery charger. The batteries inside power an inverter which will supply 120VAC to selected circuits in the house.
I’m putting together something similar which may help you understand what is being done. Read through my web page for wiring diagrams, charge controller, tower drawings, pictures, etc.
Http://members.rennlist.org/warren/wind.html

admin answers:

Hi Nour K.
The easiest way to find the information is to go to the links below.
The Build It Solar website has listing and multiple links on wind power home projects.
When you get there, there is a directory at the left side of the page.
Wind power Basics
Four others,
And Sampling of wind power turbine suppliers.

Scroll down the page, there is a link to www.eere.energy.gov ,,,

And a hole lot more there.
Http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Wind/wind.htm#DIYWind

The Eco-Friendly Power website has five products from 2 kilowatt to 20 kilowatt.
Just click on any one of the pictures for more information.
Http://www.redriven.net/products.html

For example, this the 5Kw package
http://www.redriven.net/products_5kw.html

Edit , I came back and added more.
It comes with:

•FD6.4-5000 including generator, blades, flange
•5 Kw ReDriven On-Grid Controller
•1 PVI-6000 Inverter
MSRP: $14,825.40* USD

These are the specifications for the 5Kw

Rated Power: 5000W

Rated Voltage: 240v 60hz

Start up wind speed: 2 m/s (4.4mph)

Rated Wind speed: 10m/s (22.35)

Blade material: Fiber Glass

5,000 watts at 240 Vac is 20 amps
or 40 amps at 120 volts

Here are videos of the 10Kw unit:
http://www.redriven.net/media.html

Here is a search for [home wind turbine cost]
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=home+wind+turbine+cost&rlz=1R2GGLP_enUS353&aq=4&oq=home+wind+turbine&aqi=g10

From there to here:
What do I need to know to purchase a residential wind turbine? Jump to How much does a wind system cost?‎: A small turbine can cost anywhere from $6000 to $22000 installed, depending upon size, …
Http://www.awea.org/faq/rsdntqa.html

This a demonstration video describing how a wing generator works:
http://www.skystreamenergy.com/how-it-works/skystreaminmotion.php

Sorry I can not find how much a professional installation costs, you could contact several manufactures to find out.

Wingman

admin answers:

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live completely, 100% “off of the grid and are completely self sufficient” using alternative fuels / energy. I was in a similar situation as you few years ago.

Www agua-lun com

We do not leave our ranch except about once or twice a year, mainly for travel and vacations.

We raise meat and milk goats, chickens for meat and eggs, ducks for meat and eggs, trap havilina (wild boar pig), rabbit, quail. Brew our own beer from home grown products, preserve our fruits, vegetables, etc. Smoke and jerky the meat, make our own soap, cheese.

There are no utility lines, no water lines, no roads, tv, cell service, etc. On our ranch. EVERYTHING needed is produced here. All electricity comes from 27 solar panels, 2 main wind gens and a back hydrogen generator if needed (typically we can last 9 days with all luxuries of sunless windless weather, hasn’t happened yet). Water is caught and storage from the rain. Hot water is made with solar batch water heaters with an on-demand hydrogen hot water heater as backup. Even our vehicles use alternative energy (2 hydrogen trucks, 1 EV electric vehicle converted).

We’ve lived self sufficiently off the grid for over 5 years now. In 2003 I left an Engineering position with Boeing, sold 2 houses and most of our positions, purchased a small ranch in West Texas near the Mexican border, built a completely green home using 100% recycled and local (rocks, lumber, sand from the ranch) materials, built a wind generator and some solar panels, built a hydrogen generator and converted the vehicles to run on alternative energy, purchased some goats, chickens, ducks, lamas, etc, a composting toilet, water storage tanks, planted crops and fruit trees and settled down for the long run. We typically don’t leave the ranch for 6-8 months at a time, and only then to visit family.

The house is built utilizing natures natural materials, Woodburning stoves, solar chimney, solar AC, solar heating, solar water heating (pool and home), solar stove, solar power, wind power, hydrogen powered back up generator, hydrogen back up water heater, hydrogen stove, 2 hydrogen powered trucks, 1 EV (electric vehicle) and satellite internet.

To see some pics of the ranch
www agua-lun com

We also built many small cabins on the ranch that we offer to family, friends and our on-site off-grid workshop guests, including one straw bale, one papercrete, earth bag and adobe, one cob and cordwood, one underground and rammed earth, one log and post and beam and one rock.

I later wrote a several guides on how to build with alternative materials, alternative energy / fuels using alternative methods for next to nothing. Anyone interested can check it out at..

Www agua-lun com

As we have no bills, no mortgage and no taxes ..we have little use for money (any extra money saved up usually goes towards vacations as we enjoy traveling to Mexico).

If you’d like more info on how you can make the transition easily, let me know.

admin answers:

I’m going to give you my standard blurb on dealing with depression. I have bipolar disorder, and have not found meds that will help me after going thru like 30 different drugs and even trying electroshock. The tips I’m going to give you are practical, nuts & bolts type things you can do to feel better. I’ve got some stuff in there that doesn’t apply to you, so just ignore that. But there should be a few helpful tips in there that will help. I learned them in classes in the mental hospital, and figured out a few, too. I hope they help! Print them out!

