Wind Power

thepizzaguy - That's funny, so your house is the one causing global warming.

On the serious side, my friend (who lives alone) leaves his lights on all over his house. I live in the guest house in the back, well until saturday the 7th when I leave for Alaska.

I like the class for building a wind generator and will probably go to one, I have some serious footwork to do in AK before I can go. Hydro is another option, not for me, but for others. I have been in contact with a guy running a remote lodge in AK who is generating 12kW. Very simple system actually. He has a fast moving stream on property and he adapted a trailer mounted construction site generator to take avantage of it. He removed the generator from the trailer and through the miricle of a small gearbox he built is able to keep it turning @ 1800RPM. He has a big enough battery bank to run the place for up to 7 days in case something goes very wrong. He also has a backup 8kW diesel generator.

Kinda off-topic, but pretty impressive.

Gather up all your electric bill. Add the KW usage together. Divide that number by the number of months, ie. 12 months per year, and that is what you are currently using.

My mom averages 1139 KWH per month. That's a house with 5 people and most high tech gadgits running most of the time. My mom never rurns off the computer, every TV is waiting for the remote. The microwave has a clock. Coffeemaker a timer. I even think the can open has a trickle to it.

I do what I can and by bed time, only the bathroom light is on along with the light leading to the basement. There's at least 1kw being drawn when everyone is sleeping reguadless of what I do.

This house the main cause of global warming I know it.

Here's an interesting link for the 'geek' types lurking among us....

http://www.nrel.gov/homer/

HOMER is a computer model that simplifies the task of evaluating design options for both off-grid and grid-connected power systems for remote, stand-alone, and distributed generation (DG) applications. HOMER's optimization and sensitivity analysis algorithms allow you to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a large number of technology options and to account for variation in technology costs and energy resource availability.

I got as far as downloading the software and launching the app. After that it was basically a blank stare...

Sweet! Thanks much!!!

Truer words are rarely spoken! Don't let anyone ever tell you that their small wind turbine can put out lots of power, regardless of whatever explanation they give you. It comes right down to physics, and there is only so much power for a given swept area of the rotor and a given wind speed. Then, efficiency factors of the turbine itself have to be figured in. Typically, a wind turbine can only extract 40% of the energy available in the wind. Otherpower, http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.html will get you the basis knowledge to keep you from purchasing a bad deal. For an example, see this post, http://www.loghomebuilders.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7384&highlight=#7384 to read my opinions of the all too over-marketed Air-X wind turbine.

You can base it off your average bills kilowatt numbers, but that's only good if you are building in close vacinity to where you currently live.
There is a calculater for determining what you need based on where you live, what you currently pay (grid connected), etc. and can be found through these goverment sites....

Sometimes the gov is good for something... (naaa) 8)
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/
http://rredc.nrel.gov/
http://www.nrel.gov/

http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10040

http://www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=rightforme Deals with Solar, moreso than with wind. But, you need to calculate the needs

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy05osti/37633.pdf for wind power and
http://www.homepower.com/files/beginner/SolarElectricBasics.pdf for a fairly basic description of what the components are for a Renewable Energy (solar) system.

Keep in mind, when you see propaganda values like '400 watt', that usually means the maximum rating if everything is perfect and a miracle occured. It ain't cheap!

ok stuipd question, how do i figure out how much I need? go off of my meter or?

It may be best to ask your question at http://www.wind-sun.com/smf/index.php

They will be able to help you. The first step, and you will be asked the question so have an answer ready, is to know how much power you need. They have calculators all over the web for figuring out your power needs (like refrigerator, computer, lights, hair dryer, nightlights, etc.) Without that estimate you don't know if you need 400 watts or 4000 watts. Big differences.

http://store.solar-electric.com/

Tom can probably help you too - http://www.thesolar.biz/Our%20Complete%20Product%20Inventory.htm, but you still want to do your homework about what it is you want to do.