Affordable DIY Wind Turbines- Produce your own affordable electricity

Voyager II

If tou want CFL's ALDI the place to go next thursday

http://www.aldi.ie/special_buys/productnl_4015.html

Cuauhtemoc

Was in touch with surfacepower as regards an off the grid solution.
They reckoned that a wind/solar combo to power everything bar the high power users such as cookers(a horrendous draw on any green energy system) washing machines etc. These would be powered by a silent diesel(bio diesel when available..or make my own) generator, which also charges the batteries. They supply a 5Kw one for 2500. pretty much the solution you recommended Xonencentral.

The solution or variation of solutions i'm looking at are a combination of
wind,
solar power,
solar water.
Maybe an air source heat pump still researching that one
Water source heat pump from a well. This would hopefully be powered by the deep well pump that is on the surface power website which they say can be powered by solar.
I know heat pumps have been the subject of some debate on their merits but if it was solar powered it should be ok.

Obviously they are not all needed and would probably be overkill but the end solution i would like to see providing heating and hot water without the need(or only rarely) to bring in the generator.
My wife wants underfloor heating so i'm hoping it can be supplied by either wshp or the Solar water heater. Any opinions on that one?
Also most lighting and electrical sockets and pretty much everything else bar the oven and other heavy users.(Not just wishful thinking i hope )

It's going to be tight on the budget but seeing as it would be going in at the start it would be saving on the ESB grid connection fee, the cost of getting traditional oil heating and hot water tanks etc.

Incidentally we've found a site with room for wind turbines a decent wind speed and a relatively south facing aspect so fingers crossed we don't get outbid.

@Xonencentral - Your wind turbine didn't require planning permission did it?
I read back through the posts but couldn't see a direct reference to it.

Edit:
Just another quick question? Could an oven be powered off the 4 270AH batteries if needed? They store 13Kw and i know it would be a huge drain. Just curious though.

bandraoi

Why use an electric oven?

CJhaughey

Electric ovens are MUCH better to cook with than Gas.
I would always get a 'leccy one over a Gas.

Cuauhtemoc

bandraoi wrote:

Why use an electric oven?

This site would have no mains gas, suppose it could work off a cylinder though.
Never used a gas oven, can the full thing run off a cylinder?

CJhaughey

Yes If you go for Gas I recommend that you get one of the big orange cylinders, way cheaper than the yellow butane cylinders.
The propane is also quite a bit more powerful.
I think that a lot of Gas appliances come prejetted for Mains gas so you may need to search out the correct jets.

Cuauhtemoc

Well scratch that idea. Shes doesn't want gas.

xonencentral

On the planning issue, my local energy agency (county council) told me to just put it up and if anyone makes an issue, just apply for retention which apparently would be straight forward as its silent. They hinted that once you were to send in a technical brochure showing the silent aspect, they probably wouldn't even bother to visit, just send you an approval.

So thats exactly what I did and I told the neighbours (just in case) and now they want one as well. The thing just blends in and you don't even notice it and I have no planning and I've even had people from the council stop at my house to see my installation and if they could use wind themselves for projects (mad)

A friend of mine used to have a chip-van and he used to bring his large gas cylinders to Stat-oil garages where they used to have an adapter which allowed you refill them with LPG (must be all the same) and he used to save a fortune. [I think it was a bit of dodgy deal though] (but its still fossil fuel) Anyone know what a solar oven is. Is it like yer man used to fry an egg on the stones in the Sally O Brien ad ?

bandraoi

oil, coal or wood fired AGA or stove would also be an option.
Gas is much better to cook with in a hob.
I must admit I rarely use the oven to cook, takes too long.

bps1

Can anybody please explain:

The Solution 4 (from SP)“This package consists of an SP750W Wind/Solar Hybrid Control System, Silent Turbine with an SP 300 Watt Solar Panel and 3 of our largest 270 Ah Deep Cycle Battery's (65 KG each) plus a 2 KW Inverter system.”

