admin answers:

Http://www.mytscstore.com/

i know that tractor supply company carries solar panels but they are not high producing. Each set cost around 300 bucks not including the batteries. I’m going to use complete solar energy for my house. I figured that it would take 3 sets of solar panels from tsc. Each set using 4 marine batteries would cost 2500 to 3000 bucks and it would produce enough power run my most basic energy needs. As far as wind mills i haven’t checked that idea out yet but i will soon enough. I hope that you find what you need. Good luck.

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I had the same issue with an air compressor. I built a wooden enclosure with a small fan to bring cool air into the box. It has worked fine for over twenty years! But for your problem:

Find a cardboard box that will fit comfortably, upside down, over the generator. If that is not enough, glue some fiberglass insulation inside the cardboard box. That will decrease the decibels sufficiently. Otherwise, you will need to build a wooden enclosure with fiberglass insulation inside.

Good Luck

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I do not think there is that many types of wind turbines because wind turbine’s solo purpose is to make eletricity and they don not really bulid them in the suburbs because it may be noise and it take a lot of space and also ot needs a lot of wind so only a limited area will be able to set up wind turbines.

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The turbine has to be 30 feet above surrounding buildings and trees. It has to be two tower heights away from any building. If it falls in any direction, it must not cross a property line. You pretty much need to have an acreage to have a wind turbine.

admin answers:

Eath4Energy is a scam. Please see my review at http://www.nlcpr.com/Deceptions6.php

If your motivation is to reduce your energy bills, then you should first look at conservation projects. These are things like using low flow shower heads, replacing old appliances and adding more insulation.

If your motivation is to generate some energy for learning purposes or as a matter of principle, then consider the following:

Building a wind generator yourself is not a simple project. If you can build an utility trailer for your truck (welding, metal fabrication) then you could certainly tackle the job. There is a great book available from www.otherpower.com called Homebrew Wind Power plus you can order any parts and assemblies that are beyond your abilities to fabricate. Cost of turbine is about $2000 and you need a tower as well. There are cheap units at some hardware stores but they are garbage compared to to the unit designed by www.otherpower.com

A more realistic project would be to get a commercial solar panel (making your own from broken cells on eBay is not worth it), inverter, charge controller and battery and using it to power some things in your house. For about $1000 you could have something to power a small computer. A complete system to power your home is more in the $30,000 range.

There are, unfortunately, no cheap ways to make your own power as Earth4Energy is promoting other than perhaps getting lucky in an eBay auction or purchasing a solar system from a bankruptcy sale.

Do your conservation measures first. Then read Homebrew Wind Power, read the solar links at http://www.nlcpr.com/Links1.php and then decide what type of project you are up for. By then, you will know exactly what you want to do.

admin answers:

Look at the Prairie Turbines site again. The price of the micro-controller including the hall device is $255. The $45 book provides a complete list of material and instructions to build everything else.

The micro-controller monitors the speed sensor and provides control signals to two solid-state relays. One relay connects the motor to the grid when the speed reaches the motor’s 1800 RPM synchronous speed and disconnects the motor if the speed drops below 1800 RPM. The other relay is energized to release the brake when the controller is energized and de-energized by the controller when the motor speed exceeds the maximum safe operating speed. If this occurs, the controller apparently must be manually reset.

I did not find the maximum safe operating speed stated on the web site. If the full load speed of the motor is 1750 RPM, the full load slip is 1800 minus 1750 or 50 RPM. The speed at which the motor would generate full load current and present full load torque to the turbine is 1800 RPM plus the full load slip or 1850 RPM. With the design described, a three-phase motor is connected to a single phase source with capacitors connected between the source and the third motor phase. That is likely to increase the motor slip somewhat.

I am not sure what happens if the motor is driven above the speed at which it generates full load current. A three-phase motor operating as an induction generator connected to a three-phase supply has a torque vs. Speed curve that is something like the mirror image of the motoring torque vs. Speed curve. The curve is likely different with the single-phase connection used in this case. I don’t know what the speed vs. Current curve looks like in either case, but I will see if I can find it. I am also curious to know if the Alan Plunkett listed on the web site as an author is the Alan Plunkett that is well known author of technical papers on inverter and variable frequency drive subjects.

