I've been busy these last couple days

[Electron Pump]

  I made me a bearing holder that worked great for ballancing the blades.



  This is the ball of nylon ties I ended up with at the center of my hub when she was finally finished.



  Here is a shot of the pole. Its two 21' 14-guage 1 5/8" pipe offset by 7'. For a total of 28'. I'm really going to tell people its 30'. And I bent 4 pieces of rebar and welded 5' from the top to tie guy wires on. I also welded some tie downs to the sides and ends of the car port.



  This is what she looks like up in the air-a-flyin. Oopse, I cant seem to find that one in my files. I'll catch up with you on that one.

  And I also wanted to show you the control pannel.

[Electron Pump]

  I told ya I would catch up with you on what she looked like when she went flying!

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

You don't have that puppy anchored to your house, do you?

That's a good way to vibrate the nails out of the structure, damaging the house.

(Also:  A heavy wind may pull down the tower and pull a chunk off the house, giving you a twofer owie.)

[Electron Pump]

  Man, I had a hub fail in 60 MPH winds. The top of the carport has a few dings to proove it. I found what was left of my hub and blades in a neighbors tree.

  And I have been through the vibration thing and I've fixed it. She is so smoothe and quiet, she can be pumpin' 5 amps into the batts and in the shop she is mounted to you cant hear it over the hum of the florescent lights.

  As far as the house, the shop is isolated from the house. It has its own foundation. The house is peer and beam. The only part of the shop that touches the house is a thin flashing so it doesnt conduct vibration. The shop is welded 2x6 and 4x4 square tube. Good and strong.

  I believe my worst fear is throwing a blade off. Or an exploding battery.

  Where she is there the pole bolts loose from the shop and tilts right over to the house. I can get up on the roof there and pull the jenn right off the pole and scuttle her in the shop. I keep very close watch on the lockal wind and weather reports and if they say they are stormies I can run out and take her down in real short order.

  Hey, I appreciate the comment though. Yall have a good weekend guys.

 

[tmcmurran]

You really can not say the a roof mounted turbine will cause any damage or problems unless you have had it happen.  I have had mine up on a wood framed Saltbox House for just about a year now.  The structure is over 100 years old, and has shown not a single problem from vibration.  You just need to know how to do it.  The tower goes inside the roof to the second floor and onto a brace.  All held in with anti-vibration mounting and four steel bolts at the base as well as rubber supports at the roof beams.

Just need to plan what you want to do with what you have.  Telling people not to do what some are unable to do is not being helpful.  The wind speed at this site has been over 160kmh, average is above 40kmh and about all we ever get is a dull hum.  That is till the motor on this one fried.  Gotta luv SW.

[jonas302]

Looks like it shook your wall off (: No just kidding

Sounds like you mounted that on up real nice

[TomW]

Haha; yeah. I didn't know they had tyvek back then?

I agree it can be done but the devil is in the details. Wonder if he hears it inside when it gets making power and that hum sets in?

Tom

[tmcmurran]

Well the sound is not that much of an issue.  Very low, and it is louder outdoors with a 60kmh wind blowing.

What we have done is to box the tower inside the second floor with proper insulation.  Any sound that travels down the pole really is contained.  With the amount of material I had at the time, I was not able to have it as high as I would have liked.  Once summer comes and the rest of the renovations are done it will be taken down and put on a proper tower further out on the property.

Ya, the old clapboard needed to come off.  I wish it vibrated as to have it all fall off  That would have been sweet.

[brokengun]

I'd love to see some pictures of your mounting! People always knock mounting on houses and I see where they're coming from but it seems to me that there must be some way to do it (even if it's not cost effective). Also, it sounds like you just are using your house for support while most people just stick their towers on top without bracing to the ground. That probably helped a lot.

[Electron Pump]

  I saw 52 MPH winds last night. Well actually I'm still in em. She is out there zinging 7.5 to 10 amps solid and quiet as a mouse. Well a pretty dizzy mouse.

[DanG]

tmcmurran posted a response showing his house mounted tower- and included a final 1/2 megabyte image. If he cares to resize the photo & relink I'm sure it will please everyone, I saved tmcmurran's text... Photo size is limited to 150K bytes and/or 640x480; Please resize your photos before posting them, whether they on our server or yours. Frequently Asked Questions

<HR>

Hope I am not hijacking this posting too much here, but here are some of the install photo's of the through the roof monuted turbine.

I poured about 50lbs of cement down the pole with the water proof cable inside.

The base plate was welded on prior to the pouring.

"At_roof_rough_50lbs_cement_in_both_small_and_large_pipes._compressed.JPG"

Cut out the access for the cable to run to the battery bank.

"10_4_600V_Weather_Proof_Cable_compressed.JPG"

Before securing this with 4 large bolts we placed a rubber membrane under both the steel plate as well as the wooden block; The block was then bolted through the floor boards as well as the steel plate to the first floor sub ceiling with a steel box frame to mitigate twisting.

"Support_brace_before_bolted_down.JPG">

When I next head out to pull the turbine head off to return to SouthWest I will take updated photo's of the access closet we built around the pole and filled with SafeNSound Insulation to keep any sounds down to no more then a ceiling fan operation.

I will also add that this room is right next to the master bedroom on the second floor, and has caused none of us any less sleep during a north Atlantic gale. This house is located in Trepassey Newfoundland Canada right on the tip near Cape Race. The weather conditions are a beast, and we are looking at a larger unit to pull in even more power, just too bad that we do not have netmetering out there yet. I think I know why

[Electron Pump]

  I went over and looked at your pics. Looks good man.