Could this system supply power to a washing machine in which it’s states that:

Total Power Absorbed 2050W (13amp)

Consumption Data for Washing energy 0.95kWh.

or other such devices fridge, microwave etc., or is it mainly for lights and other light wattage devices.



Any information regarding the above would be of great help, or reference to relevant web sites etc.

xonencentral

mmmm, let me have a go.

In theory, you can run anything off it once it does not go over 2kW of power usage, see comments earlier on AAA or A++ (not sure why there is too different ways of describing these appliances).

I have heard of a AAA bosch washing machine thats only 250 watts including water heating but I am still looking for details and I know that AAA fridges can be as low as 8 watts an hour.

As you grow your system, you could move the size of the inverter upwards and the consumption of your products downwards.

In my situation, I don't have an AAA machine but I have analysised it and it uses 2000 maximum (from the manual) if I supply it with cold water, but only uses 250-300 watts if I supply hot water to it so I plan to put in solar water heating so that I can do that for a good part of the year at least and run my machine from my renewable system. (hope that helps). I do however want to get AAA appliances as soon as I can afford them but unless you are "loaded" (not me) and have a wife who will let you go mad (not me again), then you need some patience and just grow it with time when you can afford it.

P.S. I also run my microwave from my system, but my lights (inside & out), small tv's, satellite, dvd, chargers, laptop, dect phone, battery chargers, and I can boil the kettle, run my "big" tv sometimes, dimplex heater sometimes. It's all a learning curve, I had no understanding before I made the jump and my view on the whole subject is more exciting now than I could have imagined. (just my six pence worth). You'd be amazed of how much of your bill dissapears by the above. , Oh I also run my garden lights and during the couple of power cuts we have had in the last few months are priceless, everybody driving past and you have every light on

aislingw

Just a quick note, I remember someone somewhere - could even have been on these boards - saying that modern washing machines use so little water that by the time the hot water has got to them they are full of cold anyway. Does this sound right to anyone? I remember it as it was relevant to us - at the moment our machine is in a shed and only has cold water connection, and I was all excited about being able to use solar hot water once I had a utility room in the house - but then this post, wherever it was, kinda put the kibosh on it....

Voyager II

Yes thats right unless you bleed off the cold first,all you will get is cold into your machine.Unless you have a recirculating hot water system, now that aint cheap

bps1

In my situation, I have an new A washing machine uses 2020 watts maximum (from the manual) and is only supplied with cold water, 2kW inverter is out I persume??

xonencentral

Kinda kills the theory about saving the planet in terms of a washing machine,

less water versus more carbon emissions (to heat the cold water)

Is there a washing machine that will drain the cold water away until the hot water is at the entrance of the washing machine and if there isn't, there should be. The motor plate on my machine motor states 275 watts maximum and I suppose thats when its at full spin so thats matched my clamp meter test of 250-300 watts and the variation was probably the shake in my hand

Shows how much energy is wasted on the element.

Greenman

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Today with Pat Kenny Wind Turbine Competition We are asking people to send their best simple idea for how we can reduce our impact on the environment... it has to be something that anyone can do. The winner will get a space age DIY wind turbine kit and it will be installed by Surface Power (www.surfacepower.com) who
manufacture the turbine.
Send your idea either by post to:
Wind Turbine Competition
Today with Pat Kenny Programme
RTE Radio Centre
Donnybrook
Dublin 4
or by email to: todaypk@rte.ie
Put Wind Turbine in the subject line.. the competition will run all week but you'll need to get your answers into us by close of business on Thursday. We will choose the winner on Friday and the best ideas will be printed in the local planet newspaper - which you can see online at www.localplanet.ie

Might be worth a try if you want to win a turbine!!!!

[/FONT]

xonencentral

Found my A++ fridge in my local electrical shop, takes 6 weeks to arrive, 569 euro (expensive) but only uses 9 watts an hour ?? WOW.