If your depression seems to be more of a problem in the winter, try to get more sun. You could have seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, or your depression could have a seasonal component, meaning you tend to have more trouble in the winter. A light box is really good if you can afford one (about $300 online, don’t get it at a local store, they will charge more for a light less than 1/2 as bright). Since I will always have a mood disorder, I have put in extra windows, keep the drapes mounted so they don’t cover them, make sure I spend a lot of time in southern exposure rooms, painted the walls peach and yellow. I even have a skylight (and I LOVE it, it helps a lot!!!!!)

Try meditation tapes like progressive muscle relaxation or guided imagery. They may seem silly at first, but they work!! They help reduce stress, which makes depression worse.
***** #1 MOST HELPFUL TIP Go out with friends, and if you don’t have any, find a club to join and MAKE yourself go until you actually look forward to it. Isolation makes depression worse. I’m an introvert, extremely so, and I still need to get out with others.

Exercise at least 1/2 hour a day, and anytime you feel really hyper or depressed. Exercise is a great mood stabilizer and cuts down on anxiety a lot.

If your depression makes it hard for you to sleep, here are some good “sleep hygiene” tips so you can sleep better. Like go to bed and get up about the same time each day, even weekends. Don’t use your bedroom to watch TV and read and use the computer and all that-just use the room as a bedroom normally would be used. Don’t do stuff that pumps you up right before bed, like exercising and using the computer. You want to use that last hour to wind down-Take a bath? Make the bedroom really dark, cover up the clock radio, even, so the light doesn’t shine at you. If you live in the city, use a noise generator (makes wave sounds and the like) to cover up the city sounds. Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening.Try soundsleeping.com for free relaxing sounds downloads.

Put a lot of colorful things around the house, happy type things, and keep the blinds open and let the sun in. Get yourself some flowers. Put on some nice clothes. OK that was for the ladies, mostly. Make a list of things that make you happy. Here’s some things on my list: A basket full of fluffy kittens, bread fresh from the oven, Fireworks popping on a warm summer evening, The first fireflies of the season, the scent of Jergen’s cherry almond lotion, The crisp sound of a saltine cracker breaking, fresh sheets on the bed, standing in the boat flicking topwater lures out onto the water, etc. Use all your senses and read that list when you are breaking down
Work on time management if being overwhelmed and late for things and too much to do is getting to you. Cut back on other responsibilities temporarily so you can spend more restorative time with friends and family.

You got a significant other? Extra physical touch is very helpful. Most people in the US or UK are touch deprived, so hold hands more, hug more, give shoulder rubs, etc. Etc. Is a euphemism for you folks in an adult relationship. A pet is good to cuddle with, too, if your home situation allows you to get one. (I’m an animal lover, don’t get one if you can’t commit to it for 15 years) Take the dog out for a game of fetch, brush Fluffy, etc.
Make sure you are NOT listening to sad music! It is so easy to fall into doing that, but it makes things a lot worse! Listen to happy, upbeat stuff. Do the same with movies you watch.
Distract yourself when the hurting is at its worst. Read a novel, watch a comedy, go out with friends, play cards, play a videogame, whatever is mentally all-consuming. This is a VERY helpful tip that works!!
I have severe psychiatric symptoms from bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder. And I am able to control my behavior almost 100% even when I am suffering, and able to feel quite a bit better using some of these tricks, because the meds have not been effective for me. If I didn’t do stuff like the above, I would be dead or in a group home. So please try some of these things and they may provide some relief for you. Pills alone or counseling alone are not as effective as pills plus counseling, and you have to follow some of these type of suggestions the counselors give you. Cognitive Behavioral therapy is the gold st

admin answers:

Hi.. I am an electrical engineer!!!

Yeah its is possible till u meet some requirements

1. From the UPS.. The output is AC.. And the input of the DCPM Motor is DC.. So u need to convert this into DC with a converter called Rectifier.. I would recommend a ful wave recitifier..
AC converted should be of the frequency of 50Hz!!… This is very important!!

2. The current and voltage rating of the wind turbine should meet the rating of the UPS..
The rating of a standard household domestic purpose UPS would be 240V, 5A.
(Voltage is constant and the maximum current is 5A)

3. If the rating of the turbine is more than 240V.. Please do not connect to the turbine.. It causes overload on UPS!!

Hope this might help

admin answers:

Wind is free so it does not make sense to talk about efficiency.

Robert h mentioned NOISE, that should be your primary concern.

Remember wind does not blow all the time, so, you will need a battery bank, and an inverter, to turn it into AC power. This is all rather complicated to run, if you do not have a technical bend.

Lookup some suppliers and ask them to explain it to you.

admin answers:

Don,

The noise made by a wind turbine has two sources. First is the actual rotation of the blades cutting through the air and the second is the mechanical noise of the gearing mechanism and generator housed within the nacelle (the white box on the top that houses the mechanics).

Nacelles are well insulated and you would have to be very close in order to hear the sound, so close in fact that even stood at the foot of the turbine you probably wouldn’t hear it.

Most of the noise comes from the turbine blades themselves, these are manufactured in such a way as to minimise noise impact. However, no matter how good the design there is always going to be some noise.

