Windmills

riptides · May 5, 2006

Don't know anything about them. Need an education.

I am thinking to supplement my power at the farm. I'd like to run some out buildings and perhaps tie into the farm house electric and use it for emergency power situations.

I have space.

I have time.

I have some money.

I have the electricians coming in about a month or two and we will be retrenching/rewiring all the houses and buildings.

So this is a good time to think about alternate power supplies.

Open to all your suggestions.

-Mike Z.

dubba · May 5, 2006

I have space. And hopefully no neighbors that can see it

I have time. Time will be needed, as well as permits (at least in my neck of the woods)

I have some money. Hopefully 30-40k /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Seriously, check the Virginia wind map it doesn't look too hopeful unless you are near the coast.

A person in my town has a 10kw wind turbine at approx 610 ft elev. This is 60 feet higher than my property. He put it in 15 years ago. We are located in a Zone 2 area by the wind maps. I got to talking to him out of sheer curiosity because I pass the property every day. He figures he will reach the payback point in 25-30 more years /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif He says the wind speed is only great enough to engage the generator 5-10 days per month.

Needless to say, I shelved all fantasies about having a windmill /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Humbleto · May 5, 2006

Have you considered solar? I think the investment may be considerably lower. As far as emergency power I don't think either will work very well IMO. I would suggest, if electricians are coming get a tie in where you could use a gas or diesel generator in the event of a power failure.

riptides · May 5, 2006

Well... that was certainly a bubble-buster.

I had thought I had pretty good movement seeing how when I open the barn on "calm" days it clears out in seconds.

Plan B.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

dmccarty · May 5, 2006

Humbleto,

There was a blurb in the Wall Street Journal this week that about solar power generation. Due to demand the prices have gone up on solar panels. Years ago when I looked into solar power generation it would have cost 20-30K to run the house.
According the the WSJ article the prices have gone way higher.

Later,
Dan

EddieWalker · May 5, 2006

A few decades ago there was a huge wind farm built in the East Bay of Northern California where I'm from. They built all sorts of windmills and just about every size you can imagine. It's really quite impressive to see thousands of them on the hills between Livermore and Tracey.

A good buddy of mine owns a crane repair business and had the contract for the maintenance company. He told me that it cost more money to keep them turning than they generate in electricity. I was scepticle, but sure enough, it went bankrupt.

Several owners later and nobody is making any money on them yet. It's a huge environmental success story, but nobody reports that they don't generate enough money to pay for their upkeep.

As of three years ago, alllot of them are broke down and just about beyond repair. The blades were locked into place on some of them, others are turning, but not being greased anymore with who knows how much damage being done. Some don't even have blades any more and a few are lying on there sides.

Point is, it's very expensive to keep large electrical windmills running. Maybe small ones are different.

Good Luck,
Eddie

Jimbrown · May 5, 2006

Ahh do not mean to be pickey but widmills are used to pump water wind turbines are used to generate electricty.

turbine
windmill

Jagmandave · May 5, 2006

The local utility put one up next to their coal fueled power plant to test it. They are in a very windy part of Kansas so there was plenty to drive it. Their conclusions were the same, it costs more to keep them running than they generate. They had planned to build a wind farm but those plans have been shelved now and they're building a new coal fired plant instead.

dubba · May 5, 2006

( I had thought I had pretty good movement )

Most of the wind turbines (just to keep AZ happy) do not start to produce electicity until the wind becomes greater than 10-20 mph, most don't reach full capacity until 30-45 mph.

Bergey wind turbine

gsganzer · May 5, 2006

Bookmark Mag-Wind and watch it for future news. These units are about to go into full-scale production and look to be very promising for residential applications, with appropriate costs.