CJhaughey

What brand and type of fridge is it?

bps1

The whole renewable thing & AAA appliances is very costly. Energy save light bulbs Ok no problem there. The 2kW inverter is that a bit of a cop out as most relately new A appliances are just over this and it seems at bit rich to spend €600 min on a new appliance along with all the renewables. Is the technology out there to run existing appliances without extra generators (more cost) or are the renewable people holding out & cleaning out their shelves???. It's very easy to get get carried away with renewable energy but it costs.
A bit of Eddie Hobbs coming through

Mothman

I'm assuming a 2KW inverter can only deal with a total drawdown of 2kw at anyone time.
So you need to add up lights, fridge, freezer, computer, tele etc. These could all be on at the same time. See what is left over. You may find that you can't have 2 hungry appliances on at same time.

xonencentral

The fridge was a liebher, under counter model, but they do bigger A++ as well, pity...

My situation is that I have a 2KW inverter and a 600 watt inverter and I typically only use the 600 watt inverter as it runs most thing I have on it. If I have reason to use more power, I change over but that's now and again or in a power cut/network upgrade which seem to be getting more frequent.

I can even run my dimplex on the 600 watt unit with other stuff at night. If I could get my fridge onto the 600 watt unit which I could with A++, I'd be over the moon, same with an A++ washing machine.

I think the cost of the fridge and renewables has made sense for me.

I intend to sell my house in the next 3 years and I want an A energy label on my house and based on everything I have researched, I think the investments I am making which are not big will be added 2 fold or more to the sale price I get because every body else will be selling their houses and saying "energy label what ".

Hold the fort; ESB Networks have just invaded my house with 2 landrovers as I write :eek:

xonencentral

ESB Networks have gone but came in to see whether my turbine was connected to the grid.

They were not agressive but I could have been invisible so they were (on a mission), they turned off my power twice from the outside box and ran some test equipment even though I told them it was off-grid, (they obviously didn't believe me) had a discussion, got back in the jeeps, made a phone call before leaving my driveway and disappeared.

No communication with me at all, and they had northern accents I think.

Does anyone think that they were out to get me if I had been grid connected, these guys seem to have amazing power, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing, I expect to be :mad: in an hour....

Am I that much of a threat to the ESB's future profits, ????? Obviously they can't touch me as I'm off-grid but I find what they just did intimidating...

Voyager II

Did they actualy come in to your property?Sounds like somebody shopped you.But you have nothing to worry about seen as your off grid.Hope to get my system up and running next month

xonencentral

I wonder, my bill just came so my meter would have been read in the last few days.

The meter guys could have been asked to report any wind systems back to ESB networks :cool: ?

The plot thickens....

css

Xonencentral, is there any chance you can do some kind of outline sketch as to exactly how you have set up your sytem? I'm not really taking about the room end. More what the wind turbine connects into, etc..

I'm trying to design a system myself incorporating a solar bank and maybe a wind turbine at a later stage.. what exactly would i need to do this?

Turbine - charge controller - batteries - inverter - end use?

Or am i way out with what i need?

Any help appreciated!! Thanks

xonencentral

Oh I remember those days, a piece of timber here, a wheel drum there.

Before you buy anything, compare it to Sp's stuff, for me it was as cheap as buying the parts for a diy installation.

Also I read Hugh Pigotts stuff and apparently a high Percentage of DIY systems fail because of high winds and no braking systems, blades too large, and all that stuff, etc. Have a look around on the web.

I think its a bit more scientific that its looks but I never got there anyhow.

My system centers around SP's computer management system which everything (solar/wind/battery bank) plugs into. It does the rest, protects my battery's from over voltage, under voltage, brakes my turbine in high winds, gets it going in low winds and loads of other stuff I've forgotten about, not really sure if that is DIYable, I wouldn't think that it wouldn't be.

Let us know how you get on, others might be able to help.

Don't kill yourself, these things can move fast.