You didn’t say how far away the turbines are going to be from your vacation home, this makes a big difference. I’m assuming there will be several hundred metres, particularly as the windfarm will be offshore (in most countries there has to be a minimum distance between the turbines and any buildings).

The amount of noise that a modern turbine makes at a distance of 400 metres is about 35 dB(A)*, at 1000 metres it’s about 15 dB(A).

For comparison purposes 35 dB(A) is about the same noise that a quiet office air-conditioning system will make or the background noise inside a typical house (humming electrical items, heating system etc).

Given that the windfarm in question is going to be an offshore one, then I very much doubt you’ll hear anything. Partly because it will be some distance away and partly because any noise it makes will be masked by the sound of the sea itself.

I think I’d be more inclined to be concerned about the visual impact the turbines may have, and again, it depends very much on the distance. Some people find them to be aesthetically pleasing, personally I don’t.

One of the main factors that influenced our decision to move to where we now live was the view. We’re fortunate that the house overlooks rolling hills and green valleys with very little in the way of visual intrusion, if a windfarm were visible, even several miles away, I personally think it would have a significant impact. That however, is just my opinion, yours may be different.

* dB is short for decibel, it’s the measure of magnitude of pressure variation within the air. Environmental noise impacts are normally corrected to reflect the sensitivity of the human ear, this is what the (A) refers to.

admin answers:

Vertical wind generators are poor performers no matter how they are made.

There is a very recently published book that you should read called “Home brew Wind Power, and you can get it here http://www.otherpower.com .

You can also find a good review at http://www.rebelwolf.com/images/review.pdf

I was just about to write up a review on my web site – but found this question and thought I would save you a lot of grief.

The book title is perhaps a little misleading because it goes beyond what you’d consider “home brew”. These people have excellent engineering skills and their work is the state of the art.

These guys are serious — they work through the technical and physical design considerations (including discussions of vertical axis units) leading up to designs that actually work and even get into the detailed designs of creating the alternator from scratch. It also has links to an enormous amount of reference material.

You mention on buildings or around campus. Please be aware that the generator needs to be 30 feet above the buildings and the tallest trees to get decent power. Start by erecting an recording wind instrument on one of your existing communications towers (don’t get zapped) and find out how much wind you really have. Then calculate the maximum theoretical capacity using the equations in the book and you will find your answers.

admin answers:

Not charged by the method you describe. There would not be enough trickle charge to provide the charge in any meaningful time period.

But battery narrow boats do exist, its nothing new. There are a few on the Basingstoke and Montomery canals

You need a land line to charge up. Most have a diesel generator as well

Power is not a problem, the battery boats easily match the diesel powered boats for torque and control.

Its charging up every 2 days that will stop any chance of cruising around the system.

You get significant licence reductions for a battery boat.

admin answers:

Living on a boat is not for everyone. It is a lifestyle that can be great fun and very relaxed, but you have to work a little harder to be comfortable. Can you try it for a little while without having to make a committment?

You have to make arrangements for water and to have your holding tank pumped out. Most people go ashore for water – sometimes to a marina dock. In a very few places there is water delivery to boats, but in my experience that is not the norm. I have never seen that happen. When we anchored for longer periods my husband and I often dinghied 5 gallon jugs of water back to our boat on a regular basis – every time we went ashore.

What about power? Do you want to have electricity? If so, you need to think about wind generators or solar panels, depending on where you live. How about refrigeration? That is the biggest consumer of energy on a boat. There are options that use less power, but they tend to be more expensive. Do you want to be able to have a hot water shower on the boat? Is it hot enough where you live to use a solar bag/sun shower to heat your shower water each day or will you need a water heater?

How about cooking? If you have a propane stove, especially a Force 10, two burner with oven, that will be great, and many people also have a BBQ in the cockpit. With propane you should have a propane detector in your cabin and bilge as propane sinks if it is leaking, and could collect in the bottom of your boat and cause an explosion.

If you anchor, you have to dinghy ashore everyday. You may need to lock your dinghy when you go ashore, depending on where you are anchored. Will you have a vehicle on shore? If so, that will make life easier, as you will not have to backpack laundry, groceries, etc. If you are depending on getting ashore by dinghy to get to a job, what about the days when it might be too rough to get the dinghy ashore?

Do you want to have TV and Internet on your boat? We used a cell phone to have Internet access when we were anchored. Sometimes we were fortunate enough to be able to receive an unsecured wireless signal. For TV, you might be able to receive the free channels from you boat if you put an antenna high enough. The reception will of course vary with the movement of the boat.

Depending on your location, you may need to protect all you clothing from humidity and mildew. We rolled all of ours and packaged everything in airtight ziploc bags to keep the moisture out.

Some people who live on boats choose to rent a slip at a marina and then they can have most of the conveniences of a land based home while living on a boat. Not all marinas allow live aboards.

I would live on a boat again in a flash if the opportunity presented itself with the right person. My husband and I enjoyed it immensely and had wonderful adventures. We were happy vagabonds. We were both retired though, so we did not have to worry about getting ashore for work, etc.