Added information:
I found information indicating that, for a 3-phase motor connected to a 3-phase supply, the speed vs. Current curve for induction generator operation is like a mirror image of the speed vs. Current curve for motor operation. That would mean that the maximum speed would need to be limited to the synchronous speed plus the full-load slip. The web site indicates that the full-load speed for the motor that they used is 1725 RPM for 3-phase operation. That would make the maximum speed 1875 RPM plus the additional slip due to the single phase with capacitor arrangement.

admin answers:

Smoke is a problem because most smoke will also contain carbon monoxide, and that’s not the kind of stuff you want your “exhibit” producing at a science fair.

I have absolutely no idea if it would work…but…Halloween is over and many retailers will prbably be having clearance sales on their Halloween items. I know that those “fog machines” produce their own cloudy “stuff”. I’d suggest you look into a buying a discounted fog machine, now that the sales are on.

You can also make your own fog machine if you want.

admin answers:

Actually, check out some of the links on http://www.builditsolar.com

If you are going to do much of the work yourself, you will be sadly disappointed by what is available in print:

Homepower magazine http://www.homepower.com for example, it most often reads like a sales brochure, because “hands on” to a number of people usually means buying most of the system ready made in a kit. Hands on for me is breaking out the soldering iron and doing point to point wiring on components to construct the regulators (often called charge controlelrs.) Too much chaff for a hands on person to find useful. Some of the ads are useful.

Nuts and Volts http://www.nutsvolts.com/ is a bit better, but their topical coverage is far ranging so you do not always get as much as you would like. Spendy, might be better to sheck it out at the bookstores and buy it off the newstand when a decent article appears.

Mother Earth news http://www.motherearthnews.com is pretty good, but the best bang for the buck there is to buy their archives on CD rom, which is 3 disks, broke down by decade. There is a fair amount of substance, sometimes you encounter an article that sought to convert one item over to another, only it would have been much less work and cost for them to have started out from ground level and construct (with used parts) the same thing, which they sought to construct in the first place, a solar charged electric tractor is one specific item I have come to mind as one the author of the article could have done better. You might find the book they published “The Mother Earth News Handbook of Homemade Power,” which is not real good for specifics in some areas, but is good for some ideas if you are good at working from thumbnail sketches, you can fill in the blanks where there are gaps in detail. The book was written more as a “primer” than a complete compillation.

For your wind systems, there is a lot to be found at http://www.lindsaybks.com Hugh Piggott has written a few good books on the home construction of windmills. The LeJay Manual is a good reprint that has a lot of good info for home constructing- down to the wooden propeller profiles. As well as the book “Generator Secrets.”

One of the good sources for materials and tools supplies and systems is Northern Tool http://www.northerntool.com

One thing on propeller materials- never us ABS and never use PVC. As tempting as those can be they break. When they break, the blades will go for a great distance in modest winds. They can kill too.

admin answers:

The current establishment cost of a coal fired power station is about $2000 per kilowatt of power produced. Over a 50 year life; this is quite low compared with establishment costs for wind and solar power generation, and a lot (hundreds) of wind generators are needed to produce the same power output of a large coal powered generator. This is why it is proving difficult to replace coal for large scale power generation.

Here’s a wiki ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_station

admin answers:

Energy conservation can show how efficient/cost effective a wind power generator can be.

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As can be seen from the power curves in the first link, there is nothing till about 12km/h wind, then only a small fraction of the maximum power which is reached at around 28km/h. It is important to undertake a proper survey, as wind shear can have a large influence. The Vestas site has advice about planning, but not much detail. Send them an email.

In this kind of situation, with no grid to fall back on, it is usual to have diesel generators running to smooth the load. These are special “low load” types (see the 6th link below). They run on no load when the wind is there, synchronised with the wind generators.

I should warn you that it is easy to convince yourself that a wind system is ok when it isn’t, because you want it to be true. There are all sorts of considerations. It may make sense to have oversized turbines so you still get enough power despite bad wind. What happens when no-one is using power? One or two big ones or lots of smaller ones? You need the turbine manufacturer and/or experienced consultants to help make these decisions with a proper site appraisal. If the trees are all horizontal that is a good start. It should definitely be what most people would think is a windy place, and with steady winds. Solar panels are easier to engineer, perhaps lower risk, but it does depend on where you are too. No clouds in that case. It is not uncommon to have them together, with the low load diesels.

