# backyard windmills



## petefarms (Oct 17, 2004)

Approximately two weeks ago (8/6/06) there was a piece on the cbs evening news, a couple had put a small windmill up in their backyard in NJ. Does anyone remember the name of the company that built the windmill, I haven't been able to come up with that yet, been looking. Thanks.


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## wy0mn (Sep 18, 2003)

Haven't a clue which one that was, but if your shopping, I'd like to recommend the SouthWest Windpower "Air" series.
I've had an Air 403 going strong for six years.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Ya I saw that piece. It was Southwest's new turbine. NO TRACK RECORD...........yet.
I know the guy. He was at the wind conference this past June.
He keeps getting raked over the coals by the rest of us wind nerds because he thinks his equipment will do absolute wonders on short short towers.
Yes he has made abunch of bucks peddling his Toy *Air 403's*

There are other issues with this new turbine that I WILL NOT go into.


Stay tuned.


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## PyroDon (Jul 30, 2006)

build your own look at otherpower.com 
once I get my blades finished ine will be up and flying
your better off with an ametek pm motor and a set of blades than a 403 .
when looking at a wind mill look at the wind speed required to produce the estimated power. most require 30mph winds . very few places have 30mph winds 
a realistic cut in is around 10mph


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

No TV here, so I didn't see the interview that you are referring to.

Southwest was set-up at Empire Farm Days last week and we obtained some literature.

A farmer in a neighboring town has a 140' wind tower on his property. According to the news article he has produced 4350 kw of power since March. He's sold extra back to the power co. too. His monthly electric bill has dropped from $130 to $16 per month. The $16 covers being hooked up to the power co. This farmer is also growing switchgrass, pelletizing it and has converted his woodburner to using switchgrass.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Charleen the key to that farmer...........Tall tower--tall power.

Southwest offers some tower parts packages (Kits)......But they only go to 70 feet. 
Around my neck of the woods we've got lots of 60-70 foot trees..........so those kits are totally useless around here.

For my customers I have installed nothing less than 100 foot towers.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Hmmmm.....short tower? No problem, the tallest thing around me is the sunflowers. 30 mph wind??? No problem there either. 30 mph is considered a nice breeze. LOL


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

6e there will allways be exceptions.....not many.

Gotta feel sorry for ya if theres no trees around ya.........


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Yeah, no doubt. Our airconditioning bill is really high! The sun just beats down all day. We planted Maple trees last fall, but I'll probably be dead before they do any good and in the middle of summer when it's 105 outside the wind does no good. All it does is turn it into a blast furnace outside. That's Kansas for you.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

6e, just before the big heat wave I went and did a no no (for off gridders)
Yup I bought a window AC unit.
I can generate enough power with my wind-pv system to power the AC .

Sounds like you could do the same.
But not on a dinky tower......or with a toy turbine (403)


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## wy0mn (Sep 18, 2003)

I still like the modular concept of a small windfarm, as opposed to one big 'un. Many people, myself included, can afford to gradually build up, but not start with a huge single gennie.
Besides, I like the redundency, if one fails you can still limp along until repairs or replacements are made.
6e, sounds like you have a place similar to mine here in WY! No trees, but plenty of sun & wind. lol
Lex


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2006)

Would someone be willing to explain the basics of "wind power" to me in extremely simple terms? As if you were speaking to a very small child..LOL? 

I've visited several websites, and all seem to assume that the reader has much more knowledge than I do. I "get" the concept that the wind turns a windmill, and that the windmill turns a blade/shaft which is attached to it..now what?? how does that produce "power" that people use? 

All of the technical terms.."inverter".."adaptors".."capacity"..I don't understand any of them as they apply to how it all "works"..and I'd REALLY like to know.


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## wy0mn (Sep 18, 2003)

Do you remember the little bicycle light generators that produced electricity as you pedaled?
Well, a windmill has a built in generator that puts electricity into your batteries, storing it for future use.
A "charge controller" prevents you from over charging your batteries. Have you ever tried to stuff too many groceries into one sack? The battery usually won't explode, but it wears out so much quicker.
Batteries are "deep cycle", which means you can empty them more than regular batteries without hurting them, but you should still NEVER safely drain one empty.
There are lots of other terms & definitions in use, and some of it is still in the "theory & opinion" side of the equation.
This forum is great, but for straight up answers from a user friendly crowd I'd like to recommend
www.12vman.com
He hangs out here too, but has his own website. Lots of good, knowledgeable folks hang there, they know a great deal more than I do.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

The energy of the wind spins the "propellers" (yep--just like an air plane).
The shaft that the *propellers* are attached to spins a alternator (yep just like on your car).
The out put of the alternator goes into expensive little black boxes which process it so that it can now be available at the "wall outlet plug"-------to power a coffee pot-lights--etc. etc.

