Wind Generator?

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Diversified

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Has anyone tried using these to power your lights? I've been looking at getting a couple of these for a while now as a back up incase the power goes out. They also would help control a surge in my electric bill. The one I was looking at is only 400 watts but it is only $467.00.
 
I haven't had the chance to look at them so I don't have any input, but make sure that you don't have any local restrictions on erecting something tall
 
These little 400 watt ones can be put on a tripod on your roof like an antenna and aren't much bigger then a satellite dish.
 
took a look at a couple sites. Seems like a decent investing if you have a fairly constant wind.
 
You will also need a battery bank to store and an inverter to change the D.C. current that is generated in to the A.C. (120v) current that is needed to power your room. The batteries and inverter needed will cost you more than the wind generator that you mentioned. This is why these systems are not more widely used.
 
You can get a 1000 watt power inverter, that would be more then what you need for that wind generator, for $100. A typical deep cycle battery is about $125.00. A good industrial deep cycle battery is around $350.
 
One battery will not be enough. You have to figure out the amp hours of the battery and what you will be running. There are websites that have online calculators so you can size the batteries and inverter correctly. I have looked in to this type of setup (wind solar) and it looks like it would get expensive pretty quickly.
 
Diversified said:
Has anyone tried using these to power your lights? I've been looking at getting a couple of these for a while now as a back up incase the power goes out. They also would help control a surge in my electric bill. The one I was looking at is only 400 watts but it is only $467.00.

Do you have a link? From what i understand you are going to need a huge wind turbine in order to do this, no? There is a company near me that has a huge and i mean huge wind generator and it barley makes a dent in the electricity usage in general. I cannot see a small one the size of a satellite dish run much more than a small fan and or maybe a cfl bulb. Did something change over night here?
 
you'd need a bank of batteries like 10-16 of em'... i've seen these setups before and they will work but it requiers a bit of an investment.
 
The number of batteries depend on what you are going to run and how long you are going to run it.
 
Here's a Q&A I found on the net:


Question: I am planning to set up a battery bank and inverter for use when the power fails. How do I calculate how much battery capacity I need? For example, if I want to run a 110 volt air conditioner that draws 7 amps for 10 hours, how do I determine how many amp hours, or cold cranking amps, I need?


Answer:
...which is why most people don’t do battery backup...


Most appliances and batteries state power requirements and capabilities in amps. The problem is that you are comparing devices that supply power at differing voltage levels, 120V for US appliances, and 12V for your standard automotive battery. You can do the calculation, you just need to remember that power = voltage x current (P=VxI). If you convert everything to power (in Watts) then you can do the comparison.

Consider the air conditioner you mention in your details, 120V x 7A = 840W to power it.

For batteries the power delivery capability is stated in two specifications, amp-hours, and for automotive batteries there is the cranking amps you mentioned. Cranking amps is a peak current delivery specification, but do not try to use the battery at this load for long or it will get quite hot. For this conversation it is the other specification, capacity, rated in amp-hours (Ah) that counts.

A 1Ah battery can deliver 1 amp for one hour before being exhausted. Actually it is a little more complex than this, the actual power delivered will depend on how the battery is constructed and how much current you pull. In general the slower you pull power the longer it will last and it will supply a bit more total power. A 1Ah battery might be able to supply 1.3Ah if you use the power slowly, or only 0.7Ah if you use it hard. The battery manufacturer will have a set of curves that show how this works in a proper battery data sheet.

Back to our example... How many automotive batteries will it take to keep that AC going? We need 840W for 10 hours to meet your specification 840W x 10h = 8400Wh. For this example we will use the common automotive battery, these are inexpensive and commonly available. The average 12V auto battery has about 40Ah of capacity, maybe 50Ah for the larger light truck batteries. This is at 12V, thus 12V x 50Ah = 600Wh. Just one more quick calculation... 8400Wh / 600Wh = 14 batteries to keep the AC going for 10h. This assumes the batteries are all in perfect condition and there are no efficiency losses (both not true) but it gives you a rough number. If building this sort of installation I would put a few more batteries in.

