Starting to think about wind.

[Mary B]

Looking for 3-400 watts to supplement the 1100 watts of solar. My tower rigging days are over, I need to keep whatever I go with around 10 feet up for easy repairs. I am thinking VAWT of some sort but am open to ideas.

[electrondady1]

vertical mills are really site specific
i found building them along my fence line the best
consider something called a wind wall with a lot of windmills turning a single alternator.
one of the best looking i have ever seen is in the archives .
"Squirrel Cage" VAWT progress !

you can find that post with google search

[SparWeb]

You want to look at Hugh Piggot's projects?
www.scoraigwind.com

A 20-foot tilt-up tower, with a 4-foot turbine, is not hard to build in such a way that it can be raised and lowered by hand.
I can pull up my 33-foot tall meteorological tower with just one rope, no winch, just walk.

[Mary B]

Bad back + torn rotator cuffs means no winches and no walking up a heavy pole. Walking up a lightweight ham antenna kills me. As far as location I was thinking back in this corner of the yard at least 75 feet from the house.

[ChrisOlson]

Looking for 3-400 watts to supplement the 1100 watts of solar. My tower rigging days are over, I need to keep whatever I go with around 10 feet up for easy repairs. I am thinking VAWT of some sort but am open to ideas.

Just keep in mind that to get your 300-400 watts (7-8 kWh/day) you'll need a 1,500-2,000 watt turbine.  If you put up a short tower you'll not get good performance because of "ground roll" causing turbulence thru the turbine's rotor.  This will severely reduce the amount of energy it can produce.  Even in perfectly flat terrain you need to be at least 60 feet off the ground to get close to what the turbine is capable of.

A small turbine that can only produce 300-400 watts peak will produce virtually zero power on your site on a 30 foot tower.  On really windy days you'll get maybe 200-300 watt-hours from it on a short tower.

Not trying to put a damper on your potential project.  Just conveying years of experience working with wind power.  You can't cut corners with wind power if you want it to produce.
--
Chris

[Frank S]

can't wind a winch then push a button. even a cheapo electric winch mounted to a receiver hitch will pull a 60 ft tower via a well situated gin pole
 I used to have one mounted on a 70 model Ford maverick with a pair of short poles fitted in the trunk held there by a couple of adjustable chains the poles were telescopic made out of heavy exhaust pipes. and could be stored in the trunk took a couple of minuted to erect didn't weigh much. a couple of jack stands placed under the rear of the frame and I could lift 2000 lbs 4 ft back of the bumper anymore than that and the front of the car came off the ground 

[tecker]

Lots of Kits out there as opposed to a couple of years ago . OP for sure is a good build . I saw Ed's Kits and some Darius kits made of Vinyl . Wood Darius blades are easy . A Tri tower with a tilt up center pole is easy enough to maintain .I"ll  look for the Kits and mark them .
http://www.windgenkits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=58

[ghurd]

Your location looks better than anything around here.

"supplement"

For 'supplement', would not need a whole lot of turbine.  A decent little 4~5' HAWT on a 16' pipe would do some good, would be cheap & easy to make, and easy to deal with.

Here, wind tends to be too much or not enough.
Can't do anything with 'not enough'.
Easy to make power when it is 'too much'.

I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about the times when it might be possible to make 10W that really is not going to make a lot of difference anyway.
I would focus on the times when it would be easy to make 50~100~200W.
G-

[Mary B]

I was looking at that biggest windgen kit. Will take a year or so to accumulate parts but it is doable. Find 2 section of rohn 25 or 45 to mount it on. My average wind speed is 18mph. It is common to have days on end of 25-35. Rest of the views from my house are like that except west into town but west winds are rare here. NW and SE are the prevailing winds and that corner gets them.

[ghurd]

"My average wind speed is 18mph"
WOW!

"Will take a year or so to accumulate parts but it is doable"

Wow.  That's almost as slow as me.   

If the issue is money, but you can get the tower and wire run, and have a welder,
pretty cheap to do a simple HAWT made from a motor if the right motor is used.
Like under $100?
G-

[birdhouse]

i just picked up another Fanuc brand three phase servo on fleabay for $120 shipped.  its almost identical to my first one.  2000rpm, 144v, 20A and ~60lbs. 

i put an 8.5' three blade set on it (hawt) and it'll push 300-500w regularly. 

just throwing it out there as an option that's certainly cheaper and easier than casting a stator and gluing magnets.

adam   

[Mary B]

That might be an option, I have a set of 3 foot long blades(I think, need to measure them) out in the shed. It will have to be mounted low though.

