Hello everyone,
I thought I would just introduce myself and present my situation first, then ask the technical and equipment related questions
later as they arise.
My name is Gordy. I am from eastern Nebraska, USA. I have a cabin on the Elkhorn River about 40 miles NW of the Omaha area.
My Brother and my two nephews have cabins in the same area and the nephews got me interested in solar power for my cabin.
They have set up a small scale solar outfit for their cabin to run just a few minor items. I am investigating it in a more elaborate
sense and desiring to combine both wind and solar power to serve my cabin. I found your forum as I was browsing about and
as a guest, I read some of the FAQ's and posts already. Your information intrigued me and I thought there was a lot of value in
everything here, so I registered to be a part of your community.
The Elkhorn River could offer hydro power for me, but this river is prone to extreme flash flooding, ice jams and extreme droughts.
The river's water level fluctuates dramatically at times and when it is calm and docile, it is usually quite low. Therefore, I am not
planning to harness its power because I feel and fear that I would just lose my equipment to the river's wrath. When I get into
building generators and if I find I am doing well, I can investigate making some items up for camping use. That would be highly
interesting and fun and beneficial. I have some thoughts on that line which I have always desired to bring to fruition, but never
sat down to actually build them or even a prototype. Maybe soon.
For now, what I am looking forward to is just getting my feet wet with the solar and wind generation to power my lights and minor
appliances for my cabin.
My cabin lot is laid out rather oddly. It is in two separate parcels of land. One piece of it is right along the Elkhorn River's
east bank. This area has lots of tall cottonwood trees, thus, very little wind and very little sun. The other land parcel is
separated from the first by an access road and a field that is maybe 1/8 mile wide. At this second portion, there is abundant
solar and wind energy, in my opinion.
To give you an idea of the layout... The river runs basically N-S here. To the east of the river, there is a 100-120 foot bluff that
runs N-S and parallels the river. Between the river and the bluff, there are just open fields with NO TREES. The corridor of the
riparian zone with all the tall trees along the river and the contour of the bluff basically form a wind tunnel as the riparian zone
and the bluff converge in a V as you go northward. The southern wind blows right up this corridor and by the time it gets to my
cabin lot, it can be quite compressed and accelerated. I rarely have any days when it is dead calm. A slight breeze in the outlying
areas seems to be amplified here, so I think that I have an excellent spot to set up a wind generator. During the winter, when the
wind comes more from the northern direction, it seems to follow a bend in the river and the contour of the bluff line in about the
same manner. If I could draw it out on a piece of paper, my location would be like the midsection of an hourglass sand timer.
I am right on that bottle-neck of the hourglass where all of the action happens.
As far as sunlight exposure goes, I have FULL sun from roughly 135° to 250° across the southern horizon. Since there are no
trees directly to the south, I am only limited by the bluff to the east and the riparian zone tree line to the west. My site latitude is
41.6°N.
I have grid power available at both sites, so I could go grid-tied or totally off-grid. My desire is to be totally OFF-GRID. However, I
will need to get up to speed with the technical side and all the options because I am currently just a greenhorn in this realm. I do
have a solid background in electronics and electrical matters. I earned a AAS degree in EET from a small community college in my
home state of Nebraska. I think they taught me well. Never had a problem getting hired when I mentioned SCC Milford. I may not
remember everything that they taught me back then, but one of the things that I always found to my benefit is the statement that
most of our instructors drilled into us... "If you don't remember everything we teach you here, you will at least remember one thing...
and that is HOW to find the answers to your questions."
So, basically, I am applying my training from way back then to seek out
the answers that I do not yet know..... Which brought me to this forum.
Beyond the scope of the technical and electronics stuff... I also like to go fishing for BIG catfish (flathead catfish or Pylodictis olivarus).
Nothing better to me than hooking into a 10-50 lb catfish out on the river and fighting that sucker one-on-one! Just hoping someone
else here likes that, too.
Well, that is who I am and I hope to learn a lot from everyone here. I have read quite a bit from this site so far so I know that this is
a very good forum to land on. I should just say "THANKS" to you all at this moment as that fits very well with the holiday at hand now.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Gordy (AKA RADAR)