These numbers also do not take into account the DC/AC conversion. That will be done by an inverter and will have an efficiency specification to consider. In conversion you might lose 10-20% of the power due to inefficiency in the process. Add another battery or two.

Twenty or thirty car batteries is something most people do not want to have in their house. Corrosive and potentially explosive gasses, several thousand pounds of weight and a lot of space. The next challenge is charging them, you take another huge efficiency hit, it takes much more power to charge the battery than you can get back out.

When you consider all of the above it becomes apparent why most people using battery or solar/battery power do not use heavy draw appliances (like electric AC, heating, cooking) but use the battery power for lighting, computer and other low draw applications. The couple examples of off-the-grid living I have seen use alternate power (solar water, gas and wood) for those needs.

Using the methods above you can figure out any other situation you want to consider and do the estimates of whether your idea make any sense or not.
 
AcesUp said:
One battery will not be enough. You have to figure out the amp hours of the battery and what you will be running. There are websites that have online calculators so you can size the batteries and inverter correctly. I have looked in to this type of setup (wind solar) and it looks like it would get expensive pretty quickly.

Wind has never been economically viable (without subsidies). That's why you don't see it anywhere :)
 
ArtVandolay said:
Wind has never been economically viable (without subsidies). That's why you don't see it anywhere :)

Yup. Not worth it yet. Solar power and wind gens are cool for supplement power, good for a couple hundred watts but anything more than that and it's high dollar large systems right now at least...........
 
ArtVandolay said:
Wind has never been economically viable (without subsidies). That's why you don't see it anywhere :)
It's not viable if you use it to store power for use, but it is if you hook directly into the grid. The setup has to be worth it.

It costs about 5K to hook into the grid. At that point, every watt of power you upload into the grid is metered at the same rate the power company you're hooked to charges it's customers. That "stored" amount comes off the top of your bill with them.

The pay-off point of the equipment, installation and maintenance differ according to your particular setup. After that point, the yearly maintenance and the yearly value loss of the equipment versus your power costs accrual is what you would look at.

You would be in the black, but how far again depends on your setup and it might take you 10 years to be in the black. Wind generated power is not a short term project.
 
HI,

It's an interesting thought but you sure don't have anything to worry about with a 'surge' in your power bill because there will only be a small increase. Power here costs 9 cents per Kilowatt Hour so I can run a 400w light for 24 hours a day for a month and it's only going to add about $27 to my power bill...;)

400w x 24 hours x 30 days = 288,000w = 288KWH x .09 = $25.92

Now check THIS out... I can't wait to get my hands on one of THESE!:rolleyes:

hXXp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

Happy Growing!:cool:
 
It would work just fine if your lights used 12vdc. Are there any grow lights that you can think of that would work within that dc voltage? If you stop thinking that you need 120vac inverter then it is feasible if you have the wind. Still need the batteries and few other things but possible.
 
This is one of those topics that i think certainly has some potential value. I mean, in the house, we could use led's as our 'mood' lighting or to see when we go to the bathroom at night. Led's run off DC so no converter is needed. There are many more low level voltage items we could run off battery power.

And what about LED growing lights. Obviously we aren't going to flower with them but if they have potential for vegging then why can't we make our own that run off the battery power generated by the wind generator. Led's don't take much power at all.

When we think of the potential for 'free' power we immediately think of our most power consuming appliances but if we can run all the smaller consuming appliances for free (or cheaper) then we are still helping ourselves tremendously. Every little bit adds up!
 
this would work if you have the room.:hubba:

canadian-wind-farm.jpg
 
That's why I asked my original question.

Diversified said:
Has anyone tried using these to power your lights?

It wasn't about running your ac, tv and every appliance in your house. I was just wondering if anyone has considered using one of these as a back up for their lights for their plants in case the power goes out.
 

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