That's the wind turbine almost completely ready to go back up. There are two more washers I want to replace before it goes back up to the top of a tall mast exposed to driving wind and rain, and I'll need to order those. But it's mostly done.
@simon_brooke
Good work! We have solar panels needing attached to the top of our shed, and we'd like a wee wind turbine to supplement them, but our garden is a bit sheltered from the wind.
@Alternatecelt aye. You can put some wind turbines (those which output AC) much further away from the house than solar panels; but for a given power output a wind turbine is more expensive and needs more maintenance, and if you don't have somewhere you can get it into clean wind it's pretty useless.
Solar first; wind is a great winter supplement but only if you have the right site.
@withaveeay it is indeed. They're really good reliable machines, and Marlec provide great support and service. All the parts are available when something does go wrong. Would strongly recommend.
@withaveeay it needs very steady – and fresh – wind to generate half of its rated output continuously, and I've never seen it generate its full rated output. I'd say that, very long term average – and this is a windy site – it's probably around 100 watts. But that's over two kilowatt hours a day, and that's enough to run this house.
@withaveeay indeed. Mine's fallen the full height of its ten metre mast after a shroud anchor failed, and only the blades and casing were damaged. The present problem is the first actual breakdown it's had in twelve years, and it was second hand when I got it.
@simon_brooke Here's solar power for the last year, so no problem in summer when the little Superwind doesn't produce much. This is from just a theoretical 1.4kW of panels, sited for safety in gales rather than solar efficiency
@withaveeay aye, my solar panels only get the sun in the morning, because of the shadow of the wood. But, like you, I find the combination of wind and solar is ideal – the wind turbine does well in winter when the solar panels do very little, and vice versa in summer.
@otfrom@simon_brooke@withaveeay
So two maps:
1 OMG, My minuscule population lives on the edge (NE KS) of the Persian Gulf of wind power! Private property 98%.
2 A huge majority of coastal consumers live right by the Beautiful Sea of Wind Power.
3 BTW Huge tall wind turbines can be cheaply transported to any coastal area and installed where there are 0% private property rights.
Signed Cpt Obvious (what to do)
@withaveeay@simon_brooke So some south-ish facing slope PV panels are low enough for gale protection and then what, wind turbines on top to catch the gales of winter.
@jCarttarBrooke@withaveeay two photos: my wind turbine is about 250 metres from the house, it outputs three phase AC at variable voltage, which transmits well over reasonable distances.
My solar panels are much closer to the house (and thus in shadow from the wood from mid day onwards) because they output DC, which does not transmit nearly so well.
@jCarttarBrooke@simon_brooke Not physically on top of the turbines. A lot of nonsense was spoken some years back about things like "urban wind turbines" for house roofs, and similar guff, a triumph of marketing over physics; turbines need a clear wind stream.
When your house is off grid, though, you make do with what you have. The rule of thumb is wind charger should be as high as is practicable. In our case, on a 7m tower at the highest part of the garden.
@withaveeay@jCarttarBrooke aye, mine is on a ten metre mast. But it's also in a place where I've planted a shelter belt (because it's the windy edge of my land), and in time the trees will get tall enough to reduce the efficiency of the turbine. What I do then I haven't fully thought through. Wind is at the same time both a blessing and a curse.
@wall0159@withaveeay this is true, but winds below 20m/s, hereabouts, are "locally rare". I'm on the top of the first hill the wind hits when it comes off the Irish Sea!
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