Statistics look discouraging

[WannaDoWindmills]

On all of the wind maps, our area looks bad.  I'm guessing that is why the local farmers all say there isn't enough wind here.  

I'm wondering if we might actually be an exception to that curve that shows the percentage of wind at the varying speeds.

Our general observations seem to indicate that there is either an extremely small breeze, or there are high winds.  I swear that for 8 months out of the year, every day has at least 8 hours of 20-25 mph winds.  

All of the local charts reports a yearly average of 8-9 mph winds.

My husband is so gung-ho on a windmill.  And, in a way, I'm really curious too.  But, the $$ concerns me.  If it was purely a matter of economics, our house might do well to be insulated, windows sealed, etc.  I've never checked into it, but I think the house is kind of drafty and the floors are cold.  

I talked to my brother today.  He says that our computers run something like a 100W lightbulb.  And, the monitors more like 150W.  Yikes!!!  We often have 4 computers running.  That is ridiculous on so many levels.  We could go a long ways with conservation, and I hope we do.

[Flux]

Conservation is infinitely cheaper than generating power so you can probably go a long way in that direction.

Without decent figures from an anemometer it is difficult to get a decent idea of the wind available. Even the weather station things that log wind every few minutes are of limited use for deciding available wind power. The charts will be typical of the area but individual sites could be quite different.

I live in a 8-9 mph wind area and we don't get many days with consistent winds round 20 mph. In fact we don't get much consistent wind at all , on most days there are cycles with at least a 2:1 variation in wind speed. If on a typical day the wind varies from 8 to 16 mph the actual periods of 16 mph don't add up to very long but of course from the cube nature of things the 16 mph bits contribute a lot of the energy and the 8 mph bits very little so you need a continuous log to get a decent idea of available power.

It seems very easy to over estimate wind speeds and it is also somewhat relative. After a calm period even 10mph seems very windy but after a storm 10mph seems very little. Also turbulent winds that slam doors and scatter rubbish about seem higher than a decent constant breeze but contain very little useful energy.

Good quality logging anemometers are expensive, as I have said weather stations are of little use so it may be worth building a small turbine that will give some useful power and it will give a lot of valuable information about the wind in your area if you mount it sensibly. Even a little 4ft machine will give you all the wind data you need especially if you build something that is known to work such as Hugh Piggott's little machine.

Flux

[hvirtane]

"our computers run something like a 100W lightbulb.  And, the monitors more like 150W.  Yikes!!!  We often have 4 computers running."

Do you use tube monitors? It might help to change them for flat screens. You might as well put up a local net so that only one computer is running and serving for four people.

I'm using nowadays a laptop machine. It will heat too much if on all the day, 14 hours as it normally is. I started using a cooling system consisting of two cooling batteries kept in the freezer during night.  

If you are using any electricity for heating, it would be far best to check all the insulations of the house for finding possible ways for conservation.  

Do you use any solar heating systems? If not, you might try making some hot air panels.

As for measuring the wind...

You might as well try first with some tiny toy wind machines, like this:

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/mini-gen.htm

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/3phase_turbine_kit.htm

- hv

[zeusmorg]

 ACTUALLY YOUR BROTHER IS WRONG..A tower computer can actually use between 350 w and 600 w. and CRT MONITORS ARE VERY POWER HUNGRY. Laptops can be much more efficient, but a tower can be built/configured to run a lot less.

I'm currently using a littl eee pc netbook that runs between 10 w and 18 w. Of course it isn't my only machine, it does have a lot of restrictions.

 I guarantee in the typical household i could spend the money it would cost to build a windmill, and SAVE THAT MONEY IN LESS THAN A YEAR!

 Conserve first, then if you do want to get into generating your own power, you don't have to make as much!

there are tons of sites on how to go about saving energy, get a kill-a-watt, and then you can see what your appliances eat in electricity.

 Ideas oon saving. Keep things off when not in use, use CFL bulbs,look at replacing power hungry appliances with newere more energy efficient models (last year i replaced my refrigerator, the savings paid for the purchase in less than a year, so now my additional reduction is money in my wallett) Look at what i call banf foe buck factor, is the savings you'll get be worth the money spent? is there a cheaper way of doing it?

 I'm not only interested in RE because it'll improve the planet, but in improving my quality of life. A well insulated house not only saves money year round..but makes it more comfortable too! If i don't have to shell out buks to the utility companies, i can use that savinga on things i want, or work less..

 Not only that the money you save, can eventually buy you that windmill! And payback time can become less.

