Wind Generator up and running.

[Mrs Wombat]

Hi Guys I know its been a while been decluttering like crazy for the arrival of new carpet. Only waited about 30 years. Anyway Wombat and I plus the help of our neighbour put up the new wind generator. A reasonable amount of work by Nev but should be well worth it very soon. Its not any higher than everybody elses T.V. arial so shouldn't cause too much problem with the neighbours. Nev now needs to get a gauge to see how well its charging. Hopefully really well as I used a 12 volt little kettle to boil some water for coffee and it was drawing 5 amps! off the solar system oops! Beautiful sunny day yesterday but today is dull and dreary and quite cold. Outside temp at 4 in the afternoon 8 degrees by my thermometer.

[ina]

Woohoo! Congratulations!

Can I send you some wind across? We seem to be having a surplus at the moment...

[old tree man]

Brilliant well done, keep us all posted, still having problems getting mine started.

Russ

[Wombat]

Well, we have wind and it turns and it is not noisy, which is good!

I now have a 50amp ammeter and shunt, so when I wire it in I will be able to tell how much we are charging. Mrs Wombat says that it was working intermittantly so it may still be too low, but I am not sure as I have not seen it work myself. I called in to a solar shop on the way home tonight and bought some lights, a dual regulator to cover both battery banks and the ammeter + shunt. The lot lightened my credit card by $600 It will make for a better system though!

Nev

[Tink]

How fantastic! I am jealous! Do you have any tips for someone just about to start with wind energy? I am lost!

Tink x

[Wombat]

Hey Tink!

Getting some info about the wind speeds and direction of prevailing wind in your area is a good start.

Then if you decide wind is still the way to go the next decision is either to buy or build your own. Then have a bit of a think about voltage (usually 12 or 24) both have advantages and disadvantages.

If you are in an urban area, as smaller quieter model that doesn't annoy the neighbours is good, but if you are rural, who cares!

Also how close is your preferred generator site to you point of use. The further away it is the thicker (ie more expensive) the wire needs to be to cut down on line losses.

Nev