So I hope I have given you some food for thought. Most people I know who live on boats and work ashore actually live in a slip at a marina, but I also know a few who anchor and dinghy ashore everyday to a job. Best of luck with you plans. I would do it. Feel free to ask about anything else you think I could help with.

admin answers:

The answer is that the mpg would decrease–probably by a lot. The reason is that the gas engine will have to create the wind to run the wind turbine. So basically you’re going to have an energy conversion losses by converting from gas to wind to electricity. But it will be worse than that because there is also the additional drag of the wind turbine parts.

I don’t know what kind of wind turbine you could use.

Now what would work is to add battery packs to the Prius and have a stationary wind turbine charge these packs. However, because the Prius battery packs are over 200V it’s not a safe thing to do unless you are qualified to work on high voltage equipment. There is also the battery ECU to worry about. Somehow you will need to tell it what you are putting into it.

admin answers:

Hey Kevin, I think people are avoiding answering this because the question is too nebulous, I’ll explain. 25,000 kwh per year, or about 2000 per month is quite a larege number for a residence, are you running a business? Our home uses 300 – 350 per month, a bit below the average for a 2400 square foot single family dwelling. Trying to get answers on this with usage and average wind speed is like me asking you what kind of car should I get, I live about 12 km from work. Any car can get there, but do I need cargo space, winter driving capabilities, do I have kids? And so on. We use a 900 watt Southwest Windpower model H-40, it is probably a bit too small for our home, something on the order of 1500 watts would work better, but we over did the solar array at 1.4kw, and in the end we make about 90% of our electricity, the other part comes from the power company.

Wind turbine output is a function of the cube of the wind speed. If you double the wind speed, you can theoretically get 8 times the power out of the turbine. But then some turbines have ideal design wind speed higher than others, so a lighter wind turbine in heavy winds will actually degrade from its power curve on a good day. Our site has really good wind in the fall and winter, and really good sun in the spring and summer, so solar and wind complement each other here. This is basically true of most places, just getting the turbine might be disappointing in the end. Three bladed units work better in gusty shifting winds, but are less efficient in lighter winds than 2 bladed ones. When you say your average wind speed is 20 mph, is it 20 most the time, or 5 mph for 3 days, then 40 mph on day 4? This makes a big difference in turbine selection.

What I’m really getting at is this isn’t a question for hacks like me online. In the 12 years we have been using solar and wind power, and teaching renewable energy at our local schools, I’ve learned that there are three things in vast supply, sun, wind, and missinformation. There are better ways to get informed on this subject than here, I will list some sources below to start you out. My first suggestion is to get a subscription to Home Power Magazine. They are the only periodical that get into the nuts and bolts of this subject. Then when the first issue arrrives, look in the calendar section for an energy fair near you. We subscribed 13 years ago, and went to the fair in Wisconsin in June that same year. Here we are today. It would be so easy for someone like yourself to buy into a machine that does not work well for your site, but works very well for the installer to make money with, trust me on this.

Check out the sources below, try to make one of the energy fairs, and then you’ll be in a position to ask some really good questions. Good luck Kevin, and take care, Rudydoo

admin answers:

I don’t know of any wind farms in West Australia yet; but there would be good sites for them to the south, exposed to the roaring forties winds. There are several wind farms in South Australia and Victoria, taking advantage of the reliable winds in the Great Australian Bight and Bass Strait.

Or are you referring to Washington State?

admin answers:

Solar Energy

Solar energy is light and heat energy from the sun. Solar cells convert sunlight into electrical energy. Thermal collectors convert sunlight into heat energy. Solar technologies are used in watches, calculators, water pumps, space satellites, for heating water, and supplying clean electricity to the power grid. There is enough solar radiation striking the surface of the earth to provide all of our energy needs.

There are two main ways of using solar energy to produce electricity. These are through the use of solar cells and solar thermal technology. Using solar technologies to generate electricity is, at present, more expensive than using coal-fired power stations, but it produces much less pollution.

Solar cells are photovoltaic cells that turn light into electricity. Solar cells are used in three main ways. They are used in small electrical items, like calculators, and for remote area power supplies, like telephones and space satellites. They are also used on a larger scale to supply electricity through energy authorities such as energex and Ergon.

Solar cells are used to a limited extent in the development of solar-powered vehicles. Solar thermal technology uses heat gained directly from sunlight. The best known use of this technology is in solar water heating. Solar thermal electric generating plants use reflectors to collect heat energy to make steam which drives a turbine that produces electricity.

Australia is in an ideal position to develop and use solar energy. Some areas in central and western Queensland are among the best sites in the world to develop large scale solar electric generating plants.

Wind Energy

Moving air turns the blades of large windmills or generators to make electricity, or to pump water out of the ground. A high wind speed is needed to power wind generators effectively. While wind generators don’t produce any greenhouse gas emissions they may cause vibrations, noise and visual pollution.

While wind-generated electricity does not cause air pollution, it does cost more to produce than electricity generated from coal.

Wind pumps and generators have been used in remote areas of Australia and in other countries around the world for many years. More recently, wind turbo-generators on wind farms have been providing electricity for cities and towns in more than a dozen countries. The United States of America and Denmark produce most of the world’s wind-generated electricity. Australia has some small wind farms. The largest of these is at Esperance in Western Australia.

