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Wind Turbines


Mike

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Mike

I would love to install a 1kW turbine but I'm a bit concerned about noise and complaints from the neighbours. For anyone on the West Coast a solar:wind combination is ideal, the probability of running out of an energy source is very low :D

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2 hours ago, plonkster said:

I realised the other day that what I really should do is fit the damn 1-wire weather station lying in a box in the garage to my roof. That will tell me if wind is even an option :-)

or sell it to me....

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3 hours ago, cvzyl said:

Mike

I would love to install a 1kW turbine but I'm a bit concerned about noise and complaints from the neighbours. For anyone on the West Coast a solar:wind combination is ideal, the probability of running out of an energy source is very low :D

i must admit, most of the time, the unit has been quite, but day before yesterday running mostly at 1.6kw and up, you really hear it cutting the wind...similar to that jet engine startup of the flamgatte

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3 hours ago, cvzyl said:

install a 1kW turbine but I'm a bit concerned about noise

I'm thinking even smaller than that. The small kind used by people when camping... caravaners and such, maybe it's an overseas thing. Those are silent and make around 500W or so. That really is all I need over night, because the stuff that stays on once we go to bed (outside lights, the satellite receiver/PVR) aren't all that hungry at all.

Edit: Like this one for example: https://www.amazon.com/Home-Wind-Turbine-Generator-5-Blade/dp/B0012L0A5G

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20 minutes ago, plonkster said:

because the stuff that stays on once we go to bed (outside lights, the satellite receiver/PVR) aren't all that hungry at all.

Gunning for the smaller loads I see ... sorry, I just had to. :P

I would have loved to go for a small wind turbine but we have not near enough wind. All the trees are very tall and straight here.

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I did some digging through the data on my weather station.

2013 average wind speed 9.4km/h

2014 8.4

2015 7

2016 7 so far.

So given the wind speed output graphs@Mike posted I wont get much benefit from the 1kw or 2kw turbines.

I also see that most wind is during the day so also not ideal at all.

Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

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1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Gunning for the smaller loads I see ... sorry, I just had to. :P

Indeed. That's something that came from my earlier investigations when I installed the first system, and also from Victron's self-consumption whitepaper: The real killer is often the baseline, the small loads. For example, when I started, I had a baseline of 450 watt. 10kwh a day essentially for NOTHING. I still have a baseline of about half that, around 230W.

If you take a chart of your daily consumption (watts on the vertical, time on the horizontal), the watt hours will by definition be the area under the graph, so the baseline essentially forms this flat but very wiiiide rectangle at the bottom. There is a lot of gains to be had from eliminating that rectangle.

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@Mark With my research I have come to the conclusion that you should not look at average wind speed The amount of energy that you can generate as 6km/h is more than double what you can generate at 3km/h. If you look at graphs of windspeed against power it is not a straight line

1km/h + 9km/h = 5km/h average

4km/h + 6km/h = 5km/h average

According to my knowledge the first example generate more power than the second one

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Real problem with going too small on a turbine is that it will only deliver that power at a very specific wind speed, any period of time the wind speed is lower or higher than that derates the turbine. So to get an average of your base load you have to install much bigger. I think the general rule with wind turbines are that on average they generate 1/3 of their rated capacity on an annual basis.

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18 minutes ago, cvzyl said:

1/3 of their rated capacity

Okay. So a 1kw is about the smallest I could go. And it would require maintenance. And it will cost 20k excluding installation. A larger battery bank is beginning to look like a much better investment :-)

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If an Industrial size 3MW turbine placed at 100m in a scientific calculated high wind spot  is 35% efficient I would be surprised if a 1kW turbine at 10m in anyone’s backyard is 33% efficient

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Louw

I see what you mean and I agree that the smaller units will probably be less efficient. They probably also have a narrower wind envelope as the big units have variable pitch and fancy software to optimise wind utilisation.
Also, wind closer to the surface is a lot more turbulent and as a result causes further losses.

However, I'd love to have something that can deliver 300-500W during the night to just slow down the battery depletion. The main deterrent for me at this stage is not efficiency or cost, it's the noise factor. I live in the middle of town and it will probably not be long before the neighbours complain. I've heard that the vertical type wind power generators make less noise.

C

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1 hour ago, plonkster said:

Okay. So a 1kw is about the smallest I could go. And it would require maintenance. And it will cost 20k excluding installation. A larger battery bank is beginning to look like a much better investment :-)

That is the problem. I know that the turbine complements PV  as overcast conditions are usually accompanied by wind. However for 20K I could get an extra 1kW of panels and 2x260Ah batteries and here in the Karoo we have a lot of wind in winter and summer evenings. Based on the amount of sunshine we have a 5th string of panels looks like the way to go.

Addition: The other hassle is that most of the smaller units are 12 or 24V  so a 48V unit is going to be big tom.

Edited by Chris Hobson
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That is the problem. I know that the turbine complements PV  as overcast conditions are usually accompanied by wind. However for 20K I could get an extra 1kW of panels and 2x260Ah batteries and here in the Karoo we have a lot of wind in winter and summer evenings. Based on the amount of sunshine we have a 5th string of panels looks like the way to go.

Addition: The other hassle is that most of the smaller units are 12 or 24V  so a 48V unit is going to be big tom.

That i my issue as well. Looking for something in 500w domestic class but AGAIN I am stuck with a 48v bank... deja vue anyone?

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk

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