There is a hugh amount of energy in the wind.......and it (the energy of the wind) goes up big time with height above the earth's surface. This is why all the good stuff (wind turbines) are all above 100 feet .

That will be $00.02 please.


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2006)

I thank you kind sirs..
Please put the 2 cents on my tab..LOL.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

Hay, Jim-Mi..

I always figured.. "If you can fly a kite at your site about every day, Wind may be an option"

Am I correct to assume this?

I kicked myself in the butt some years back when I invested in a couple wind gennys. I later found that the average wind in my area wasn't enough to justify it..

I agree on the height theroy. I used to climb communications towers and even if it's still on the ground, there's wind up there.. But, not always enough in some areas..


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## Guest (Sep 2, 2006)

Isn't there also such as thing as "too much wind?" 
Here in NE Central Missouri we have some lovely weather..it's common to have severe thunderstorms, as many as 4 in a single day with wind gusts over 60 MPH..not to mention the rather interesting lightning which accompanies them. I'm not certain that's a great thing..to have a 100 foot metal windmill fighting those winds..or are they built to handle them? OTOH I have this image of all those batteries being recharged in 15 minutes. wheeeeee. :shrug:


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Now thats an interesting one "Go fly a kite"---------
And they shure have some wild kite thingy's
But----how little wind will they fly in........don't know.

I've installed a couple 40 meter towers just for data aquisation(sp) The anemometers (3) and wind direction vanes feed the little black box *chip* which is down loaded every couple months to a puter. From that the readout of whats going on when. ....Very impressive.
So I'll go with that data........and not the kite.......lol

BL ....The folks designing wind equipment use 120mph as the number which their stuff is suppost to survive.

If I were to know anything like that (120) were headed my way I shure would be fixxin to get myself well hunkered down.
I have recorded 60mph here on my own anemometer.......thats way more than enough.....thankyou.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

Do you use this equipment to analyze at each site or do you use general area data? :shrug: 

(Keep it comin', I'm learnin' too) :nerd:


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

They start with a *known* windy area and use these data towers to get all the good real info. The "well its windy all the time" (on their cheeks\face) just will not do.

The *they* I refered to at the top are some folks wanting to put in wind farms. To do that you've got to have some REALLY DEEP pockets.

For the small turbines I just do a site assessment for a customer.
If someone is in a questionable area they would do well to put up a data tower and get real time info. as to wether a turbine would be worth it in their location.


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## 12vman (Feb 17, 2004)

Thanks, Jim-mi

My area stinks for wind! It just isn't constant enough.

There's an area about 20 mi. from where I live where there's a ridge with evergreen trees growing crooked because of the wind. I'll bet that would be a good spot!


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## wy0mn (Sep 18, 2003)

I have wind, almost non stop, daily  .
I have three boomerangs & its too windy to play with either of them.
I'll probably also give up archery due to the wind.
Lex


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

There ya go---both ends of the chart.

Anybody contemplating a wind turbine should first look at a wind chart\map.
You can find one at; www.BERGEY.com
look through their site---you can find it.
Of course there are others (wind maps) but this is a good one.

12vman; care to pm me about what wind turbines you got back then..........??

Too windy for a boomerange...interesting........lol


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## wy0mn (Sep 18, 2003)

Looks like that wind map places us squarely in a 6. But we knew it was windy here anyway.
Before the move from TN we loaded weather data into a spreadsheet daily for a full year, some yahoo data but mostly weatherbug. We were comparing this area with the panhandle of OK. (comparable land prices & taxes.)
We also garnered data on 'solar days'.
After collating all this mess WY won. Plus it had the added benefit of the water table being (aquafers too) closer to the surface.
We even visited the area in 2001.
But WY is now full  , look elsewhere. lol


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Jim-mi said:


> BL ....The folks designing wind equipment use 120mph as the number which their stuff is suppost to survive.
> 
> If I were to know anything like that (120) were headed my way I shure would be fixxin to get myself well hunkered down.
> I have recorded 60mph here on my own anemometer.......thats way more than enough.....thankyou.


In the past 25 years, had 2 bouts of 80-105mph straight line winds 'here'. Lost a lot of trees, but they saved the buildings. And the old water eindmill that isn't hooked up to anything, but all there. Southern MN. Won't mention the tornadoes of 200 mph, as they didn't actually hit the farm.

About 15 years ago a few smaller wind machines went in. At least 2 of them fell over. Not sure of the make, but they were on the tri-pole base, like the cell phone towers. Might have been designed for 120mph winds - but not for 50mph blizzards with ice buildup.

Oops.

I live in a wind zone of 3 according to the maps. But I'm not impressed with the state maps. You might have heard of the Buffalo Ridge in Minnesota - it has 100's of windmills, huge wind farms. It shows a 4 rating there - I don't think so. That skinny ridge is second only to California in wind potential, from what I hear..... I do understand the maps are just a general guide, not gospel. 

--->Paul


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