In Queensland, wind farms operate at Atherton Tablelands and Thursday Island.

A large wind turbo generator needs a minimum annual average windspeed of about 25 km/h. Sites need to be clear of tall vegetation and are often on prominent hills and headlands or in coastal areas. The southern states in Australia are in a good position to use wind generators because of a strong wind called the ‘roaring forties’ that blows across the south of the continent.

Large wind generators can be more than 110 metres tall with blades spanning 130 metres. They can sometimes make a low-frequency sound that cannot be heard by humans, but which can rattle windows. Wind farms can be a danger to migrating birds flying at night and can cause TV and radio interference in nearby homes. Because of their size, some people think wind generators are ugly and spoil the scenery, however in some places they are a tourist attraction.

Tidal/Wave Energy

If a dam or barrage is built across a river mouth or inlet, electricity can be obtained by the flow of water through turbines in the dam as the tide rises and falls. The movement of waves can also drive air turbines to make electricity. Although tidal and wave energy don’t produce pollution, they can cause other environmental problems.

Biomass Energy

Biomass is plant and animal material that can be used for energy. This includes using wood from trees, waste from other plants (for example, bagasse from sugar cane) and manure from livestock. Biomass can be used to generate electricity, light, heat, motion and fuel. Converting biomass energy into useable energy has many environmental benefits. It uses waste materials that are usually dumped, and uses up methane (a greenhouse gas). Fuels such as ethanol can be made from biomass and used as an alternative to petrol to power motor cars.

All plant and animal matter is called biomass. It is the mass of biological matter on earth. We can get (biomass) energy:

Directly from plants, for example burning wood for cooking and heating. O Indirectly from plants, for example turning it into a liquid (alcohol such as ethanol) or gas (biogas) fuel.
Indirectly from animal waste, for example biogas (mainly methane gas) from sewage and manure.
An increasing number of renewable energy projects using biomass has been developed. Most of these use waste products from agriculture, so they solve a waste disposal problem and, at the same time, create energy for use in homes, farms and factories.

Logan City Council collects biogas from a landfill site at Browns Plains, and uses it to generate electricity. Four companies in Ipswich are working together to use energy from landfill biogas. The biogas will be processed and piped to nearby Swanbank Power Station.

Biogas can also be produced from livestock manure and human sewage. Farms where animals graze and sewage plants are ideal places to produce energy from biogas. Waste peelings from food processing plants can also be used to produce biogas.

An example of agricultural waste being used to produce electricity is the recent Mackay Sugar Cooperative Association bagasse project. Bagasse (solid waste from sugar production) from four mills will be processed and used instead of coal to produce electricity.

Hydroelectric Energy

Fast-flowing water released from dams in mountainous areas can turn water turbines to produce electricity. While it doesn’t cause pollution, there are many other environmental impacts to consider. Ecosystems may be destroyed, cultural sites may be flooded and sometimes people need to be resettled. There are also impacts on fish breeding, loss of wildlife habitat and changes in water flow of rivers.

Hydroelectricity is produced from falling water. The movement of the water spins turbines which generate electricity.

Places with high rainfall and steep mountains are ideal for hydroelectricity. Canada, Brazil and New Zealand produce most of their electricity this way. In Australia about 8 per cent of electricity is produced from hydroelectricity. Most of this is from the Snowy Mountains Scheme in New South Wales. Queensland has two hydroelectric power stations in the Barron Gorge and Kareeya in far north Queensland.

Most hydroelectricity projects require the building of large dams on rivers, which can be very expensive. When large dams are built the flow of the dammed river is changed radically and large areas of land are flooded, including wildlife habitats and farming land.

Because of the environmental impact of traditional hydroelectric schemes, there has been increasing interest in alternative hydro schemes. Pumped storage systems can be installed on existing dams. There is a pumped storage hydroelectric power station at Wivenhoe Dam, west of Brisbane.

Run-of-river hydroelectric schemes cause less environmental damage. Large dams do not need to be built, as the run-of-river schemes divert only part of the river through a turbine.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy uses heat energy from beneath the surface of the earth. Some of this heat finds its way to the surface in the form of hot springs or geysers. Other schemes tap the heat energy by pumping water through hot dry rocks several kilometres beneath the earth’s surface. Geothermal energy is used for the generation of electricity and for space and water heating in a small number of countries.

admin answers:

A permanent magnet alternator is good for a windmill. It can produce electricity at low RPM. They are sold on the internet by people that make them for use with home made windmill power generation. There are plans on the internet showing how to make a permanent magnet alternator and how to install permanent magnets in the rotor of an automobile alternator. I don’t know anything about availability in UAE.

An automobile alternator is an AC generator with an internal or external rectifier to provide a DC output. The term “permanent magnet generator” could mean an AC generator or alternator or a DC generator with a commutator. A DC generator with a commutator could be used with a windmill and would work well. Such things are probably not manufactured for sale as generators, but there are many permanent magnet DC motors with commutators made for use in automobiles. They are used for fans and other things. They should be easily available, but may not be as large as you would want.