[WannaDoWindmills]

Thank you for the advice.  I've been putting my energy into making a good little anemometer (as found here on Otherpower.com).  But, I would love to just start out with a small turbine.  I wanted to do that in the first place for educational purposes.  I desperately want to know what we're doing before we dump money into a really decent turbine & then damage it through ignorance.

[WannaDoWindmills]

Our computers are networked together, but I'll have to check into your idea of a "local net" that would let us all work off of 1 or 2 computers.  Meanwhile, we've just decided to cut way back on our computer time... we should be spending the time with each other anyway.  Plus, we're turning the computers off when they're not being used.  Such obvious things, sigh.

[WannaDoWindmills]

I think we should get a kill-a-watt.  I'm won't be surprised if my brother is wrong about the wattage.  He was talking off the top of his head, and he knew the numbers that he gave me would be enough for me to do something about it.  I sure appreciate the extra information from you!

[BigBreaker]

If you are looking at your costs for wind power, you really need to focus on your tower.  It will probably be more expensive than the turbine or batteries.  A taller tower may make you more power than a larger turbine.

Conservation is cheaper than generation as others have said.  You should be looking into sunfrost refrigerators, gas heated clothes driers (or no drier), CFL and LED lighting, efficient inverters etc...

[hvirtane]

A real 500 W wind machine kit, which is quite small and very similar as many people here have built is available from 'WindstuffEd':

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/builders_corner.htm

You need to make yourself some parts, if buying that.

- hv

[zap]

Your brother could well be correct... there are probably as many different computers around as there are flavors of ice cream and even though he might be on the low side as far as a ball park figure goes, 100 watts could be close.

My tower has an old psu (power supply unit) salvaged from some older computer after it's original died.  The cpu and motherboard are about 6 or 7 years old, 2@ 80G hard drives, 1 dvd rom, 1 dvd recorder, 1 floppy, and a pretty run of the mill ATI graphic card.

As I type this, the tower, Hanns-g 19" lcd, powered speakers, cable modem, and other loads connected to the computer is using 145 watts.

At idle the system pulls about 135 watts, gaming I see an average of 165 watts, and I've seen 180 watts when editing video and the system is crunching video effects.

Even when put to sleep, the system will still burn 80 watts.

There are energy efficient psu available although I have no experience with those.

 

[g reif]

zeusmorg, how do you like the eee, I am looking at getting one with the 10.2 screen.

my only worry is using such a small screen, how is the small screen working for you?

[RandomJoe]

ACTUALLY YOUR BROTHER IS WRONG..A tower computer can actually use between 350 w and 600 w.

They CAN use that much, but unless the OP's machines are tricked out gaming rigs with high-end graphics cards, lots of hard drives, and all the bells and whistles they rarely do.

I have a pretty nicely decked out tower, two dual-head video cards (I have three screens and a projector), two DVD drives, two hard drives, Core2Duo CPU, 2GB RAM, various other add-on cards.  The PSU is actually a 750W one, but it turned out to be significant overkill on my part.  The system draw at full tilt is 167W.  (That's what it draws from the wall, measured with a Kill-A-Watt.)  At idle it's down around 110-120W.

The old CRT monitors can be quite high, though.  (I've heard 4X a flat panel, I got rid of mine long before I ever thought about measuring their power draw.)  My 19" flat panel (and an old one at that) runs 38W.  For that matter, my DLP projector that puts an 11 foot image on the wall only runs 200W!  Amazing what a difference some new technology makes.

An aside - I do like laptops, I have a couple.  However normally my work patterns make having multiple screens a real positive.  I regularly have things going on all three of my screens.  But there's nothing like being able to go relax on the back porch on a nice spring evening, and be able to surf or even watch some TV or a movie streamed from my server in back, though! :-)

[zeusmorg]

 I really like the eee pc, I mainly got it to add to my mobility, use as an e-bookreader, and to be able to control my main computers (which are in use almost constantly) from remote locations, so I can switch the programs they're running, adding to their efficiency.

 The small screen isn't as much of a problem as i thought it would be, I maximized the screen real estate use by doing such things eliminating unwanted toolbars, reducing the size of those used, auto-hide, etc. Setting type faces to a comfortable level helps too. I run a modified version of PCLinuxOS on it, which runs amazingly fast, alos i've been amazed by the battery runtime as it's only a 4-cell Li-ion battery 4400 mAh iirc..

 I've also set it up to be able to make Voip calls. and I will be adding bluetooth to it, for a headset, and mouse. I'm also considering adding GPS to it..