[gww]

birdhouse
12 volt system for your fanuc?
thanks
gww

[birdhouse]

gww-
24v system.  i think it cuts in right around 240 rpm, though the new motor with a slightly higher voltage rating should cut in a hair earlier. 

adam 

[Mary B]

The carrying stuff out there, getting all setup would leave me in massive pain for the next 3 days. When I mounted solar panels it put me in bed for 2 days. My body is really messed up and I do what I can but I have learned to not push myself like I used to.

can't wind a winch then push a button. even a cheapo electric winch mounted to a receiver hitch will pull a 60 ft tower via a well situated gin pole
 I used to have one mounted on a 70 model Ford maverick with a pair of short poles fitted in the trunk held there by a couple of adjustable chains the poles were telescopic made out of heavy exhaust pipes. and could be stored in the trunk took a couple of minuted to erect didn't weigh much. a couple of jack stands placed under the rear of the frame and I could lift 2000 lbs 4 ft back of the bumper anymore than that and the front of the car came off the ground

[bob g]

i feel your pain, literally!

every time i think of doing some project that would take a normal person an hour, it takes me four, and for every job that is a strenuous 4 hours puts me out of commission for up to a week.

i really never understood real pain, till the last couple years. 

when asked to explain it, i relate it as a hard kick in the balls, coupled with a poke in the eye, and a throbbing toothache combined... and it doesn't go away.

not that i have any intentions of doing myself in, i do have an understanding now for those that are pushed to that extreme to escape what is no longer treatable.

you might consider a counterbalanced tilt up tower, something like a catapult.

that might get you up to more than  10 ft and be easy to lower and erect?

bob g

[Mary B]

I was thinking along those lines, something that doesn't take a lot of carrying and setup. I best describe my pain as a knife mid back and low back, stick it in and twist it. Then have someone beat your arms and legs with a sledgehammer.

[Mary B]

Okay this is what I have to build around since I already have it on hand, just over 6 foot Diameter. I need to supplement my 1.1kw of solar so 500 watts out would be acceptable. Excess power I will find a use for somewhere 

[Biofarmer]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-MOTOR-1-3HP-56C-90V-1750RPM-TENV-PERMANENT-MAGNET-/300657755168?_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D163%26meid%3D3860885619190070348%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D130804975306%26
http://www.northernsafety.com/Product/552-17922/7-x-19-Uncoated-Galvanized-Wire-Rope-3-16-x-250-Minimum-Tensile-Strength-4200-lbs (~320' of it) and 3 10' sticks of 3" EMT (about $40 each) and one stick of 1-1/2" (~$15) for the gin pole. Four of these will more than do the job for a 30' tower- http://www.gmesupply.com/wire-rope-guying-1/ground-anchors/54-galvanized-earth-screw-anchor As for a base pivot, they're really nice to have but you can get by with a 6' piece of 1" rebar driven through two sacks of concrete (one over the other) that have been buried enough to be level with the surface of the ground. Leave 2-1/2" of the rebar sticking up out of the top concrete bag (which you punched holes in and watered well). If you cut a 1" wide x 3/4" deep notch in the end of the base pipe it will work just fine to self center on the rebar when you tilt it up. Or you can weld up and provide foundation for a real pivot. You'll have to grind the galvanizing off of the EMT anywhere you're going to weld. If you make 2x6x1/4" guy attachment tabs, they can be centered over the butt welds on the EMT to reinforce the joints. (I saw those blades you have there on Ebay, they look like they would be a decent match for the motor in the above link. I know the approach is a little different, but when cost is a major factor you can skimp on some things, but not safety. The only reason you can get away with this method is because we're only talking about a 30' tower- with your location I doubt you even need to go that high! Best of luck.

[Mary B]

Not a fan of emt for towers, to light duty, I do get gusts to 95mph in summer and sustained winds of 45mph with gusts to 65 in winter. Couple sticks of used rohn 25 will be easier to handle, stiffer, and a lot stronger.

This was during a lull in a 3 day snowstorm, click to see video

[Biofarmer]

Holy cow- I see what you mean... I'm not sure if that's a resource or a reason to move! I'm not a huge fan of 3" EMT myself, but didn't know you had sections of Rohn 25 at your disposal. I'm supposed to be getting 5 or 6 sections of Rohn 25 (or maybe a little bigger- he can't remember) in a couple of weeks. Have to be sure the snakes are too chilly to come out and play before I start hacking through the weeds and vines to get to them.