You probably already know the peak power demands from existing power supplies. You should try to factor in for 25 years growth of island power usage too. The figure varies, especially because or airconditioning/heating situation. One could say a typical is 4kWh per house per day. You have to consider community buildings too. This figure takes no account of peak demand anyway. It tells you how much fuel you need for diesel generators.

Vestas is a Danish pioneer in larger wind systems, with some innovative features.
The first link shows power versus wind speed.
The second link also has these for the latest models, look for the brochures. It also gives advice about
The third link has a list of other manufacturers.
The 4th and 5th links have pictures of wind farms with some details that could be helpful for contacts.
The sixth link is about low load diesels.

admin answers:

Climbing 200 feet is important. Once a year someone has to climb down and hand inspect each blade. Being comfortable working on machinery at 200 feet is required. You don’t climb much in nasty weather, but you will climb to the nacelles in winter.

Most windmills use a induction generator with a back to back inverter. The generator generates power at whatever frequency, and the inverter converts it to 60hz. Being able to trouble shoot this type of equipment is a plus.

admin answers:

The smallest I would recommend is 5000 watts. This should be enough to operate the well pump, small cooking appliances, lights, television, fridge, etc. Power will be limited and you will have to be careful not to overload the generator. I power my house with a 5500 watt generator. You should also consider installation of a proper transfer switch and be aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Read through my generator page listed below for more information.

If your main goal is to power the well pump solar or wind are not feasible. The power requirements are simply too high. It may be an option to supplement your electrical consumption for other smaller loads however.

admin answers:

I’m not sure from your question what you want to make, the generator itself or a system that generates power?

The generator itself would be very difficult for home production. Take apart a car alternator or starter motor (which would work as a generator) and see whats involved. Using these same items to generate power from another source such as wind is perfectly reasonable to do with directions how available on the Internet.

Having said that, if you just wanted to make something that worked but wasn’t actually practical, take a look at the link http://www.howard.k12.md.us/res/MakingStuff/motor.html
This would work as an ac generator if the ends of the wire wound on the cork were connected to some type of collector ring and brushes and the needle turned by something

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While I’ll admit that coal fire power is a pollutant, at this present time we could use it to boost the grid and lower costs of power. The problem is, it takes longer to build a nuke plant and more safeties must be in place. I believe in using what we must as a stop gap until the Green Industry catches up and this could take several years to do.
True Solar power would be best as far as emissions are concerned, but this is also more expensive to set up and when there is no sun shine for several days this could be a problem.
When Con-Edison first started up, each neighborhood had their own generators, which covered a certain area. This agenda could be used again with the solar idea and by doing so, could reduce costs to those in their areas if they would also set up solar panels to help in producing their own power and if any was not used it could be diverted into the grid and help the other areas.
I believe through a system of wind, coal, nuclear, solar and even water powered generators we could produce much more than we need, by combining the grids of each.

Edit: If I could find a way to run my house without the need of any outside influence I would build a high fence around it of stone and secede from the union. Welcome to the free nation of Liberty!

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I am so outraged that I spent the morning emailing the governator and our representatives in Sacto. I have been plaguing them with emails since this budget debaucle began, but this is the worst possible outcome! It really irritates me that they reached into the pockets of those of us who are still hanging on to our jobs and homes, but can barely keep ourselves from falling off the proverbial financial cliff. We have seen increases in food, electric, water, trash collection to the tune of 30-35% in the last year, losses of 35-40% in our home values, IRAs, 401ks and investment accounts and our wages have been stagnant or barely able to keep up with the increases in health care premiums or co-pays. In order to pay the increased personal income tax, we will have to save every dime of the $13 in federal stimulus and will still owe about $1300 to the state. In addition, the increase in vehicle license fees, sales taxes and other provisions will only serve to slow down purchases because consumers will tighten the purse strings even more. What burns me most is that they never even discusses suspending free services for the education, health care, social services or welfare to anchor babies of illegals. There is a huge sigh of relief in the illegal alien community that at least they will not be affected by the income tax increases while they still retain their free benefits while all of us taxpaying suckers get less government services and huge tax increases. Even my avatar is red faced with the passage of this budget! Did you notice, they basically snagged everything we could have gotten that might have benefitted us from the fed? We won’t be able to take advantage of purchasing energy efficient appliances, solar panels, wind generators, new cars and can’t even spend our stimulus because we will owe it to the state.

admin answers:

Not only cost effective, but profitable to the participants.
I am currently (no pun) building a wind turbine generator, for under $500. I had to buy a welder (got a deal) and if it works out, I’ll be building more of them, for sale.
If you have the proper type of electric meter outside your home, it will run backwards as you generate your own electricity, if you generate more than you use. Thus, you can actually make money doing this. If you end up with an electric vehicle and charge it at home…
You get the picture.
Here’s a search results page for this, called “Distributed Generation”——-
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=distributed+generation&fr=ush-ans&ygmasrchbtn=Web+Search
The wind turbine generator:
http://www.otherpower.com/trips3.html
Check it out. They also have a 20 foot diameter version for greater output (more involved, more costly initially) that I may build later on.
I also have plans for a personal solar-trough type generator
that involves a closed-circuit water/steam system.

admin answers:

Hello,our company shenzhen bazhentu are selling that,you may contact our sales manager directly by msn ebwone@hotmail.com.
Her phone:0086-15574832263

1000w wind turbine

Application range:Small water pump system, power supply for home daily use on island, in rural area, remote area, wind-solar hybrid system on farmland, grassland; for navigation tower and frontier sentry..

Other opponents:tower, battery set, solar panel, controller for solar panel, cable wires, storage cabinet (optional), inverter (for AC load), ect…

Description:
Color: White
Net Weight: 45 KG
Gross Weight: 64 KG
Blades Material: Reinforced Nylon
Starting Wind Speed(m/s)：3.0m/s
Cut-in Wind Speed(m/s)：3.0m/s
Rated Wind Speed(m/s)：11.5m/s
Safe Wind Speed(m/s)：50m/s

Characteristics:
1. High efficiency which eauals the trditonal 800W wind generator.
2. Renewable energy could get government budget subsidies.
3. Energy Saving & Pollution Reduction
4. Cost cutting compared with traditional power generating set
5. Around 15 years of life span
6. Complementarily use with solar energy

admin answers:

Hey Taylor, yes, I agree with the other respondents here, there are great breakthroughs to come in the renewable energy business. Let me outline some specifics: Solar panels today, or photovoltiacs to be exact, are only about 12 to 15 % efficient. Over 80% of the suns energy that hit them is only turned into heat, same as if it just hit the ground. They used to be 7%, but we have almost doubled that. The Germans are working on a project right now to harness the suns light and heat to convert to electricity, it is called Desertec. Their plan is to heat oil to over 600 degrees F, then store it in a huge building sized insulated tank. Then using water to oil heat exchangers, they can send water in which will boil in seconds and run a steam turbine. There are several advantages to this plan, not the least of which is the solar array is now 50 to 60 % efficient. A solar factory in the northwest corner of the Sahara Desert can power all of Europe, all day, and all night since the stored hot oil stays above 212 degrees well into the night. Now we have solar electricity even while it’s dark. This is experimental, but if it works that well, you’ll soon see these plants in desert environments all over the globe. Some items further out on the experimental table are liquid salt as a heat medium, and items like liquid nitrogen, and so on. There is plenty of solar energy in the world, we just need to get better at using it, and people like you can make that happen.

Looking at wind, Albert Betz was the scientist who penned what is now called the, “Betz Limit,” a theoretical limit on how much wind energy can be converted to usable torque by a turbine. You can check it out on google or wiki if you like, but in a nutshell, 59% is the maximum theoretical limit of any wind turbine. Well our best units today work in the 30 to 35 % range, well below the Betz Limit. Again, people like you can help us push that envelope out further, so now we can run all the homes in the Pacific Northwest on half the wind farm we would need using todays technology. The same can be said for biomass, landfill conversions, methane use, hydro power, and so on. The area of direct thermal conversion is really old school, even as cool as it is now. There is a woodstove you can buy today that when you feed wood into it and heat it up, it also makes electricity using a Peltier Heat Junction. They work, but are expensive and highly inefficient, again, a work in progress and probably years behind. Global warming is no wimp, just ask anyone on the East Coast USA what they think about it today after the last two “weather patterns,” they have been through. Or check out Sir David Attenborough’s comments on Yahoo’s front page today. K’s comment on fossil technology should be “fracking,” not “fracting,” but he’s correct, we seem to be finding more oil when we should be burning less of it. My feeling on that is if it’s unhealthy to pipe the exhaust from your car to the inside of the vehicle, it’s just as unhealthy to vent it to the outside too.