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1. Operation Status of Major Sub-industries

1.1 Power Station Equipment

In the first five months of 2007, China’s generator and generator set market and hydraulic turbine and auxiliary equipment market both showed rapid growth with sales revenues increasing by 38.97% and 62.40% and total profit increasing by 82.10% and 287.14% respectively. Meanwhile, boiler and boiler auxiliary equipment market and steam turbine and its auxiliary equipment market showed slow increases, with sales revenues increasing by 12.93% and 12.96%, and total profit increasing by 10.67% and 2.18%. The Gross Profit Margin of China’s power equipment manufacturing industry maintained a steady growth with that of the boiler and hydraulic turbine, increasing by 6.32 and 5.72 percentage points respectively, with generator and steam turbine remaining at the same level as that in the same period a year ago.

Currently, thermal power accounted for too large a proportion in China’s power structure. To change the current structure, NDRC of China managed to control the proportion of power generation projects and attached more importance to the development of hydro-power, nuclear power and renewable energy while it examined and approved the construction of power station projects. According to data in Table 5-1, the revenue and profit growth of equipment related to coal power such as the boiler and steam turbine all slowed during the period of January to May 2007, yet equipment related to other modes of power generation such as the generator and hydraulic turbine still maintained rapid growth.

1.2 Transmission and Distribution Equipment

At present, the upsurge of power station construction in China has gradually disappeared and correspondingly, power grid construction has come to be the keystone in the development of the power industry. In the first five months of 2007, China’s power grid construction sped up and the investment in the transmission and distribution equipment manufacturing industry increased at the same pace with investment in power grid construction, and as a result, most of the transmission and distribution equipment market achieved significant growth in terms of both sales revenue and total profit.

2. Development Prospects

2.1 Demand for installed capacity will decline slightly and power structure will turn gradually to clean and highly efficient energy.

In the past few years, China’s investment in the power industry was mainly concentrated in the construction of power plants, which had driven the dramatic increase of the power generation equipment industry. With gradual alleviation of pressure in power supply and demand, the growth rate of China’s power plant construction will decline in the future, and thus newly increased demand for installed capacity will go down in step.

(1) Clean and highly efficient power generation equipment will still maintain better development.

Although the growth of annual increased installed capacity in China has slowed down since 2007, the ultra-supercritical generator set will be widely used for its characteristics of high efficiency, high reliability, advanced environmental protection features, and better peak load adjustment performance. With China’s government attaching more and more importance to an improved environment and energy, nuclear power and hydropower will undoubtedly enjoy better development opportunities under government support in the coming years.

(2) New energy power generation equipment has entered the stage of rapid development.

Suggestions in the “11th Five-Year Plan” clearly set forth that “we should speed up the development of renewable energy sources such as wind energy, solar energy and biomass energy”. As a consequence, for a long time into the future, China’s new energy industry will develop rapidly; notedly, with more mature technologies and lower cost, wind power will enjoy the most potential in China.

2.2 Power transmission and transformation industry will enter the stage of rapid development.

The phenomenon of “stressing power generation, neglecting power transmission and supply” in China’s power industry construction has led to a lagging behind in power grid construction, causing serious problems by way of weak power transmission capacity. Particularly in recent years, with the quickening pace of power station construction and operation, there has been a more serious structural imbalance between power generation and power transmission and distribution. Although China’s investment in power grid construction during the “11th Five-year Plan” period will double that of the “10th Five-year Plan” period, it will not change the situation of too little a proportion of power transmission and distribution assets in the industry. Therefore, it will be the trend of the times to input more continual investment in power grid construction.

Reasons for outsourcing

Organizations that outsource are seeking to realize benefits or address the following issues:

* Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called “labor arbitrage” generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
* Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from variable to fixed cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
* Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
* Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
* Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
* Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
* Staffing issues. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills.
* Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
* Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
* Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
* Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
* Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
* Time zone. A sequential task can be done during normal day shift in different time zones – to make it seamlessly available 24×7. Same/similar can be done on a longer term between earth’s hemispheres of summer/winter.
* Customer Pressure. Customers may see benefits in dealing with your company, but are not happy with the performance of certain elements of the business, which they may not see a solution to except through outsourcing.

Policy solutions to outsourcing are also criticized.

Security

Before outsourcing an organization is responsible for the actions of all their staff and liable for their actions. When these same people are transferred to an outsourcer they may not change desk but their legal status has changed. They no-longer are directly employed or responsible to the organization. This causes legal, security and compliance issues that need to be addressed through the contract between the client and the suppliers. This is one of the most complex areas of outsourcing and requires a specialist third party adviser.

Fraud

Fraud is a specific security issue that is criminal activity whether it is by employees or the supplier staff. It can be argued that fraud is more likely when outsourcers are involved. In April 2005, a high-profile case involving the theft of $350,000 from four Citibank customers occurred when call center workers acquired the passwords to customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts opened under fictitious names. Citibank did not find out about the problem until the American customers noticed discrepancies with their accounts and notified the bank.

