# How much land for 80' tower



## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

Trying to find out how much land would be required for a 80 foot tower with guide lines.


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

If you want to be legal in Iowa county, WI it would be 165' x 165' with the tower in the absolute center. That covers the fall zone footprint.

If you mean how much area is covered by the guy wires, then that would be a minimum of 80' x 80' depending on who you talk to. (anchors out 50% of the tower height)

From this good page on towers, they say:
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The radius of your guy wires should be between 50 and 75 percent of the tower height
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Michael


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks . So about an acre of land.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

In my area zoning required 3 times the height of the tower for fall zone, so 240 feet in all directions.


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

Windy , 
Is this because you have stronger winds than most people do ?


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

No, just some idea the county came up with, probably because someone had a tower that fell ice that fell from one and struck something.

Expect it has more to do with ice melting enough to fall off than the tower actually coming down. Wind blown ice chunks could be pretty dangerous for certain.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Depends on your local regulations. Here the county idiots have decided you can not build a tower over 45' no matter how mauch land you own.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

wy_white_wolf said:


> Depends on your local regulations. Here the county idiots have decided you can not build a tower over 45' no matter how mauch land you own.


Now that is one bunch of narrow minded dim bulbs that don't have a clue about life in general. What would they do if a wind farm production facility asked to locate within the county?


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Windy in Kansas said:


> Now that is one bunch of narrow minded dim bulbs that don't have a clue about life in general. What would they do if a wind farm production facility asked to locate within the county?


the 45' limit is for non-commercial. Commercial units are allowed 300'.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

That does make better sense than banning all taller towers.


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

Windy in Kansas said:


> That does make better sense than banning all taller towers.


Not really when you consider I could easily put a windturbine over 1/4 mile from my nearest property line yet am limited to 45' tall. Many ranchers could put them in over 1 mile from the property line. My BIL would like to put one in on the mountain as power is not dependable in the winter. To bad all the trees around him are 60' to 80' tall. 

This limit was put in because of the local Skystream dealer that is pushing 30' towers. If he had kept his mouth shut we would have 3x the distance to property line with 120' max. The Idiot did it to drive out all the competition instead of what would be goo for the users.


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

I did find out a rule in progress . 150 feet from the road , 150 feet from property line. Any body know the prices on skystream turbine ? towers ?


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Yes the skystream junk is $15,000 for a piece of junk that is a grossly poor preforming black eye for the wind industry . . . Sold by hucksters . . . . . . . . .. Who blindly go forth ****selling**** towers that are WRONG.
At a large wind conference I have watched and listened as the pro's raked Mr. **** *******, the then owner of southwest windpower, over the coals about the skystream short comings AND the SHORT towers..........................to no avail.........he prefered to peddle a poor product for the fast BUCK.

On another forum (which I will not post a link for) a long time employee who was suddenly laid off (along with 13 others) decided after 2 or 3 months of silence to "blow the whistle" . . .
WOW what a scathing report of the "inside stuff".




Do I have an opinion of the skycrapstream ???
You be the judge..................................


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Delete forum hickup 



Do I have an opinion of the skycrapstream ???
You be the judge..................................


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

If not skystream then what ? Who can afford to spend 45000.00 for a wind turbine .


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

If you want a quality product installed so it will produce power for years, you must expect to pay a lot of money. I have been recommending the Jacobs 31/20 on a 120 foot tower when people ask me how much a wind generator might cost. If the $80,000 cost before rebates and tax incentives scares them away, and they say they want a $2000 machine, I know that they haven't done their homework. 

Who can afford a quality wind machine? I ask people how soon their $30,000 car or SUV will pay for itself. A 2.5kw ARE 110 or Proven 2.5 will cost $30,000 or so on a guyed 120 foot tower, and produce a lot more electricity than a Skystream, and last longer, too. Some of the folks that know more about it than I do (and I have 30 years experience using wind generated electricity), feel that the Proven and ARE machines might have a usable life similar to my 1940s vintage Jacobs machine, which I first installed in 1979, and it is still working as designed.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Jim,what kind of maintenance has your Jacobs required over the years?They sure built quality back then.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Drew Cutter said:


> Trying to find out how much land would be required for a 80 foot tower with guide lines.


For a short tower like that an 80ft radius would be fine. Places with tower rules want 2,3 or 4x the tower height for a fall zone but fail to take into account a guyed tower doesnt topple like a tree but collapse downward within a radius of its height.

While 80ft is pretty short tower it will most likely have 2 or 3 sets of guy wires and be out 40ft or so from the base. If your looking at leasing your land I would make one acre the smallest plot I would lease. I would also require a pasture fence around the acre and a 12ft+ fence around the base and building. I would also have some cleanup rules in place. such as removing that HUGE concrete base and back filling the hole it occupies. 

Gary


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

The only bad thing about jacobs for me is nearest installer is 3 1/2 away. What about maintenance ? Can i get away with not have a tilt tower ? How does price of jacobs compared to bergey ? etc ?


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

mightybooboo said:


> Jim,what kind of maintenance has your Jacobs required over the years?They sure built quality back then.


I grease 3 bearings or bushings, one on the governor and two on the turntable, twice a year. I look at all the bolts when I am up there greasing the bearings. I may need to grease the 2 main bearings one of these years, too. Touch up paint every year or 3, replaced the spring that pulls the tail out of the wind once, and may replace the brushes in the next few years, if they show enough wear. I haven't looked at the brushes yet this year.

The new Jacobs 31/20 has a gear box, so it requires an oil change annually, and has a lot more bolts and pieces to check regularly. Other new machines mostly don't have gearboxes and require less maintenance because of that (machines like the ARE, Proven, and Bergey).

In regard to Drew's question, the new big Jacobs doesn't fit on a tilt-down tower (I wouldn't put my little 500+ pound Jacobs on a tilt tower either). the Jacobs 31/20 is sold with a self supporting tower, not a guyed tower.


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

I'm trying to picture the maintenance . No climbing the tower / if you do climb are you using a harness or some other means ? Isn't the self supporting tower more expensive ?


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

Of course you have to climb the tower. I wear a harness set up for tower work with a D-ring on the front and also side D-rings for positioning, in addition to the D-ring on the back for the safety line. And yes a self-supporting tower usually is more expensive, but that is sometimes the only choice for a larger generator.

For price comparisons, you probably need to talk to a qualified site assessor and find out what tower height you really need, estimates of cost of machines that might do the job for you, estimates of power output in the winds you have, etc. Around here, such a site assessment might cost $500 or more, take a few hours at the site, and a day or two of calculations, etc., to write up the report. A good report will discuss your energy use, the potential wind energy available at the site, and some of the machines that might fill your needs, their estimated costs, and estimated annual energy output.


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

So the estimate is well worth the money . The dealer for ohio (jacobs) is also a bergy dealer . So what the cost of maintenance call , for some us climbing heights are a 
problem ?


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## Drew Cutter (Dec 30, 2008)

A question that been bugging me . If i have a oven that is rated a 4000 watts (require power) and also meet the other appliance in the house , then what size turbine (power that its capable of producing) ? Does the oven really need 4000 watts when we are cooking our meals ?


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