reef165 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 I was looking arround the web the other day and Im wondering if anyone has looked into wind turbines to run there tank? DIYers online have built wind mills using alternators or motors to charge batteries that run an inverter to power things. I did a calculation and on the heavy side my tank only uses 8 to 900 watts of power. I think on a 24 or 48 volt system it may be plausable. I do live just outside troutdale so I get plenty of wind, and I know whare I can get a portable generator that the engine went out on but its got everything. What do ya think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drunkreefer Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 always nice to get off the grid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Re: wind power I was looking arround the web the other day and Im wondering if anyone has looked into wind turbines to run there tank? DIYers online have built wind mills using alternators or motors to charge batteries that run an inverter to power things. I did a calculation and on the heavy side my tank only uses 8 to 900 watts of power. I think on a 24 or 48 volt system it may be plausable. I do live just outside troutdale so I get plenty of wind, and I know whare I can get a portable generator that the engine went out on but its got everything. What do ya think? i have....still looking Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danik Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 .…;;;…((;.… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mltnguyen Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Danik I would agree for the most part. Reef165 stated that he lives just outside of Troutdale. Living on that side of town for many years myself the one thing you can always count is the cold wind. Troutdale and the surrounding towns seem to always get hit with high winds due to the Columbia Gorge being right there. I personally think that this would be a great idea for someone on that side of town however being on the Westside now I agree with you. Winds are not steady enough to justify setting something like this up at least not wind energy. If nothing else becomes of this theory at lease we have the reefing community thinking outside the box to support our ever demanding power needs. Also if you end up going forward with this project please start a build thread I am most interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 I definatly will. I was also looking today and I think I'll do a solar/wind generator. It may take me a little while to get it done but I do think it is worth persuing and dosnt look like it will cost to much, the biggest cost will be the batteries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JManrow Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 I believe our energy needs of the future can all be found using solar, wind, and hydro power. This includes hydrogen generators. Do a search on "sustainable home power". Here is one place that sells solar panels, wind turbines, etc. http://www.realgoods.com/category/wind-hydro-transportation.do There seem to be many websites offering solar kits for under $200 that claim to give you free energy, plus you can sell back the excess electricity to the power company... seems to good to be true. http://www.earth4energy.com/ Be sure to do some research before handing over your cash to some of these. Some, not all, may be possible online scams, from what I have read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Might check this out, I did some reading on it a while back and couldn't find anything bad...seems legit http://www.power4home.com/index.php?hop=taa200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JManrow Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Might check this out, I did some reading on it a while back and couldn't find anything bad...seems legit http://www.power4home.com/index.php?hop=taa200 Those are some of the type sites that I was reading about, although it looks legit to me too! There was one site claiming another was a scam, then it referred you to an almost identical site. Go figure.(scratch) I'm not saying to not do it, just do some research online, or better yet the BBB if that is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsw Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 I've always liked the idea of using excess wind capacity to store energy by pumping water uphill into a reservoir, and running hydro generation when the weather requires it. You're talking a bit more of an engineering effort there though. Peak/off-peak arbitrage also comes to mind with a setup like this, but that's more in the utility realm... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Re: wind power that in itself is the problem the wind industry is facing....effeciently storing the energy they produce Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsw Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 that in itself is the problem the wind industry is facing....effeciently storing the energy they produce Storing the energy is not the issue -- there's enough load to use it up -- it's operating the grid in such a way that we utilize the wind energy, safely and reliably, when it's available. Wind is not scheduled like other means of generation because forecasting it is far from 100% reliable at this point; so it's never the plan to satisfy load strictly via wind energy. You typically have some non-renewable generator spinning to back it up just in case. The energy industry is fascinating... and this is just one tiny part of it. Utility operations from generation to transmission to distribution is pretty amazing to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA2OR Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 Re: wind power well i know that vestas is still looking for effecient ways to successfully store the energy they produce Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted February 22, 2010 Author Share Posted February 22, 2010 Well, I picked up the generator that dosnt have a gas motor. It just has the gen-motor and inverter. I'll be taking pic's tomorow before and as I tear it appart to clean and see what all I'm working with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 Ok, well I have taken it appart and decided that the gen motor is the only thing worth saving. Plus aftre allot of online serching I have decided on building a vertical windmill. I have read that they are up to 30% more eficiant than the prop type. Here are some pics of what I am working with and have so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 What it is, is 2 24inch round 3/4 inch plywood and one of them is cut to a 2 1/2 inch doughnut. I got a pack of wains coating that had 12 pieces that were 32 long 3 1/2 wide and 1/4 inch thick for the blades and a 6foot piece of 1 X 4 to hold the blades on. I have read and seen that the strait blades need to be at an angle of 35 to 45 deg. I put mine at about 40deg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 Here it is all put together and mounted. I just need to do a little sanding and painting, final figurings on the mounting to the pole, figure out the wiring on it because there are like 8 wires coming off the motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danik Posted March 8, 2010 Share Posted March 8, 2010 Storing the energy is not the issue -- there's enough load to use it up -- it's operating the grid in such a way that we utilize the wind energy, safely and reliably, when it's available. Wind is not scheduled like other means of generation because forecasting it is far from 100% reliable at this point; so it's never the plan to satisfy load strictly via wind energy. You typically have some non-renewable generator spinning to back it up just in case. The energy industry is fascinating... and this is just one tiny part of it. Utility operations from generation to transmission to distribution is pretty amazing to me. I work as a generation dispatcher and all major generation in 4 states (pacific northwest) absolutly has to have a schedule to be on line. Ibedrola enegy spends hundred of thousands of dollars to forcast wind. They got it down pretty good compared to a year ago. With this said a wind marketer forcasts wind so he can sell it and has to have a buyer on the receiving end. But it's true there is currently no way to store excess energy, except pump the water back up the river which we allready do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 Well I got it in the air, not to it's final resting place but it's standing there and attatched to a volt metter. I can give it a little spin and by the time I get down and look at the metter it's at about a volt and a half. Of course the wind was blowing earlyer but now it's calm out go figure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 Oh and ya it is a dif motor than I started with. The first one wasn't a perm magnet, I woulda had to energise the electro mag to get it to work as a gen so I got a dif motor. It's a 15 amp, 92 volt at 3100 rpm. with the math it should produce about 1300 watts with winds of 20mph or so, but I dont think I could be that lucky! I'll be happy with half that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrScuito Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 how is it doing? Where I just moved to (Skamokawa, WA) its constently windy and I have been thinking the almost exact setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted August 9, 2010 Share Posted August 9, 2010 Good luck with your venture, if it was cost effective and the ROI was good then everyone would be doing it. JMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted August 9, 2010 Author Share Posted August 9, 2010 I ended up taking it down, I couldn't get it above the 12 foot arborvitaes high enough to turn without spending some $ on a real tower so it's on hold for now. I do plan on attempting it again as soon as I've got more $ and also adding some DIY solar panels. I haven't given up, it's just on hold for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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