Rohn tower prices

[fabricator]

I need some example tower prices for an up coming zoning board meeting, does anybody know what a free standing rohn 80' tower might cost?, I could find lots of prices for bergys and several other tower but nothing for rohn.

[freejuice]

Fabricator,

 I saw a Rhon tower at 100 feet, it was used and on Craig's list about 4 months ago...it wasnt one of those skinny ham towers, it prbalby could have handeld a 14 footer..maybe more with some modifications, the guy wanted 1000 bucks.

[Rob Beckers]

Freejuice, the self-support towers listed by Bergey for their 10kW are Rohn SSV towers, so you could use their prices. My business sells the same towers from Rohn for the Scirocco turbines that we import. The 80 feet Rohn goes for US$11,795 (shipping can easily add another $1K to that though, those suckers are heavy!).

-Rob-

[SparWeb]

Hi fabricator,

I was posting on a different thread:  http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2010/3/17/19418/4001

and then thought of you and your bureaucratic woes.  I was posting on the topic of "people don't look up".  Then realized that the lesson applies to you, too.

If it's of any help.

[defed]

Rob, do you know what tower sections you use in the 80'?  i have 3 sections for a 60'....4n, 5n, 6n...just curious how 'big' your sections are.

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Defed,

I'm actually waiting for decent drawings of the towers; Rohn is going through a redesign for our towers. The little bit I have seems to indicate that the 80' has a VG65 top, then a 6N69, a 7N99, and a 8N656 base. That may change though if engineering decides something else is in order. In a few weeks I'll hopefully know more.

-Rob-

[fabricator]

Thanks Rob, that is exactly what I need.

[fabricator]

Steven, I caught that thread, there are no overhead wires within 600' of my tower site.

[SparWeb]

No sorry that's not what I meant:

You're fighting town council over tower restrictions.  They've made up restrictions based on some "received wisdom".  But the experience of some people is that the received wisdom is wrong!

I was recently talking to the installer of RE systems in a nearby town.  His shop is right inside town, in fact, there are houses on the same block.  There are two towers behind his shop, one 45' tall with a small turbine on it, another 80' tall with a much larger one.  The 45' tower is older.  It's a 8" diameter self-supporting pole with no guy wires.  When it went up, the town council got some complaints about the noise and how it looked.  Recently, the RE guy installed the 80' tower and put a ARE 442 on it.  Much bigger, and the tower is a huge self-supporting truss.  You can see it from the other side of town.  After that one went up, the RE company braced themselves for a new 'round of complaints from the residents.

Not a word.

There's a to be lesson in this!

People look ahead, around, but they don't often look up.  If there are some municipalities getting complaints about wind turbines, and they are on towers X feet high, then "obviously" there would be more complaints if the tower was higher than "X".  This is not necessarily true.  A higher tower may get it out of people's field of view.  Then they don't notice it any more, can't hear it as easily, either.

This may be a very subtle point, (some city councillors only understand yelling and fist-waving) but it's just another reason for your town council not to accept the "received wisdom", because it could be wrong.  Once you dig into the assumptions about why any rule came about, you may find a reason, or maybe no logic whatsoever.

Of course all I can give you is "a guy on the internet told me this".  Whenever fighting city hall, you need to have more evidence than that.  All I think I can offer is another idea to help you challenge their assumptions, maybe sharpen your logic.  I'd hate to be in your shoes, but with a little luck you'll get what you need.

PS  The guy's tower may be a Rohn, too.  If you want to get his story directly you can call Boyd Solar (403) 335-3330.  Ask for Sean.  Let him know that you know me (Steven Fahey, who bought the CTI solar panels from him in January), and see if he has a minute to tell you about the tower.

[fabricator]

I think I have this thing rolling my way, after many emails to the guy from county who drew up model ordinance the township passed, the zoning commission has decided to re open discussion on the model ordinance, I provided him with many examples of the difference in cost between free standing towers and guyed tilt up towers, most of the time the turbine is less than 1/4 of the cost of a store bought system.

I also laid it on pretty heavily that banning the less expensive towers would put small wind out of the reach of less affluent people, so only wealthy people would be able to afford a wind system, that seemed to strike a nerve.

My meeting with the township zoning board is tuesday at 7pm, I have a stack of information on system costs with free standing and guyed towers, the difference is black and white.

[SparWeb]

I for one am rooting for you!

[imsmooth]

I originally was going to go through my township, but got a lot of resistance.  The costs were crazy for a variance, as there are no codes for a turbine in my area.  The variance would have cost more than my construction, which is something to consider.

I decided to just throw it up and let someone tell me to take it down.  I spoke with my neighbors, whom I have a good relationship, and made sure no one had any objections.  One and a half years later I have not heard a thing from anyone.