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I'm thinking about building a small residential wind turbine for the interest of science. I figured it if works I'll install it on my mother's home since she lives in a rural area. You can get a lot of these parts on eBay and easy to assemble for most do if your selfers....although I will be hiring an electrician to install the device. Anyhow, I just wanted to see if anyone else was into residential wind energy?
Also, here is a site I found for Wind turbine parts:
I've been looking into a hybrid system but the company doing the installation is doing their best to discourage me from the small wind turbine and to go exclusively with PVC solar panels instead. For my state there are no incentives above the federal rebate for small wind, YMMV.
Apparently the return on small wind is not what it has been touted to be. I had been looking at the Windspire by Mariah or the Helix Wind vertical axis turbines as the horizontal turbines like the skystream are too noisy for me.
Yes. Solar PVC panels combined with small wind specifically.
Now that would be cool, especially on sunny days with little to zero wind breeze. So how hard is that to set up, do you have two separate systems or is this where that Hybrid company comes in with some kind of control box to Simultaneity run both systems?
Now that would be cool, especially on sunny days with little to zero wind breeze. So how hard is that to set up, do you have two separate systems or is this where that Hybrid company comes in with some kind of control box to Simultaneity run both systems?
I do not have a hybrid system. The VAT turbines I've researched have very poor reviews from the people who actually paid to have them installed. The Horizontal turbines put out way more noise than I'm willing to live with.
Hybrid company? Never heard of such a thing. I suggest you do some online research.
I'm thinking about building a small residential wind turbine for the interest of science. I figured it if works I'll install it on my mother's home since she lives in a rural area. You can get a lot of these parts on eBay and easy to assemble for most do if your selfers....although I will be hiring an electrician to install the device. Anyhow, I just wanted to see if anyone else was into residential wind energy?
Quick answer -- Yes.
I am a Texas Electrical Contractor, specialize in Renewable, and work most of the state.
We can discuss details by PM or outside of City-Data so we do not violate the Terms of Service for the board, here.
Save your money (do not buy the various on-line deals) until after we talk. Lotta of wild claims on the small wind side of things, and we can probably get you in under some of Energy Credits and/or Rebates.
Yes, that is the common term for a system on a site that has a combination of Solar PV and Wind generation. Tends to be a favorable mix, even on Sunny days.
PV is of course, a daytime thing. But typically less than 8 hours a day -- we use 5.5 hours per day as an estimate.
Experience in the United Kingdom shows:
- mounting it on a building can lead to annoyance from vibration transmitted through the structure.
- power is theoretically proportional to the cube of the windspeed. Don't make decisions based on max speed but on the median wind speed in your location
- the higher the better: less turbulance to disrupt the flow and wind speed rises by about 4% for each doubling of height as a rough measure. Given the cube rule that doubling in height gives about 12% more power.
For a hybrid system, check that your controller can handle max wind output and max PV simultaneously. Your storage solution determines whether you need a hybrid. If you have very efficient usage, you can cut down on storage and save money.
Just an example: by using low consumption lights I can run a chicken house with 4 automatic doors and targeted lighting on a 12W PV panel with a tiny 7Ah 12V battery. Cost about 95 Euros a few months ago including two 12v low energy bulbs. The PV panel works even under cloudy conditions.
HTH
Oops: I should have said "modal" i.e. what you get most of the time, wind speed instead of "median."
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