My experience with wind... (not worth it)

[brandnewb]

I wasted a bunch of money on wind turbines because I thought I knew better than everyone else.
I drive past those toy windmills and it seems they're always spinning. I thought because it's closer to the ground and the wind is channeled there.
I mounted mine close to the ground but the leaves block off the winds. My location is very very bad for winds.
There's more in the winter because the leaves fall off.

My strategy is to have many wind turbines close to the ground.

It seems I have to experiment with even smaller ones (10W, close to ground, and 100 of them?)

Actually, if I have 10W turbines I can put 20 on a stick on a 20ft 2x4 pressure treated.

And have 10 of those. And I'm definitely going with double helix VAWT because the energy required for turning and the time it takes to turn into the wind is wasted mechanical energy that should go into electric generation.

I observe that winds are chaotic and they always clash. It means a cloud will block off a long column of air. Then the surrounding air will rush in and causes winds. Double helix will move in-place here.

Sometimes it howls days and nights as if mocking me. I'm not giving up yet.

I just read your post now.
We are doing/trying rather similar things. Just like you I am not giving up yet.

I love it that I am not the only cray cray on this planet. (pss. I still believe we will prove them wrong but let that be a secret between us though )

Lord this is sooo frustrating that I can't even continue with gathering the data we are all waiting for from the PMA because the motor started tearing of from the wall that it is attached to when going into the interesting frequencies/RPMs./Amps and wattages

Why is there no book titled?
'Wind for people that think they can beat the odds but do not grasp yet fully what they are up against'

Perhaps you and I co write it


(please understand that I am serious. No sarcasm meant)

 

[seneysolar]

This is on my local CL right now. 30k can build one heck of a pv system...

https://muskegon.craigslist.org/ele/d/new-era-wind-generator-jacobs-20kw/7808919882.html

 

[Nef003]

Very true.. 30K is way to much for such a thing.

 

[OzSolar]

This is on my local CL right now. 30k can build one heck of a pv system...

https://muskegon.craigslist.org/ele/d/new-era-wind-generator-jacobs-20kw/7808919882.html

I love those old Jacobs from the 70's Actually, I'd love to have one it's predecessors from the 40's.

History | Jacobs Wind Electric

That's actually a pretty cool find, I don't know of many of those still alive in the wild anymore. Sadly, free would be paying too much for it because that inverter was built long before there were interconnection standards and would never be allowed to interconnect on a new site. At least not on the utilities I'm familiar with.

Very true.. 30K is way to much for such a thing.

But it's lot more fun to watch than solar! Keep in mind most of the machines we talk about here are 400 watts or less. A few 1,500 watt machines show up every now and then.

That's a 20,000 watts Jacobs wind turbine and on the right site with an owner that had the skills to work on it then it might tie solar. But it wouldn't be easy to keep it going for more than 5 years but certainly not 10 years until it was time to take it down and refurb it again this gobbling up all the money it had already saved you.

I've actually worked on these and even installed a few that others had rebuilt.

Interesting factoid: that part in the red circle is the generator. That yellow part with fins just behind where the blade hub is a right angle gearbox.

 

[seneysolar]

I love those old Jacobs from the 70's Actually, I'd love to have one it's predecessors from the 40's.

History | Jacobs Wind Electric

That's actually a pretty cool find, I don't know of many of those still alive in the wild anymore. Sadly, free would be paying too much for it because that inverter was built long before there were interconnection standards and would never be allowed to interconnect on a new site. At least not on the utilities I'm familiar with.


But it's lot more fun to watch than solar! Keep in mind most of the machines we talk about here are 400 watts or less. A few 1,500 watt machines show up every now and then.

That's a 20,000 watts Jacobs wind turbine and on the right site with an owner that had the skills to work on it then it might tie solar. But it wouldn't be easy to keep it going for more than 5 years but certainly not 10 years until it was time to take it down and refurb it again this gobbling up all the money it had already saved you.

I've actually worked on these and even installed a few that others had rebuilt.

Interesting factoid: that part in the red circle is the generator. That yellow part with fins just behind where the blade hub is a right angle gearbox.

View attachment 267261

Yeah im a sucker for stuff like this. Id love to play with it, i might even be tempted by $2900... the tower is worth that. $29,000 is outta my price range for experiments.

 

[OffGridForGood]

I have a bad habit of 'seeing possiblities' in junk...tend to bring it home and 'store it' for future projects...ugh.
- Glad I am not alone in this !

 

[justgary]

I have a bad habit of 'seeing possiblities' in junk...tend to bring it home and 'store it' for future projects...ugh.
- Glad I am not alone in this !