CJhaughey

xonencentral wrote:

No communication with me at all, and they had northern accents I think.

xonencentral wrote:

I find what they just did intimidating...

Maybe they were hoping to Decommission your system;)
or perhaps they were just checking the sit-yee-aa-shun.
did you contact the ESB office locally and try and find out who they were?
If I was you I would try and find out a little more about this incident, worryingly orwellian.
On a brighter note have a look at this site, pretty interesting too.http://www.navitron.org.uk/

xonencentral

I rang ESB, got the usual, it wasn't us and the fact that the vehicles were yellow with ESB Network logos on the side didn't seem to convince her that it was them either.

I didn't expect any less...:cool:

css

xonencentral wrote:

I rang ESB, got the usual, it wasn't us and the fact that the vehicles were yellow with ESB Network logos on the side didn't seem to convince her that it was them either.

I didn't expect any less...:cool:

To be honest I'm surprised you didn't challenge them about being on yer property!! At least see ask to see some ID.

Keeks

xonencentral wrote:

Am I that much of a threat to the ESB's future profits, ????? Obviously they can't touch me as I'm off-grid but I find what they just did intimidating...

I think its more of a saftey issue than a money issue. The ordinary ESB technican couldn't care less if you're using there power or your own. I suspect they were just seeing if you were grid tied. That way they know if they was any possibility that power could be fed back into they network, when they turn it off, whcih could cause an injury and/or death to someone working on it.

I'm not sure but I think that you have to tell the ESB if you are generating or have the capability to generator your own electricty.

There could also be other reasons for the call. There could be some fault in there network that they are trying to find.

Or more than likely they were probably just being nosey!

css

Keeks wrote:

I'm not sure but I think that you have to tell the ESB if you are generating or have the capability to generator your own electricty.

There could also be other reasons for the call. There could be some fault in there network that they are trying to find.

Why would you if your system is not connected to theirs..

Also they could at least do you the courtesy of identifying themselves, and asking permission to take a look. While I'm sure they have every right to come examine the ESB network system on your property. They have no right to go looking at anything else.... I'd assume this, and would act accordingly... maybe i'm wrong though.. who knows!

Keeks

css wrote:

Why would you if your system is not connected to theirs.. QUOTE]

But how do they know unless they check.

Electricity is one of the most dangerous hazards around. You can't see it. And elctricity from an unknown source is extremely dangerous. You can't just take chances. How would you like it if you went to change a light bulb, switch of power to the bulb only to find it still on?

I work within the power gerneration industry (not with the ESB) and get regualr updates on saftey incidents. There have been numerous near misses when it comes to saftey of ESB personal and there subcontrators due to falulty changeover switches that have allowed power from local (usually farms or some industrys) generators to back feed into ESB networks.

An electric shock from a 10/20kV power souce dosn't cause injury. It causes death.

Like I said before, I'm nearly positive that if you are generatoring electricty at home you do have to inform the ESB. Not a 100% on this but I'll look into it.

air

Keeks wrote:

I'm nearly positive that if you are generatoring electricty at home you do have to inform the ESB. Not a 100% on this but I'll look into it.

I'd be very surprised if this is the case but then I've been wrong before .

I understand how the sale of electricity etc can be regulated by the government but I dont think the ESB have any divine right to know what you do on your own property if you're not connected to their network.

This isnt to take away from Keeks's safety concerns, if you're connected to the grid then I wouldnt question their right to inspect your changeover etc.

Keeks

Likewise, I've know to be wrong as well:) but there is just something in the back of my brain about that. But then again, I've seen (or rather half seen) so may reports and documents that it is frightening, that I could be mistaking it for something else.

Aside from that the ESB do have a right to enter your property if you have a meter box or other piece of equipment (poles, sub-stations etc..) to inspect and or preform maintainence. They are of course expected to follow the normal rules of couteousey, anounce yourself, identify yourself with ID, explain what you are doing etc.

xonencentral

Update/ Update / Found a nice ESB employee...