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Http://www.google.com/search?q=wind+tubine+technician+salary

$60,000-$80,000 annually in the US

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Hi Robert, to my knowledge, there are only two college level accredited programs in the United States right now. One is in Southwest Michigan, at a school called Kalamazoo Valley Community College. They actually have a large turbine there and a two year degree program on turbine science and maintenance. I can’t recall the other school right now, but I know the one at KVCC was modeled after a program in Europe where they’ve been using turbines a lot longer than we have. Try googleing that schools name, once you find their website it should be short work to find the program and what its costs and requirements are. Western Michigan will likely be the next large wind turbine installation very soon too, Duke Energy is planning on installing hundreds of turbines along the coast of Lake Michigan. Take care, Rudydoo

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The Wind Industry
——————————-
Designing Wind Turbines

Wind Analyst (studies wind patterns) They earn approximately $54 to $75 thousand a year!

Wind Turbine Machinist (usually specialise in metal and plastic parts, but also other areas of wind turbine’s structure)

Wind Farm Electrical Services Designer Operator (Makes sure the electrical components of a wind farm operate properly)

Wind Development Director (Massive responsibility for the correct overall functioning of the Wind Farm and oversees well everyone else!)

Wind Power Field Salesperson (You could start as a Representative and work your way up to Sales Manager, maybe even a Executive Position!)

Wind Turbine Drivetrain Engineer (Perform Engineering and Mechanical tasks relating to wind turbines) They make an average of $52 to $62 thousand a year.

Wind Farm Construction Manager (Make $60 to $80 thousand a year!)

Wind Farm Electrical Systems Designer ($30 to $50 thousand a year)

Wind Turbine Generator Builder (Make $15 – $20 an hour)

Wind Power Turbine Installer

Wind Energy Technician (Make $15 – $22 an hour)

Solar Power Industry
———————————-
PV Solar Panel Installer

Solar Sales Person (make $43 to $73 thousand a year)

Photovoltaic – PV Solar Designer

Solar Thermal Installer

Solar Operations Engineer

Solar Lab Technician

Solar & PV Installer-Roofer

Solar Fabrication Technician

Photovoltaic PV fabrication Testing Technician

Solar Radiant Heating Installer

Solar Hot Water Installer

Organic Farming Industry
————————————-

Horticulture/Horticulturalist

Organic Food Production Worker

Arborist

Permaculture/Permaculturalist

Organic Farmer

Nursery Manager

Landscaping

Organic Poultry Farming

Natural Building Industry
————————————–

Star Bale Construction

Sustainable Home Design

Indoor/Outoor Lanscape Architect

Green Interior Designer

The list goes on and on and on!

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4 ceiling fans 400 watts. 7 CFL lights 150 watts. 2 motor pumps 746 watts. One TV 150 watts. Total 1446 watts. 3000 watt gasoline powered generators sell for about $320 USA including tax if you can find a sale. Smaller may cost more and likely cannot supply the starting surge for the pumps. If you need to start both pumps simultaneously, you need 5500 watts or a bit more which will cost about $530, perhaps as much as $1000. 2 kw = 2000 watts likely won’t start either pump even with everything else turned off.
Possibly 3000 watts won’t start the second pump if the first one is running. If you have pump starting problems a possible solution is a 2000 watt (or there abouts) grid tie inverter powered by a battery which you trickle charge from the generator possibly supplemented by a PV solar panel and/or small wind turbine. With the generator running the inverter will think it is connected to the grid, and phase lock with your generator. That will give you 2000 + 3000 = 5000 watts. If you cut the power to one or both pumps, you can turn off the inverter to improve the life expectancy of the battery. Grid tie inverters have an input voltage range, such as 24 to 52 volts, The lower number should be the battery voltage as the actual battery voltage is about 10% more than the battery rated voltage = two 12 volt batteries in series supply about 27 volts to your inverter.
Possibly sme of that is not correct and you should buy about a 2500 watt inverter (not grid tie) with a 5000 watt surge rating. You will need two 6 volt 250 amphour batteries to power it to 5000 watts, and an 800 watt (or there abouts) generator, to charge the batteries when the voltage drops below 6.5 volts on either battery. That may happen frequently unless your wind turbine and/or PV solar panels are rated 1000 watts or more. What is an st generator? Neil

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Well I have just passed legislation that will enable students to receive funds directly from these companies that hopefully will increase interest in projects around the country.

Hope this helps,

George

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You can survey your house and determine the volt-amps (watts) of all the stuff then convert that to kilowatts. Then estimate the time cycles of the frig, the tv computer lights convert that to hours and add it all up. Ex: A 120VAC fridge has a name plate that indicated it pulls 3.7 A. That means 120*3.7 = 444W = .444 kw. If it cycles on and off on average every 15 min (.25 hr) it used .444 kW * .25 hr =111kw-hr. Do that for the TV compoyer lights everything. That will put you in the ball park.

Or You can buy these nice devices that you plug into and that plugs into the wall and measures the amps and totals the kilowatt-hours for any device. Just plug it in and come back later and see what it reads. Go through that for everything and add it all up.

But realistically, the best way is to go to your electrical meter every night at the same time and record the kilowatt hours. The meter totals so subtract today’s reading from yesterdays to get what you consumed the past day. Do this for some time and get an average. Your electrical bill will also have all this information as they read the meter too. So read it and check out how it varies with the season.

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What agent?