I thought it was just me!

 

[Zwy]

My brother lowers his 17.5 Kw Jacobs once a year to change the gearbox oil. He had repeated shaft/bearing failures and decided to fix it with a larger shaft and bearings. He was selling kits on ebay for the upgrade at one time. He is grid tied with it and had sold power to local coop until it merged into a new utility, now it is just grid tie for his own use.

I think he paid about $5K for it almost 20 years ago. Another $5K to take it down and haul it. He put it up himself, 9 yards of concrete per leg so another $6K. I don't know how much he spent building the frame and other items to tip it down but probably another $5K.

What started it all was this fella. Dad took us 3 boys in our teenage years on trip to see John. Crazy fella out doing donuts with his Ford pickup out in the pasture when he was showing off his HHO generator. I'd actually prefer the older 32V Jacobs myself.

 

[Nef003]

I have a bad habit of 'seeing possiblities' in junk...tend to bring it home and 'store it' for future projects...ugh.
- Glad I am not alone in this !

Told my wife I was done with hoarding. Started selling things to make room for solar inverter and batteries. Just of from that; sold 2 chainsaws, a tiller and an edger for 200$ ... Things I had been hoarding for years. Everything is going out!

If I need anything in the future; I'll just buy it new. That is my new year resolution.

 

[Danke]

I have a lot of wind where I’m building. I will have plenty of solar when project is complete, but the guy helping me is advocating for wind too. Says he bought a 2000W (48 volts) for around $500. Add the mounting system for roof was I think only a couple hundred. My concern was noise, but he said the newer ones are fairly quiet and not noticeable.

I might put a few up for the heck of it.

 

[Brucey]

Told my wife I was done with hoarding. Started selling things to make room for solar inverter and batteries. Just of from that; sold 2 chainsaws, a tiller and an edger for 200$ ... Things I had been hoarding for years. Everything is going out!

If I need anything in the future; I'll just buy it new. That is my new year resolution.

I've started hoarding panels and other associated gear.

 

[ksmithaz1]

I've started hoarding panels and other associated gear.

Nope, cleaning up now. Just dropped panel #64 in place, and that is it. for panels. I have 16 250's to get rid of. I'll be getting rid of excess everything at this point. I'm getting old, I must pare down my inventory of "stuff" and projects.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Things I had been hoarding for years. Everything is going out!

If I need anything in the future; I'll just buy it new. That is my new year resolution.

I tried really really hard - hauled away 6 cars and one old truck for scrap - filled each one up with other loose scrap metal while I was at it,
(turns out scrap is fetching a pretty good dollar these days)
But not the 'good stuff' pile - not the chunks of angle and channel, short pieces of box sections and salvaged steel knee braces, chunks of checkered plate, and heavy expanded metal - nope that stuff - I mean what I do with all the welding gear if I toss away all the 'good-junk' that will one day need to be welded into something!
Okay I am weak...but happy!

 

[justgary]

Nope, cleaning up now. Just dropped panel #64 in place, and that is it. for panels. I have 16 250's to get rid of. I'll be getting rid of excess everything at this point. I'm getting old, I must pare down my inventory of "stuff" and projects.

Hmmm. I'm looking for some 265 panels. If I were closer to you I would help you get rid of some 250s.

 

[OzSolar]

Told my wife I was done with hoarding. Started selling things to make room for solar inverter and batteries. Just of from that; sold 2 chainsaws, a tiller and an edger for 200$ ... Things I had been hoarding for years. Everything is going out!

If I need anything in the future; I'll just buy it new. That is my new year resolution.

That's been my mantra for a few years now. Renting can be a great option as well.

 

[Nef003]

My brother lowers his 17.5 Kw Jacobs once a year to change the gearbox oil. He had repeated shaft/bearing failures and decided to fix it with a larger shaft and bearings. He was selling kits on ebay for the upgrade at one time. He is grid tied with it and had sold power to local coop until it merged into a new utility, now it is just grid tie for his own use.

I think he paid about $5K for it almost 20 years ago. Another $5K to take it down and haul it. He put it up himself, 9 yards of concrete per leg so another $6K. I don't know how much he spent building the frame and other items to tip it down but probably another $5K.

What started it all was this fella. Dad took us 3 boys in our teenage years on trip to see John. Crazy fella out doing donuts with his Ford pickup out in the pasture when he was showing off his HHO generator. I'd actually prefer the older 32V Jacobs myself.

Great story ! Wish I could meet geniuses such as this man at least once or twice in my life. Have come across 0 so far