6 replies to this topic

[Nimue1995]

Or is it basically a gimmick?

http://www.thekevdog.com/projects/wind_generator/

[ajs510]

It's practical from a "going green, tree hugger, feelgood" standpoint, but from a purely financial standpoint, you're going to spend more money on time and materials than you'll save just buying power from the power company.

You can run your computer on 250 watts of consistent AC power (basically the output of that motor), but when the wind stops blowing, the juice stops flowing. To keep a steady stream, you need to get the DC power generated by the turbine powered motor into good rechargeable batteries (which aren't cheap), and then you need to convert and modulate the power from batteries into the AC power that most of your house runs on.

Wind power on a small scale just isn't efficient enough to be practical. You're not going to be able to replace any significant portion of your energy bill with something you built out of $150 worth of PVC and nuts n bolts. As a hobby or something to say "hey, I'm trying to do my litle part", then it's totally fine and a good project.

[hblask]

You're not going to be able to replace any significant portion of your energy bill with something you built out of $150 worth of PVC and nuts n bolts. As a hobby or something to say "hey, I'm trying to do my litle part", then it's totally fine and a good project.

But if I build 10,000 of them and put it in my yard I could have 2.5 MILLION WATTS!!!! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha... your soul is mine, evil electric company!

[ajs510]

But if I build 10,000 of them and put it in my yard I could have 2.5 MILLION WATTS!!!! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha... your soul is mine, evil electric company!

You may have the electric company's soul, but the housing authority will throw yours in the can.

[Nimue1995]

You may have the electric company's soul, but the housing authority will throw yours in the can.

Lol well I might not be able to put 10,000 of them up but I do have 2-1/2 acres so could put up quite a few if I wanted. And no zoning here in my county so not a problem with any authorities objecting. And we all know that the wind blooooooows here in Montana.

[hblask]

Lol well I might not be able to put 10,000 of them up but I do have 2-1/2 acres so could put up quite a few if I wanted. And no zoning here in my county so not a problem with any authorities objecting. And we all know that the wind blooooooows here in Montana.

I've got 10 acres of mostly open space, and few neighbors (farm fields on 3 sides), so I've definitely got the space. Also, I once saw a map of wind potential for the US, and I'm in one of the top areas of the country for that (on the edge of the huge river valley created by Lake Agassiz). The biggest problem is the county and township boards are control freak pricks, so the possibility of doing something like this is almost zero. Yes, even though there is nobody for the windmills to bother, the boards would find a reason for me to not do it.

[hblask]

Hmm, after that last reply, I decided to try to find the map where I saw the data, and all the maps I can find now show this area to be average or slightly below average. I wonder what I saw a while back?

Well, if I got at least one person to look up Lake Agassiz, it was worth it.