The Harsh Reality of Wind Power

[ChrisOlson]

We live in what's normally a pretty good wind area averaging 14 mph.  I have two turbines that supply power for our house - a 13 and a 10, and I put 13 foot blades on my other turbine (it was originally a 24 volt 10 foot IRP machine and I'm using it as a 12 volt IRP machine with 13 foot blades) and moved it to our lake property to supply power for our RV there, which we use as our summer lake home.

Not a single one of those turbines has produced even 1/10th of a kilowatt hour this entire week.  The last day they made any power was Friday the 14th - I got 8.31 kWh out of the two for our house on that day, and I don't run the other one at the lake unless we're there.  My little 150 watt solar panel made more power this week than all three turbines combined.  In fact, in two more days that little solar panel will have made more power than the two turbines made on the last day they ran, combined.

My anemometer recorded an average wind speed of 2.4 mph today with a peak "gust" of 6.8.  And the forecast says 3 mph wind tomorrow and 4 mph on Friday.

I have two more days of soybean planting left and then my wife and I are leaving for Sioux Narrows, Ontario to go walleye fishing until after Memorial Day. I'm going to lower the towers (15 minute job with my free-standing steel lattice towers) and rest them on their stands while we're gone so that's another week the turbines won't make any power. Meanwhile, the little solar panel will put enough power into the battery bank every day to keep our 'fridge running while we're gone - don't even have to worry about it.

Just an example of how you should always spend your RE dollars on solar before blowing it on wind turbines.  Wind turbines are more fun but even on a cloudy day solar power is more reliable.
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Chris

[12AX7]

Hi!

I read about your problem, and the only thing I got was ..

"Canada, and walleye fishing"

huh,   don't see what you could be complaining about!

ax7
Mark

[TomW]

Thanks for the tip on when I can stop by and go turbine shopping without a wad of cash Even on the ground so easy to load. 

A wise precaution, lowering them while away.

Its great to share but I try to never mention online when I will be away. Too much expensive gear a busted window away.

I kind of envy the fishin til Memorial Day idea a lot. 

I just got my 12 footer  (by DanB and crew built at supervised  workshops). And They helped tilt it up last Saturday afternoon and since then I have gathered 2.01 KWH according to my Doc Wattson in generally light sub cut in winds around 7 or 8 MPH with some higher gusting in the upper teens no anemometer here but according to the Airport 3 miles away.

Overall in the past the 10 footer I had before only made 10% of the power the 850 watts of solar made. Wind is much more fun than solar to watch.  This one will do better most certainly.

Solar definitely is the least hassle. Set it in place securely and forget it. Maybe worry if hail is imminent and not at every thunderboomer that develops all summer. Here it is generally dead calm most of the growing season sprinkled with violent storms and occasionally a twister. Tense times for turbine owners. Lots of solar hours so, again,  that just works.

Its a great hobby that occasionally pays some dividends kinda like farming!

Thanks for the share.

Tom

[bob g]

if you are in a true 14mph wind area, you can't help but make power most of the time

whereas over the years i have heard of many that report "it blows here all the time" only to find out that their average
is something like 5 mph and they never make much if any power.

i suspect wind generators are like kite flying contests, best way i know of to get a dead calm day is to build a kite and want to fly it.

bob g

[jlt]

Yes i agree that solar is much more dependable . but very boring to watch. I only have 5 wind turbines going right now. still have more in the works& working on a river current turbine also . Good luck on the wally fishing.

[hydrosun]

It may seem obvious but about 15 years ago there was an article in Homepower about a study in New Zealand showing how much more reliable a hybrid system with both solar and wind input was over either alone. It could have a smaller battery bank and had less need for a backup generator.
Chris

[Tritium]

I have to agree. Solar is set and forget. In my area it is not IF or WHEN  a turbine gets hit by lightning but HOW OFTEN. I have lost one shop and a lifetime collection of tools to lightning and a house and grandmother to a propane leak in a basement. I sure don't want any repeats of those incidents. It does hail here but not nearly as often as lightning strikes. I am in a class 3+ to 4 wind area as well and I still want to put up a sizable turbine but it will have to have some major lightning protection for my peace of mind.

Thurmond

[ChrisOlson]

Thanks for the tip on when I can stop by and go turbine shopping without a wad of cash Even on the ground so easy to load. 

Well Tom, you'll probably have to convince our two grey wolf/german shepherd hybrids that you're not a gourmet meal first.  In fact, we don't even really know what those two dogs eat because we've tried feeding them dog food or meat scraps and they won't touch it.  But we do know that if someone turns up on the missing persons report here in Northwestern Wisconsin that they're rarely ever found.   

I just came in for lunch and the big turbine is actually running, putting out 12.1 watts, according to Doc Wattson.  The little one is running too but just practicing.
--
Chris

[ChrisOlson]

I read about your problem, and the only thing I got was ..

"Canada, and walleye fishing"

huh,   don't see what you could be complaining about!

yeah, I guess it's a good thing we don't have a sail boat!  But we do have one of those little 15 watt solar battery chargers on the boat - and good thing too.  A couple years ago we were fishing around all those islands on The Lake of the Woods near Sioux Narrows about 50 miles from home base.  Used the trolling motor most of the day and both batteries went down enough so the Mercury OptiMax 150 wouldn't quite crank fast enough to start (don't have a separate starting battery, but I do now).  It took three hours for that little solar panel to get enough juice in the batteries to start the big Merc.

But then we had another problem.  It was getting close to sundown and it got dark before we got back "home"-  and we got lost in all those islands that dot the lake. They all look the same in the dark. So we spent the night on the lake and when the sun came up we were still lost. Eventually one of those Canadian Ministers of the Lake came by and decided to check our licenses. He informed us just how lost we really were.

I love fishin'-  and my wife does too.  We could've stayed lost up there for a couple weeks and it wouldn't have bothered us a bit.
--
Chris

[Boss]

Nice, beautiful story Chris, thanks for sharing

[taylorp035]

Sometimes I wish it were winter all of the time b/c it is so windy.  Here in NW PA we have about 16 mph average in the winter and 7-9 mph in the summer.  But sometimes you get weeks without a 5 mph wind.  When I built my treadmill windmill before christmas, there wasn't enough wind to hit 5 volts for 3 weeks straight.  I was so anxious that I went out on christmas day b/c of a 10 mph wind.

[12AX7]

Hello!

When you're out in the woods, or out on a lake... you're not lost until..
A.  you're out of beer
B.  you're out of bait
C.  you're out of bug juice
D.  any combination of the above

I may have gotten them out of order,  but I'm sure that I'm close.

ax7
Mark