These kind of deals are done directly between the manufacturer and the purchaser. ANy “agent” is probably an employee of the manufacturer, and makes a salary with the probability of a year-end bonus based on company profits.

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The shut off speed depends on the design of the turbine. They vary.

If you can get the model number, the manufacturer may give you more information.

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Sun heats the surface of the earth unevenly.

Uneven heating give rise to large scale winds.

Wind turbines are strategically placed to capture as much wind power as they can.

The wind blows on propellers that are attached to the shafts of electric generators.

So the heat of the sun is converted into wind energy, then that wind energy is converted into the rotational motion of the shaft which is ultimately converted into electricity (and heat).

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You can use a bicycle wheel, with blades mounted, to drive a bicycle generator. Fashion blades by cutting large diameter PVC tubing lengthwise (splitting it) on a taper so the blade is thinner at the tip. You can make two blades from one piece of tubing if you cut it properly. You can mount them to the spokes, between the hub and rim.

I haven’t seen these bicycle generators around for a while, but I assume they’re still available, with a small knurled wheel that drives from the rim of the wheel. The generators have very good output at low rpm, so they are ideal.

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Solar cells or wind powered turbines, but initial cost is horrendous.

However, in the UK at the moment there are Government backed schemes for these Green Energy sources where you can actually put power back into the National Grid, when you are not using it, or generating an excess for your own usage and get paid for it. Again initial costs are mind blowing.

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Where I live there is a five star rating on all new housing so people have to install either solar or a rainwater tank. In europe there is even a 10 star rating system. As we are in a long term drought our water use is limited and many people use a grey water system for flushing their toilets and watering their garden. Solar passive design of a house can go a long way to reducing its energy needs and requires being smart rather than costing a lot. The retrofitting of existing housing stock is expensive but there are many simple inexpensive things you can do like switching off lights and unused appliances at the socket, install a reduced flow shower head and a dual flush toilet. Check the energy use of appliances before you buy them. If you’re cold put on a jumper before you crank up the heating. If a room is always hot grow a tree or vines outside to cut out the sun. Buy second hand and choose items without packaging and that are produced locally. It’s about your behaviour as much as the buildings you live in.

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Technicians go to trade school. Designers and planners need a BS in Engineering.

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Mostly mechanical engineers, but electrical engineers for the generators, structural engineers for the structure.

Most things are designed by teams that cover multiple fields.

Edit: correction: technicians and workers make the wind turbines, engineers design them.

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I dont want to copy the entire article from the site—please do visit the link below for full information

A wind turbine is a machine for converting the mechanical energy in wind into electrical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is then converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbines
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Http://www.howstuffworks.com/search.php
http://windpower.getfast.info/wind_power/?kw=small%20wind%20electricity%20systems,wind%20turbine

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It seems no matter how many time this is asked and answered it keeps coming back. Simple logic should tell you that if you look at the head on profile of the blades they describe a circle as they spin and at any given moment the blades occupy a tiny percentage of that circle. There is also the tower that holds the blades up but again they are usually only a few meters wide and the arch of the blades is usually at least 10m above the ground for safety. If you wish to talk about stopping the wind a forest has far more of an effect.
The average wind generator is only ~50-70m high, most wind effect relates to precipitation and cloud movement/formation which occurs well above this height, even the largest wind generator in the world, has by comparison a small blade area and with a metal mesh tower that offer quite small wind resistance. The Troposphere is ~10km high which is a little more than 50 or even 200m.
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuhrl%C3%A4nder_Wind_Turbine_Laasow
At least you didn’t ask if they slow the Earth’s rotation, which believe it or not, has also been asked before a number of times.

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That’s the Obama Administration for you. Screw the American worker, while pumping us up about job creation. Obama has done this before where he’ll bring in European-made wind generator components, and have them assembled by Chinese engineers. Something tells me this might be a deal Obama worked out to help pay off the money we are indebted to China. But the real purpose is to once again, pull the rug out from American workers.

Knowing the lack of oversight in China, I’m sure the metal beams and supports will have to be replaced in a matter of a few years before they rust out and collapse. So I don’t think there will be a lack of work for the welder. But this will be another signature failure, courtesy of Obama.

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Im not a local but i lived there two years but didnt you see the news on yahoo front page this morning that it is being evactuated from 100 mph winds and huge snow storms on the way………….. When i lived there it was full of hard ship and expense so if you researched alotta information on the place its not an easy place to live even when the above is not taking place…… Its earthquake ridden also… As you know winter its dark all but two hours summer its sunlight all but two hours really screw ur sleeping up gets down to ninety below zero way too much snow tires go flat every day battery heaters necessary the food was very expensive there in seventys alcan high way was horrible to drive on….. Im sure its changed a teeny bit..housing expensive … Marijuana there of course…… If the power goes out you freeze to death so you need a generator…….. Its an adventure and great photography but for now GOD is not happy at ALASKA…..

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You can consult buildings, and electrical devices and material stores on your locality if you want to assemble one by yourself or call some retailers for international companies such as Bonus Turbine of Denmark.

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I think they are beautiful and should count as a sculpture. It is a perception issue. We are a glutenous nation and we tolerate smog, but not wind turbines or solar panels.