Thread: Solar and Wind power - Installing a wind generator

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

From my knowledge of aircraft and model aircraft I would suggest that the further you can get it off the ground, the more wind it will be operating in. Depending on the terrain, windshear can be quite pronounced. (this is the tendency of air to be moving much slower closer to the ground).

Yes, I am familiar with the effect - this is why I am using a windmill tower not the braced pole that came with it that raised the blades only enough for safety. It will be 7m up rather than 4.5m. Also putting it up the hill a bit. Problem with raising it higher is that the tower gets more expensive and more difficult to erect, and the wires to the batteries get longer - meaning they have to be thicker and more expensive to avoid losing the extra power you get from putting the blades higher.
John

Originally Posted by Omaroo

John - I'm extremely interested in your findings. I watched these generators on eBay for a while, and the 12v 300W unit was selling for a while at $500 or so. I see that Jaycar now has them for that. I'm about a poofteenth off going and getting one for Cooma - as I'm reluctant to go solar for a weekender. We get plenty (read: LOTS) of wind up on the ridge tops less than 300 metres away - and wind speed is pretty constant. If we install four 110A/Hr deep cycle batteries and have them constantly topped up, we'd be set for years. Stick a decent 2KW pure-sine invertor in a shed next to the tower, and we could feed 240v AC power back down our hill without any real loss.

Is this the one you have?



Very keen to hear what you think.

Cheers
Chris

Yes, that's the one I have. I hope to have it up in about ten days or less, but I imagine it will be a few months before I can really report on the performance. The big question of course is how much power does it really put out in typical conditions. Seems to be very robustly made, but I don't like the plastic case and prop spinner, doubt they will stand up to the sun very well. The blades are unpainted, and I will have to paint them before putting it up - will see the paint people when I am in town on Thursday.

I would be cautious about running a 2KVA inverter at 12v - at rated power you will be drawing nearly two hundred amps, more if the battery is down a bit, and this means you have to have really good connections - all the time. Also, the mandatory HRC fuse for this sort of current is really pricey. 2KVA is about the upper limit for 12V because of this. Also, avoid running batteries in parallel if you can avoid it.

I like your idea of having the whole setup up the hill and running 240 down the hill - but make sure you can get a vehicle up there!

Omaroo

You have a river at your place, have you considered a wind/hydro hybrid setup?

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Yes, that's the one I have. I hope to have it up in about ten days or less, but I imagine it will be a few months before I can really report on the performance. The big question of course is how much power does it really put out in typical conditions. Seems to be very robustly made, but I don't like the plastic case and prop spinner, doubt they will stand up to the sun very well. The blades are unpainted, and I will have to paint them before putting it up - will see the paint people when I am in town on Thursday.

I would be cautious about running a 2KVA inverter at 12v - at rated power you will be drawing nearly two hundred amps, more if the battery is down a bit, and this means you have to have really good connections - all the time. Also, the mandatory HRC fuse for this sort of current is really pricey. 2KVA is about the upper limit for 12V because of this. Also, avoid running batteries in parallel if you can avoid it.

I like your idea of having the whole setup up the hill and running 240 down the hill - but make sure you can get a vehicle up there!

Cheers John. The 2KVA inverter is not absolutely necessary for us. We can probably get away with 500VA without losing too much functionality....and besides, we already have one. It'd just be nice to be able to run the occaisional power tool or A/C without having to fire up the generator - but that's no real biggie either.

You might be able to get a decent aluminium spinner from a hobby store depending on what type of hub the prop runs. Some 1/3 scale models are pretty darn large, and I've seen spinners up to eight inches in diameter for some model aircraft. Also - why not use the original plastic covers as plugs from which you can make a mould - and then in turn make fibreglass casings to replace the plastic (is it just flimsy ABS?). I'd be in a set - as would others I'd assume.

I'll be keeping an eye out to see what your findings are

Cheers
Chris

Originally Posted by dobbo

Omaroo

You have a river at your place, have you considered a wind/hydro hybrid setup?

Yeah Mat - we've looked in micro-hydro too. Our water speed is up to a nearly-constant 3 metres/second irrespective of the season, which with some small & compact units will generate a decent (and absolutely constant) 8 amps or so. The big problem is that the Murrumbidgee, where we are, changes levels so dramatically from the summer to winter seasons and then to spring, that in order to build a containment system we'd need tons of concrete so that it wasn't all washed away after the melt. We could anchor it to the bottom, but then we'd still have to protect the sysem from the huge logs that come downstream in spring...... it's all a bit hard, but would certainly be nice.

Originally Posted by Omaroo

(snip)
You might be able to get a decent aluminium spinner from a hobby store depending on what type of hub the prop runs. Some 1/3 scale models are pretty darn large, and I've seen spinners up to eight inches in diameter for some model aircraft. Also - why not use the original plastic covers as plugs from which you can make a mould - and then in turn make fibreglass casings to replace the plastic (is it just flimsy ABS?). I'd be in a set - as would others I'd assume.

I'll be keeping an eye out to see what your findings are

Cheers
Chris

The soft plastic spinner is not rigid enough to use as a mould. Besides which I have a stainless steel basin that is just about the right size! I'll see if I can get an aluminium one the same size next trip to town, otherwise my kitchen is going to face a loss.
John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

... otherwise my kitchen is going to face a loss.
John

LOL! We come from the same school of thought

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Yeah Mat - we've looked in micro-hydro too. Our water speed is up to a nearly-constant 3 metres/second irrespective of the season, which with some small & compact units will generate a decent (and absolutely constant) 8 amps or so. The big problem is that the Murrumbidgee, where we are, changes levels so dramatically from the summer to winter seasons and then to spring, that in order to build a containment system we'd need tons of concrete so that it wasn't all washed away after the melt. We could anchor it to the bottom, but then we'd still have to protect the sysem from the huge logs that come downstream in spring...... it's all a bit hard, but would certainly be nice.

Just float it on a rubber dingy type setup with a vertical plain wheel?

It could work