If you really have an interest in all of this, I highly recommend getting an education in the field and doing whatever you can, we still need more help working all this stuff out. Our home generates about 90% of its own electricity now, with the help of a solar array and small wind turbine. We heat with passive solar and wood, and collect rainwater as well as heat water with the sun, but life would be even better if all this could be done with less resources, less money, and more reliability, that’s where people like you could come in. Good luck Taylor, and take care, Rudydoo

admin answers:

No live voltage – until blades allowed to rotate.

admin answers:

24 volts single phase is not very useful, specially as the frequency is probably varying all over the lot. Why not rectify the 3 phase to DC, which is quite efficient, then use an inverter to convert that to 120 or 240 VAC 50 or 60 Hz, as you prefer.

.

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The Nuclear plants that are proposed for construction in the US in the next 1-10 years will cost between 5-7 billion dollars per reactor, depending on which design. In the past, they were built for as little as 300 million dollars.

* Provisional contracts for two 1,117 MWe AP1000 reactors at the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station have estimated final costs of approximately $4.9 billion per reactor. [1]

* On April 9, 2008, Georgia Power Company reached a contract agreement for two AP1000 reactors to be built at Vogtle, at an estimated final cost of $14 billion. [2]

The profit on a running reactor is about $1 million dollars a day, the cost is 5.93 cents per kWh, and includes Uranium for fuel, insurance, waste disposal, and employees like security.
The lifetime cost of new generating capacity in the United States was estimated in 2006 by the U.S. Government: wind cost was estimated at $55.80 per MWh, coal (cheap in the U.S.) at $53.10, natural gas at $52.50 and nuclear at $59.30.
“Future costs” include the cost to decommission a reactor, which is currently around $300 million dollars.
If we expand the topic from electricity to energy in general, Nuclear Power really starts to get cheap. According to Dr. Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine: “The construction of just one nuclear power station like Palo Verde (CA) in each of the 50 states, with a full complement of 10 reactors, would supply all of the energy that the United States currently imports—with, in addition and at current prices, $300 billion per year worth of excess energy to export.”

Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing free neutrons and other smaller nuclei, which may eventually produce photons (in the form of gamma rays). Fission of heavy elements is an exothermic reaction which can release large amounts of energy both as electromagnetic radiation and as kinetic energy of the fragments (heating the bulk material where fission takes place). Fission is a form of elemental transmutation because the resulting fragments are not the same element as the original atom.

Nuclear energy is a way of creating heat through the fission process of atoms. All power plants convert heat into electricity using steam. At nuclear power plants, the heat to make the steam is created when atoms split apart — called fission. (Other types of power plants burn coal or oil for heat to make steam.)

The fission process take place when the nucleus of a heavy atom, like uranium or plutonium, is split in two when struck by a neutron. The “fissioning” of the nucleus releases two or three new neutrons.

It also releases energy in the form of heat. The released neutrons can then repeat the process. This releases even more neutrons and more nuclear energy. The repeating of the process is called a chain reaction. In a nuclear power plant, uranium is the material used in the fission process.

The heat from fission boils water and creates steam to turn a turbine. As the turbine spins, the generator turns and its magnetic field produces electricity. The electricity can then be carried to your home, so you can work on the computer, watch television, play video games, or make toast!

MW = Mega Watt (1 million watts)
kW= Kilo Watt (1 thousand watts)

admin answers:

An automobile alternator will generate about 700 watts if spinning at the proper speed. You may need a belt drive to get to that speed.

.

admin answers:

A traditional windmill is the easiest to build – that is pretty flat blades mounted in a vertical circle with a tail piece to aim it into the wind. The shaped blades of a propellor type wind generator are much harder to make as are the mixer shaped blades of a vertical windmill.
The big problem of making a model of a standard windwill is getting the power out. The shaft the blade turns on must have a crank or gears that line up with the center of rotation of the head, so the blade axle must have a bearing on either side of the crank or gear head – in a small model, getting these bearings mounted, etc., gets more tricky than in a bigger device.
If pumping is done with a crank, there must be counterweights so the windmill is only lifting water and not the weight of the shaft. If gearing is used, the tail must be bigger to offset the torque from the load (otherwise the spinning of the blades will rotate the head around the gears.
The second reference in particular will give you good data.

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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.

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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

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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

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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