The reason ESB came to inspect my supply was because my ESB bill nose-dived in the space of 1 bill and never went back up so my paranoia was unfounded, they just wanted to find out why, this is what they told me ? (well I think it sounds reasonable but still wonder why they couldn't have decked the turbine as the reason without all the tests, I still thinks they reckoned I might have dodged the G10 and I bet they would have disconnected me :cool: )

Back to other comments:

I can refer back to my research on windsave when it came up as a grid-tie option. I checked out back then off-grid / on-grid.

If you wish to run your own independent system such as Surface Power's then you only need to tell the wife (advisable). ESB or anyone else has no input whatsoever.

If you wish to connect to the grid as with windsave, you need to do a G10 with the ESB who will register the connection and also charge you Euro 10,000 plus for the privilage. I got the document from the regulator's website and heres how it works; ESB personel come out on the day of connection, carry out a load of electrical tests, signals, etc BUT there is a catch (besides the rediculous price), you have to buy the equipment first before they test your site (obvious), but there is no guarantee that they will pass it or that it will not run over onto another day (ching, ching, they get paid buy the hour):eek: (well that was that idea out the window)

ROI was too long on on-grid anyway.

full forward

Can a home wind turbine make money?

BBC Article on Home wind turbines....

"Domestic wind turbines have been described as "the new handbags" - the latest luxury items craved by those who want to be first to try new technology. "


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4374748.stm

Keeks

Speaking of the BBC, I was flicking throught channels today at lunch and came across a series of items about wind turbines for homes on teh Working Lunch program. You can actually see the programs Here

It was part of Energy efficiency week.

xonencentral

CJ,

Can you point me to where I could look at getting a swedish house to import, Is it a passive type house? I'm very interested in learning more on importing these.

I seen a video of last years "about the house", in one episode, a family brought in a swedish house, had it built in days and it was massive.

I'm hooked...

Greenman

xonencentral wrote:

CJ,

Can you point me to where I could look at getting a swedish house to import, Is it a passive type house? I'm very interested in learning more on importing these.

I seen a video of last years "about the house", in one episode, a family brought in a swedish house, had it built in days and it was massive.

I'm hooked...

SVP http://www.rte.ie/tv/aboutthehouse2000/7timberframe.html

CJhaughey

Xonencentral The house we got was fromhttp://www.scanhome.ie/houses.php
We didn't go for the full passive spec but many aspects of the house are passive spec.
The actual build takes about 4 days.
the Foundation with services -UFH- 120mm Insulation etc etc took 4 days.
and the house erection took 4 days.
at the end you have a felted and counterbattened house with all the windows and doors in place.
nice to work in and waterproof.
ours is the one on the left of the Baltica page.

Greenman

CJhaughey wrote:

ours is the one on the left of the Baltica page.

Looks cozy!!!!

CJhaughey

I mean the extreme left, as in the one with the Gable being lifted into place by the crane!
Hopefully it will be cosy, but I am still working on it...

Mothman

Only just realised that there is a picture of my house as well, bottom left on the Hibernia page.

And on another site for a front view

I always meant to send an updated picture once the the place had been tidied :rolleyes:

Greenman

CJhaughey wrote:

I mean the extreme left, as in the one with the Gable being lifted into place by the crane!
Hopefully it will be cosy, but I am still working on it...

Hope its all you expected and more!!! and tell us your thoughts on the finished article!!!

turbine?

Hi all, this is a very interesting thread.
I have looked at the surface power website and thought their product looks good though perhaps with too little output to be stand alone and to costly for a larger capacity. This website www.navitron.org.uk , which I found by a link fron Hugh Piggots webpage, seems to have some good options. Personally I am very intrested in having a stand alone system for my planned house (building next summer) I was wondering what your thoughts are on the navitron 1kW turbine and their other products, like the 5kW diesel generator. The prices seem good but is their a quality or other problem that anyone knows of with them.
thanks everyone.

xonencentral

Hi, I think my old notes can help here, I went through this stuff myself more times than I can remember:

Price is really much better than the usual suspects although I see some things are missing like batterys (48v output needs 4 x 12 volts to make one small 48v battery, can be expensive) and only a 500 watt inverter (but of what class, is it true/pure sine wave, soft start, managed), I have one of those modified sine wave ones from maplin and everything buzzs on it even the fecking radio which is why I bought it, useless, but it was cheap, but I hadn't a clue what I was doing at the time.

