windmill generator kits yes or no ?

[sweetk30]

windmill generator kits yes or no ? UPDATE : no windmill for me thanks

are the windmill generator kits any good ? do they make a difference ? can you store the power and use it later easy ?

i live in a area with hills and valleys and i am in the valley so i get a breeze a lot and some good wind a lot .

figure maybe one of these kits so i dont have to do solar panels on the room .

anyone play with / have and like a windmill for power ?

 

[kd3pc]

we use them a lot in sailing..that being said..they need to be mounted on a pole and in the clear. On land they need to be above the trees, in clear wind or on a pole or ridge.

Like solar panels, you will need electronics, battery bank(s) and inverters to use that stored power. The kits run from thrown together car generators to well built designs.

Valleys are not the best place for them, but your mileage may vary using them there.

Some find the noise of rotating blades to be annoying as .....and others liken it to white noise. The good ones will feather or collapse automatically when the wind exceeds their specs, poor ones will spin themselves to death.

You may want to look at http://www.hamiltonferris.com/products.php?action=category&CID=17 to see what they will do and cost. Other sites are out there, but I have installed many of their products and kits.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

You will need a battery bank and inverter/converter to store the energy.

then theres the permits and additional wiring on the electrical system

Not gonna be cheap

 

[Kaizen]

Not to mention unless you have a lot of land it could be a neighbor problem. They are not silent and some people are affected by the noise. I saw a YouTube video where a guy had both with a sophisticated setup and batteries. He said for the cost he would have been better off with buying more panels. There is a website that lists calculators and maps with average wind speed for your city.


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[99LeCouch]

Homeowner level battery storage is expensive. The integrated li-ion packs from Tesla or LG Chem or Sonnen are expensive for the capacity they provide. Flooded lead acid takes up a lot of space, plus a lot of time setting up charge controllers to equally charge all the individual batteries.

NY (and specifically NYSEG, which I'm assuming you have) still has net metering for right now, and projects that get completed soon will be grandfathered in for net metering until about 2030, IIRC. Get the system approved, grid-tie the inverter, have NYSEG install a bi-directional meter on your house along with an interconnect agreement, and let the grid act as your "battery."

I want to get a battery to complement our solar, but the price and net metering agreement make it a non-starter. When net metering goes away in 10-11 years, maybe.

 

[TractorJeff]

A couple of guys down around Hinsdale/Olean, NY had windmills that were utility connected long before it became popular!

Down Allegany a Utility employee got a small 400(?) watt one to power a nightlight(street light) maybe through the Power Company? He lived in a valley, every time I drove by it seemed like it was spinning.

 

[joe_padavano]

You may want to look at http://www.hamiltonferris.com/products.php?action=category&CID=17 to see what they will do and cost. Other sites are out there, but I have installed many of their products and kits.

20 amps max at 12V? A whole 240 watts. That's not much more than a trickle charger.

 

[Dagny]

You will be disappointed.

 

[theoldwizard1]

You will be disappointed.

Probably ! You need to do more research. Most wind generators won't make power until >10 mph continuous. Usually this requires a very tall, guy wire supported, tower.

 

[Bretny]

Exactualy! And at 10mph wind you will be lucky if you get 60w. But the benifit is you usualy have less sun when the wind is blowing.

 

[TractorJeff]

It could be 60 watts or 240 watts for a 24 hour day whare as Solar only works during the sunny days.

 

[Falcon67]

It could be 60 watts or 240 watts for a 24 hour day whare as Solar only works during the sunny days.

I live where there are 1000s of wind turbines and you are not guaranteed anywhere near a 24 hr 10+ MPH wind. Most kits need 7~9 m/s to make rated power which is 15~ 20 MPH. Add in a huge tower to get well up above obstructions and solar looks pretty good.

We live in a good wind area and after going over the numbers, even a Whisper 400 or some such and a tower made zero economic sense. Payback is sketchy on solar but it is there.

 

[Greeny]

This website covers home windmills extensively.

https://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html

The biggest takeaway is you need a surprising amount of wind and a really large turbine for any chance of making it worthwhile. They've tested a lot of the small wind kits over the years, and they just don't produce enough to do most homeowners any good.

 

[ddawg16]

Solar is a better option for DIY....

But storage is still the same issue.

 

[sweetk30]

guess solar then if i do something . thanks guys for the info feedback .

cant go to high as i am in the area of the airport ....... my back yard altho i am not in direct flight path i am 90* off to the side of it .

 

[99LeCouch]

Which airport, Elmira-Corning?

Solar all the way in that case. There are good sight lines east and west, without hills blocking too much. The worst the system would be shaded from the hills would be morning and evening, but it wouldn't produce much at those times anyhow.

