# Windmill-What would I really need



## vallyfarm (Oct 24, 2006)

I'm in upstate NY and get a steady 6-7 mph wind on a calm day. Sit on top of a good sized hill with nothing to slow the wind for a good 3/4 mile. Most days wind is around 10-15 mph. Theese numbers are at 20' offthe ground. I use a little over 250 kwh a month, but could easily cut 10-15% of that if I needed to. What size windmill would I need if I was off grid? What if I was still tied to the grid? Just looking for ballpark numbers. When one is rated at 5 kw how long does it take to produce those 5 kw? Or am I completely confused on how these things work? Mike


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

vallyfarm said:


> When one is rated at 5 kw how long does it take to produce those 5 kw? Or am I completely confused on how these things work? Mike


It produces 5,000watts whenever the wind turns it at it's rated speed for that amount.

The wind would have to turn it at that exact speed for one hour to produce 5kw/hrs.....which is how power is measured and bought/sold.


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## AVanarts (Jan 2, 2011)

Unfortunately, the people who see wind turbines rate them at the output they give in a 25 or 30 mph wind. Not too many people want to live in a place with that kind of wind on a constant basis. What one can get in a 10 mph wind is much lower.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

From what you said I still would not go less than a 100' tower. Much more energy the higher you go.

A small 1K turbine and 100' tower is going to cost 5K . . . . . .thats with out an inverter or batteries etc.

Of course the price tag goes up in a big hurry for "larger" turbines.......
Question becomes; How big is your budget for this . .???

A good place to look is Otherpower.com if your up to making your own turbine.


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## justin_time (Dec 2, 2012)

Mike, your asking a tough one. Your doing well at 8kwhrs a day. By the sound of it you have a good location for wind. 10 to 15miles per hour is ok. Lets just say that averages 13 miles per hour.
The power you can extract from the wind is mostly a function of rotor diameter.
I would say you need something along the size of a otherpower 15-17 foot diameter turbine if you wish to depend on wind power only ( i dont Recomend)
I am flying a 10 foot dia one. I use it in the winter when I dont get enough power from solar, but my useage is half yours.
True that higher is better but that comes with other issues, from your description I bet 40 feet would be fine. Check out otherpower, anotherpower, and read the threads from Chris Olsen on wind power. Otherpower does sell complete 10 foot diameter mills for something like 2000 but that wont get you your 8 kwhrs, but if you added maybe 1000-1500, watts of panels I think you would be set.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Hetre's a nice writeup on wind

http://www.solacity.com/SmallWindTruth.htm

WWW


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## vallyfarm (Oct 24, 2006)

Thanks guys. That's the first it's made sense to me. I think I'll try to get my power usage down over the winter and try to save up for a mill in the summer. Where would I go to find a low power refridgerator? I had a lightning strike 2 yrs ago and its been running alot louder ever since. Mike


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

vallyfarm said:


> Thanks guys. That's the first it's made sense to me. I think I'll try to get my power usage down over the winter and try to save up for a mill in the summer. Where would I go to find a low power refridgerator? I had a lightning strike 2 yrs ago and its been running alot louder ever since. Mike



EnergyStar has a list of hundreds of fridges that gives their energy consumption:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=RF

Its the pdf doc under "Find a Model".

Fridges have gotten much better over the past few years. There are quite a few under 1 KWH a day now.

There are a couple outfits that specialize in fridges for off-griders -- Sunfrost and SunDanzer are two of them. But, some of the regular brands are pretty close and cost less -- see the list above.

You can also convert a chest freezer into a very efficient fridge, or make a fridge -- probably more than most folks want to do 
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/conservation.htm#Appliances

Gary


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## justin_time (Dec 2, 2012)

Fridges are very good now.
I tried converting freezers as described in that article, never got the performace he did, and very inconvienent to use.
About 5-6 years back I bought a fridge,good one, some where at 1.2kwhrs/day.This had a 5.5 cuft fridge on top. Bought a aftermarkettemp controler. Ran fridge power into it and the temp sense bulb into the frezzer compartment (just glued to the inside wall). Put sponge in the holes that the fan blew the cold air down threw.
I now had a 5.5 cuft fridge at arms level(very convenient to use) that has 13 cuft of storage space below it.
Uses 266 watthrs a day (measured with a killowatt meter).
Total cost 600.00 or so including controler. Many years now no problems.


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