From the planning office (of course, I didn't ring my own local office), turbines had to have planning for astethics & noise evaluation. The detail on the astecthics is that they had to be white and non-reflective to pass the EU standard on wind turbines (which I was told is why all the windfarms look like that), and the noise rating was an issue for your neighbours hence very little planning approvals for turbines that have a noise rating.

Q1: You need to find out what the noise rating of the turbine is? Silent is planning green light.
Q2: You need to find out if you can get a white/non-reflective one in colour? Again, planning green light.
Q3: 3 metre blade span in your back garden ?, planning/neighbours might have an issue with that size of turbine.?, Personally, I doubt you would ever get permission.
Q4: It has a US style output,? Has it been built to operate to Irelands wind speeds?
Q5: It also needs to be CE marked so your house insurance will cover it ? (this one I didn't know about until I was adding it to my policy)

If you have Hugh Piggots books, you will see that wind survival is the biggest issue with turbines, and turbines that could go above their survival speed need to be taken down until the risk has passed, I think he recommends not within 10% of the final survival speed. There is a load of stuff I have read on the internet like from guys in Clare who had installed US made turbines a few years ago and had to take them down when the wind was above 65 mph, thats like every second day in ireland.

My old wind data from my nearest met offive which is Belmullet gave me the following data for the last 30 years on wind at ground level for north mayo:

I note that this system from navitron you ask about has a maximum survival speed of approx 77 KNOTS ONLY: - 10% WOULD MEAN NO HIGHER THAN 70 knots.

My area max gusts for the last 30 years is:
Jan - 91 knots
Feb - 93 knots
Mar - 89 knots
April, May, June, July, Aug - 62-73 knots
Sept - 84 knots
Oct - 85 knots
Nov - 76 knots
Dec - 89 knots
Yearly average value = (93 knots)

THIS IS TODAYS FORESCAST: AND ITS ONLY STORMY !

Very strong Southerly winds will effect all areas this afternoon, this evening and for a time tonight. Stormy in the West and North with mean wind speeds of 55-75 km/hr (30-40 knots) and gusts of 110-140 km/hr (60-75 knots). The winds will be strongest in the Northwest. Elsewhere, there will be mean wind speeds of 50-65 km/hr (25-35 knots) with gusts of 90-110 km/hr (55-68 knots). Valid 1200 Hours to 2400 Hours 7/11/2005

I think the moral of story is (and I nearly bought a system before doing extensive homework) is that you need to understand the specs because a warranty of 100 years means nothing if you expose your system to damaging winds, its your loss and your turbine might only last a week especially if you only put it up now !, in fact todays weather exceeds its capability but my own surfacepower system has operated normally (as expected) throughout the storms of the last week..

In the last week, no doubt all are aware, we have had mad winds in Ireland, I follow this on the forecast like religon as I want to watch my own system/investment in case, but my survival speed is 117 knots on my surfacepower turbine which is in excess of anything on record that I can find, so I'm very happy that I spent my money in the right place.

I think Hugh Pigott warns of this issue in most of his books, in fact he even highlights that over 90% of homemade turbines fail because of this single issue as well.

Hope this helps:

turbine?

hi xenocentral, I had only quickly looked at the max m/s, thanks for highlighting it!! I dont have the wind data for my site yet, except that it is about 8.5m/s avg. probably as gusty as your own site, which doesn't bode well for the navitron system. I wonder how difficult it is to take down a turbine? Are the blades spinning as you lower it or is there a breaking mechanism?
The payback time for a navitron system is very good though. Surface power are definetly the next cheapest system I have looked at but the turbine output doesnt seem to add up. I guess that's also why it has a high survivability? What are your thoughts on being off grid with a surfacepower system? Say max instantaneous demand being 4kW. I have calculated avg winter demand in kWh but can't remember and don't have it to hand.