Play around with system sizes on PVWatts to determine how much energy a year a given size and orientation would produce. Assume 98% inverter efficiency, which is what a modern solar inverter will run at.

 

[TractorJeff]

A couple of Oleans' Businesses must have gotten some Grants or Tax Breaks as they are putting in Solar Farms along 86 in the Industrial Park!

 

[Bretny]

Solar in that part of the stats is going to have poor performance. Your under 4hrs of useable sun on a daily basis. Also your well in the lake effect area of the state. Wind may be better...or just put money into more efficient appliances.

NY is not FL or AZ. We dont get alot of useable solar hours in a day. When i looked into a grid tie system for my house it was a break even...but you have all that hardware you have to take care of or replace. Snow dosnt ment off solar pannels for weeks here. All these things made it a loose loose for me.

 

[checkthisout]

Homeowner level battery storage is expensive. The integrated li-ion packs from Tesla or LG Chem or Sonnen are expensive for the capacity they provide. Flooded lead acid takes up a lot of space, plus a lot of time setting up charge controllers to equally charge all the individual batteries.

NY (and specifically NYSEG, which I'm assuming you have) still has net metering for right now, and projects that get completed soon will be grandfathered in for net metering until about 2030, IIRC. Get the system approved, grid-tie the inverter, have NYSEG install a bi-directional meter on your house along with an interconnect agreement, and let the grid act as your "battery."

I want to get a battery to complement our solar, but the price and net metering agreement make it a non-starter. When net metering goes away in 10-11 years, maybe.

Why does each battery need to be charged individually? Like say I have 8 6 volt golf cart batteries from Costco setup for 12V so series/parrallel

Why can't I just charge the whole bank with a single charger at 12V?

Asking because I am about to go into a cheap(er) setup for a remote cabin.

 

[Bretny]

For the performance and life of flooded batterys i wouldnt waste my money. Its like buying Nicad cordless tools now.

 

[checkthisout]

For the performance and life of flooded batterys i wouldnt waste my money. Its like buying Nicad cordless tools now.

There are other considerations like theft, amount of use etc.

Yes more expensiver is better but may not be the best choice for other reasons.

 

[sweetk30]

yes elm-cor area airport . my house and shop get sun in the am on the back side then sets on the front of the house at night . i had to put shades on my shop windows its so bright in here during the day time .

they just said in the news a week or so ago big flats is doing 3 solar panel fields in the area and local people can buy in to them on some program .

my shop is 50ft wide facing the arc of the sun path and inside about 30ft deep so i could fit a lot of panels up on top . no panels on the house the other half already said NOPE !

 

[Bretny]

There are other considerations like theft, amount of use etc.

Yes more expensiver is better but may not be the best choice for other reasons.

Lithium batterys from EV actualy cost less than new flooded batterys. By the time you add in the useable percentage of each type battery lithium always wins..this isnt even taking into account life of the battery.

If your worried about theft i would be looking for trail cameras more than just buying the most heavy batterys i could find.

 

[Falcon67]

Why does each battery need to be charged individually? Like say I have 8 6 volt golf cart batteries from Costco setup for 12V so series/parrallel

Why can't I just charge the whole bank with a single charger at 12V?

Asking because I am about to go into a cheap(er) setup for a remote cabin.

My experience with dual batteries in race cars and boats is that unless you have a proper charge controller you will have drop outs, one battery nice and charged, the next dead. Golf cart 6Vs are wires in series to get 36V, not in parallel.

 

[checkthisout]

Lithium batterys from EV actualy cost less than new flooded batterys. By the time you add in the useable percentage of each type battery lithium always wins..this isnt even taking into account life of the battery.

If your worried about theft i would be looking for trail cameras more than just buying the most heavy batterys i could find.

None of them work off the Verizon network. Once I buy a t-mobile subscription, a couple of cameras and solar panels, the costs are above that of a DIY system that will also serve other functions.

Costco 6V 205 AH batteries are $100.00 each. I don't think lithium even comes anywhere close to that in price per AH, especially once you buy chargers and such.

Maybe I am wrong? I would hate to buy rolls royce batteries for a semi-ghetto project.

 

[checkthisout]

My experience with dual batteries in race cars and boats is that unless you have a proper charge controller you will have drop outs, one battery nice and charged, the next dead. Golf cart 6Vs are wires in series to get 36V, not in parallel.

Right but that assumes you only use two batteries. I am talking series/parralell.

4 6V batteries wired up to get 12V.

I have run into issues with dual batteries in series where someone has wired up a 12V accessory to a 24 system placing unequal loads on the batteries but not batteries in parralell.