Is it your plan to be off grid eventually? For me it definetly is, especially when you have to pay so much for an esb connection.

xonencentral

Hi, yes, its my plan to get off-grid as soon as possible. I intend to use a silent Diesel generator as a backup. I like SP's Bio-diesel option as I want a fantastic energy label when I sell my house.

I don't understand your payback being better on a navitron system that will need to be replaced everytime the wind get rough ??, wouldn't that be expensive, say 25-45 new turbines a year !:D

I'm doing my homework on A++ appliances at the moment, to my amazement today, my local store has A+ washing machines "in stock", but I'm holding out for A++.

As far as I can remember, SP's turbine is as large as it can be for silent running at all speeds and hence planning avoidance, but coupled with a solar array which is next for me at 750 watts total should give me 300-500 watts an hour average through-out the year when at work and I'll exclude night time harvesting, so 10 hours a day at 500 watts is 5 kW in one day.

My turbine today has been running flat out all day, I reckon I have harvested at least 5 Kilowatts since 6am when I got up for work. So I can now exploit my 2 Kilowatt inverter tonight without fail. Hold on, I'll check my bank.....

OK, Its at 93% of capacity (approx 12 Kilowatts to use) which I would expect with todays wind.

One of the things I had to understand, and SP take the credit for explaining it properly to me is that, you typically only use the bulk of your power for about 6 hours of the day in the winter, less in summer, and thats between 6pm and midnight, the other 75% of the day you are banking away for tomorrows 6 hours so if you want to use 5 Kws (and thats a lot of free juice)for the 6 hours, you only need to harvest 208 watts an hour so a 750 watt hybrid should do a decent enough job at that.

I have to say, even as my bank is at 93% now, I will have to use more than 400-460 watts to stop my battery's charging as my turbine is currently rocking away, my satallite (30w), tv (160w), lights (approx 60 watts total), and other items such as phone charging, boiling the kettle, etc will probably mean that my bank will be even more charged in the morning.

I tell you, watching your TV & Sat, having your lights on, charging your phone, boiling the kettle with your own FREE power has a major buzz factor to it like a GOOD PINT of GUINNESS. Oh and my central heating of course is on it. Bring on more power cuts....Stormy night, I have the garden lights ready to switch on just to annoy everyone if the power lines go down.:D

P.S. I do intend to upscale my turbine to 2 turbines and 600 watt solar as there were days this summer when there was no wind but the sun was splitting the stones, a hybrid system is the only job.

2nd PS, the only 2 companies that I have come accross that make independent wind turbines that will survive in Ireland are Surfacepower and Proven. Its ironic that one is based in Ireland and one is based in Scotland, 2 countries that slaughter turbines. Maybe there's a lesson there somewhere.

air

xonencentral wrote:

I reckon I have harvested at least 5 Kilowatts since 6am when I got up for work..

Hi xone, not to be pedantic or anything but you should try and use the correct terminology where possible - eg the above should read - "5Kw hours of energy since 6am".
This thread could be a valuable source of info for beginners and this kind of thing will only confuse people.

Cuauhtemoc

Oh and my central heating of course is on it

Is this just to power Oil central heating?

Just curious as i'm having trouble putting together a heating system that can work off grid.
Looking at underfloor heating at the moment, this will be powered by Solar tubing(also will provide a lot of our hot water) Got a quote for an 80 tube system for 5400. This won't provide all the heating though through winter etc. And would be relying on the generator for backup.

Anyone any other ideas? I'm not sold on pellet burners yet, but i don't see any other option.
Various heat pumps have been ruled out as too demanding for an off grid system.